madbaker | A little daube 'll do ya

This week's Resolution Recipe, also from Casteau and made at the war: Tuna in daube.

Take the tuna being cooked and fricassee as above, and make the daube on top like the others heretofore. (Take the tuna when it is cooked and well cleaned, all the scales off, cut into long pieces, and flour it, and fricassee it in olive oil or butter… then you will take vinegar, and wine as much of the one as of the other, and put it to boil, a salted [sour] lemon in slices, some saffron, some pepper, bay laurel leaves, rosemary, marjoram, ground radish root, a small handful of coriander: being boiled pour all hot on the [fish], and keep it thus well covered. (Ouverture de Cuisine, 1604)

Very few measurements - a wartime casualty.

2 pounds tuna
white flour
olive oil or butter (I used butter... this has to be one of the few times Casteau uses olive oil, so maybe I should try it that way. I didn't here.)
red wine vinegar (maybe 1/4 of the wine? Despite what it said, I didn't want half vinegar and half wine. And besides, our vinegar is stronger. Yeah, that's the justification.)
red wine (filling up the pipkin to 3/4 full)
1 salted lemon, minced
saffron
pepper, ground
2 bay leaves
fresh rosemary
fresh marjoram
1 bunch radishes (5 ounces), ground
fresh cilantro

Slice the tuna into 1-inch wide pieces and dredge in the flour. Melt the butter or olive oil in a large saucepan (I used a pipkin with feet) and cook the tuna until lightly browned, (time). Chop the herbs. Add everything else except the cilantro, mix well, and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat for two hours, stirring occasionally. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve warm.

Fresh coriander is called cilantro in North America.

What worked: Several people told me this was the best dish they had Friday evening. I was very happy with it - the radish and salted lemon added unexpected bite and zing without overpowering the dish. Using a pipkin in coals worked brilliantly; I rarely had to do anything to keep it at a low bubble and it never burned on the bottom.

What didn't: The tuna never browned in the pipkin. I was unable to get fresh cilantro to garnish. Appearance-wise, it was a glop that could have come out of Curye on Brown Goo.

Will I make it again? Once I get this redacted properly, I expect to put it in the regular rotation at events. Maybe even at home, like Casteau's Tuna of Another Sort.

Sources
Lancelot de Casteau. Ouverture de Cuisine. Liège: Leonard Streel, 1604. Translation: James Prescott and Jeremy Fletcher. 2006-present.

What I'm reading: David Brin, Existence