The Cook-A-Long is a virtual kitchen for Medieval and Renaissance Cooking enthusiasts in the SCA. Each month a period recipe will be posted in the original language (when available) and a translation. All cooks are encouraged to try their hand at redacting and preparing the monthly dish and post his/ her results to the blog. If you are interested in becoming a participant in this cook a long, or would like to submit a dish for the month please send an e-mail to valkyr8 (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

My experiments this month...


Flowyns in Lent:
I pre-baked the crust a little longer than I should have and so that got a little too dark. I am glad I did though as I think it would have been a soggy mess otherwise. I also used a crust I like because it is very flaky but it's puffiness meant that it loses it shape when made as a shell or in shaped forms. I will go another direction next time I try this.

This recipe took some experimentation and I am not sure I achieved exactly what the recipe was aiming for. I continue to not like dates or figs very much but the almond paste and crust were lovely.
Fake Fish:
I really enjoyed this recipe. I don't have a mortar and pestle large enough so I had to be creative wish some of the tools in my kitchen. I also decided to use the ground nuts remaining from the strained almond milk so as not to be wasteful. About 10 minutes before this finished baking I brushed on an egg wash with crushed saffron to give it a nice golden color. I was going for a catfish shape for the fish as that is the heraldry of the local group.

5 comments:

ecb said...

Yay!

So, you used a commercial crust?

What did you do to make your fish?

I was thinking of doing the second recipe today, but it's been kind of a crappy weekend, so I dunno if I have the energy left over for cooking!

relativelylucid said...

I used the "Pate Brisee" from the author of http://chocolateandzucchini.com/
which has flour, salt, butter, egg, and water. It is very buttery so it gets really puffy and flaky. That may not have been the best course.

For the fish, I used several different varieties of apples as I like a blend better than just one kind. I cut the pieces of the apple up rather small and used a meat tenderizer I don't actually use on meat to work as a mortar and pestle. I added the ground almonds from the strained almond milk as I didn't want to be wasteful. They added some additional liquid content which I think might have been helpful as well. I sprinkled with cinnamon and ginger (to my taste) and a little sugar (the almonds were already rather sweet).

For consistency, I used a paper template for the fish design and sort of played from there.

It was fun!

Liz said...

I do like the catfish. Very cute.

Gwyneth said...

Were the almonds from the almond milk still flavorful? I worry about that. I also love the catfish.

relativelylucid said...

That is an excellent point and not one I thought of. I think they turned out creamier than they would have been naturally which went well with the apples though they certainly are mild. I imagine the taste would be sharper had I used fresher almonds which might have balanced differently with the apples.