Recipes
from the Dayboard:
Athena's
Thimble Collegium
Saturday, April 24th, 2004 - Barony of Bhakail
Courtesy
of Master Jibral ar-Rashid al-Gyanji
Chicken
with Green Salad and Citrus-Almond Vinaigrette
Brueth
de Savoie
Buttered
Eggs
Roasted
Onion Relish
Giardinera
(Pickled Vegetables)
Spinach Pie
Foolproof Pie Crust
Garlic Torta
Barley Frumenty
Spiced Grape Juice Drink
Chicken with Green Salad and Citrus-Almond Vinaigrette
2 lbs. chicken breasts
1/2 head lettuce
1/2 head escarole
1/2 bunch parsley4 oranges
2 lemons1/4 - 1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
3 oz. sliced almonds
1/2 cup raisins
Simmer chicken breasts gently in enough water to completely cover them for about 40 minutes until they register about 180 F on a quick-read meat thermometer. Remove from water and cool. If storing in fridge , save them in a zip-lock bag with a little of the water they simmered in, to keep them moist. Remove tendons and fat from cooked chicken breasts. Slice thinly.
If raisins are not moist & plump, add a little bit (about an ounce) of boiling water to them and let them re-hydrate.
Scrub 1 lemon and 1 orange under hot water to remove wax from skin. Do not peel. Slice thinly and mix in with sliced chicken pieces.
Juice 1 lemon and 1 orange, strain out seeds and reserve for vinaigrette. Peel and slice remaining 2 oranges and add to chicken pieces also.
Rinse and chop parsley coarsely. Wash and prepare other greens.
Mix vinaigrette to taste, using remaining ingredients and the orange and lemon juice. (quantities are guidelines)
Before serving, toss greens with vinaigrette, and add chicken mixture and toss.
Le Menagier de Paris, c 1393: Take capons or hens and boil with very lean bacon and the livers: and when it is half cooked, take it out, then add bread crumbs moistened with stock, then grind ginger, cinnamon, saffron, and take them out; then grind the livers and lots of parsley, then sieve, and then grind and sieve the bread, then boil it all together. (Note that the parsley makes the soup green and the saffron makes it yellow, so that it ends up a bad color. But it seems to me that the color would be better if the bread was toasted, as toasted bread and saffron together make green and parsley also makes green.
2 liters chicken broth
1 cm thick slice ham
chicken livers
parsley, 2 tbs
crushed burnt bread as thickener
ginger, cinnamon, saffron & salt
croutons (optional)
Soak the bread with some broth (about 5 minutes). Cook the chicken liver in some broth (also about 5 minutes). Cut the ham in small dices, boil about 5 minutes to remove the fat. Soak the ham. Mix everything together and grind it. Dilute with the broth. Cook 5 minutes while keeping it moving, serve hot (on croutons)
Dayboard version:
8 cups chicken broth
1 ham bone
6 oz chicken livers
1 cup toasted bread crumbs
1/4 bunch parsley
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
a few threads saffron
Note: Thanks to Brunissende de Broceliande for this recipe!
1 or 2 oz. butter, melted
8 to 12 eggs
1/2 tsp. ground pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
Place eggs in a pan and add enough cold water so that the water is an inch higher than the eggs. Bring to a gentle boil. Once water starts to boil, simmer for 10 minutes, exactly. Remove pan from heat and remove eggs and place them in cold water right away.
Peel and slice hard-boiled eggs. Place eggs in buttered foil pan. Pour melted butter on top and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Put foil on top of pan and heat in 350 oven for 15 or 20 minutes, until piping hot.
1 lb. onions
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 to 1/2 cup salad oil
1 tsp dried thyme leaves, crushed
2 or 3 tbsp prepared yellow mustard (French's type)
Roast onions in foil pan, covered with foil, at 500 F for an hour, until outsides are black in spots and insides caramelized.
Cool onions. Peel onions by squeezing them out of their skins & chop roughly.
Make vinaigrette from remaining ingredients (to taste) and marinate onions.
Can be served as is, as a relish, or used as a dressing for a green salad. Can be expanded to serve more by using as a dressing on 4 cans of chickpeas, drained.
1/2 head cauliflower
small jar (12 or 14 oz) giardinera
small jar (4 to 8 OZ) marinated artichoke hearts
1 tsp minced garlic
3 tsp fennel seed, bruised or partially ground
Cut cauliflower into reasonable pieces. Discard core of stem. Throw cauliflower pieces into big pot of boiling water and fish them out again when they are almost tender but still crisp.
Add remaining ingredients to hot veggies and allow to marinate. Serve chilled or at room temperature.
NOTE: The hot peppers in commercial giardinera are not period, but we used it anyway to save prep time due to time contstraints. (You have about 8 hours in the kitchen for a feast, but a for a dayboard you only get 3 hours.)
1-1/2 10 oz. packages frozen spinach
1/4 cup raisins
1 or 2 eggs, beaten
1-1/2 to 2 tsp allspice
Defrost spinach in colander. Allow to drain, but it is not necessary to get it really dry. Mix in remaining ingredients, place in uncooked pie shell, and bake at 375 for 20 - 30 minutes. (until juices are set, and a knife comes out clean) Cooking time will vary with the moisture content of the spinach.
At the event, we had some leftover light cream, so we added 2 or 3 tablespoons of cream to the filling before we put it in the pie shell. You could put a few pats of butter on top before baking, instead of the cream, if desired.
Makes four 8-inch single crusts.
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3 sticks butter
1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk)
2 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice
1 egg
Allow butter to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes or so until it is no longer rock hard, but still very firm.
Mix flour and salt in large bowl. Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter till mixture resembles crumbs the size of small peas.
In a small bowl, beat liquid ingredients until well blended. Pour over flour mixture all at once.
Cut liquid into flour mixture with pastry cutter until it starts to clump together and no longer falls from pastry cutter by itself. Gather mixture into a large ball and knead very minimally 3 or 4 times, only until it sticks together and has absorbed most of the loose crumbs.
Flatten dough into a disk or rectangle about 1 inch thick, wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least one hour or up to several days.
3 or 4 tsp minced garlic
3 eggs
1/2 lb. cottage cheese
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/8 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp pepper
Mix all ingredients well. Fry a bit and taste to see what it tastes like when cooked. (Won't taste exactly the same as when baked, but close enough to adjust the seasoning!) Add spices or more garlic to taste, if needed.
Put into unbaked pie shells and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until center
is set and a knife comes out clean.
1/2 lb. pearl barley
1/4 to 1/2 lb. dried apricots, chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup light cream
nutmeg to taste
Put barley in large pan. Cover with plenty of water (about 5 or 6 cups?) and boil for about 30 minutes, until tender but not mushy.
Drain barley if there is a lot of water left in the pot. Ideally, the barley should have absorbed almost all of the water.
Add remaining ingredients, and simmer until they are absorbed. Check taste and add some nutmeg if desired.
Cool and serve.
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups water
1 or 2 cinnamon sticks
6 whole cloves
2 cups grape juice (not grape drink!)
Put all ingredients except grape juice in a small sauce pan. Simmer for about 15 minutes until you have a spice-flavored syrup. Cool. Mix grape juice to taste, with about 2 quarts of water, then add syrup to taste. Serve with ice.
Proportions will vary with the concentration and tartness of the grape juice. The grape juice we used for the event was a budget brand, and it was not a strong and tart as Welch's.
Note: Thanks to Lady Juliana for serving a similar beverage at Yule Revel, which was so good I had to steal the idea and use it for this event.
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