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Peasen First, in your stewing pan, cast a quantity of salted pork, minced, and cook it upon a hot fire until it is brown upon the outsides. Then take a quantity of pease that have been shelled and split and set upon screens to dry and cast them into a stock of vegetables enough to cover the peasen, and let them stew upon a moderate fire until the pease and the pork are tender and can be stirred to the consistency of a stiff pudding. And if it pleases you, so also cast onions or leeks into the pot at the beginning, but if it be Lent, then do not cook the pease with the pork but instead add a stronger vegetable stock and salt until it pleases the tongue and when it is done enough then put it into a bowl while still hot and serve it forth. A simple food, very tasty, much like a pea soup. This recipe makes an excellent protein for vegan feasters simply by removing the salt pork. Make your own vegetable stock with root vegetables and herbs, or buy canned vegetable stock. Both are quite good, but you'll have greater opportunity to experiment if you make your own stock. If you remember the children's rhyme, "Pease Porridge," then you'll remember the suggestion that "some like it cold." I do; I find that a cold dish of peasen with a bit of bread and beer makes a nice cool lunch at a sunny camping event, but it's not for everyone. A little mint mixed into the peasen --either the fresh herb while cooking or a bit of mint tea blended in while cold--makes a nice variation. A Stew of Lentils Gather good lentils that have been dried from your stores and see that they are cleaned that no stones or unclean lentils be among them and place them in a pot that can stand in the fire. And over these lentils you shall pour a quantity of broth to cover them, be it broth of beef or vegetables, for at Lent we keep the fast. And when the lentils are covered so that there is a finger or more of broth above their tops, cut into them a quantity of carrots, good and clean, but if you have none but those that are old and tough, though they do not flavor so well, still add them, and be minded to add more good broth to make up for the dryness of the older carrots. And if you will, so also add an onion, skinned and cut well, and if it pleases you, a parsnip will do instead of a carrot, but it flavors not so well. And upon putting all into the pot, place it into a hot part of the fire until the broth does boil, then move it to a place where the heat is gentle and watch over it, taking care to stir. And if it pleases you to add more herbs, garlic or lovage or pepper go well herein. And when all the carrots are tender and the lentils have burst out of their skins and soaked up all the broth, so the dish is done. Take it from the heat and stir into it a small quantity of salt, to season it well without toughening the lentils too soon, and so place it into a dish and mess it forth. The stronger flavor of brown lentils does well with beef broth. Make your own stock, or used canned, but try to avoid "bullion". Too salty, toughens the beans if not used carefully. Lovage is an old world herb that you likely won't find in the store. It is very like a peppery celery, and I grow it in my garden. Substitute celery with freshly ground pepper. I like to cook this to the point where the lentils can be mashed with a spoon, rather like mashed potatoes. Parsnips are delicious, but carrots more pleasing to the eye. Cicers well seethed Take a quantity of cicers and soak them overnight in clear water, that they be as plump and soft as when pulled from the vine. And you shall cast these cicers with half as much lentils into a good stewing pot and cover them with broth enow to cover them and set them upon the fire. Take care that the pot boil not, but instead gently simmer, and keep a quantity of broth nearby to replenish that which shall boil away. And also chop and cast into the pot three or four good parsnips and a bunch of celery, and when all is tender, then serve it forth. Cicer, in the 21st century, is better known as chick pea. This was an off the cuff recipe I made for a feast as a vegan alternative, and so it was made with vegetable stock. All ingredients were known and consumed prior to 1601, but I didn't research it farther than that. Later research would reveal that celery, while used earlier for medicinal purposes, didn't really start to appear on the European table as a flavoring herb until the 16th century, and the succulent stalks we know don't start to appear until the 18th c. Again, lovage makes a very good substitute, and while its stalks are possibly more like period celery than the modern plant, the fresh leaves are marvelous flavoring agents and the seeds were used in period as a spice, per Gerard's Herbal. Questions, comments, suggestions, thoughts? I welcome correspondence at merouda (at) hotmail (dot) com. Use your back button, or {Elyse Boucher} {Arts and Sciences Top} {A&S Heraldry} {Poopie the Pirate} {Help Support This Site} (old link bar, some still active): {Elise Boucher} {Sept Pendray} {Merouda Pendray}
This document created April 11,
2005 |
