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hrjHere's the expanded version of the menu with recipes (or sources) included. I'll post more on how the dinner went (swimmingly) later.
On the table:
(I hope![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gormflaith will provide the recipe for the delicious bread rolls.)
First Service from the Credenza
Salad of endive, chicory [radicchio] leaves, and citron sliced thinly, one per person.
For each table (of 4 people) steam 1 endive and 1 radicchio and cut into large shreds. Toss with a splash of lemon juice and a splash of almond oil and add about 1 Tbsp of capers. At this point I popped the result into storage bags in the fridge so they marinated for a couple of days before serving. This was more of a practical step than a deliberate one. At serving, toss with a handful of arugula and top with several very thin lemon slices. (The capers are borrowed from a different salad recipe involving capers and truffles.)
Results: I had several good comments on the salad and since I was a little dubious about the results I consider that a win. I think the “steam & marinate” approach helped tame the bitterness of the radicchio, which is what I was worried about.
Sliced salami, prosciutto, and smoked tongue (commercial -- for whichmadbaker twitted me)
sliced Parmesan cheese and small balls of fresh mozzarella (commercial)
Pastries of pine nuts and raisins
The Catalan flaky pastry, or little pastries which can be done for variety, are put together in this manner, taking the aforementioned dough, and in making the dough put in juice of beet greens or parsley, so that it becomes green, and when the sheet is rolled out, before you roll it up, you put three ounces of raisins inside it, and a little cinnamon, so much that half a spoonful would be enough for all. Then follow the instructions for making the other flaky pastries and little pastries. Except that before you put it to cook, you can put three ounces of clean crushed pine nuts over all, on top that way.
Take a sheet of phyllo dough.
Brush with melted butter. (The “flaky pastry” recipe includes butter for which this is substituting)
Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon.
Grind 1/2 c. raisins and1/2 c. pine nuts in a food processor with about 2 Tbsp of heated honey.
Spread the mixture along one edge of the dough (it has something of the consistency of playdough, so rolling it into a “snake” works nicely) and roll it up.
Place on a baking sheet and cut into bite-sized pieces.
Bake at 375 until lightly browned (ca. 15 minutes)
Results: I think the original “flaky pastry” recipe was probably intended to be more like puff pastry than phyllo, but I wavered a bit between the two approaches, given that I wasn’t going to make the dough from scratch. These turned out nicely and got comments. Like all phyllo pastries, they’re a bit crumbly and messy to eat, so making them into even smaller bite-sized portions wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Almond biscuits (commercial: Lazzaroni's "Amaretti" cookies)
First Service from the Kitchen
Roast stuffed chickens with oranges
The menu-slot I made this for normally appears as “roast pheasant (or partridge) with oranges”. I considered doing a pheasant for high table and game hens for the other tables but in the end I sized the birds for the number of eaters and simply did one game hen for each table. I strayed far afield from “pheasant with oranges” at this point, in part due to serving constraints and in part due to getting distracted. I wanted something that would be easy to carve, serve, and eat with minimal staff, so when I spotted this recipe in Scappi, I pounced. A forcemeat-stuffed de-boned chicken could be carved in slices and then eaten easily with a spoon. It was a bit more work in preparation but to good effect in serving. Unfortunately, the stuffed capon recipe didn’t really have a place to include oranges. I added the juice of one orange to each bird’s stuffing and garnished the birds on serving with orange slices, but I didn’t really notice any flavor difference.
To make stuffed boneless capons or pigeons. - Take a capon or pigeon and slaughter it, and as soon as it is dead pluck it with water that is not too hot but rather lukewarm, and as soon as it is plucked put it in cool water, and then take it out of said water immediately. Then open it from the bottom and do not make too large a hole, and take out the innards. And from the breast to the body go with one finger separating the skin from the meat as far as the wings, leaving the wings whole, and go thus separating the skin from the thighs as far as the joints, and thus take off the skin with part of the neck attached, and the wings, and from the joints above the feet, and save it. Then take said capon when it is without skin, take the bones out of the meat, and grind the meat well with rich herbs, spices, saffron, good cheese, and eggs and walnuts, and put said filling in said skin with raisins, and sew it together carefully, and put it to cook in a pot with good rich broth.
Take one game hen for each table of 4 and remove the body through the cavity, leaving the lower leg bones and wing bones intact.
Remove the meat from the bones and mince it in a food processor.
Process in 1/2 tsp fresh herbs (minced), 1/4 tsp. pepper-based spice mixture, 1/8 c. grated cheese (I used fresh Asiago), 1/8 c. chopped walnuts, 1/8 c. raisins (actually I used currants so that they’d be distributed better), one egg, and the juice of one orange. (I omitted the saffron on the basis that the flavor wouldn’t carry through and I tend to reserve saffron for times when you can tell the difference.)
Put the mixture in the skin. Rather than sewing it closed, I closed up the skin around the stuffing and then tied the bird into a cheesecloth sack. (I use a loosely knitted bag sold as a “soup sock” from Sur la Table. I could fit two game hens in one sock, with the sock knotted in between.)
Simmer in broth until cooked. I didn’t time it exactly -- I think it was close on to an hour. I had a meat thermometer stuck into the last bird that went into the pot and cooked them all until it reached poultry temperature.
When the birds cooled slightly, I cut them out of the cheesecloth and put each in a boiling bag for re-heating.
(To enhance the oranges theme, I added the juice of 4 Seville oranges to the stuffing, reserving 2 center slices as garnish for each bird.)
Results: A very nice result. The texture is like a good meatloaf (not surprisingly). The cooking method results in a fairly spherical bird. Some experimentation might get a more natural shape. The carving was very easy. There were a lot of compliments on this one.
Torteletti
To make ten plates of the best rich tortelletti so serve alone and to cover ducks, pigeons, and other birds. Take two pounds of beef or veal fat, and when it is completely melted, pour it down through a colander. Then take ten eggs, well beaten, and two and a half pounds of good hard cheese thoroughly grated, and an ounce and a half of ground cinnamon, and a pound and a half of raisins, and a pound of sugar, and put all these things together, and make the filling so it is good. Then make your dough with flour, and saffron, and an egg, and make the sheets very thin, then make your tortelletti small and cook them in good rich broth. Then dish them up either alone in plates, or on top of ducks, or pigeons, or other poultry, and put on them one pound of grated hard cheese, and six ounces of sugar, and half an ounce of cinnamon, all mixed together.
Totally punted on this one.
Cook commercial cheese tortellini in chicken broth.
Drain and serve sprinkled with grated pecorino cheese arranged around the chicken on the same platter.
Artichoke pie
Pie of artichokes, or of whole ruvia [“the pulse called Ervile” - ?] on meat days. - First make a pie coffin like that for eel, then put butter in the bottom, and a bit of pepper, and marzolino cheese minced very finely, then take three almost-cooked artichokes, and clean them well, reserving the heads on the bottom [i.e. the hearts] well cleaned, and put them into the coffin, adding on top pepper, butter, and marzolino minced fairly small. Then take two egg yolks, two ounces of sugar, and half a glass [bichiero] of verjuice and a bit of rich herbs pounded very finely with knives, and mix all these things together well, and set them to cook carefully. And this pie coffin should be fairly low. Instead of marzolino you can use another good cheese, you can put in cooked persutto minced very fine, and you can do similarly with ruvia in tegole.
(made without a crust as is indicated as an option for other pies)
Steam 8 large artichokes and reserve the hearts
Grease a shallow baking dish with butter (I used 4-4” dishes)
Dust with a pinch of pepper
Cover with a light sprinkling of grated mild sheep cheese (I used pecorino primosale as I couldn’t get marzolino)
Slice the cooked artichoke hearts thinly and cover the dish with them (2 per dish)
Add pepper and cheese as above, plus dot with butter.
For each dish, beat an egg yolk with 1/2 Tbsp sugar (proportionately it should have been ca. 2 Tbsp) with 1 Tbsp of verjuice (I used sour orange juice) and a handful of fresh minced herbs (whatever was in the garden). Pour this mixture over the artichokes.
Bake at 300F until the egg is set (ca. 20 minutes).
Results: We all found this dish especially delicious, and the use of the sour orange juice was distinctive. This could be a good or a bad thing: it wasn’t a “neutral” substitute for verjuice, but on the other hand, a lot of the 16th century Italian recipes call for orange juice as an ingredient, so I don’t feel it was a completely unacceptable substitution. Since I did this as a “crustless pie”, the artichokes were the most prominent taste and the overall result something like a quiche.
Grapes
Seedless "black" grapes
Second Service from the Kitchen
Roast Loin
Beef loins German-style. - Take a fat loin of beef that has aged a little and clean it of the sinews and nerves it has around it, then beat it very well and put it to soften in malmsey wine and vinegar, but more vinegar, with ground coriander and fennel and a little salt, and leave it for the space of five to six hours. Then put it to roast on the spit, and when it is well cooked put it in a plate. While it is cooking put a bit of that vinegar and malmsey wine it marinated in into the dripping-pan, and when you have it in the plates put on top some of said sauce which you put into the dripping-pan with what will be strained out from the loin, and cover it, and let it braise this way for a good half-hour. Then it will be totally perfect.
(This was significantly adapted because I wanted small bite-size serving pieces so I used a pork tenderloin, but wrapped it in bacon to roast to add some fat.)
Take a pork tenderloin and marinate overnight in:
1/2 c. red wine
1/2 c. vinegar
1 tsp each coriander seed and fennel seed, ground, plus a little less of salt
Place on a roasting pan and wrap with bacon slices
Roast at 350F until cooked to pork-doneness using a meat thermometer
After resting the roast, slice into thin medallions
Reduce the marinade by at least half
Mix the drippings from the roast, any juice from the sliced meat, and the reduced marinade
Place a quarter of the sliced meat in each of 4 cooking bags with a quarter of the sauce and refrigerate until ready to heat for serving.
Heat the bag in boiling water until serving temperature.
Results: This was ok, although not spectacular. The reduced marinade was a bit on the salty side and I think I’d do it differently next time. There were nice comments on the plum sauce, though!
Plum Sauce
Sauce of sour cherries [marene] or plums or fresh grapes for ten plates. - Take six bowls of marene and clean them of their stems, then set them to boil in a pot with the inside of a bread, enough to dry out their moisture, then pass the cherries through the sieve and put them in a pot with six ounces of sugar and half an ounce of fine ground cinnamon, and close it as much as you want, and it will be done. And the same method works for plums or grapes.
I include Messisbugo’s plum sauce recipe here to justify the use of a plum sauce I made up last summer which is similar but without the bread. My recipe is here. It’s based on a recipe that was floating around at the West-An Tir Cook’s Play-Date … uh … War a couple years ago, which likely came from some source of this type. I will be supplying at least one diner with a jar of this in the future.
Eggplants
Eggplants [mollegnane] or rather scorned apples, in thick soup, or stuffed, or in a baking pan or on the grill. - Take your eggplants and peel them, and take out the seeds if you want them stuffed, and take its filling: good cheese and eggs and spices and rich herbs, and grind everything together well, and stuff them, and put on its cover which you removed, and tie it well so that the filling does not come out. Then set it to cook in good rich broth, and take the covers off to plate them. Then put on top grated cheese and spices, and this will be the first method to make them stuffed in a thick soup.
For each table of 4, prepare 4 small Indian eggplants (roughly the size of a small hen’s egg)
Slice off the stem end to leave a surface about the size of a quarter
Using a small melon-baller, make a hole in the middle from the flat end
I was going to try to fire-roast the skin off but decided that it was better to keep it to help with structural integrity. I may experiment more later.
Make a stuffing with the following ingredients:
1 egg
2 Tbsp grated cheese (pecorino)
ca. 1/4 tsp pepper-based spice mixture
ca. 1 Tbsp fresh herbs as desired
Grind these together and pack into the eggplants.
Arrange in broth so that they will cook upright. (I used a frying basket so I could pack them in and remove them from the broth easily.) This is tricky.
Simmer until a toothpick comes out of the stuffing clean.
Place each table’s serving into a boiling bag and heat to serve.
Results: This worked fairly well. I don’t know that it was a memorable dish but it came out ok.
A German-style torte of apples
To make a German-style torte. - Take up to fifteen sweet apples, or twenty according to their size, and peel them, then cut them in decently large pieces, and put them in a pot with half a pound of sugar, and half a pound of fresh butter and water until they are almost cooked, and quite sweet, then take them out carefully so the slices don’t break, and keep them in a pot. Then grease your pie pan with two ounces of fresh butter, put your sheet of dough on top, with four ounces of sugar, and half an ounce of cinnamon on top, and spread out over it the apple slices as much as the dough will hold. Over the said slices you can put four ounces of grated sugar and half an ounce of cinnamon, pouring four ounces of fresh melted butter on top, little by little, and then you can put another sheet of dough on top with three ounces of fresh melted butter, and you can put it to cook on a low fire, because it does not need much time to cook, and when it is cooked you can put on top four ounces of sugar.
(Made with only a top crust, in a baking dish. I was trying to keep a limit on the amount of carbs in the overall dinner, which is why I went for the no- or one-crust pies.)
For each torte to serve 4 (using a 4” baking dish):
Peel and core and slice a large cooking apple
Cook gently in: 2 Tbsp sugar, and just enough water to cover. (The proportions should also include 2 Tbsp butter but this seems wasteful as the cooking liquid isn’t retained and more butter will be added later.)
Remove the apple slices and drain.
Butter the baking dish and arrange the apple slices in it.
Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon to taste and dot with butter.
Top with a crust. (I used a folded sheet of phyllo dough since I was using that for other purposes.)
Bake at 325F until slightly browned.
Results: Tastes just like a traditional Mom-style apple pie. (The resemblance would be even stronger with a standard crust top and bottom.) I don’t know what’s “German-style” about this. Maybe someone has studied this question.
Second Service from the Credenza
Olives (commercial mixed black and green olives)
Wafers with lattemele (Commercial dessert wafers. The description of "lattemele" sounds like it's simply heavy clotted cream but I decided to make it a little more interesting by using creme fraiche.)
Cheeses (Commercial cheese: I picked a couple of interesting-looking Italian cheeses that I hadn't used elsewhere in the meal. A hard pecorino and a very soft creamy aged cheese that I don't remember the name of. The soft cheese was probably a poor choice since it was basically a spreading cheese so it was competing with the cream for wafer space.)
As a Banquet after the Dishes are Removed
Marmalade of quincesvittoriosa brought some of the leftover quince paste she made for PPF3.
An assortment of fruit confections, dried or in syrup (Some of my candied Seville orange peel; commercial dried strawberries and cherries)
Pistachios and pine nuts
On the table:
(I hope
gormflaith will provide the recipe for the delicious bread rolls.)First Service from the Credenza
Salad of endive, chicory [radicchio] leaves, and citron sliced thinly, one per person.
For each table (of 4 people) steam 1 endive and 1 radicchio and cut into large shreds. Toss with a splash of lemon juice and a splash of almond oil and add about 1 Tbsp of capers. At this point I popped the result into storage bags in the fridge so they marinated for a couple of days before serving. This was more of a practical step than a deliberate one. At serving, toss with a handful of arugula and top with several very thin lemon slices. (The capers are borrowed from a different salad recipe involving capers and truffles.)
Results: I had several good comments on the salad and since I was a little dubious about the results I consider that a win. I think the “steam & marinate” approach helped tame the bitterness of the radicchio, which is what I was worried about.
Sliced salami, prosciutto, and smoked tongue (commercial -- for which
madbaker twitted me)sliced Parmesan cheese and small balls of fresh mozzarella (commercial)
Pastries of pine nuts and raisins
The Catalan flaky pastry, or little pastries which can be done for variety, are put together in this manner, taking the aforementioned dough, and in making the dough put in juice of beet greens or parsley, so that it becomes green, and when the sheet is rolled out, before you roll it up, you put three ounces of raisins inside it, and a little cinnamon, so much that half a spoonful would be enough for all. Then follow the instructions for making the other flaky pastries and little pastries. Except that before you put it to cook, you can put three ounces of clean crushed pine nuts over all, on top that way.
Take a sheet of phyllo dough.
Brush with melted butter. (The “flaky pastry” recipe includes butter for which this is substituting)
Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon.
Grind 1/2 c. raisins and1/2 c. pine nuts in a food processor with about 2 Tbsp of heated honey.
Spread the mixture along one edge of the dough (it has something of the consistency of playdough, so rolling it into a “snake” works nicely) and roll it up.
Place on a baking sheet and cut into bite-sized pieces.
Bake at 375 until lightly browned (ca. 15 minutes)
Results: I think the original “flaky pastry” recipe was probably intended to be more like puff pastry than phyllo, but I wavered a bit between the two approaches, given that I wasn’t going to make the dough from scratch. These turned out nicely and got comments. Like all phyllo pastries, they’re a bit crumbly and messy to eat, so making them into even smaller bite-sized portions wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Almond biscuits (commercial: Lazzaroni's "Amaretti" cookies)
First Service from the Kitchen
Roast stuffed chickens with oranges
The menu-slot I made this for normally appears as “roast pheasant (or partridge) with oranges”. I considered doing a pheasant for high table and game hens for the other tables but in the end I sized the birds for the number of eaters and simply did one game hen for each table. I strayed far afield from “pheasant with oranges” at this point, in part due to serving constraints and in part due to getting distracted. I wanted something that would be easy to carve, serve, and eat with minimal staff, so when I spotted this recipe in Scappi, I pounced. A forcemeat-stuffed de-boned chicken could be carved in slices and then eaten easily with a spoon. It was a bit more work in preparation but to good effect in serving. Unfortunately, the stuffed capon recipe didn’t really have a place to include oranges. I added the juice of one orange to each bird’s stuffing and garnished the birds on serving with orange slices, but I didn’t really notice any flavor difference.
To make stuffed boneless capons or pigeons. - Take a capon or pigeon and slaughter it, and as soon as it is dead pluck it with water that is not too hot but rather lukewarm, and as soon as it is plucked put it in cool water, and then take it out of said water immediately. Then open it from the bottom and do not make too large a hole, and take out the innards. And from the breast to the body go with one finger separating the skin from the meat as far as the wings, leaving the wings whole, and go thus separating the skin from the thighs as far as the joints, and thus take off the skin with part of the neck attached, and the wings, and from the joints above the feet, and save it. Then take said capon when it is without skin, take the bones out of the meat, and grind the meat well with rich herbs, spices, saffron, good cheese, and eggs and walnuts, and put said filling in said skin with raisins, and sew it together carefully, and put it to cook in a pot with good rich broth.
Take one game hen for each table of 4 and remove the body through the cavity, leaving the lower leg bones and wing bones intact.
Remove the meat from the bones and mince it in a food processor.
Process in 1/2 tsp fresh herbs (minced), 1/4 tsp. pepper-based spice mixture, 1/8 c. grated cheese (I used fresh Asiago), 1/8 c. chopped walnuts, 1/8 c. raisins (actually I used currants so that they’d be distributed better), one egg, and the juice of one orange. (I omitted the saffron on the basis that the flavor wouldn’t carry through and I tend to reserve saffron for times when you can tell the difference.)
Put the mixture in the skin. Rather than sewing it closed, I closed up the skin around the stuffing and then tied the bird into a cheesecloth sack. (I use a loosely knitted bag sold as a “soup sock” from Sur la Table. I could fit two game hens in one sock, with the sock knotted in between.)
Simmer in broth until cooked. I didn’t time it exactly -- I think it was close on to an hour. I had a meat thermometer stuck into the last bird that went into the pot and cooked them all until it reached poultry temperature.
When the birds cooled slightly, I cut them out of the cheesecloth and put each in a boiling bag for re-heating.
(To enhance the oranges theme, I added the juice of 4 Seville oranges to the stuffing, reserving 2 center slices as garnish for each bird.)
Results: A very nice result. The texture is like a good meatloaf (not surprisingly). The cooking method results in a fairly spherical bird. Some experimentation might get a more natural shape. The carving was very easy. There were a lot of compliments on this one.
Torteletti
To make ten plates of the best rich tortelletti so serve alone and to cover ducks, pigeons, and other birds. Take two pounds of beef or veal fat, and when it is completely melted, pour it down through a colander. Then take ten eggs, well beaten, and two and a half pounds of good hard cheese thoroughly grated, and an ounce and a half of ground cinnamon, and a pound and a half of raisins, and a pound of sugar, and put all these things together, and make the filling so it is good. Then make your dough with flour, and saffron, and an egg, and make the sheets very thin, then make your tortelletti small and cook them in good rich broth. Then dish them up either alone in plates, or on top of ducks, or pigeons, or other poultry, and put on them one pound of grated hard cheese, and six ounces of sugar, and half an ounce of cinnamon, all mixed together.
Totally punted on this one.
Cook commercial cheese tortellini in chicken broth.
Drain and serve sprinkled with grated pecorino cheese arranged around the chicken on the same platter.
Artichoke pie
Pie of artichokes, or of whole ruvia [“the pulse called Ervile” - ?] on meat days. - First make a pie coffin like that for eel, then put butter in the bottom, and a bit of pepper, and marzolino cheese minced very finely, then take three almost-cooked artichokes, and clean them well, reserving the heads on the bottom [i.e. the hearts] well cleaned, and put them into the coffin, adding on top pepper, butter, and marzolino minced fairly small. Then take two egg yolks, two ounces of sugar, and half a glass [bichiero] of verjuice and a bit of rich herbs pounded very finely with knives, and mix all these things together well, and set them to cook carefully. And this pie coffin should be fairly low. Instead of marzolino you can use another good cheese, you can put in cooked persutto minced very fine, and you can do similarly with ruvia in tegole.
(made without a crust as is indicated as an option for other pies)
Steam 8 large artichokes and reserve the hearts
Grease a shallow baking dish with butter (I used 4-4” dishes)
Dust with a pinch of pepper
Cover with a light sprinkling of grated mild sheep cheese (I used pecorino primosale as I couldn’t get marzolino)
Slice the cooked artichoke hearts thinly and cover the dish with them (2 per dish)
Add pepper and cheese as above, plus dot with butter.
For each dish, beat an egg yolk with 1/2 Tbsp sugar (proportionately it should have been ca. 2 Tbsp) with 1 Tbsp of verjuice (I used sour orange juice) and a handful of fresh minced herbs (whatever was in the garden). Pour this mixture over the artichokes.
Bake at 300F until the egg is set (ca. 20 minutes).
Results: We all found this dish especially delicious, and the use of the sour orange juice was distinctive. This could be a good or a bad thing: it wasn’t a “neutral” substitute for verjuice, but on the other hand, a lot of the 16th century Italian recipes call for orange juice as an ingredient, so I don’t feel it was a completely unacceptable substitution. Since I did this as a “crustless pie”, the artichokes were the most prominent taste and the overall result something like a quiche.
Grapes
Seedless "black" grapes
Second Service from the Kitchen
Roast Loin
Beef loins German-style. - Take a fat loin of beef that has aged a little and clean it of the sinews and nerves it has around it, then beat it very well and put it to soften in malmsey wine and vinegar, but more vinegar, with ground coriander and fennel and a little salt, and leave it for the space of five to six hours. Then put it to roast on the spit, and when it is well cooked put it in a plate. While it is cooking put a bit of that vinegar and malmsey wine it marinated in into the dripping-pan, and when you have it in the plates put on top some of said sauce which you put into the dripping-pan with what will be strained out from the loin, and cover it, and let it braise this way for a good half-hour. Then it will be totally perfect.
(This was significantly adapted because I wanted small bite-size serving pieces so I used a pork tenderloin, but wrapped it in bacon to roast to add some fat.)
Take a pork tenderloin and marinate overnight in:
1/2 c. red wine
1/2 c. vinegar
1 tsp each coriander seed and fennel seed, ground, plus a little less of salt
Place on a roasting pan and wrap with bacon slices
Roast at 350F until cooked to pork-doneness using a meat thermometer
After resting the roast, slice into thin medallions
Reduce the marinade by at least half
Mix the drippings from the roast, any juice from the sliced meat, and the reduced marinade
Place a quarter of the sliced meat in each of 4 cooking bags with a quarter of the sauce and refrigerate until ready to heat for serving.
Heat the bag in boiling water until serving temperature.
Results: This was ok, although not spectacular. The reduced marinade was a bit on the salty side and I think I’d do it differently next time. There were nice comments on the plum sauce, though!
Plum Sauce
Sauce of sour cherries [marene] or plums or fresh grapes for ten plates. - Take six bowls of marene and clean them of their stems, then set them to boil in a pot with the inside of a bread, enough to dry out their moisture, then pass the cherries through the sieve and put them in a pot with six ounces of sugar and half an ounce of fine ground cinnamon, and close it as much as you want, and it will be done. And the same method works for plums or grapes.
I include Messisbugo’s plum sauce recipe here to justify the use of a plum sauce I made up last summer which is similar but without the bread. My recipe is here. It’s based on a recipe that was floating around at the West-An Tir Cook’s Play-Date … uh … War a couple years ago, which likely came from some source of this type. I will be supplying at least one diner with a jar of this in the future.
Eggplants
Eggplants [mollegnane] or rather scorned apples, in thick soup, or stuffed, or in a baking pan or on the grill. - Take your eggplants and peel them, and take out the seeds if you want them stuffed, and take its filling: good cheese and eggs and spices and rich herbs, and grind everything together well, and stuff them, and put on its cover which you removed, and tie it well so that the filling does not come out. Then set it to cook in good rich broth, and take the covers off to plate them. Then put on top grated cheese and spices, and this will be the first method to make them stuffed in a thick soup.
For each table of 4, prepare 4 small Indian eggplants (roughly the size of a small hen’s egg)
Slice off the stem end to leave a surface about the size of a quarter
Using a small melon-baller, make a hole in the middle from the flat end
I was going to try to fire-roast the skin off but decided that it was better to keep it to help with structural integrity. I may experiment more later.
Make a stuffing with the following ingredients:
1 egg
2 Tbsp grated cheese (pecorino)
ca. 1/4 tsp pepper-based spice mixture
ca. 1 Tbsp fresh herbs as desired
Grind these together and pack into the eggplants.
Arrange in broth so that they will cook upright. (I used a frying basket so I could pack them in and remove them from the broth easily.) This is tricky.
Simmer until a toothpick comes out of the stuffing clean.
Place each table’s serving into a boiling bag and heat to serve.
Results: This worked fairly well. I don’t know that it was a memorable dish but it came out ok.
A German-style torte of apples
To make a German-style torte. - Take up to fifteen sweet apples, or twenty according to their size, and peel them, then cut them in decently large pieces, and put them in a pot with half a pound of sugar, and half a pound of fresh butter and water until they are almost cooked, and quite sweet, then take them out carefully so the slices don’t break, and keep them in a pot. Then grease your pie pan with two ounces of fresh butter, put your sheet of dough on top, with four ounces of sugar, and half an ounce of cinnamon on top, and spread out over it the apple slices as much as the dough will hold. Over the said slices you can put four ounces of grated sugar and half an ounce of cinnamon, pouring four ounces of fresh melted butter on top, little by little, and then you can put another sheet of dough on top with three ounces of fresh melted butter, and you can put it to cook on a low fire, because it does not need much time to cook, and when it is cooked you can put on top four ounces of sugar.
(Made with only a top crust, in a baking dish. I was trying to keep a limit on the amount of carbs in the overall dinner, which is why I went for the no- or one-crust pies.)
For each torte to serve 4 (using a 4” baking dish):
Peel and core and slice a large cooking apple
Cook gently in: 2 Tbsp sugar, and just enough water to cover. (The proportions should also include 2 Tbsp butter but this seems wasteful as the cooking liquid isn’t retained and more butter will be added later.)
Remove the apple slices and drain.
Butter the baking dish and arrange the apple slices in it.
Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon to taste and dot with butter.
Top with a crust. (I used a folded sheet of phyllo dough since I was using that for other purposes.)
Bake at 325F until slightly browned.
Results: Tastes just like a traditional Mom-style apple pie. (The resemblance would be even stronger with a standard crust top and bottom.) I don’t know what’s “German-style” about this. Maybe someone has studied this question.
Second Service from the Credenza
Olives (commercial mixed black and green olives)
Wafers with lattemele (Commercial dessert wafers. The description of "lattemele" sounds like it's simply heavy clotted cream but I decided to make it a little more interesting by using creme fraiche.)
Cheeses (Commercial cheese: I picked a couple of interesting-looking Italian cheeses that I hadn't used elsewhere in the meal. A hard pecorino and a very soft creamy aged cheese that I don't remember the name of. The soft cheese was probably a poor choice since it was basically a spreading cheese so it was competing with the cream for wafer space.)
As a Banquet after the Dishes are Removed
Marmalade of quinces
vittoriosa brought some of the leftover quince paste she made for PPF3.An assortment of fruit confections, dried or in syrup (Some of my candied Seville orange peel; commercial dried strawberries and cherries)
Pistachios and pine nuts
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Date: 2013-04-08 04:28 am (UTC)It's an amazing undertaking if not!
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Date: 2013-04-08 05:28 am (UTC)Now the dishwashing ... that was significant work. Fortunately,
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Date: 2013-04-08 04:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-08 02:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-08 04:39 pm (UTC)