¿Que Cocina?

Kitchen Sink area and Dining Room Both of you, who have been following this blog may have wondered about the pause in the updates.  After the beginning of the year, we got busy with various issues, but coming up to April, things settled down enough to begin refocusing on cooking.  However, that came crashing down March 30.   That morning, I woke up and took my shower.  When I got out, Peg asked me if the water was warm.  I responded, "Meh, luke warm."  She got up and headed into the Living Room.  "Oh, No!!"  A river was flowing down the hallway.  I quickly throw on some clothes, rush outside, and turn off the water to the house. I come back inside and we found that the Hot Water Heater busted and flooded Peg's Crap (Craft) Room.   View of the Kitchen and Dinette taken from the Living Room We quickly moved as much of her stuff out of the room and called the insurance.  The Mitigators came in and started drying out.  We...

Original: Si vols fer limonea áb brou de galliiies, fets let de nietles pelades e mit la a coure en uiia bella olla ah species moltes, gingibre e saffra e molt sucre blanch e such de gallines, e fe la molt bollir. E si hi vals metra millor comollat, pots hi metra una ala de gallina be fortmeiit picada que no y parega. Aquesta salsa deu esser acolorada e deii se donar ab gallines d ast ho de olla, e deu hi haver molt sucre e such de limons, eii guisa que la uiia tir 1 altra, e assabora ho de ." sal e de agror e de dolcor. [El Llibre de Sent Sovi, LXI, Ed. Luis Faraudo de Saint-Germain, c.1325, 1952] Translation: If you want to make lemon sauce, make almond milk of peeled almonds with chicken broth.  Cook it in a good pot with ground spices, ginger and saffron, and a lot of white sugar and lemon juice.  And let it boil a lot.  If you want to put in a better ground substance, you can put in a chicken wing that is well minced, strongly enough so that it is not noticeable....

Original: Broiez gingembre et poivre ront, pain brulé, deffait de verjus et de vi aigre. [The Viandier of Taillevent, edited by Terence Scully] Translation: Crush ginger, burnt bread and pepper, steep in vinegar and verjuice, and boil. [Le Viandier de Taillevent, 165, Vatican Library Manuscript, 208, Trans: James Prescott] Ingredients: Red Wine Vinegar Verjuice Ginger Pepper Bread Redaction: Toast bread until blackened.  Steep Bread in Red Wine Vinegar and grind bread into Vinegar.  Grind Ginger and Pepper and add to Vinegar.  Boil to reduce and strain. Notes:    I do not have Verjuice onhand.  Other varients of this recipe do not include Verjuice so I omitted it.  I used pre-ground Pepper and Ginger and Herr Oster to mix with the Vinegar and Bread.  After boiling, the sauce needed straining.  I believe that this step would have been assumed as necessary.  I used this sauce as a reference when I made Salsa de Cervo fro El Llibre de Sent ...

Original: Take a Pumpion, pare it, and cut it in thin slices, dip it in beaten Eggs and Herbs shred small, and fry it till it be enough, then lay it into a Pie with Butter, Raisins, Currans, Sugar and Sack, and in the bottom some sharp Apples; when it is baked, butter it and serve it in. [The Queene-like Closet, 131, Hannah Wolley] Ingredients: Pumpkin (Sugar/Pie) Eggs Herbs (Fresh Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley) Butter Raisins Currants Sugar Sack (Sherry) Apples Pie Crust Redaction: Take a Sugar Pumpkin, peel the rind and remove the seeds and stringy interior.  Cut Pumpkin into slices about ¼ inch thick.  Core and cut Apples into ¼ inch wide slices.  Make a Pie Crust and place it into a pie plate.  Put a single layer of Apple Slices in the Pie Crust.  Beat Eggs in a bowl and add the Herbs to the Eggs.  Heat up frying pan and add Butter.  Dip Pumpkin Slices lightly into Eggs and fry until soft.  Remove Pumpkin Slices to a bowl and mix in Butter, Raisins...

Original: Take fayre broun brede, toste hit, and stepe it in vinegre, and drawe it thurwe a straynour; and put ther-to garleke smal y-stampyd, poudre piper, salt, and serue forth. [Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books, Ashmole MS. 1439, Edited by Thomas Astin] Translation: Take fair brown bread, toast it, and steep it in vinegar, and draw it through a strainer, and put there to garlic small and crushed, powder pepper, salt, and serve forth. Ingredients: Bread (Toasted) Vinegar Garlic Pepper Salt Redaction: Toast Bread and soak in Vinegar. Mix together and strain out any large bits.  Grind Garlic and add to Vinegar.  Add Salt and Pepper.  Add Vinegar to desired thickness. Notes:   This is a nice sauce that goes well with Red or White Meat.  This is a fairly easy recipe.  I put Herr Oster to work on it and it came together in minutes. Bibliography: Austin, Thomas. Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books. Harleian MS. 279 & Harl. MS. 4016, with extracts fr...

Original: Tome uma galinha crua e faça-a em pedaços. Em seguida prepara-se um refogado com duas colheres de manteiga e uma pequena fatia de toucinho. Deita-se dentro a galinha e deixa-a corar. Cubra-se a galinha com água suficiente para cozê-la, pois não se há de deitar-lhe outra. Estando a galinha quase cozida, tome-se cebola verde, salsa, coentro e hortelã, pica-se tudo bem miudinho e deita-se na panela, com um pouco de caldo de limão. Acabe de cozinhar a galinha muito bem. Tome então fatias de pão e disponha-as no fundo de uma terrina, e derrame sobre elas a galinha.Cubra com gemas escalfadas e polvilhe com canela. [Um tratado da cozinha portuguesa do século XV / A Treatise of Portuguese Cuisine from the 15th Century, translated by Baroness Faerisa Gwynarden] Translation: Take a raw chicken and cut it into pieces. Then prepare a saute with 2 spoons of butter and a small slice of or bacon. Add the chicken and let brown. Cover the chicken with enough water to cook it, for you will not...

Original: Si vols fer porriol preii ceba tallada e ab sal cogua en aygua freda e escurri la moltes vealdes, e fes !a hi poch bullir ab greis de porch e piiys nlit lii ritiagre e pebre e sal e aygua, e no sia massa forts, e mit hi tots los quarters entregues [El Libre de Sent Sovi, LXI, Ed. Luis Faraudo de Saint-Germain, c.1325, 1952] Translation: If you want to make onion sauce, take chopped onion, and cook with salt in cold water.  Rinse it many times, and boil it a little while with pork fat.  Then put in vinegar, pepper, salt, and water; they shouldn’t be too strong.  And put in all the quarters [of the birds] whole. [El Llibre de Sent Sovi/The Book of Sent Sovi, LXI, c1325, Trans: Robin Vogelzang, 2008] Ingredients: Onion Salt Pork Fat (Lard/Grease) Vinegar Pepper Water Redaction: Chop small or dice Onion.  Place Onion in pan with cold Water with Salt.  Bring Onion to a boil.  Rinse Onion and place back into pan.  Add Lard/Pork Grease and fry Onion...