Snowflakes are period right?

Straight up sugar cut outs. Do not count! 

The last of the Levain, or how the puppy ate my homework

Back in May when we went to @WMU Medieval Congress I went to an EXARC class on bread making. They gave out samples of starter.  I quickly had two jars going and Izzy took one to the D and named hers Fox and I named mine Scully.

I want bread today and so as I continue to purge the Thanksgiving leftovers I will use up that baby and then start the new one from Cooks when we get back from Mexico.

~SECOND EDIT/ INSTALLMENT~

  It is winter and my old cold kitchen made for a long, slow proof. Two days later I got a decent sponge. Baked it in the dutch oven trying for extra chewy crust. That worked. I had a slice of nicely tangy warm whole wheat bread. Left it on counter for boys to get to as they ate dinner. About two hours later Z wanders into living room with a hockey puck sized remnant. Keiki had "counter cruised" and chewed off all the beautiful crust! 

Pasta

Rauioles, Forme of Cury, 14^th Century
a thin foile of dowe & close hem þerin as turteletes, & cast hem in boylyng watur, & sethe hem þerin

The standard way of cooking pasta was in stock, or in water with salt, butter or oil; served with grated cheese, and sometimes spices as well… Alternatively, pasta could be cooked with sugar and almond milk, or with goat's milk. Fresh pasta was used to make ravioli and tortelli, which were filled with a thick puree of meat, chicken, or vegetables, often combined with fresh cheese and bound with egg. Like other forms of pasta, these were usually cooked in stock and accompanied by grated cheese.” The Original Mediterranean Cuisine.


I made a cream & blue cheese sauce to dress spinach and bleu cheese stuffed ravioli. Z said it was his favorite ravioli ever and I couldn't make any other kind ever again! I was pleased because only one exploded. 

Artichokes #10

I know I said I was going to try and stay pre 15th century in this project. But I am behind and have fewer opportunities to feed four or more people any particular dish. Thus, today I will bend my own rule a tiny bit and pop up to 1530 when artichokes were just beginning to be a popular veg in French gardens. In her book Acquired Taste: The French Origins of Modern Cooking, T. Sarah Peterson says that they spread initially from Avignon to become a popular fad through the next several decades.

I failed to take my own picture. We ate it all. There was only one little artichoke left. I kept trying to tell Pete and Z all the interesting facts, like Henry 8 thought they were an aphrodisac and that Catherine de Medici prly brought them with her, but we ate it all. So... what I did was made dinner. A Southern France inspired, late period ingredients, Tuesday night nosh.

In a ziplock baggy (so period appropriate-- I know) I put 2lbs of chicken thighs. I marinated them from about 1 in the afternoon till baking at 5 pm for about 75 minutes. The marinade was 24 ounces of quartered artichokes with white table wine, olive oil, dried lemon zest and cracked black pepper. I pitted about a cup of black kalamata olives. When it was time to cook I put them in a covered ceramic dish and baked it at 350 till Pete got home. Crusty bread and pasta underneath, little parm on top. (I did also look up egg pasta and that will be a project soon.)

POST COOKS' 2018

 Cooks Symposium Got some Lake Effect Snow. No kidding? REALLY?

 Getting to play with a Cobb Oven was an absolute delight.

Brewing dark beer with spices and orange.

The morning was dark and icy but Hannah, Olaf and I intrepidly sallied forth. We did arrive safely and on time despite me anxiously cowering in the back seat. The site was lovely. Huge old farm house converted into a summer camp situation.  The kitchen was great and the kitties adorable. I gave a first run lecture on Scully & Scully and it went well. It was mostly lit analysis and theory. I discussed the differences between D. Eleanor's highly readable and pleasantly useful Early French Cookery " and her husband Terance's earlier academic work with Le Viander de Taillevent. Which was a far more scholarly presentation of the same manuscripts. Everyone was attentive and asked great questions that I was able to answer. Senpai noticed me! SUCCESS! What I need to share is the effing Lumpkin Gnocchi. 

Senpai noticed me. ):  I know that rice flour doesn't have gluten. My hope was that using it would result in lighter FROZEN gnocchi. Nope. I got something akin to boiled buttered mochi. I should have made mochi. These little lumps TASTED GREAT. The pumpkin did not let me down.  Really flavor was fine. The crispy sage was like crack. Browned butter smelled divine. But-- when the amylase froze (an error of ignorance in my clever plan) it crystallized and then it partially thawed, and then it turned from adequately shaped dumplings into wallpaper paste turds. UGH. Disappointing to say the least. TEXTURE FAIL. The dough was too wet. I should have cooked the pumpkin down even further. Freezing rice flour and expecting it to act like potato starch was ... a learning experience. I should have used semolina. This is how we learn. sigh.

I know it would not have been a meat day

ENTRY #9

RISSOLES ON A MEAT DAY are seasonable from St. Remy's Day (October 1). Take a pork thigh, and remove all the fat so that none is left, then put the lean meat in a pot with plenty of salt: and when it is almost cooked, take it out and have hard-cooked eggs, and chop the whites and yolks, and elsewhere chop up your meat very small, then mix eggs and meat together, and sprinkle powdered spices on it, then put in pastry and fry in its own grease. And note that this is a proper stuffing for pig; and any time the cooks shop at the butcher's for pig-stuffing : but always, when stuffing pigs, it is good to add old good cheese.  -Le Menagier de Paris trans by J. Hinson

Today is a Friday. In the 14th century, in France and indeed most of Europe (CUZ CATHOLIC) Fridays were fast days. Fasting was observed by abstaining from meat, and all animal products like milk, cheese, butter and eggs. Fish was cool but as I have yet to a.) weave an eel trap and catch us an eel that meets the requirements set forth by our young housewife's husband: "an eel with a small head, slender mouth, shiny, shimmering and sparkling skin, small eyes, and large body and pale belly...the finest sort."  and b.) because we do Meatless Mondays I am gonna go ahead and get on with dinner prep. 

My three main sources all have recipes for fried tarts. There are meat, fish and fruit variants. 

The minced boiled egg, minced pork, grated "good old cheese" (I used some nice tomme that I had) the poudre epices were salt and pepper, paprika and garlic.

I am really struck by how many cuisines have meat wrapped in pastry. I was thinking these might come out like empanadas, or gyoza but they are more pierogi shaped.

"fry hyme in his own fatte"

Delicious little bites. Good for game day or party snacks. The dijon cut through the fat and so did a nice IPA.

PRE Cooks' Symposium

Gonna Carpool with Olaf & Hannah this Saturday to Kazoo. It is Cooks' Symposium. There is a potluck after a full day of classes. I have prepared a lecture on Le Viandier de Taillevent. I am taking gnocchi. Not just ANY gnocchi mind you, I have roasted a Galeux d'Eysines and used the mash to make gnocchi. They are in the freezer. I will bag them up and take them to the event where they will be cooked and dressed with sage and browned butter.

Bisected.

                    Seeded and chopped into manageable chunks and into a 375F oven for an hour.

Out of the oven.

SO WET!

Guess who ran out of rice flour and had to swap up to whole wheat to roll them out?

They are very delicate. So... no fork marks.

Extra pumpkin that is getting saved for something different!