Strawberye

 

Original Source:

Two Fifteenth Century Cookery-Books: Harleian MS 279 (1430) & Harleian MS 4016 (1450)

Strawberye. Take Strawberys & waysshe hem in tyme of yere in gode red wune; than strayne thorwe a clothe, & do hem in a pott with gode almaunde milk, a-lay it with Amyndoun other with the flower or Rys,  & make it chargeaunt, and lat it boyle, and do ther in Roysonys of coraunce, safron, pepir, sugre grete plente, pouder gyngere, canel, galynhale, pounte it with vynegre, & a lytle whyte grece to put therto: coloure it with alkenade, & droppe it a-bowte, plante it with the graynes of pome-garnad, & than serve it forth.

Strawberry. Take strawberries and wash them when in season with good red wine, then strain them through a cloth and do them in a pot with good almond milk. Bind it with amidon or with rice flour and make it stiff, and let it boil, and put in currants, saffron, pepper, a lot of sugar, powdered ginger, cinnamon, galingale. Finish it with vinegar and a little white grease added. Colour it with alkanet and place in a bowl, sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and serve it forth.

 

My Redaction:
Allergens: nuts – can swap for rice milk.

250g               Strawberries
100ml             Red Wine
200ml             Almond Milk
3 Tbsp            Cornflour
1 1/3 C            Sugar
½ tsp              Red Wine Vinegar
1 tsp               Powder Douce

Clean and hull the strawberries. Steep the strawberries in red wine for at least 15 minutes, then drain and discard the wine. Puree the strawberries.

Put the strawberry pulp into a saucepan with the almond milk, cornflour, sugar and spices. Bring to the boil and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Pull it off the heat when the mixture starts to bind and thicken. Add the vinegar and pour the pudding into serving dishes.

Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.

Changes Made:

Book of Hours, 1485 -1490
MS 38126

I did not have time to strain and remove the seeds from the strawberries but I don't think you really need too do this step. If you would like to do this step, go for it, but it isn't really necessary to do so. 

I have removed the “white grease” which would have been butter or lard, to make this dairy free as well as removing the alkanet. Alkanet is normally used as a dye, and the recipe is already bright enough coloured as is that you would not need to use alkanet. If you would like it to be redder or pink, I would just add a couple of drops of food dye, as it is also a little more accessible.  

I also removed the currants from the original recipe, but you can keep these in. I prefer to have a consistent texture, but if you would like to add the currants, you can. I have done both, but for this version, I did it without. I also did not have pomegranate seeds on hand for decorating the dish.

Spice blend: I have used my Powder Douce as it already contained around half of the mentioned spices. My spice blend is a mix of ginger, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. I do not have galangal, and I omitted the saffron and pepper. Saffron was normally used as a status spice and added to many dishes as a more “Hey I can afford this so we will add it to everything”. I don't think this would be an unreasonable substitute in period. 

 

Notes:

Amidon: Amidon is French for starch. I chose cornstarch as it is what I had on hand, though the recipe does say that you can use rice flour. This is just a thickening agent.

You can use frozen strawberries if berries are out of season. You just need to defrost and strain and discard the liquid before steeping in the wine. I have done this recipe with both fresh and frozen berries as in winter fresh berries can get very expensive.

Gloves (or Chickpea Pancakes)

 

Original Source:

Libro della Cocina

De guanti, cioé ravioli.

Togli ceci bianci, ben immolli in l’acqua; lessali bene, poi cavati dell’acqua tritali forte e mestali con la detta acqua, e colali: e di quella acqua colata distempera la farina come tu vorrai: e friggasi a lento fuoco con lardo o oglio, e mettivi su del mele.

Alt ramente. Distempera la farina con l’ova fa’ di poi guanti o altro, come tu vuoli: poni a cocere bene in la padella con lardo caldo o oglio.

Gloves, That is Ravioli.

Take white chickpeas, well softened in water; boil them well, then take them out of the water, minced finely and mix them with said water, and strain them; and with this strained water dilute the flour as you like and fry it on a low fire with lard and oil, and put some honey on top.

Another preparation. Dilute the flour with eggs, then make some gloves or other shapes as you like; set them to cook well in a pan with hot lard or oil.  

My Redaction:
Allergens: none.

330g      Chickpea Flour
450ml  Water
pinch    Salt
Oil for frying.

Heat oil in a pan over low heat.

Mix the batter of chickpea flour, water and salt to form a thin batter. Add flour or water until desired consistence is reached.

Pour the batter into the pan to size (around ¼ cup at a time) and cook on one side until bubbles start to form all over and the top of the pancake looks dry. Then flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Continue until all the batter is used.

Top with honey and serve or serve with honey on the side.

Changes Made:

The use of chickpea flour instead of making my own as per the recipe. As with most of the recipes I adapt, I’m attempting to go for simple, easy and affordable recipes that most people can make without breaking the budget. Chickpea flour can be bought at the supermarket for about $3-4 a bag for 330g.

Instead of mixing in a bowl, I put the ingredients into a large squeezy bottle and just shook together (and if any flour was stuck at the bottom, I used a chopstick to break up and mix). I would then add water or flour till at the right consistency. I would then squeeze to desired size. This reduced a lot of messy bowls and spills and was able to get more consistent sizing.

I have served this with honey, as per the recipes, as well as Strawberye, using it more like an accompanying dish then as a main dish.

 

Notes:
Chickpea Flour

Chickpea Flour: photo from AlexanderVanLoon

There are at least three types of chickpea flour I have seen in the markets.

Chickpea flour: is a general term for flour made from chickpeas. Most often if it is not specified as Besan or Gram, chickpea flour is made from white chickpeas.

Besan Flour: a flour made from split brown chickpeas, or chana del. This is commonly used in Indian cuisine and is good for fritters or savoury dishes.

Gram Flour: this is another name for besan flour.

Garbanzo Bean Flour: flour made from whole white or brown chickpeas.

 

For this recipe, you would ideally use Garbanzo Bean flour, though I have made this with Besan Flour, as that was what was available.