![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerThis week's Resolution Recipe: Salmon Pie.
"Fresh salmon is equally good in pastry." (Livre Fort, 1555)
"Here is another dish called tardpolane. Take flour and sugar and put them together, and the pastry is tempered with milk of almonds; then make of this pastry coffins the height of two fingers..." (Two Anglo-Norman)
1 lb salmon
4 oz chopped white onion
1 oz parsley
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp white vinegar (I used white balsamic)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Pastry:
1/2 cup almond milk, hot
1 1/2 cups white wheat flour
2 Tbsp sugar
Mix the flour and sugar. Form a well on a pastry board. Pour in the almond milk and mix well, then knead until the dough is smooth and easy to work. Shape the dough into a thick disc.
Poke both thumbs into the middle of the disc. With your fingers on the outside of the disc, press your thumbs outward while rotating the dough. Continue until you have a straight-sided bowl with walls 1/2" thick. Press on the inside of the base of the coffin with the pads of your fingers periodically to flatten and even it out.
Chop the salmon and place into the crust. Mix the remainder to make a sauce; spread over the fish. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Do not overbake or the salmon will be dry (this happened at the war).
Scoop out salmon, sending the crust to the kitchen boys or to the almoner for distribution to the poor. Or to the dogs I suppose, but shouldn't you be more charitable than that?
The preceding recipe for Boiled Salmon, once the fish is cooked, directs "add finely chopped onion, parsley, olive oil, and vinegar. Pour this over the salmon."
I used an almond milk structural crust. Since this is a Lenten-friendly dish, it seemed appropriate... but I have nothing documented from this source to back that usage up. Oh well. At the war Laurel helpfully made the crust for me as I did not have time with other responsibilities. I wanted to try it on my own at least once while I had her there to offer guidance, not that I had time for that to happen either. Mine was nowhere near as accomplished as hers, but that's to be expected.
Sources
Albala. Most Excellent Book of Cookery, The: "an Edition and Translation of the 16th-century 'livre Fort .." Totnes, Devon: Prospect, 2014. Print. ISBN 978-1903018-965.
Hieatt, Constance B. and Jones, Robin F. "Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections Edited from British Library Manuscripts Additional 32085 and Royal 12.C.xii" in Speculum Vol. 61, No. 4 (Oct., 1986), pp. 859-882. Trans. Laurel Grasmick-Black.
What worked: It was pretty. Tasty. The wife quite liked it. I thought it was okay; not spectacular, but okay.
What didn't: I'm pretty sure white balsamic vinegar is modern, but it is really good in this sort of thing. I should probably use cider vinegar.
I had to double the crust and even then I was jamming in the fish. I had to use more almond milk than listed just to get the dough workable - I think the total was closer to 2/3 cup.
The crust didn't bake (not surprisingly for that amount of time) so it was still wet and doughy underneath. Blind-baking would solve that issue, but I don't know if that's appropriate or not.
Will I make it again? Yeah. I could see doing this ahead of time and bringing it cold to events. I also want to get better at structural pie crusts.
"Fresh salmon is equally good in pastry." (Livre Fort, 1555)
"Here is another dish called tardpolane. Take flour and sugar and put them together, and the pastry is tempered with milk of almonds; then make of this pastry coffins the height of two fingers..." (Two Anglo-Norman)
1 lb salmon
4 oz chopped white onion
1 oz parsley
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp white vinegar (I used white balsamic)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Pastry:
1/2 cup almond milk, hot
1 1/2 cups white wheat flour
2 Tbsp sugar
Mix the flour and sugar. Form a well on a pastry board. Pour in the almond milk and mix well, then knead until the dough is smooth and easy to work. Shape the dough into a thick disc.
Poke both thumbs into the middle of the disc. With your fingers on the outside of the disc, press your thumbs outward while rotating the dough. Continue until you have a straight-sided bowl with walls 1/2" thick. Press on the inside of the base of the coffin with the pads of your fingers periodically to flatten and even it out.
Chop the salmon and place into the crust. Mix the remainder to make a sauce; spread over the fish. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Do not overbake or the salmon will be dry (this happened at the war).
Scoop out salmon, sending the crust to the kitchen boys or to the almoner for distribution to the poor. Or to the dogs I suppose, but shouldn't you be more charitable than that?
The preceding recipe for Boiled Salmon, once the fish is cooked, directs "add finely chopped onion, parsley, olive oil, and vinegar. Pour this over the salmon."
I used an almond milk structural crust. Since this is a Lenten-friendly dish, it seemed appropriate... but I have nothing documented from this source to back that usage up. Oh well. At the war Laurel helpfully made the crust for me as I did not have time with other responsibilities. I wanted to try it on my own at least once while I had her there to offer guidance, not that I had time for that to happen either. Mine was nowhere near as accomplished as hers, but that's to be expected.
Sources
Albala. Most Excellent Book of Cookery, The: "an Edition and Translation of the 16th-century 'livre Fort .." Totnes, Devon: Prospect, 2014. Print. ISBN 978-1903018-965.
Hieatt, Constance B. and Jones, Robin F. "Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections Edited from British Library Manuscripts Additional 32085 and Royal 12.C.xii" in Speculum Vol. 61, No. 4 (Oct., 1986), pp. 859-882. Trans. Laurel Grasmick-Black.
What worked: It was pretty. Tasty. The wife quite liked it. I thought it was okay; not spectacular, but okay.
What didn't: I'm pretty sure white balsamic vinegar is modern, but it is really good in this sort of thing. I should probably use cider vinegar.
I had to double the crust and even then I was jamming in the fish. I had to use more almond milk than listed just to get the dough workable - I think the total was closer to 2/3 cup.
The crust didn't bake (not surprisingly for that amount of time) so it was still wet and doughy underneath. Blind-baking would solve that issue, but I don't know if that's appropriate or not.
Will I make it again? Yeah. I could see doing this ahead of time and bringing it cold to events. I also want to get better at structural pie crusts.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-08-11 05:01 pm (UTC)I would say that a coffin is almost always reusable so blind baking is very definite the way to go. Plus having played with a period oven in the last few days its probably the only way to ensure that the fish isn't over cooked.
It also occurs to me that the amount of almond milk you need depends on how thick it is but then in Pleyn Delite they recommend 1 cup of flour to 1/4 cup of almond milk.
Interesting choice of a tart by the way as I could have wrapped the salmon in savoury pastry (possibly even salt pastry). This would be a way of baking salmon and keeping in the moisture.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-11 05:56 pm (UTC)I agree with the pastry wrapping idea, but I don't remember seeing anything similar in Livre Fort whereas there are plenty of open tarts. I'll have to recheck.
I knew using balsamic vinegar wasn't as appropriate for a 1550 French recipe (especially white). It's really good though, as well as being delicate in flavor; so I made the conscious decision to use it here. For events I'll probably switch back to a white wine vinegar.