Food History

These are the recipes that were used for the feast at Conflux (Canberra SF convention) in 2006. The most-loved one by far was the hypocras, but everything except frumenty garnered many good comments. There’s no frumenty recipe here (if people didn’t love it, why include it?) and I’ve left off the feast trimmings. This, then, is the essential core of the feast. (And I did blog it on my other blog, way back when, but I’m repeating myself because people are interested and looking for things Medieval.)

Spiced mushrooms
500 g mushrooms (Swiss brown are ideal), 1 small onion, olive oil, 1 pinch ground pepper, 1 pinch powdered ginger, 1 pinch well-ground nutmeg, 2 pinches ground coriander
Peel and wash mushrooms. Cut into pieces. Boil for 10 minutes.
Cut onion finely, then fry it in olive oil. Add the mushrooms and have the flame on high for a short time. Add salt and spices, lower heat and cook covered for 15 minutes. Stir from time to time. Serve when golden.

Fenkel in soppes
1 bunch fennel, 2 med onions (chopped very fine), between 2-4 cups water depending on taste, ½ cup olive oil, pinch ginger, pinch pepper, salt to taste, toasted bread (one slice per person)
Shred the bulb part of the fennel. Heat oil, and add onion and fennel. Stir over a low heat until they are wilted (but not brown). Add water, seasoning and bring to a boil. Simmer until fennel is tender.
Served by the hotel in bowls (as a liquid) with bread cubes.

Fried beans
1 kg fava beans (most other varieties NOT correct), 2 onions (minced or diced very finely), 2 cloves garlic (minced), olive oil
If you are using fresh beans, then cook till tender before adding the onions. If you are using tinned beans, then bring to the boil before adding onion. Cook onions with the beans for 3 minutes. Drain well. Saute beans, onions and garlic in olive oil, for c 5 minutes.

Roast beef with garlic/pepper sauce
Beef preferably spit roasted.
Sauce: 2 slices wholemeal bread (remove crusts, toast, then crumble into bowl or blender). 2 tbs wine vinegar, 1 cup wine, 3 cloves crushed garlic, ½ tsp ground pepper, ¼ tsp salt.
Let toasted breadcrumbs soak in vinegar for 5 mins, then blend the two ingredients. Add wine. Add other ingredients and boil until it thickens slightly (but stir it throughout).

Chicken with orange sauce
Roast chickens, cut into serving pieces, and simmer 15 mins in the sauce below.
Sauce: 2 sliced oranges (leave skin on), 1 cup white wine, juice of 1 lemon (unless you can get Seville oranges, in which case just add extra orange juice), ¼ tsp ginger, salt to taste.

Hypocras (spiced wine)
1 litre of good red wine or of dry white, 150 g icing sugar (not icing mixture),1 ½ tsp cinnamon, 1 ½ tsp ginger, small piece fresh galingale
Grind spices together. Add sugar and spices to wine. Mix well and let sit for two hours. Filter wine very thoroughly (preferably twice, using a double thickness of filter paper or fine material) until it is quite clear. Keep somewhere cool for at least a day or two before drinking.

Daryols
Pastry tart shells (one per serve - the hotel served very tiny ones, which were very cute), 10 egg yolks or five eggs, c. 1/2 cup sugar (to taste), 2 generous cups light cream, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, pinch ground saffron.
Beat eggs and sugar together then beat in cream, cinnamon and saffron. Stir over low heat until it begins to thicken. Pour into pastry shells. Bake at 400 degrees for c 20 minutes.

Pomesmoille
450 g cooking apples (no modern variety of apple is correct: Granny Smiths are closest I have found of the main Australian varieties), 70-140 g ground almonds, 2 cups milk, up to 1/2 cup sugar (amount of sugar depends on how sweet apples are), 1/4 cup rice flour, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp ginger, pinch each of ground cloves, salt, nutmeg.
Make an almond milk with milk. Mix sugar, rice flour and almond milk in saucepan. Stir in apples and bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir until quite thick. Combine a spoon of pudding with all seasonings except nutmeg, then stir mixture into rest of pudding. Pour into serving dish. Sprinkle nutmeg on top and chill. The hotel cut the apples coarsely - I prefer them cut fine. Have some of this and a bit of hypocras and your taste buds will swoon.