Vegetable Beef Soup with Barley

VEGETABLE BEEF SOUP WITH BARLEY

2 or 3 1-inch thick beef shank sections (1.5 to 2 lbs)
2 small cans mushrooms
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
6-8 cups vegetable broth/stock
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
1/4 cup pearl barley
1/2 cup tomato puree
tarragon, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper to taste


Trim the meat from the bones, and then cut it into small cubes. Brown it in a large skillet or in the bottom of a dutch oven. Add onions and mushrooms and sauté until onions are starting to toast. Add 6 cups stock. Add mixed vegetables, tomato puree and seasonings.
Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally; reduce heat and simmer for an hour, adding water as necessary to have enough stock. Add barley, simmer for another hour.
Hint: adding the barley about an hour before the finish keeps it from becoming too mushy.

Roast Duck with Orange Sauce

ROAST DUCK WITH ORANGE SAUCE

1 (4-5 lb.) duck,
1 orange, sliced into quarters
Salt, pepper & poultry seasoning

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash duck in cold water and remove excess fat. Season the inside cavity and the outside of duck with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Place orange quarters inside duck and place in a shallow roasting pan. Cook in hot oven for 30 minutes, then remove duck from oven and prick breast with heavy tine kitchen fork to drain grease.
Turn oven down to 300 degrees and return duck to oven for 1 hour or 1 hour and 15 minutes until tender.

ORANGE SAUCE:

1/2 c. sugar
1 tbsp. wine vinegar
Juice of 2 oranges
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. thyme leaves
Salt & pepper to taste
1/2 c. Grand Marnier
Grated rind of 1 orange

In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar and wine vinegar. Cook the mixture over a medium flame until sugar melts and begins to caramelize.
Add the juice of 2 oranges, Grand Marnier and grated orange rind. Stir well and cook for five minutes.
Add 1/4 cup orange peel cut into julienne strips, cooked in a little water for five minutes and drained.
Correct the seasonings to taste and pour over the duckling on a serving platter.

Roast Pork with Sauces

PORK ROAST

Place the roast on a rack in a shallow baking dish.  Rub with sea salt, sprinkle with herbs, if desired.  Bake at 325 until the internal temperature reaches 160 on a meat thermometer

Current Sauce (for roast)

2 cups currents
2 cups red wine
1 tbs sugar
1/8 tsp ground cloves
2/3 cup broth
Soak the currents in wine for 3 hours;  Combine all ingredients in a porcelain pot  and simmer for 10 minutes. Continue simmering to reduce sauce, if a thicker consistency is desired.  Serve warm over meat.

Mustard Sauce

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground mustard

1/3 cup water

1/3 cup vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup mayonnaise

In a saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour and mustard until smooth. Add water, vinegar and sugar; mix well. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Remove from the heat; add mayonnaise and mix well.

Spicy Whitefish

SPICY WHITEFISH

24 ounces whitefish or other mild fish
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons fresh ginger finely chopped or 2 teaspoon ground ginger
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped, about 1 Tbsp
3 green onion chopped, green and white parts
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon Paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, adjust to taste
Combine lemon juice, soy sauce, vegetable oil, ginger, garlic, green onions, minced onion, paprika and cayenne pepper and stir to mix well.

Place fish in a zipper seal bag and pour liquid mixture over it. Seal and marinate in the refrigerate for about 1 to 2 hours.

Oil grill grate or fish basket really well and preheat grill to medium high. Grill fish for 4 minutes on each side. Flip the fish only once and brush with reserved marinade when flipped.

NOTE: Fish is completely cooked when the color turns from translucent to opaque (white) or has reached a 150 degree F internal temperature. Resist the temptation to over-cook fish until it "flakes," which indicates the fish is becoming dry.

Rye Bread and Spreads

RYE BREAD
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons butter
3 1/4 cups rye flour
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons seeds (caraway, sesame, poppy, ect) optional

Dissolve yeast in warm water.

In a large bowl combine milk, sugar, and salt. Use a mixer to beat in molasses, butter, yeast mixture, and 1 cup of rye flour.

Use a wooden spoon to mix in the remaining rye flour. Add white flour by stirring until the dough is stiff enough to knead.

Knead 5 to 10 minutes, adding flour as needed. If the dough sticks to your hands or the board add more flour.

Cover dough and let rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until double.

Punch down dough and divide to form two round loaves. Let loaves rise on a greased baking sheet until double, about 1 1/2 hours.

Optional: brush with milk and sprinkle with seeds.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Soft Cheese Spread

8oz Small Curd Cottage Cheese
8oz Cream Cheese, softened
1 tablespoon White Wine Vinegar
1 teaspoon Rose Water
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Cream the cheeses until smooth.  Mix in remaining ingredients.

Cover and chill for at least an hour before serving.

Honey Butter

½ cup butter
2 tablespoons honey

Cream the butter.  Mix in honey.  Serve at room temperature.

Onion Relish

2 sweet onions
2 leeks
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
½ cup cider vinegar
½ cup water
¼ cup honey

Finely chop the onions and leeks.  Mix together with the mustard

Mix vinegar, water and honey.  Add to onions and refrigerate several hours before serving.  

Feasts of Ice and Fire: Feast to Welcome King Robert to the North

Before joining the SCA, I came across a series of books by George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire.  George is an amazing writer and I fell in love with the books.  One of the truly great things about the books, and I am know I am not alone in thinking this, is his descriptions of the feasts.  They leave me hungry and make my mouth water no matter how many times I read them.

Reading a discussion board devoted largely to GRRM and ASoIaF, a woman started a discussion about ASOIAF Dinner Party.  The first thing that popped into my mind was recreating some of the dishes from the books.  This wasn’t what the author of the topic had in mind, but the idea stuck with me.

With the help of a few others, I went through the books finding descriptions of the feasts, used those ideas and have expanded upon them using knowledge of historical food preparations and feasts.  Using primarily traditional recipes from medieval and renaissance Europe and the Mid-East and some that were fully created by myself based on the descriptions from the books.

The first feast in the books is to welcome King Robert to the North and is shown to us through the eyes of fourteen year old Jon.  The description tells us the feast has already lasted four hours; the hall is smoky and filled with the smells of fresh baked bread and roasted meats.  Only two items are mentioned, honeyed chicken and roasted onions dripping in brown gravy.

We know that breads and roasted meats are also served, and this would fit with a typical medieval feast, so I have filled in the rest of the feast using information from a later feast held at Winterfell as my guide.



1st Course

Rye Bread
Soft Cheese Spread
Honey Butter
Onion Relish
Spicy White Fish
Vegetable Beef Soup


2nd Course

Wild Boar (a pork roast)
Current  Wine Sauce
Mustard sauce
Roast Duck with Orange Sauce
Tarragon Lemon Salmon Fillets
Armored Turnips


3rd Course

Onion Tart
Baked Sole stuffed with Crab
Roast Prime Ribs

Honeyed Carrots


4th Course

Roast Beef with Mushrooms in Wine Sauce
Honeyed Chicken
Roasted Onion with brown gravy



5th Course (dessert)

Lemon Cake
Spiced Loaf
Baked pears

Why Medieval Food?

Twelve years ago I found the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) and a new love.  Two things drew me in: costuming and cooking.  I love the clothes and food.  While my sewing skills are "ok" and I manage some decent garb, it was food and cooking/creating it that became my passion.

The foods are amazing and flavorful, not at all what I expected.  I have limited my interests to Europe and the Mideast, but still am surprised by the variety of foods and flavors.

There are plenty of books with medieval recipes, with varying degrees of accuracy, what I really love is redacting the original* recipes myself.  It's a funny thing that 5 people can read the same recipe and come up with 5 very different dishes. This amazes and inspires me to create dishes as well redact medieval ones.

Creating is a lot harder than redacting.  You have to be aware of the cooking methods used in the time and location you are trying to recreate, as welll as which foods were available. "Food" by Waverly Root is an excellent resource.

Resources used (and how annotated):

The Forme of Cury, A Roll Of Ancient English Cookery, Compiled, about A.D. 1390, by the Master-Cooks of King Richard II, Presented afterwards to Queen Elizabeth, by Edward Lord Stafford, and now in the Possession of Gustavus Brander, Esq. Illustrated with Notes, And a copious Index, or Glossary.  (14th c. cookery)