This
first attempt to go medieval is an English mushroom broth from the
14th Century. It is described in the Forme of Cury (”Forms of
cooking”), a medieval English cookery book compiled about 1390
written by the Master Cooks of King Richard II and edited by Samuel
Pegge in 1791. It contains about 205 recipes, most of them not
vegetarian.
I
chose a simple sounding recipe ”Funges” (mushrooms) and tried to
modernise it slightly but still stick to the medieval guidelines, and
of course mushrooms always sound tempting to The VegHog.
Here's
the original recipe:
”Funges.
X.
Take
Funges and pare hem clere and dyce hem. take leke and shred him smal
and do him to seeþ in gode broth. color yt with safron and do þer
inne pouder fort.”
[Source:
Forme of Cury; S. Pegge (ed.); Funges. X.]
This
is late Middle English and means something like peel and dice the
mushrooms. Shred leek small and cook it in a broth. Colour it with
saffron and add the spices.
Powder
fort is a medieval spice combination and its contents vary. I tried
to create my own spicy powder fort.
Here
are my ingredients:
1
cup dried funnel chanterelles
2
Small leeks
2
cups vegetable stock
Pinch
of saffron threads
Pinch
of grated nutmeg
1
tsp Chili flakes
1
tsp Sage
2
Bay leaves
This
is what I did:
I
thought that dried funnel chanterelles gathered in the Finnish
forests would have the right rustic feel for this dish. Buying
perfect supermarket mushrooms wouldn't have felt right for a medieval
dish. So I crushed those mushrooms a little bit smaller and didn't
soak them in beforehand this time. Then I just chopped the leeks into
small slices.
I
brought vegetable stock to the boil and added the mushrooms, leeks and the bay leaves. I'm assuming a medieval cook would have used a meaty stock but
of course I used vegetable stock.
I
let it all simmer until the leeks became translucent. I added the
saffron and my secret powder fort (chili flakes, nutmeg, sage) and
let it simmer for a while longer. I removed the bay leaves before
serving and then the dish was ready to be served.
I
found this dish to be very good indeed, it was spicy and it caught my
imagination while cooking. It's a perfect winter broth or a good
starter. A rustic self-made bread would be a good companion for it,
maybe even The VegHog's seedy spelt flatbread.
Pair
it with a nice dry cider or perhaps some mead and enjoy!
Your
VegHog
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Thanks for reading! I would very much appreciate any comments or suggestions from you.