This dish was made during the 2013 Siouxland Renaissance Festival on a cooking fire. You can great this dish at home either on a stove top or on a cooking fire. I used a cast iron pot and would recommend using the same.
Bacon Hash made at the Siouxland Renaissance Festival
Ingredients:
1 lb. bacon, cut up in 1 inch strips
1 cup fresh green beans, washed and trimmed
4 large carrots, large julienne cut
4 medium red potatoes, washed and 3/4″ cubed
2 medium gloves of garlic
sea salt (to taste)
Over medium heat add the bacon. The fat will render quicker than it will cook. When the bacon is half done, remove it from the pot and pour the bacon fat into a bowl (do not dispose of it yet). Put the pot back on the heat and add 4 tablespoons of bacon fat (olive oil may be used if you are watching your fat content). Add all the vegetables at one time to the pot and stir constantly for two minutes. Add the bacon back in to the pot and continue cooking for 4 more minutes. Add a 1/4 cup of water and continue to stir. The dish is ready when the carrots and potatoes are tender. Remove from heat and let it set for 2 minutes before serving.
2 medium red potatoes, baked
Pinch of salt
Pinch of black pepper
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 green onions, diced
Pinch of dried red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp of olive oil or margarine
1 rib of celery, minced
Take two baked red potatoes and cut them up and place them into a bowl. Ideally, these should be baked in the oven rather than microwaved so that the skin is not soggy.
Add the oil or margarine and the garlic and use a fork to mash them together. Add the Dijon mustard, green onions (and optional celery), black pepper, red pepper flakes and salt. Stir together and serve hot or cold.
Cheese has been traced to the Sumerians, Egyptians, and has been found throughout the world. Each culture has had its own version of cheese; in central Asia, cheese was made from yak milk. North Africans used milk from wild pigs and Europeans used milk from reindeer, water buffalo and mares. But it was the Romans who perfected the art and began to age their cheeses, preparing to send their product out to the marketplace.
Cheese pie served with fresh apple slices and blueberries
Early cheeses were made from adding milk into a container made from an animal’s stomach. The stomach contains a natural enzyme called rennin and would cause the milk to curdle. When churned, the milk would be separated from curds and whey, which could be strained to create two milk by-products. The curds would be gathered and cooked to create cheese. Softer cheeses were cooked at a lower temperature and higher temperatures results in the harder varieties. Cheese makers would drain off any additional liquid whey, and then would salt and cut the hardened curd. The processed curd would be pressed into molds and would be further aged/cured in nearby caves or holes in the ground.
During the Renaissance, cheese was served as a dessert and was reserved for the middle or wealthier classes. The merchant/middle class would enjoy softer goat cheeses with grapes or figs and the wealthy would enjoy a cheese course, which was served before or during dessert.
One of the more popular desserts was the cheese pie. This dessert is very different than the desserts for modern palates; it is not sweet and, depending on the cheese, can be pungent. To offset its strong flavor the cheese would be served with fresh grapes or figs. Traditionally, pastry crusts were very hard and were used as a container for many types of dishes. The pie crust below is a modern execution of that recipe and creates a flakier and tastier crust.
Pie Crust Recipe: 2 cups of all-purpose flour
½ tsp of finely ground sea salt
½ cup of butter or lard, softened
¼ cup of cold water
Mix the flour and salt until well combined. Cut the butter or lard up into teaspoon chips and add it to the flour mixture.
Using a large fork, begin crushing the butter or lard into the flour and salt mixture. Begin adding the water at 2 tablespoons increments until a soft, non-sticky dough forms into a ball.
Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour or more before rolling out. This will allow the fat to combine with the flour and will create a flakier crust. While the crust “cures” in the refrigerator, you can begin making the filling.
Cheese Pie Filling Recipe: 1 cup of all-purpose flour
¼ tsp of salt
Pinch of black pepper
¼ tsp powdered mustard
½ cup of grated Gouda cheese (other “white” cheeses may be used as well).
2 egg yolks
¼ cup of lard or butter
Water
Mix together the flour, salt, pepper, mustard. Add the butter or lard and begin to blend together with a fork. Add the cheese and egg yolks. If the filling seems too dry, add the water 2 tablespoons at a time until a thick cream is developed. Cover and let cool for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375° F.
Roll out the pie crust into a 10” circle. You can use a plate to measure the circle. Place the pie crust into an 8” pie tin; there should be enough of the crust to go over the pie tin. Pierce the crust 6 times in the bottom of the pan; this will help the crust to cook evenly.
Move the cheese mixture from the covered bowl onto the crust and spread evenly. Roll the edges of the pie crust inward or crimp or pinch the crust; this will add a decorative element to the pie.
Set the pie into the oven to bake for approximately 12-18 minutes, depending on altitude. The crust edges should be golden brown. Let cool for 7-10 minutes before cutting. Serve with fresh figs, berries or apples and honey.
I try to find time to cook healthy meals. Mixing my sense of historical cooking, my love of ethnic foods, and the need and want to eat healthier, I challenge myself to create new recipes. Some will have a historical slant and others will have more international flair; this particular recipe is Asian influenced. It is low carb and low-fat and has plenty of protein, fruit and vegetable servings. I hope you like it as much as I do.
Asian Style Chicken Meatballs
Ingredients:
1 lb of ground chicken 1/2 cup of pineapple, minced 2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated 1 egg 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder 2 tbsp of soy sauce
Combine all off the ingredients in a non-metal bowl and blend well.
Grab a heaping tablespoon of mixture and place on a greased cookie sheet. Continue until mixture is gone. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
While the meatballs are cooking gather the rest
of the ingredients:
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 cups snap pea pods Optional: 1 cup red peppers, sliced thin or more pineapple in 1/2 inch cubes
Once the meatballs are done, heat up a skillet and add the oil. Once hot, add the meatballs and vegetables together and continue cooking until the vegetables are el dente (bright green, not overcooked).
During the Renaissance, bakeries were considered the epicenter of many larger towns. The townsfolk would buy their breads on a daily basis and they could catch up on the news and gossip of the town at the bakery. Unlike our modern bakeries with electrical or gas ovens, the bakers’ ovens were usually heated with wood or peat and were often built into the bakery’s architecture.
Rustic peasant bread before slicing
This past year, I became very familiar with the art of wood-fired baking. I had recently acquired a wood-burning oven to practice my baking skills. The oven provided some fairly accurate experiences of working in a bakery during the Renaissance. Each morning, I would heat the oven with birch and oak wood and would gradually warm up the oven. Once the oven was hot enough, I had the option of pushing back the hot coals to keep the heat longer or rake them out to cool the oven faster and then bake directly on the oven’s stone hearth.
There were many challenges in baking with traditional methods. From our modern perspective, the largest challenge Renaissance era bakers faced were the lack of prepackaged yeast. Bakers would have to create yeast naturally or find another baker to purchase or acquire live yeast. The live yeast was also known as wild yeast and grows naturally nearly everywhere, but it takes about a week to develop.
With patience wild yeast can be grown at home, but it takes a time. Below is one of my traditional methods of growing wild yeast.
Recipe for Wild Yeast
Combine 1/2 cup unflavored yogurt and two tablespoons of flour in a clean bowl. Cover with a cloth and let it rest for 24 hours.
Peasant bread after slicing
Remove any liquid that develops over the yeast. Add two tablespoons flour and two tablespoons of water and stir every morning for a week. Make sure that you are removing any extra liquid before adding more flour and water to the mixture.
If too much starter grows, throw away half and replace it with an equal volume of the flour and water mixture. If bubbles develop, begin feeding the yeast every six hours with the flour and water mixture. Continue to pour off any water. Feed the yeast with the flour and water mixture about an hour before you plan to use in a recipe.
A Traditional Bread Recipe Now the yeast that is grown would be traded or sold to other bakers. It can be messy and time consuming and the ease and the availability of dry yeast allow for tasty, and yet fairly easy bread recipes. The recipe below is for rustic peasant bread and has been tested and written for modern ovens and equipment
Rustic Peasant Bread 1 package dry yeast
2 cups warm (not hot) water
1 tablespoon sugar (honey was used during the Renaissance, but it doesn’t rise as much as using sugar)
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups flour
Cornmeal
Melted butter
Place yeast, water, and sugar in a bowl and stir until dissolved. The sugar will help feed the yeast and help the process along.
Blend the flour and salt together. Add the liquid yeast to the dry ingredients and stir until well blended. Do not knead.
Cover with a warm damp cloth and let it rise until double its original size (approximately 1 hour).
Remove the dough from the bowl, divide it, and place in 2 rounds on a greased cookie sheet sprinkled with cornmeal; the cornmeal will help stop the bread from sticking to the pan. Let the dough rise an additional hour.
Brush top on dough with melted butter and bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees and cook for an additional 15 minutes.
