Recipes

Chicken and Ginger pies

(This recipe was adapted from an English cookbook, The National Trust Book of Pies, Sara Paston-Williams, 1987)

Chicken:

1- 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 carrot
1 onion
1 rib of celery
water
8 oz. can of sliced mushrooms
1 T chopped chives
1 T chopped parsley

Place chicken breasts in soup pot. Slice and add carrot, onion, celery, salt, pepper and water to cover. Poach chicken in water and vegetables until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Remove from chicken stock. Strain and save stock. Discard vegetables. Cool chicken. Cut chicken into bite size pieces. Mix chopped cooked chicken with mushrooms, parsley and chives

White sauce:

4 oz of butter
Approx. 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp ground ginger powder (or more if you like ginger)
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken stock

Melt butter over low heat; add flour and ginger, stirring rapidly to form a thick paste. Do not burn. Slowly pour in chicken stock and milk. Cook over a low heat stirring constantly until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat. Mix chicken mixture with the white sauce, allow to cool

This makes 2 pastry crusts:

2- 2/3 cups flour
1/2 pound butter
salt to taste
ice water

Blend the butter and flour together to form tiny, crumbly bits, toss in a tiny bit of salt, add enough ice water to bind the pastry together, do not over water and do not play with it. Form into a ball, let rest 30 minutes, divide dough into 2 balls, roll out bottom piecrust and fit into 9 or 10-inch pie tin.

Put cooled chicken/ white sauce filling into pie shell

Roll out second crust and place carefully on top of the pie. Seal and crimp edges. Using a pastry brush sparingly brush the top of the pie with a mixture of one egg yolk and a dollop of milk. This will make a golden glaze on the crust. At this point the pie make be wrapped, frozen and cooked at a later date.

Or bake it immediately at 425 for 10 minutes (to set the pastry)

Reduce oven temp to 350 and cook for another 20 to 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown

Renaissance Salad

One head of romaine
1/4 head of cabbage
5 - 6 green onions
1/2 lb. red grapes, seedless
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 lb. sliced or slivered almonds

Wash all vegetables and fruit (except the raisins):
Cut up romaine
Finely chop cabbage
Chop green onions
Halve grapes

Combine lettuce, cabbage, onions, grapes and golden raisins, Garnish with sliced almonds, pour dressing over top.

Dressing:

Olive oil, cider vinegar, salt, mignette pepper (this a pepper blend from the spice house Alice recommended), sugar , tarragon, oregano, parsley

Arista

(a loin of pork with garlic, rosemary and black pepper. Recipe is from Mistress Alice via The Fine Art of Italian Cooking, and IS a period recipe)

10 large cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
2 heaping tablespoons rosemary leaves, dried
1 -1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 level tablespoon good quality pepper
4 pounds boneless pork loin
10 whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Combine minced garlic with rosemary, salt and pepper

Place the loin on a cutting board, slice it lengthwise but NOT all the way through. Open it out flat and attempt to slice it lengthwise again—what you are trying to get is a rectangle of pork. Do the best you can but it will taste wonderful even if the pork is not perfectly cut.

Spread half the garlic mixture over the surface of the meat, scatter the whole peppercorns over the surface too.

Roll the loin and tie up with cooking twine or strong thread, you should have a tube of stuffed pork.

When rolled and tied make 10 or 12 slits in the outside surface of the rolled meat. Fill the slits with the remaining garlic mixture

Put the olive oil in the bottom of a roasting pan, place the meat in the pan

Place pan in pre-heated oven, allow 25 minutes to the pound. Cook the meat completely but do not let it dry out.

For the last 5-10 minutes, turn the meat over, raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees and brown the surface of the meat.

Remove from the oven, allow to sit for 10 minutes before slicing into thin slices

Arista is great hot or cold

Geta’s Mushroom Stew

(Adapted by Mistress Geta from THE ROMANIAN COOK BOOK, by Anisoara Stan, Castle, New Jersey, 1951)

2 lbs. sliced fresh mushrooms
1 lb. bacon
2 cups sour cream (one 16-oz container)
12 green onions, chopped into 1/4 slices
2 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped
2 tsp ground fennel
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
1 -1/2 cup chicken broth
2 Tbs flour

Cut bacon into small pieces and fry with the chopped green onions; reserve a few green tops for garnish. Drain off grease.

Add parsley, fennel, salt and pepper, fry a little longer

Add chicken broth, cover and simmer a little

Add the mushrooms, mix and re-cover, simmer 10 minutes

Mix flour and sour cream; slowly add to the stew, stirring constantly

Cook slowly, approximately 5 to 10 minutes, this should be a very thick stew when you are done.

Sprinkle with chopped green onion or parsley

Serves 8 at Boar’s Head or 12 normal people.

(For the vegetarian version we left out the bacon, increased the onions and mushrooms and replaced the chicken stock with vegetable stock)