Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Alexandrian Sauce

Recipe Source: Anonymous.  The Treasure of Useful Advice for the Composition of a Varied Table.  Thirteenth century AD, probably Egyptian.  Published by Lilia Zaouali in Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World, M. B. DeBevoise trans., University of California Press, Berkeley, 2007 p. 130

Just to make it clear, this recipe is for a sauce whose origins are in Alexandria, not a sauce made from Alexandrians, okay? That would be a very different website and probably would involve law enforcement in some way.

So, the main course for the big medieval feast we prepared up in Maine was roast beef with two sauces. This is not the way it was intended. I intended to serve three sauces. Unfortunately for me, I left one at home: the Alexandrian sauce. The two sauces I brought were certainly adequate and delicious, so I don't know that we needed this sauce, but I was kind of looking forward to it. I said a lot of bad words in the privacy of my tent that night.

So this recipe didn't get tasted that night, but I did sample a little of this in my kitchen before packing it up and putting it in the wrong place. This is a really simple sauce – really, really simple. I made the first version of the recipe. For the hot spices I used ground ginger and pepper. I probably could have included something else here too, but my brain was pretty fried by this point. In flavor it kind of reminded me of my husband's Lemon Sunshine Sauce. It would have been fine on roast beef, but I definitely think that this would go better on chicken or possibly even some kind of vegetable. It would probably make a decent salad dressing if you were so inclined. If you're not trying to be historically accurate, some kind of crushed red pepper would go really nicely here.

Alexandrian Sauce (makes about 1 cup; approx. $0.22/ounce)

4 ounces olive oil

8 ounces lemon juice

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon ground ginger

Equipment:

• Whisk
• Small bowl

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Whisk well to emulsify.
3. Re-whisk just before serving to ensure that the liquid and the oil have not separated.

Recipe: Plum-Honey Preserves with Scented Geranium Leaves

Recipe Source: McClure, Susan (ed.). Preserving Summer's Bounty. Rodale Press, Emmaus, 1995 p. 297

My in-laws came for a recent visit and they were bearing gifts. They brought a present for me for my birthday. They brought presents for the Fearless Baby because she's a wonderful baby. They brought a father's day present for my husband (an absolutely wonderful picture of him with our daughter.) And they brought a huge potted scented geranium. My father-in-law enjoyed the marmalades I made him for Christmas last year, and he remembered how his mother used to make jams and marmalades when he was a little boy back in Greece. One of the ingredients he remembers her using was scented geranium leaves. He happened to have a large scented geranium plant on hand and thought I might like it.

He was not mistaken. I've seen a few recipes calling for scented geranium leaves, but I've always ignored them since I didn't know where I would find a scented geranium. Now I've got one, but I couldn't wait to use it. I added a few leaves – a very few leaves – to the very next batch of preserves I made. That was this batch. I have to say that while I could have added more leaves for a more pronounced flavor, I really liked this jam. It's not too sweet and the geranium leaves really give it a slightly more unique touch.

Plum-Honey Preserves (makes 4 8-oz jars; approx. cost per serving not available)

16 plums

1 cup honey

4 scented geranium leaves

Equipment:

• Water bath canner
• 4 8-oz canning jars with lids and bands
• Canning funnel and ladle
• Large saucepan

1. Prepare your canning equipment for canning. Leave the jars, etc. at 180 ̊.
2. Working over the saucepan, pit the plums and cut them into large chunks. I realize that most home-ec teachers would tell you never to do this as it increases the risk of cutting yourself. Be careful. Don't bleed into the jam. You're working this way to collect the juices that absolutely will leak out of the plums as you cut. Don't bother peeling the plums – it's an exercise in futility and the skins make a really pretty color for the finished product.
3. Add the honey to the pot and bring to a boil over low heat, stirring frequently.
4. When the mixture looks soupy, go ahead and increase the heat to bring it to a full rolling boil. Skim off any foam that springs up.
5. Stir slowly, not vigorously, for 15 – 20 minutes. The mixture will become translucent and slightly darker, and will feel thicker when stirred.
6. Stir in the scented geranium leaves.
7. Pour into the jars, leaving ¼" headspace.
8. Seal and process 10 minutes in the boiling water canner.
9. Remove from the canner and let cool completely before labeling and storing.

Recipe: Melons with Vinegar

Recipe Source: Anthimus. On The Observance of Foods. Mark Grant, trans. Prospect Books, Devon, 1996 p. 71

Planning meals for camping can be tough. All right, it doesn't have to be. You can just eat baked beans or beef stew from a can, heated over a tiki torch, if that's what you have to do. I myself have consumed hot dogs cooked on sticks over a fire. We've been going to this one camp in Maine every summer since we started dating, and I can assure you that we don't eat that way there. (For one thing, the site doesn't allow fire pits.) The dinner has gotten a bit bigger every year and I'd say we feed between thirty and fifty people at this shindig – and it's almost all with stuff we can fit into two coolers. Other people contribute, of course, which makes it even more fun. Since we're camping with a bunch of medieval history enthusiasts, I've tried for the past couple of years to make as many of the dishes documentably medieval as I can.

Medieval food, contrary to what I certainly believed in my youth, did not consist entirely of gruel. People had taste buds then just as they have taste buds now, and a look at any of the medieval cookbooks available in translation will show you a treasure trove of delicious delicacies from centuries long gone by. The problem I have lies in finding recipes that a) can be made ahead and brought into camp, b) can be re-heated in primitive facilities, c) can tolerate life in an overstuffed cooler rather than in a proper refrigerator, and d) are interesting enough to be worth the effort. That's a little more challenging… And that's why this recipe appealed to me so much.

Anthimus was a Byzantine physician exiled to the court of the Ostrogoths in the beginning of the 6^th century AD. He was sent from there to be the ambassador to the Frankish court, which seemed (to him, at least) to be even more barbaric than the Ostrogothic court. This book, which is really just a really long letter, is intended to show the Frankish king which foods are healthy and how to prepare them (sometimes.) I've seen this described (including on the back of my copy) as the first French cookery book. I'm not sure about that – after all, the author was Greek and picked up quite a bit in Italy – but it was at least written for people who became French.

So what about this recipe appealed to me, besides it being a very early-period dish? Well, it has three ingredients. That's a good start. If I left the melons whole until I got there, it would be very easy to transport and wouldn't need refrigeration. It was colorful and it was easy. Really, it doesn't get much better than that, whether you're re-creating a medieval recipe or pulling something together for the family trip to the Adirondacks.

I'm not sure when watermelons made it up to Western Europe, but I strongly suspect that they were not the "melons" intended by Dr. Anthimus. In all honesty, I did purchase cantaloupes and Tuscan melons. Unfortunately transportation was less kind to them than I would have hoped, and some of them went spectacularly bad before the party. Someone else had brought some watermelon, and to stretch the dish out to its original proportions I added it to the mix. It did make the dish prettier, didn't it?

Melons with Vinegar (serves about 50; approx. cost per serving not available)

1 mini-watermelon, cut into chunks

3 cantaloupes, cut into chunks

½ cup white wine vinegar

½ cup water

Equipment:

• Small bowl

1. Arrange the melon chunks in an attractive way on the platter. (I had help in this from Nikki and Andrew.)
2. Combine the vinegar and water in the small bowl. Mix very well to ensure that the vinegar is well diluted.
3. Sprinkle the diluted vinegar over the melons.
4. Serve.

Recipe: Sweet and Sour Onions

Recipe Source: France, Christine. Barbecue. Anness Publishing, London, 2004 p. 179

This recipe tasted like barbeque sauce. I'm not kidding. I made it for my husband's birthday dinner, and it did make an excellent accompaniment to the ribs he finally got to make for himself. Since I wasn't able to partake of the ribs, it allowed me to get a little sample of the barbeque sauce. It was a relatively popular dish, although I suspect some of that popularity was in the mistaken assumption that this was the sauce for the ribs.

I did make a few changes. I doubled the recipe, although I left the oil quantity the same to reduce the fat. I substituted honey for sugar on a whim; I think it worked pretty well if I do say so. I also substituted sage for the parsley (personal preference) and dried dates for the raisins. Again, people really enjoyed it, so I guess it worked.

Sweet and Sour Onions (serves 12; approx. cost per serving not available)

2 pounds baby onions, peeled

½ cup red wine vinegar

3 tablespoons olive oil

6 tablespoons honey

6 tablespoons tomato paste

2 bay leaves

4 sage sprigs

2 ½ cups water

1 cup chopped dried dates

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Large saucepan

1. Combine everything in the saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer gently for 45 minutes. The onions should be tender and the sauce reduced to a thick paste.
3. Remove the bay leaves and sage from the pan.
4. Serve at room temperature. This recipe can (obviously) be made well in advance.

Recipe: Green Bean and Red Pepper Salad

Recipe Source: France, Christine and Steven Wheeler. Barbecues and Salads. Anness Publishing, London, 2002 p. 320

I made this salad for my husband's birthday dinner. This is the dinner he threw himself because it provided an excuse to make ribs. I wanted to serve side dishes that would go well with barbeque, and this one looked like a good idea. It was also pretty simple and straightforward to make. Finally, you can make it ahead of time, which was crucial for me. This dinner was given two days after returning from our trip up to Maine, where we lugged up food for about 50 and for a class I taught as well. The kitchen was an unmitigated disaster and I needed to get it clean – and all the food cooked – before people got there.

I made a few changes. I couldn't find pickled Serrano chilies so I used pickled jalapenos, which in hindsight wasn't necessarily a bad thing. We knew at least one of our guests did not deal well with spicy food. I also used butter lettuce in place of iceberg, because I detest iceberg. I also drastically reduced the amount of olive oil because my husband can't handle that much oil and this was his party.  I made up for it by adding about 5 tablespoons of the liquid that the jalapenos had been pickled in, which may have contained some oil but not a lot.  Finally, I added some oregano.  This salad went over pretty well, and the leftovers held up pretty well for an extra day.

Green Bean and Red Pepper Salad (serves about 10 as a side dish; approx. $0.81/serving)

12 ounces cooked green beans, quartered

2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped

3 tablespoons (approx.) chopped fresh oregano

2 scallions, chopped

1 can sliced canned pickled jalapenos

1 head butter lettuce, shredded

2 ounces mixed olives

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

3 tablespoons olive oil

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Large bowl
• Small bowl

1. Combine the first 6 ingredients in the large bowl.
2. Lay out your shredded lettuce on your serving platter.
3. Top with the mixture from the bowl.
4. Combine the vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper in the smaller bowl. Drizzle on top of the salad.
5. Top with the olives and serve.

Recipe: Sweet Zucchini Pickle

Recipe Source: Hoffman, Susanna. The Olive and the Caper. Workman Press, New York, 2004 pp. 72-3.

Before I planned my menu for the big camping trip up in Maine I asked for suggestions. Only one person had any requests: she said she liked my salads and my pickled salads. This, while not even vaguely resembling a medieval recipe, looked tasty and like it would travel well. I decided to include it in my meal and people really liked it. It was pretty easy to come up with, it definitely traveled well, and it provided more vegetables for people to choose from. It was a little sweet for my tastes, personally (hence the catchy name), but most people really liked it.

I didn't make a lot of changes to this recipe because there weren't a lot of changes to make. I did add a little bit of cubeb to the mix, as well as a little bit of ground coriander just to make it fit in a little better with some of the other dishes I was serving. I also had to use apple cider vinegar because I was out of white wine vinegar and at 3 AM your options are a little limited. Like I said, this went over pretty well. Be sure to make this the day before you intend to serve it. Hoffman says that it will last up to two months in the refrigerator, but you'd likely eat it well before then.

Sweet Zucchini Pickle (serves about 20; approx. $0.42/serving)

3 pounds zucchini, sliced to ¼" thick

2 onions, quartered and sliced to 1/8" thick

2 teaspoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon (approx.) fresh ground cubeb

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 tablespoon dry mustard powder

1 tablespoon mustard seeds

1 ½ teaspoons ground turmeric

½ teaspoon whole cloves

1 ½ cups brown sugar, packed

1 ½ cups apple cider vinegar

Equipment:

• Large seal-able plastic bowl
• Large saucepan
• Colander

1. Combine the onions and the zucchini slices in the colander with the salt and let stand ½ hour.
2. Combine the cubeb, coriander, mustard powder, mustard seeds, turmeric, cloves, sugar and vinegar in the saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat, then remove from heat.
3. Add the zucchini and onions to the pot and set aside to cool.
4. Transfer to the sealable bowl. Cover and seal.
5. Refrigerate at least overnight before serving.

Recipe: Texas Caviar

Recipe Source: Robertson, Robin. Vegan Fire & Spice. Vegan Heritage Press, Woodstock, 2008 p. 5

Okay, I will be the first to admit that this stuff looks a little like cat food. Or maybe a lot like cat food. If you spread it on a cracker and eat it, you will forget all about that, because this is a really tasty treat. I made it for our Fourth of July party and it was pretty universally declared a winner. No one cared that it was vegan, although I guess most people wouldn't care much if a dip is vegan. The funny thing is that I was in my local large box warehouse store recently – you know, where they have the samples – and they were offering samples of what they were calling "cowboy caviar." I like mine better.

I made a couple of changes to the recipe. I increased the garlic, as usual, and I increased the vinegar as well. I played around a little with the proportions of some of the spices and increased the cumin significantly. (Cumin is one of my favorite flavors.) While I thought that I had canned chipotles lurking in the recesses of my cabinets, what I actually had was canned chipotle sauce. I threw half of the can in, using the rest for scrambled eggs another day.

Texas Caviar (makes about 28 oz; approx. $0.15/oz)

3 cups cooked black-eyed peas

¼ cup minced onion

6 garlic cloves, crushed

½ can chipotle sauce

2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

½ teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Equipment:

• Food processor

1. Combine all ingredients in the food processor and process to a paste.
2. Let sit at least 1 hour.
3. Serve at room temperature.

Recipe: Yogurt and Cayenne Dip (Acili Esme)

Recipe Source: Wright, Clifford A. Little Foods of the Mediterranean. Harvard Common Press, Boston, 2003 pp. 56-7

I served this dip at our Fourth of July party and I have got to tell you that I have rarely seen such an easy dish to make. Seriously – it just doesn't get any easier than this. You might be thinking, "Oh, cayenne. I can't serve that to guests, their mouths will catch fire, my drapes will ignite, there goes the house." Well, that's not the case. The yogurt really mitigates the heat of the cayenne, leaving only flavor behind. Even my most capsaicin-challenged guests were able to eat this. It was probably the most popular dip I served that day, much to my surprise.

I did make a few changes. I used all Greek yogurt instead of a mix of regular and strained. I omitted the dill and the olive oil. I also served it with crackers and carrots instead of with French bread. The scallions went into the dip instead of as a garnish. And as usual I increased the garlic. Again, this was much, much more popular than the other dips I served that day.

Yogurt and Cayenne Dip (Açili Esme) (Makes about 8 servings; approx. cost per serving not available)

2 teaspoons kosher salt

12 garlic cloves

2 ¼ cups fat-free Greek yogurt

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 scallions, sliced

Equipment:

• Mini-prep mini food processor
• Bowl

1. Combine the garlic and salt in the mini-prep and process to a coarse paste.
2. Scrape the contents of the mini-prep into a bowl and combine thoroughly with the remaining ingredients. Serve.

Recipe: Uncooked Khabis

Recipe Source: al-Warrāq, Ibn Sayyār. Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens. Nawal Nasrallah, trans. Brill, Leiden, 2007 p. 391

This was another dessert that I made for that gathering of medieval enthusiasts up in Maine in July. I was a little leery of using coconut here. I'm not usually a big fan of coconut, but I'm getting better about that thanks to the cuisine of southern India. (Coconut doesn't have to be unpleasant and overpowering, and I'm learning to accept that.) I left it in because it's a redaction of a medieval recipe, and I have to say that I'm glad I did. It definitely added something to the dish and was in no way overpowering. I will admit that I used grated coconut from the store rather than grating my own coconut; I do not own a coconut grater, I have no desire to own a coconut grater, and don't think that I use enough coconut to make purchasing a coconut grater worthwhile. I didn't have time to skin the almonds, which certainly affects the color of the finished dish. I did color the almonds for the decoration called for in the recipe, using the official colors of our local group. The yellow didn't show up so great in the dim light I served under and the blue looked kind of black, but I knew it was there. This went over very well, and I have to say that anything that kept me from heating up my kitchen that week was most welcome!

Uncooked Khabīs (serves about 45; approx. $0.59/serving)

1 pound almonds

8 ounces grated coconut (unsweetened, of course)

3 pounds sugar

1 ½ grams saffron

1 cup almond oil

Yellow and blue food coloring

45 whole almonds

Equipment:

• Food processor
• Large bowl
• 2 small bowls
• Long roasting pan or tray

1. Divide the 45 almonds roughly in half between the two small bowls.
2. Soak one bowl of almonds in blue food coloring and one in yellow while you continue the recipe, or even longer.
3. Combine the almonds, coconut and saffron in the food processor and process until very fine.
4. Set aside ¼ pound of sugar. Pour the rest into a large bowl with the almond-coconut mixture.
5. Mix very well.
6. Add the almond oil and keep mixing. Mix until everything is "moist enough to gather in one mass." This will take a long time, and I did wind up adding a little more almond oil, but it will come out right in the end.
7. Spread the mixture evenly into the long tray and sprinkle with the reserved ¼ pound sugar.
8. Space the almonds in alternating colors evenly across the surface of the tray.
9. Serve.

Recipe: Medieval Baba Ghannouj

Recipe Source: Recipe Source: Anonymous.  The Treasure of Useful Advice for the Composition of a Varied Table.  Thirteenth century AD, probably Egyptian.  Published by Lilia Zaouali in Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World, M. B. DeBevoise trans., University of California Press, Berkeley, 2007 p. 66.

Okay, calling this "baba ghannouj" is probably a bit of a misnomer, because it's kind of different from a modern baba ghannouj. I think it's something to do with the sourness. I'm usually not the biggest fan of baba ghannouj, but this I liked. I made it to test a recipe before my class on bawārid, although I didn't wind up including this dip in the discussion that day. I did however serve it for our Fourth of July party, and no one realized that this was a medieval recipe.

As is usually the case with my medieval recipe redactions, I did not make many changes. (More garlic would have been welcome to my modern palate, but I digress.) I did have to make one change out of necessity. The original called for "sesame oil and oil of good quality." I had run out of regular sesame oil, and toasted sesame oil would have been all wrong. I decided to stick with all olive oil for this.

Medieval Baba Ghannouj (Makes about 16 ounces; approx. $0.28/ounce.)

1 large eggplant, cut into small pieces

3 small onions, peeled but left whole

½ cup olive oil

¼ cup water

1 garlic clove, crushed

¾ cup Greek yogurt (I used fat-free because that's what I have on hand, but full-fat would be more authentic)

About ¼ bunch parsley, finely chopped

1 pinch kosher salt

Equipment:

• Deep saucepan
• Immersion blender

1. Combine the onions, eggplant, olive oil, salt and water in the saucepan.
2. Cook over low heat until the eggplant is tender and cooked. You may need to add a little more water here and there; the measurement above is intended as more of a starting point since the original said "a little water."
3. Add the remaining ingredients and remove from heat.
4. Use the immersion blender to thoroughly puree the mixture.
5. Chill thoroughly before serving.