Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Chicken fritters (aka medieval chicken nuggets)

 Scappi: page 498 recipe 141 To prepare fritters with chicken flesh
     When in a mortar you have ground up the breast meat of two chickens that have first been boiled, add in two pounds of bazzatto cheese*, half a pound of grated Parmesan cheese, three ounces of sugar, six eggs and half an ounce of cinnamon. Of that mixture make balls the size of a hard boiled egg yolk. Have pot on hand containing six beaten eggs with two ounces of flour and coat the balls in that one by one: just as soon as they are coated drop them into hot rendered fat and fry them. When they are done, serve them hot with sugar over them. You can do calf's and goat-kid's brains, boiled, in the same way.

What I did:

3 chicken breasts boiled
2 balls of mozzarella
1 small package of grated Parmesan cheese (forgot to look how much but roughly 3 Tbsp)
3 eggs ? they had double yolks so I am not sure how you would count that, and yes all 3!
1 Tbsp cinnamon (approximately)
1/4 cup sugar (Turbinado)

Not having my mortar and pestle with me I improvised. I had a large ceramic bowl and a wooden spatula. I first "chopped" up the chicken with the "blade" of the spatula getting it as small as I could and then began pressing and squishing it with the flat of it against the bowl. This was quite effective and I was surprised at just how very much so. I opened and drained the mozzarella and broke it up and approached it the same way I did the chicken. Add the Parmesan, cinnamon and sugar. Continue to mix by beating against the side of the bowl. When you have a mushy consistency and the cheese is fully incorporated add the eggs until it holds together. Roll into small balls the size of egg yolks. Dip and completely coat in a simple coating of eggs and flour the consistency of thick pancake mix. Deep fry until golden. I use olive oil as I had it on hand.

Notes: this was an experiment over an open fire, very tasty hot, warm and even cold. In terms of making it for a feast I can see where they would be able to easily made ahead and then reheated in an oven.

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