Roman cooking and a dream
Feb. 8th, 2002 10:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quislibetBut not in that order.
The dream: I was in a high school musical based on a Tarantino movie. The music was written by Christopher Walken and had a "Beach Boys" vibe to it. During rehearsals we were all really worried because Turkish athletes at the Olympics had accidentally brought a disease with them that made people spontaneously combust, and cases had been reported at the state line. They told us on the news that we had to watch our vacuum cleaners; when they turned red then the virus was present. Unfortunately, my vacuum cleaner is already red (as it is in real life). Shenanigans ensue.
Oh, I was able to fly, too. You know what they say about that.
Problem was, I couldn't land very well.
Roman cooking: last night J. and I tried out three recipes from Apicius, using _A Taste of Ancient Rome_ by I. Giacosa as a guide.
Date Sauce for Scaloppine (Apicius 282)
Ius in copadiis: Piper, apii semen, careum, satureiam, cneci flos, cepullam, amigdala tosta, careotam, liquamen, oleum, sinapis modicum. Defrito coloras.
Sauce for scaloppine: Pepper, celery seeds, caraway, savory, safflower, onion, roasted almonds, dates, garum [a fish sauce], oil, and a bit of mustard. Add color with reduced must.
[Note that the word for "almonds" reminds one of the Queen of Naboo. And yes, "semen" just means "seed." Get over it.]
Taking Giacosa's adaptation, and with last-minute substitutions based on our pantry we did this:
6 pitted dates, finely chopped
1 oz roasted almonds, likewise
2 small red onions, also chopped
pinch each of pepper, fennel seeds (for the caraway), thyme and tarragon (for the savory), Mexican saffron (for the safflower)
1/2 Tbs. Vietnamese fish sauce
1/2 tsp. mild mustard
equal parts red wine and fruit juice reduced to 1/2 cup
1/2 Tbs. olive oil
Mix it all together. Serve on veal, chicken breast, pork chops, whatever. Go nuts. Very good sweet/sour thing -- reminiscent of chimmichurri sauce. This was based on a half recipe for Giacosa's "serves four," but we found that with a cutlet each we still had at least as much sauce left over as we used.
We had it with a bulgur porridge and pumpkin Alexandrine style. I won't retype that recipe as it didn't turn out so well -- too much sauce, and too salty; to get a vague idea look at this, except I don't know where the hell he got ginger, though it might have been tastier; the recipe calls for "laser root" [zap], aka silphium, which most scholars say is similar to asafoetida. Giacosa substitutes garlic, but we could get powdered asafoetida and so we used it. Not surprisingly, it gave an "Indian food" quality to the dish. -- Also, there's some controversy about whether "cucurbitae" should be a summer or winter squash. We used pumpkin because we had it and it sounded tastier than zucchini.
After dinner we watched a Britcom sex farce called "Coupling" on WGBH 44 that we've grown fond of. You'll just have to take my word for it, as attempts to describe it make it sound really lame.
I was going to submit to the LJ meme of the moment, but my 15 things will have to come later.
The dream: I was in a high school musical based on a Tarantino movie. The music was written by Christopher Walken and had a "Beach Boys" vibe to it. During rehearsals we were all really worried because Turkish athletes at the Olympics had accidentally brought a disease with them that made people spontaneously combust, and cases had been reported at the state line. They told us on the news that we had to watch our vacuum cleaners; when they turned red then the virus was present. Unfortunately, my vacuum cleaner is already red (as it is in real life). Shenanigans ensue.
Oh, I was able to fly, too. You know what they say about that.
Problem was, I couldn't land very well.
Roman cooking: last night J. and I tried out three recipes from Apicius, using _A Taste of Ancient Rome_ by I. Giacosa as a guide.
Date Sauce for Scaloppine (Apicius 282)
Ius in copadiis: Piper, apii semen, careum, satureiam, cneci flos, cepullam, amigdala tosta, careotam, liquamen, oleum, sinapis modicum. Defrito coloras.
Sauce for scaloppine: Pepper, celery seeds, caraway, savory, safflower, onion, roasted almonds, dates, garum [a fish sauce], oil, and a bit of mustard. Add color with reduced must.
[Note that the word for "almonds" reminds one of the Queen of Naboo. And yes, "semen" just means "seed." Get over it.]
Taking Giacosa's adaptation, and with last-minute substitutions based on our pantry we did this:
6 pitted dates, finely chopped
1 oz roasted almonds, likewise
2 small red onions, also chopped
pinch each of pepper, fennel seeds (for the caraway), thyme and tarragon (for the savory), Mexican saffron (for the safflower)
1/2 Tbs. Vietnamese fish sauce
1/2 tsp. mild mustard
equal parts red wine and fruit juice reduced to 1/2 cup
1/2 Tbs. olive oil
Mix it all together. Serve on veal, chicken breast, pork chops, whatever. Go nuts. Very good sweet/sour thing -- reminiscent of chimmichurri sauce. This was based on a half recipe for Giacosa's "serves four," but we found that with a cutlet each we still had at least as much sauce left over as we used.
We had it with a bulgur porridge and pumpkin Alexandrine style. I won't retype that recipe as it didn't turn out so well -- too much sauce, and too salty; to get a vague idea look at this, except I don't know where the hell he got ginger, though it might have been tastier; the recipe calls for "laser root" [zap], aka silphium, which most scholars say is similar to asafoetida. Giacosa substitutes garlic, but we could get powdered asafoetida and so we used it. Not surprisingly, it gave an "Indian food" quality to the dish. -- Also, there's some controversy about whether "cucurbitae" should be a summer or winter squash. We used pumpkin because we had it and it sounded tastier than zucchini.
After dinner we watched a Britcom sex farce called "Coupling" on WGBH 44 that we've grown fond of. You'll just have to take my word for it, as attempts to describe it make it sound really lame.
I was going to submit to the LJ meme of the moment, but my 15 things will have to come later.
