Page 233 rec# 185 To prepare a thick soup of einkorn ot hulled barley

Original:
      Einkorn is a much larger grain than that from which bread is made; in Lombardy a lot of it is found and used for making tourtes and flans, as I say in the book on pastry in the appropriate recipes. Cull through it, then, and clean it or dust and set it to soak in warm water for ten hours, occasionally changing the water. Set it to cook in a fat meat broth in a tinned copper or earthenware pot, adding to it yellow saveloy or ordinary sausage or else a piece of salt pork marrow to flavor it. Then add cinnamon and saffron, cooking it on the coals away from the flame with the pot stopped up. Boil for no less than two and a half hours. Serve with cheese and cinnamon onver it.That soup should be quite thick,
     In the same way you can make it with hulled barley, which needs to boil a lot more than the einkorn, although both of them do call for a long cooking. Both of them can be combined with cheese, eggs, pepper, cinnamon and saffron.

me:
     I soaked the barley for a while but not nearly the 10 hrs, I changed the water twice I think. I boiled it in plain water for a bit then added in a fat lamb broth, cinnamon and pepper. Cooked until thick and served with cheese stirred in.

Next time I will follow closer to the recipe, but despite that it was tasty.

A post for Anna

GoED post mortem

Peascods in lent (GHwJ):

900 gm of figs is enough for ADD(80 people)

soaked with 1 cup wine and 1 cup water add a cup of water in the morning and boil.

used sultanens

 some dates min 100 gm

instead of deep frying try baking

3 pie crust recipes not enough for filling

Beef:

roasted until falling apart! very lovely, rubbed in spiced for cameline meat bruet and then seared  doused in vinegar added a little water (could use apple juice) . Low temp oven (200f) for 7 hrs for just under 6kg of beef

Sop of onions (GHwJ):

Everyone really loved it, just onions cooked down in butter, never did add the water to it.

Barley( from Scappi):

soaked and rinsed but not nearly long enough or enough rinsing. Added a fat lamb broth, cinnamon, and pepper. Tasty, could use less cinnamon and more pepper. Any fat broth would be nice!

Elizabethan bisket bread :

strongly flavored, 20 gm anise seed and 20 gm coriander mix up in the measure, should have had less coriander, or more anise, depends on how you look at it.  1/3 batch about 8-10 waffles 1/4 waffle is fine per person. "Flavor is intense" needs lots of butter when cooking, Need to double check measures and proportions.

Goose (Scappi):

The meat was tasty, moist and tender, cooked until the bird was falling apart. Boiled in salt water. Left no salty taste, lovely way to cook a goose and have it be non greasy.

Rice:

Boiled in the goose broth, a little too salty. Next time thin the broth with water or another non salty broth.

Egg pie (GHwJ):

made triple the crust at the same time, 1 cup flour to 1/3 cup fat(butter) used 8 eggs and 6Tbsp rosewater

The pie itself had 12 eggs per with 3 Tbsp of rosewater and 3 Tbsp sugar.

Over cooked, but getting there in terms of flavor. next time, less sugar and a little more rose. I think 4T and 2T

Herb fritters:

simple, take any amount of flour and add herbs until mingled in a savory amount, add yeast and warm water then set aside. the longer this sits the better the flavor I have discovered. There are no real amounts or proportions it is very much an eyeball and taste sort of thing. I used herbs of provence (blend) added dill, salt pepper and parsley.

these were again wonderful especially with the dark honey!

Spinach fritters (GHwJ):

2700 gm chopped spinach

I think 4 eggs

I sprinkled in dry bread crumbs until I got a texture that was stable and would hold together

I used a generic tea spoon to measure and used 5-6 or cinnamon and the same amount of ginger I used 1/2 as much mace and sprinkled in some black pepper and salt.

It is a basic beer batter for them to be fried in, like a pancake batter with beer and flour only.

This is the begining of my "notes to self" about th emenu for GoED

 

 

*The Good Housewifes Jewel

Missed a day on my challenge but am still doing ok I think :)

Sharing the fun

A more mundane post but what the heck :)

This last weekend I spent the bulk of my time in the kitchen with 3 wonderful people! Shelly, Angela and Mark. Two of these people ( Shelly and Mark) I will be taking in under my wing and they will be my cooking students! Nothing formal but I will be having them assist me from begining to and on the feast and food for the Turmstadt "Arts in April" event.

This is cool and hard at the same time! I am used to doing it all myself, but this will be cool!

More GoED food

As mentioned before I was unhappy with the egg pie, I felt it was over cooked and needed more flavor. I may try and reduce the sugar and that may help also enhance the rose flavor.

The second food I was disappointed in was my Tart de Bry, It came out with a stranger texture than usual. Oh I know how that happened. Too high of heat, made the pie fluffier than usual. I enjoy it more when it has a denser texture than the light texture it had. It was closer to quiche or soufle' then what I am used to. The taste though was still delicious.

I was quite happy with the rest of the foods, when I first made the ginger bread I was worried that it had not turned out "right" but as it set the texture improved quite well.


Timing: I was unhappy with the timing this weekend, though it was not because my food was not ready, it was more that the hall was not ready. Without a hall steward it was difficult to keep time, I was "behind" on Sunday morning by 1/2 an hour but again, foods were done and could have been sered but the hall was not ready and I did not have the information I  needed to plate the foods. Once I had that info the food began to flow out of the kitchen in a relatively steady stream. :)

Garden of Earthly Delights: food

As far as events go I always like this one, I wish I could spend more time talking with people but I love cooking too. I got to do a lot of both this weekend too! I had some very cool and very interested kitchen helpers!

Menus:
Saturday lunch:
     Ham
     Turkey salami  
     Spicy beef salami
     Turkey breast
     Hard boiled eggs
     Sliced Bread
     Cheese Pie (with sour cheery and black currant jam on the side)
     Lentils

Saturday supper:
    Roast beef
    Sop of onions
    Peas with walnuts
    Barley
    Cucumber salad
Dessert:
    Elizabethan gingerbread
    Baked pears with cinnamon and sugar

Sunday Feast:
     Goose
     Rice boiled in goose broth
     Carrots and Parsnips
     Spinach fritters
     Herb Fritters with honey
     Salad
     Egg pie

     Peascods in lent
     Elizabethan biscut bread (done as waffles)

I was happy with most of the food. The dish that disappointed me was the egg pie, though I have been working on it. In this version I upped the rosewater but it still did not have the flavor I was looking for, seems it will have to be even more. I am happy with the crust though :) I did in my opinion over cook these pies and maybe that contributed to the lessening of the flavor.

I had been sick for the week leading up to it and still not at 100 percent. Sunday I crashed and my Mistress and Shelly (one of the fabulous kitchen helpers) finished the desserts for feast.

Everyone was full and seemed to enjoy everything so I would say success.
    

     

So you wanna be a cook pt 4 (bites continued)

Now with a weeded list in hand we weed some more! It would be great if we had all the time in the world to cook what we like but realistically feast is only a few hours long and not a day long or weekend long event. So it is time to look at what can be accomplished in the time we have. How much oven time is needed, how many pots can you have on a stove and how long will each dish take to stage and cook and serve.

I try to imagine if I had to make this feast ALONE, what would I need? How long would it take? Could it be done? You never know how many volunteers you will get, so if possible line them up in advance.

Don't take too big of a bite! It is OK to be ambitious, but not to the detriment of you health or the feast. One of my first feasts was a disaster! only 2/3 of the dishes got made, we had problems with the ovens, with a hand mixer that was electrocuting me, and in the middle of all of it my not quite year old son spiked a fever that almost put him in the hospital! I remember a disaster, everyone else remembers the meat! or the grey stuff! I was learning at the time and hadn't taken any of the things mentioned in my last 3 parts into consideration. I lived and learned and hopefully you won't have to repeat my mistakes. If you, it is OK, we all make mistakes!

It is better to take small bites. KISS is a great rule. Keep It Simple Stupid! Not that you or I are stupid but it gets the point across. By keeping it simple if you fall over dead, or have an accident before the event then someone else can take over and pick up the pieces. This is best accomplished with a drop dead deputy. If you have one, communication is key! Keep them in the loop with all of your planning, have them help. Write everything down! No matter how "common sense" it seems, write it down or it will get forgotten. I forgot to write down salt on my shopping list once, common sense says I need it. Shopping in my third store of the day in the cold and wet with two kids meant I forgot it. It happens to everyone so don't let it get you down.

Once you start building a time schedule you can see what will fit and what won't. Remember to allow time for things like, food, drink and the bathroom. If your schedule is too tight it will be stressful and stress isn't fun. Plan in breaks to sit down and relax, even if it is 10 minutes.

Relax, this is supposed to be fun!

So you wanna be a cook...(pt 3 , big bites, small bites)

At the end of my last post I left you with thoughts on biting off more than you can chew. This is a very important aspect of cooking.

I realize I need to take a few steps backward with you, and I may edit my first post I might note this for future teaching, but trust me at this point this is important information!

What is your kitchen facility like? How many stoves? ovens? Sinks? Counters? How large are the aforementioned items? Where are you outlets? How is the wiring? (never thought this would make a difference until it did!). How many refrigerators? Do they work? Freezers? Storage space? Do they have a coffee maker? Do they have pots? What sizes? Serving equipment? Don't forget serving spoons, forks and knives!These are all questions you should have answers to before you tackle what still lies ahead? Visit the facility if you can, take notes! Take pictures! Ask Questions!

So, are we prepared? We have our information and research has given us oodles of recipes. Now what?

Now we see what is possible! Eliminate the improbable first. It may seem like a cool idea to serve a gilded cow head when you first hear of it but think about the cost, the time and the likelihood that someone will actually eat it, maybe not such a good idea after all. Weeding your prospects down isn't easy but it is essential. Rarely is there a kitchen with enough oven space that every remove can have an oven dish, or with enough stove space for 20 pots, especially large pots.

These are the things to keep in mind as you weed down your list.

I must cut this short, real life is interfering with me :)
     I will continue tomorrow...