Category: Food

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Two Recipes for the Blog of One

At times, life will get the best of me.  Like others, I become distracted with life, work, and other pursuits.  I was reminded that fans come to this page for more historical cooking and recipes.  To make up for this oversight, I’ve posted two pheasant recipes for the viewer.  Chicken may be a lesser substitute for the pheasant, but the game bird is preferred. 

Like many during the Renaissance, the rich or poachers were able the luxury of meat.  Pheasant, like fish, was abundant and tasty.  The first recipe is French influenced and the second recipe is from the New World with Spanish influence.

This recipe calls for 5 pheasants – a meal “borrowed” from the French and popular with the Feast of St. George.  Celebratory in nature, the dish should be for special occasions. 

 

Roast Pheasant With Sauce Bigarade
Serves 10 people

Ingredients:
5 pheasants
Add salt and pepper as needed
15 parsley stems
5 thyme sprigs
5 bay leaves
8 fl. oz. brown duck or chicken stock
1 tsp fresh orange zest, julienne, blanched
30 pieces orange meat

Rinse and trim the pheasant (removing spare fat and wing tips), removing fat from body cavity. Place the phesant, breast side up, on a rack. Season it with salt and pepper. Place 5 parsley stems, 1 thyme sprig, and 1 bay leaf into the cavity of the pheasant. Roast the birds at 425 degrees until the juices run barely pink and the thigh meat registers 170 degrees. Remove the birds from the pan and rest for at least 10 minutes before carving.

Sauce Bigarade
10 portions
Ingredients:
3/4 oz. sugar
1 tsp water
1 tsp white wine
1 fl. oz. cider vinegar
2 fl. oz. orange juice concentrate
2 oz. red current jelly
1 qt. Demi-Glace (can be purchased at a higher-end grocery)
salt and pepper as needed

To finish the sauce for service, degrease and deglaze the pheasant roasting pan with stock and strain the drippings into the bigarade sauce. Return the sauce to a simmer and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Finish the sauce with the zest and the orange meat. Carve the pheasant for service by cutting away the breast from the rib and cutting the leg away from the body. 

 

New World Pheasant:

Ingredients:
2 pheasants
6 oz of orange juice concentrate
3 oranges
3 sprigs of rosemary
Kosher or sea salt
Black pepper 

Cut the pheasants in half lengthwise (neck to tail).  Marinade pheasants in orange juice for two hours with crushed rosemary*. While marinading, zest 3 oranges. Once done marinading, trim bird (remove excess fat and remove wing tips), and sprinkle orange zest in cavity and add remaining zest to top of the birds. Spring lightly with kosher or sea salt and black pepper (not too much).

Grill birds, the pheasant fat carmalizes with the orange juice for a sweet and smoky flavor. Compliments well with wildrice with hazelnuts and crandbury salad (just cooked wildrice, dried craisins, and toasted hazelnuts). this easier recipe provides a high lean protein, complex carbs, with fruit influences. 

* The three sprigs of rosemary may tribute to the Christian God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, popular in Spanish culture.  Many of the older Spanish and French recipes will call for three sprigs of rosemary as a way of blessing the dish.  The three sprigs of rosemary were also found in floral arrangements and hat decorations in Catholic cultures during the Renaissance. 

First recipe circa 1602 France
New World recipe circa 1680, (Americas with Spanish influence)

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Giving Back

One of the non-profits I support is Second Harvest Heartland.  Second Harvest Heartland is the Upper Midwest’s largest hunger-relief organization with a mission of ending hunger through community partnerships, and is a 501(c)(3)nonprofit organization.  They count on volunteer hours, food and cash donations.  

Last month, my place of employment hosted a Week of Service where employees are encouraged to give back to the community via donations of goods or services.  Several of us volunteered a couple of hours to Second Harvest.  It was fun and educational.  

At the end of the run each year at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, my members of my kitchen donate our tips to Second Harvest Heartland.  For every $1 that is raised $9 of food is purchased for the community.  

If you would like to consider a donation, visit their donation website HERE.  Every little bit helps and offers an opportunity to help those less fortunate.

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Keeping it Local

Each weekend, I visit our local farmer’s markets to pick up produce for the household.  I visit the Minneapolis Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and the St. Paul Farmer’s Market on Sundays.  I pick up fresh vegetables, herbs, meats, and dairy.  I take pride in knowing that I am helping local farmers and other entrepreneurial spirits by visiting and purchasing from their booths.  I still shop at our local grocery stores, but I do tend to favor the local shops and vendors.  

Some of the delicacies I have encountered include Hope Butter, which provides a delicious finish to any dish or topping, Amish butter, or free-range dairy goods.  Some people may not realize that grass-fed cattle and dairy cows are happy and their produce are high in Omega-3  fatty acids (good for you) and have less instances of illnesses and require less antibiotics and growth hormones (also good for you).  

In the Twin Cities, I tend to favor plenty of local restaurants because they are not large conglomerates or they use locally raised produce.  Among my favorites include Ngon Vietnamese Bistro, Wild Onion, or Lucia’s.  Because of the economy, all restaurants are hurting, but if you take a moment to think about where you eat and who benefits from your dining out, you can make it worthwhile.

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Food and Kids

Outside of historical cooking, I have several interests but they all pertain to food.  On another blog the question came up “how do you get fussy kids to eat their vegetables?”  I’ve been blessed as my son likes many vegetables, so it is not a fight.  But for several of my friends’ kids, it is a challenge.  I thought I would post these suggestions for prosperity and hope that my readers may learn a few things.  

Kids are motivated by their parents and peers.  If they have friends or parents who eat vegetables, they are more likely to do so as well.  Some foods are tastier to kids than others.  I still have a strong dislike to brussel sprouts since my mom forced me to eat them as a young child.  

What does your child like to eat?  Do they like sweet flavors such as ginger, cinnamon, cilantro, etc. or do they like savory flavors such as cumin, curry, mustard, etc. or spicy such as chilis, vindaloo, etc.  Use there taste center to your advantage. 

Vegetables that are kid friendly:

  • Sweet Potatoes – baked, oven fried, chips, or mashed.   Not bad for you if you leave off the brown sugar and the marshmallows.    I add a dash of cinnamon to my son’s and I prefer a cumin and cinnamon blend on mine.
  • Beets – very red and very sweet.  Can be found as chips to start with.
  • Veggie Booty – a snack food made from real veggies.  It’s a good start and a better choice than cheese puffs.
  • Baby Carrots
  • Zucchini and yellow squash – can be cut up like french fries and grilled or oven fried
  • Summer Squash
  • Edame (soybeans) – Oddly enough, kids like the mild sweet flavor and its an opportunity to “play with your food” as the beans need to be removed from their shell.
  • Black and garbanzo beans – just fun to eat as you can pop them into your mouth like candy.  

If the earlier suggestions fail, there are other suggestions that may work:

  • If your child likes spaghetti and pizza, make your own sauce by adding pureed zucchini or other vegetables while cooking the sauces
  • Adding a vegetarian soup to ground meat and adding breadcrumbs or oatmeal before cooking meatloaf or making meatballs.
  • Making lettuce wrap meals.  Meals like tacos and other foods can be made into a sandwich using lettuce leaves instead of bread.  This can be fun for the whole family. 
  • When eating out at a buffet, empower your child to select their own veggies.  You might be surprised with their selections.
  • When barbecuing, grill veggies along side the meat so your child will have a tasty selection.  
  • When all else fails, cover the veggies with a sauce the child may like.  Ketchup is very popular in our house.  When I was a young woman, I did not care for the taste of broccoli, but when I covered it in garlic cheese sauce, I couldn’t get enough of it.  Nowadays, I eat the broccoli without any sauce.  

I hope these suggestions help.  Feel free to add to the comment section your suggestions.

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Working with What You Have

After preparing the segment for Renaissance Magazine, Brandon and I had a lot of left overs – about 3/4 lb of pieces of roast pork (uncooked), carrots, leeks, and a few other ingredients.  I put them together to create a lovely curry pork and vegetables.

Utilizing the ingredients above and adding a few, I created a dish that was quoted as, “tastes like it came from a ‘nice’ Asian restaurant” from a Chinese national. 

Below is the recipe I came up and I have been enjoying it for my lunches. 

one cup of leftover braised carrot and leek dish
3/4 lb of roast pork, cut up
one onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup of frozen peas
1 tbsp of yellow curry powder (store bought)
1 tsp ground cumin
2 pinches of sea salt
ground pepper to taste
1 tbsp of cooking oil (sesame or sunflower)

In a heated wok, add the oil and when hot enough begin adding the pork to begin cooking.  Turn the pork every two minutes so that it begins to brown nicely and add the onions. 

Continue to cook and add the left over braised carrots and leeks.  Continue to cook and add frozen peas.  Continue to stir when cooking and add the curry powder and cumin.   Finish with the salt and pepper. 

I did not need to use rice or noodles with this dish.  It should be sweet and savory, not spicy.   Sadly, I ate it all before I could photograph the plate.