Link Parking on Lenten Traditions

A bit on Italian Lenten Cooking in the Middle Ages

I love this post This is what I'm doing but much better said. :-)

Just a really yummy looking recipe

More recipes

So, despite loving eating like 16th Century European during Lent, I'm really REALLY looking forward to this second Sunday during Lent. I get to take the oldest nephew to the museums! This means, Aunt Sissy is going to treat him to a nice time at the American Indian Museum cafeteria. If you are ever in DC, don't bother with the museum. Seriously. If you know anything about American Indian history, it will make you mad. However, the lectures tend to be good, the festivals are fun, and the cafeteria? Pricy but oh so yummy. It's all "traditional" foods from the various regions represented in the museum. I love the turkey with mustard sauce and the green beans if they have them. They do have chicken nuggets for the less adventurous but really, you need to go there just once for the food. I just hope my 4 year old nephew is will to try something different. ;-) He'll, of course, get Astronaut Ice Cream right before I hand him back to my brother and sister in law.

I might put a few bucks in the poor box tomorrow and eat out on Saturday as well given the Poe anniversary.

Friday

Even in the modern Lenten tradition, Lent is still a fish day. So, tonight, I'm thinking about taking the salmon I have out and making this:

Take gode þikke mylke of Almaundys, & do it on a potte; & nyme þe Fleysshe of gode Crabbys, & gode Samoun, & bray it smal, & tempere yt vppe with þe forsayd mylke; boyle it, an lye it with floure of Rys or Amyndoun, an make it chargeaunt; when it ys y-boylid, do þer-to whyte Sugre, a gode quantyte of whyte Vernage Pime3 with þe wyne, Pome-garnade. Whan it is y-dressyd, straw a-boue þe grayne of Pome-garnade.

It's called Vyaunde de cyprys in Lente. Luckily, this time, there is a modern version here:

Ingredients:
200g ground almonds
200g salmon steaks
2 tbsp rice flour
1 tbsp powder fort
2 tbsp sugar salt, to taste
a few drops of yellow food colouring

Vyannd Cypre of Samon Preparation:

Method: Preparation Combine the fish with 1l water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook gently for about 15 minutes, or until the salmon is tender. Remove the fish from the pan and strain the liquid. Set the fish aside and when cool remove the bones then pound the flesh to a paste in a mortar. Heat together the ground almond and 600ml of the salmon cooking liquid in a pan. Simmer for 10 minutes then cool slightly and blitz in a blender until smooth. Return to the pan and stir in the pounded salmon meat. Cook for 5 minutes then work in the rice flour, whisking constantly. Cook for 5 minutes then stir in the powder fort, sugar and season with salt to taste. Continue cooking, again whisking constantly, until the mixture is stiff. Serve hot.

I'm going to make a few minor changes but at least this is something I can follow! Yay! I also need to go get more mushrooms. I'm all out! Ack!

Being that today is a fasting day in the medieval/renaissance world, I only had a cup of hot chocolate this morning. So far, so good!

Thursday

Last night, I had some of the whirled peas, the almond rice and cinnamon, a salad, fried mushrooms, and a piece of bread with plum jam. It was very very good. Tonight, it's more of the same because there are still a lot of leftovers from Tuesday.

I didn't eat breakfast today but had an early lunch. Lunch today was a salad with the oil and vinegar dressing, carrots, and chopped almonds. I also ate a piece of plain rye bread and had a glass of orange juice.

At my desk, I've been snacking on roasted almonds and crystallized ginger. I'm just drinking water which isn't very exciting but wine isn't allowed at work. ;-)

I'll post about the wines I got yesterday tonight. I can't recall the names off the top of my head. One is just a sparkling sweet wine and the other is from a vineyard that claims to go back to the 12th C! Although the recipe has, undoubtedly, changed, at least the grapes are probably similar to the ones I would have had back in the 16th c.

In non Lent related news, I cleaned up my sewing room!



Isn't it much nicer than what it was?



I know most of you have already seen the before and after over on LJ but, just in case, I wanted to post them here too. I am working on sewing projects; the gray coat in the nice cleaned up sewing room picture is one of them. It's going to be a Spanish Surcote. I got it as a surcote shaped pieces of gray velvet sewn at the sides and shoulders but no lining, not trimming of the hem, nothing else. So I added a lining and I'm going to add shoulder rolls. Then I'll have another nice velvet Spanish Surcote. Yay!

I'm also working on an 1840's bodice. I'm not too optimistic on it since all the 1840's stuff I've done in the past I've ended up trashing after one event. It's all looked...ugh. We'll see, though.

Tuesday's Dinner and Fasting Day

I made the Perry of Pesoun which, despite what it looked like, was incredibly good. I used a bit too much sugar in the recipe but it was fine other than that. I used split dried green peas, dried chopped onions, and brought them to a boil. When I did that, I added a 1tbl of olive oil, probably about the same in sugar (I just shook the box of sugar until it looked like I had enough), and salt. It doesn't take long to boil but it does take a while for the peas to soften. By the time they do, they explode and you get green mush. Which is why you add the safforn - it makes everything a nice bright colored yellow mush. And yes, exploded peas porridge is perfectly period. (I think it's an Italian cookbook that says to make it into the shape of a worm and serve it.)

I also made brown rice in almond milk with cinnamon and sugar. I think I'll add some raisins to it tonight for extra yumminess.

The only other thing I had was bread with oil. I didn't have any salad because I forgot to stop by the grocery store and I was too tired to make the mushrooms. :-(

I'll eat a lot of the same tonight. For lunch today, I have sort of a trail mix. It's roasted almonds and crystallized ginger - which are really surprisingly delicious together. Breakfast today was a nice yummy mug of hot chocolate. Also known as vanilla flavored almond milk with nesquik heated up in the microwave. :-)

For tomorrow, I'm thinking salmon fish fry! And mushrooms. Must have mushrooms. Tonight, if possible.

So, by now you've probably noticed not all the recipes are from the 16th c. Some are from the 15th and some are from the 14th. Just like today, they used the older cookbooks and just added on to them. How many still have Joy of Cooking in their cookbook collections? It was first published nearly 80 years ago now. I have Martha Washington's Cookbook (which actually contains a lot of late 16th/early 17th c recipes in it because it was a family cookbook handed down) that I've used in the past. I think the cookbook regarding Southern cooking my Mom always uses is from the late 19th C. Tastes change slightly from generation to generation but how to cook various things doesn't. Just like today, back in the 16th Century, they used the older cookbooks for various reasons.

Tuesday

I'm thinking of keeping it simple tonight. A salad with oil and vinegar, rice boiled in almond milk with sugar and cinnamon, bread with oil (which is what I had for breakfast again), and maybe try my hand at peas. Oh, and mushrooms. Can you tell I like the mushrooms yet? ;-)

New Peas on a Fish Day sounds good. However, I have a supply of dried peas I'd like to try. Maybe this recipe for Perry of Pesoun?

In related news, I just found Antiquitates culinariae or Curious tracts relating to the culinary affairs of the Olde English. It's a book regarding medieval and Tudor English food customs written in the 18th C. It's fabulous. I'm pouring over it now for information.

Epic Fail

So, the Salmon pie? Yeah...that wasn't a good idea. I tried to make my own dough recipe and I know that's where I went wrong. Don't put the fish in the dough until the dough itself has been mostly cooked. The dough was super sticky and looked like instant mashed potatoes. Yes, I tried to make my own and not follow the recipe like I should have. That was another mistake. The salmon still turned out okay but the dough ruined it.

So, I did have a salad and fried mushrooms. I also ate some plain rye bread. I'm going to have some hot chocolate and I already ate some ginger. Tomorrow, I'm going to drown my sorrows in apple pie. ;-)

Possibility for Monday's Dinner

181. Salmon Pie (SALMON EMPANADO)



You must take the salmon, well-cleaned and washed, and take your spices, which are long pepper, galingale, and ginger, and all this well-ground with salt, but in such a manner that there is not too much spice, but moderate; then make the empanadas, and put the salmon inside. And cast the spices on top and beneath, and all over. And then cover the empanada and let it go to the oven to cook; and when it is cooked, if you wish to eat the salmon cold, make a hole in the empanada under the bottom crust so that the broth comes out, because with it, it cannot be kept well.



And you must know that the salmon ought to be eaten in the month of October when it starts to get cold.

This comes from Libre del Coch which is a book filled with recipes from both Naples and Spain. Since my persona is from Naples, this will be a great recipe to try! I don't think I can get galingale (I'll check out a couple of stores on my way home) but I have everything else at home.

What I love is the book does tell you how to make a fish pastry or pie in general earlier in the book (so you aren't left guessing unlike in some). A general recipe is here:

130. Meat or Fish PASTRY (EMPANADA DE CARNE O DE PESCADO)



You must take meat or fish, and give it a boil. But if it is meat, boil it more than the fish. And when it is well-boiled, take it from the fire and put it in cold water. And then make the empanada. And put in the meat or fish which is cut into small pieces, as big as two fingers, or even smaller. And put them in the empanada, and then go to the oven and make a vent hole on top of the lid of the empanada so that it can breathe, or else it will burst in the oven. And when you put the meat in the empanada, also put fine spice with it. And if it is fish, use a good deal of pepper. And if it is meat, use a good deal of spice; and a little before it is time to remove the empanada from the oven, put into the vent hole some eggs beaten in a dish with verjuice or orange juice or rose-scented white vinegar. And then return it to the oven for the space of a Paternoster and an Ave Maria. And take it out and put it on the table.

:-) I love the whole "poke a hole or else it will pop in the oven!" thing since I remember well the exploding hot dogs in the microwave of my childhood. It sounds like a very similar issue. However, making the crust is still an issue. How do you do it without eggs or butter?

It sounds like, based on two sources (Flans in Lent) almond milk and rice flour were used to make some sort of crust. This Lady has a recipe that I'll probably use. So, salmon pie tonight!