Leeks with Fava Beans - a Roman Empire recipe

Sometimes parts of the universe come together in surprising ways.  Or, if you remember the 1970s at all, perhaps a bunch of biorhythms all aligned!

I have wanted a particular cookbook ever since I saw it at a culinary symposium.  It has translations of the Roman Empire recipes of Apicius along with modern redactions by the author.

ISBN 0-226-29030-1

So when I was wandering through a favorite used bookstore one day and saw it, I knew it would be coming home with me.

A few days later my friend, RK, gave me a box of ramps (wild leeks) from his home in West Virginia.

This is a small portion of what he shared with me.

And then another friend, MD, offered me some fresh fava beans from his garden.

The picture doesn't show it, but these pods are huge!

Well, when the universe sends such a clear message, I cannot ignore it.  On page 151, I found a recipe that uses both.

Leeks with Fava Beans  (Apicius 96)

Aliter porros:  [Si] in aquam elixati erunt, fabae nondum conditae plurimum admisce conditurae in qua eos manducaturus es.

Another recipe for leeks:  [If] they have been boiled in water, add a large quantity of unseasoned fava beans to the condiment in which you will eat them.

Author's redaction:

Boil the leeks in water, drain, and place in a serving bowl.  Season them with the sauce described in the previous recipe, and add cooked or raw fava beans.  You can also add fresh minced aromatic herbs if you wish.

The "sauce described in the previous recipe" is from Boiled Leek Salad, Apicius 93. 

Boil the leeks, slice them into rounds, and cover with a sauce made of olive oil, garum, and wine.  The quantities of the ingredients may vary according to taste; if you like the strong, salty flavor of garum, feel free to use it generously.  I find red wine is more successful here than white.

Homemade liquamen!

Garum is fish sauce, also often called liquamen.  I happen to have a great quantity of it from my previous experiments in making it.  Click here to see a post on it.

My Redaction

320 grams (11 ounces) of shelled fava beans

150 grams (5 1/2 ounces) of ramps, washed and trimmed of their roots

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup red wine (I chose pinot noir)

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoon liquamen

Add the beans to boiling water, bring the water back to a boil and cook until tender, about 3-4 minutes.  Drain and set aside.

Slice the ramps into pieces, add to salted, boiling water, and cook for 2 - 3 minutes.  Drain and add to the beans.

Mix the dressing, beating well to disburse the oil.  Pour over the ramps and fava beans -- put in what you think is right as you might not use all of it.  Toss well and serve.

This was about four servings.

My Notes

It was fun to shell the fava beans.  The pods' inner lining is white and fluffy, and it seemed like I was taking the beans out from their cozy little nest.  I used about half of the pods you see in the picture to get these beans.

I boiled them in plain water.

I really like this picture.

The ramps cleaned up well and were sliced into big bite-sized pieces.

After they were boiled in salted water, they were drained and mixed with the fava beans.

Then I whisked the sauce ingredients together, poured them over the veggies, mixed them well, and served them.

The Verdict

I served them as part of a simple yet tasty dinner.  The protein portion was pork that I had cured and smoked.  This was sliced paper thin (hooray for my new electric knife sharpener!) and dressed with a drizzle of lemon juice and some capers.

I also set out some homemade oatmeal bread, recipe courtesy of my friend GW.  I served the meal with the same pinot noir that I used in the dressing.

The fava beans and ramps combination was good.  I won't say "exceptional" or "outstanding" because I think I could have improved on my process.  

First, I tasted one bean for doneness before draining them.  The could have cooked a minute or two longer to get the bigger beans more tender.  Some were chewy and I didn't like that.  This convinced me that I would not use raw beans in this dish.  I cooked them for 3 minutes, which is why I put 3 to 4 minutes in my redaction.

Second, the dressing did not stick to the veggies.  Maybe I'm spoiled with today's availability of thickened sauces but I did wish to taste more of the dressing with a bite of the veggies.  I suspect I should have had the dressing ready to go when the veggies were all still hot.  I've noticed that some veggies absorb the flavors better when that happens.  I don't know for sure, but I would do that when making it again.

Third, both my guest taster and I thought it needed more salt.  Instead of making the dish saltier by using more fish sauce, we sprinkled a little salt over what was on our plates.  That worked out well.

Fourth, maybe the ramps would have had more flavor if they were only cooked 2 minutes.  They were good, and they weren't as potent as they are when raw, but I would have liked more of their rampy flavor.

The combination of hearty bread, cured meat, and ramps/fava beans was a good one.  It made for a solid and flavorful dinner, and we both enjoyed it very much.  

I thought the amount of liquamen in the dressing was just right.  It shifted the wine flavor to something different (liquamen adds salt and a good dose of umami).  The important part was that it didn't taste or smell fishy, a preference of my guest taster.  The olive oil added a good mouthfeel, too.

If I make this again (and I still have ramps and favas left over!), I would try it with some fresh herbs.  I guess that mint would be a good addition, and maybe some parsley or basil.  My explorations in historical cooking have taught me to really mix it up when using fresh herbs.  Don't be tied down to "traditional" uses or combinations!  Many go well together in surprising ways.

Success!

Playing with History -- Roman Empire Honey Cheesecake

Yes, we are still in a pandemic and yes, I still need to minimize my trips to the store.  But if I plan ahead well, I can get some ingredients I don't normally keep around the house (although I am not always sure why I don't!) and make historical recipes.  So while I still consider myself in the "Making Do Challenge", I'm going to stop using that phrase in the title of my posts.

Today I was looking at a webpage by another blogger.  She (I don't see her name on the blog) made a recipe from PBS.org and Squidoo Ancient Roman Recipes (which is another blogger site!).   It was for Libum, a sort of cheesecake soaked in honey.  You can view her page here.

I liked the idea of a dessert that is a cross between bread and cake, and it only uses a few ingredients.  At first I thought I would not be making it for this blog, so I made it according to her directions.  It came out just as she directed:  four lovely loaves with a mild cheesy flavor, the scent of bay, and the sweetness of honey.  My guest taster and I both truly enjoyed them after a dinner of a big tossed green salad (which also had some sliced meat and crumbled cheese on it).

We both wanted to have them again, which got me to thinking about what I would do instead of what her instructions said.  And that, my friends, had me decide to write it up for my blog.

Since I am not following the historical directions as closely as I normally would, I decided that "Playing with History" was the best description for my post.  In a way it is an historical upgrade but I see it more as a side step instead.

Libum  (Honey cakes or Honey Cheesecake)

(these are from the PBS.org site)

Ancient Roman Libum Recipe

---

Libum to be made as follows: 2 pounds cheese well crushed in a mortar; when it is well crushed, add in 1 pound bread-wheat flour or, if you want it to be lighter, just 1/2 a pound, to be mixed with the cheese. Add one egg and mix all together well. Make a loaf of this, with the leaves under it, and cook slowly in a hot fire under a brick.

- from Cato's On Agriculture, reprinted in The Classical Cookbook

Modern Roman Libum Recipe (serves 4)

---

1 cup plain, all purpose flour
8 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
bay leaves
1/2 cup clear honey

Sift the flour into a bowl. Beat the cheese until its soft and stir it into the flour along with the egg. Form a soft dough and divide into 4. Mold each one into a bun and place them on a greased baking tray with a fresh bay leaf underneath. Heat the oven to 425° F. Cover the cakes with your brick and bake for 35-40 minutes until golden-brown. Warm the honey and place the warm cakes in it so that they absorb it. Allow to stand 30 minutes before serving.

And bay leaves and frontignac.

My Notes

I followed the modern recipe except I first put the ricotta into a bowl, measured the flour over it, then poured the beaten egg over the top.  I mixed it with a spoon until it was barely mixed, then used my hands to finish mixing it.  The spoon came in handy to scrape the dough off the sides of the bowl.

It was a little sticky to work with but came together as a cohesive ball with just a little hand mixing.  I was careful not to overwork it; I kept thinking about how quick breads are best with minimal mixing.

Soft, moist, but not too sticky

Instead of four cakes, I made eight little ones.  Each one sat on half of a bay leaf.

The oven temperature was 375 degrees F and they baked for 30 minutes before they turned lightly golden brown.

They puffed!

I decided that four of them would soak in honey, which I diluted a little with water and warmed on the stove.  The other four would soak in the elderflower syrup, frontignac, which I had written about in a previous post (but did not warm).  (See here for how to make frontignac.)

As soon as the cakes were done, I flipped each one over and peeled off the bay leaf.

Leaf off, leaf on.  I love the leaf imprint!

Then, while they were still very warm, I put them into the honey and the frontignac to soak.  I let them soak an entire hour.

in frontignac

in slightly diluted and warmed honey

The Verdict

The first time I made them, they soaked about 15 minutes in warmed undiluted honey while we ravenously hovered over them and then couldn't wait any longer.  They smelled wonderful!  The bay scents the air and stimulates the appetite.  There was some honey soaked into the cakes, which was tasty.  We sopped up the rest of the honey with the cakes as we were eating them.

This time I managed to control myself and wait the entire hour.

I diluted the honey this time to make it more syrupy than just warming it.  I wanted it to soak into the cakes more.

After soaking for one hour, I noticed that the frontignac appeared to have been absorbed more than the honey but both syrups still had not been completely absorbed.

I flipped the cakes over to put a little glaze on top of each one, then decorated them with borage flowers that were from my garden.

Just too cute!

We had them for dessert, two each.  Both had their syrup soaked into the bottoms and up about 1/4 inch.  Both were tasty and flavorful!  Bay, cheese, honey or elderflower, all in a light bread base.  I liked the honey best and my guest taster liked the frontignac best.  Both were good.

You can see how far the syrup soaked into the cake.

The only difference I noticed between making the small ones and the large ones is that the small ones seemed a little drier in the middle.  Not bad, just a small difference.  We enjoyed them with a homemade fig wine as an aperitif.

Success!  I might make them again and try making six instead of four or eight.  Making the servings a little bigger might keep them moist without making them too big.

Roman Fish Sauce -- Liquamen, Garum -- Once Again

A little over a year ago, a fisherman friend, MB, gave me a bag of mackerel he had caught off a local pier.  I decided I wanted to make liquamen again, but this time with a lower salt ratio.

My previous attempt is documented here.  Beware:  Some of the pictures are pretty graphic.

After reading around the internet at other bloggers' attempts, I decided to use the smallest recommended amount of salt, roughly 10 parts fish to 1 part salt, by weight.

The mix of whole fish and salt went into a glass container that I sealed up tight and put on the floor by a sliding glass door.  The idea was that I could see it go through the process, get some sunshine on it, and still not stink up my house.  Well, that and keep the cats out of it, too. 

The container sat on my floor for an entire year.  I watched it first start accumulating liquid, then the fish started "melting" into the liquid.  Occasionally I shook the container just to see how it was coming along.

After a while I saw fish bones and brown chunky muck as the majority of the contents.  And then the muck started separating into layers:  chunks on the bottom, clear liquid on top, and other particulate liquid on top of that.  Even after I shook it, the layers would reappear.

You can see the layers reforming after the container was moved.

Once the one-year mark passed, I opened the container and began filtering the contents.   One thing I noticed is that there were no big particles left -- all the flesh had broken down into tiny bits.  The only things that were big were the bones.

This is what I ladled out, leaving bones behind.  Very fine textures.

First filtering.

I used the same bag and metal filtering process I used before.  The bag got out the "big" particles but the liquid was still cloudy.  The metal coffee filter cleared it up.

But now the big test had arrived.  How did it taste as compared to the previous attempt and to what you can buy in the Asian market?

I asked my Vietnamese friends, CN and LP, to give it a try.  CN had told me once, "I am Vietnamese!  We have fish sauce in our blood!"  So I knew they were the right people to judge.

They had tried my first attempt and I asked them to compare it to my second attempt.

Their assessment was put so nicely in a note from LP: 

I have never had pure fish sauce before.  It's so good, especially the second time with less salt.  The taste is rich in protein.

I have had fish sauce my whole life and this sauce is the best.  I have used a couple of teaspoons in soup.  It tasted better than the fish sauce I bought in the store. 

There you have it!  An expert's opinion!

I liked it, too.  My thought was that, with less salt, I could taste more of a sweetness to it.  Perhaps it was wishful thinking or perhaps it was that I expected it to taste more like the Thai fish sauce + reduced grape juice mixture that I tried first.  (See this post.)  But it tasted better to me.

I am so glad I tried the "reduced salt" version.  Trust me, it is still very salty, but I think more flavorful.

I use it in soups and stews, to increase the salt content but, more importantly, to raise up the richness and meaty taste, the "umami" fifth flavor we love so much.  Sometimes I made a sauce from it.  It is really good on grilled beef.

Success!  I won't actively seek out more raw fish to make this sauce, but if some happens to come my way, I know what to do with it.

 

Liquamen/Garum -- Making Roman Empire Fish Sauce from Fish

Previously I had made liquamen at home via Sally Grainger's recipe using a premade fish sauce and adjusting the flavor with reduced white grape juice.  See the results here.

But now it is time to try making it on my own, from scratch, using fish.  I had talked to people at last February's Culinary Symposium about it, and they assured me it was a reasonable task to undertake.

Many websites talk about how to make it, and many bloggers have tried.  Let's see how this goes!


WARNING:  Some of the pictures show dead fish parts.  Decide before you look if you can stomach it.


Day 1

I started with about 5 lbs of bonita parts:  heads, skeletons (the leftover parts after removing the tasty flesh), innards (it is important to use the intestines for the enzymes they bring), and bits of meat that just weren't worth trying to cook.  I put them in a clean plastic bucket **that had a lid** along with about 1 lb of kosher salt.

I first put in a layer of salt, then some fish parts, then sprinkled the parts with more salt.  Then I kept layering until about 1 lb (20% by weight of the fish parts) was used.  I stirred the whole thing as best as I could (to coat the pieces), put the lid on, and placed the whole container out on the back patio, where it would get a lot of sun.

Salted bonita parts.  

You really need a lid, to keep out dirt but also to keep out the flies that are very attracted to it.  I put a heavy weight on top of it to discourage nighttime visitors from getting into it.

The Romans used unglazed ceramic containers.  Most of the bloggers used glass jars.  I didn't have a jar or a ceramic container big enough to hold all this, so I was glad for the advice to use a plastic bucket.

You can see that the fish parts filled about 1/4 to 1/3 of the bucket.

Day 2

The next day, when stirring it, I decided it needed more whole fish, so I bought some frozen mackerel, about 73 ounces worth, and added that and another 10 ounces of salt to the bucket.  Again, I stirred the whole thing as well as I could.  I noticed some liquid was already forming.  The smell was fishy and a little rotten, so I was glad I could get the brown liquid to coat everything.

Salty mackerel, before stirring.

The blogs that talk about it say the salt-to-fish ratio runs from 1/10 to 1/5, so I figured I was in the right range, without obsessing over exact quantities.

Day 3

I stirred everything again.  The mackerel was starting to break apart, so they were easily pushed down into the dark brown liquid that was now deeper than the day before.  The smell was fishy, but not rotten, which surprised me.  It actually smelled better than the day before.

Day 4

This time I didn't stir as much as I used the spoons to push the mackerel down into the liquid.  This broke them up a little more, too.  The liquid level was almost to the top of the fish.

The smell was very faint.  Very mildly fishy and I could not smell it at all outside the bucket.  I am astonished.

Day 7

The fish parts are all broken up and the whole quantity has compacted down to about 1/4 of the bucket's volume.  The liquid was thick and brown on top, but when I stirred it, I found thinner liquid underneath.  I think that stirring it was a good idea, as it took the pieces that were on top and got them coated in the salty liquid.

Day 22

I left the whole thing alone until today.  There was a layer of "stuff" floating on the surface, and lots of liquid underneath.  I could see bones (backbone and ribs) that were completely devoid of muscle and flesh.  Instead of stirring, I rotated the bucket around to splash the liquid up on the surface stuff and mix it up a bit.  The smell was pretty fishy but not disgusting, so I am letting it continue.

My fingers are crossed for luck!

Day 30

This is the one month mark, so I took pictures before and after stirring.

Before stirring.

After stirring.

I scooped out about 1 cup of the mixture.

As it was, right out of the container.

First I poured it through a small strainer, which removed the biggest bits and some of the gritty-looking parts.  Then I put it all into a fine filter, a metal coffee strainer that had never been used for making coffee.  This was put over a container and covered with plastic, so it could drip through.

The odor was fishy but not disgusting.  The cats thought the smell was amazing, so I gave them several drops of the liquid, which they quickly licked up.

I filtered it but could not get it clear, so I put the liquid into the refrigerator to see what would happen.  I noticed that everything the liquid touched had a greasy film on it, which wasn't very pleasant at all.

I tasted it and it was very, very fishy.  It did not have that slightly sweet taste the liquamen I made from the fish sauce and grape juice had.  I really didn't like it much but I do have to note that it wasn't too salty, and it didn't taste rotten.

So after one month of fermenting, I think it should continue.

Four Months

The mixture has been sitting on the patio for four months now, and it is time to finish it.  When I opened the container, I was really put off.  The smell was unpleasant and it looked weird, and I was unsure whether what I saw was fish oil or mold.  But before I reacted, I checked with my online friends who have done this before.



D G-T gave me this description:

Fishy salty sludge that looks like chucky mud?  That's OK.  Strain out the solids and you have liquid yuck.  Run that through a coffee filter or wet paper towel and you should get clear amber salty fishy goodness ... that's the goal.  It will flow through the filter VERY slowly.

I felt much better about my experiment and set about with the filtering.

The first round was done outside, using a ladle to get the liquid out of the tub and into two strainers, one a little finer mesh than the other.  I also had a trashcan nearby so I could empty the strainers regularly.  I worked quickly, so I could get it done before too many flies found me.



The result of this first round of filtering was, yes, liquid yuck.  I did notice that the scent wasn't bad at all:  fishy but not rotten or nasty, and I kept getting a hint of the fruity scent that the previous liquamen had.

First round yuck.

I could see all the particles in the liquid and knew I would have to filter them a lot to get it clear.

Filtering, round two, was done indoors.  I used the ladle to scoop the liquid into a strainer that was even finer mesh than the two I used in the first round.  One scoop would drain for a little while and then I had to rotate the strainer to put the liquid over areas that weren't clogged with particles.

Strainer after the liquid passed through.  Time to shake and rinse!

Then I shook the particles out into a bowl.  After every two or three shakes, I rinsed the strainer under clear water.  This worked well.

It didn't take long to accumulate 14 cups (3.5 quarts) of the second round filtered liquid.

Liquid not-so-yuck.

It is still not clear.  Next I will run it through my metal coffee filter to see how that works.

One aspect of this that made me laugh at myself:  All the while I kept thinking, "I need to find a place in the refrigerator for this big container."  Then I realized it had been sitting on my patio for four months and didn't need to be kept cold!  The beauty of salt!

Putting the liquid through the coffee filter helped a lot.  This left me with a slightly cloudy amber liquid, so I poured it through a wet paper towel to finish it off.

The result was an almost perfectly clear amber liquid that smelled fishy but was not bad.

The Verdict

Time for a taste test!

I put the fermented liquamen up against Thai fish sauce and my homemade liquamen that was a mixture of the Thai fish sauce and reduced white grape juice.

All about the same color.  Newest on the right.

I tasted a little of each one and drank a lot of water between tastes to clear my palate.

My fermented liquamen was very salty, slightly sweet, and had a deep umami flavor that I liked.  That umami really made my tastebuds dance and sing.

The Thai fish sauce was salty but not as much as my fermented sauce, it was not sweet, it had a tangy sensation that I didn't like much, and it had umami but the fermented sauce had more.

The fish sauce plus grape juice was definitely sweeter (remember that I mixed them so I controlled the sauce/juice ratio, and I like sweet), not as salty, no tang, and not as rich in umami. 

The fermented sauce had the most umami and the most salt.  The Thai sauce was thicker, almost syrupy, than the other two. 

D G-T says she gets the best results using 7 parts fish to 1 part salt.  Mine was about 6 parts fish to 1 part salt, so I am not surprised about the salt levels in mine.

So was there a clear winner?  Not quite but I would choose depending on my food prep goal.  The fermented sauce was very salty but very umami, so I would take that into account in my recipe.  If I didn't want so much salt, I would use the fish/juice sauce.  The Thai sauce will be used to make more of the fish/juice sauce. 

I declare this to be a success!

One point to note:  at the one month interval, I noted that there was a greasy residue that stuck to everything and bothered me.  This no longer was an issue.  I could see oil/fat in the mixture but it was not sticky nor did it make itself known. 

I'm so glad I did this; what a neat experiment!  My plastic tub resulted in about 14 cups of liquid yuck, which I am still filtering.  Trying to filter it 1/2 cup at a time in the coffee filter was not the best use of time, so I set up a jelly bag (cloth bag for filtering juice for making clear jelly) in a tall jar so I could put in nearly two cups of yuck to filter over time but still cover it to cut down on the fishy odor in the house and keep out bugs/dust/cats.

Very. Slow. Drip.

This can take its time filtering and then I can wash and reuse the bag for the next batch.  Each batch gets filtered through the wet paper towel as the last step, then stored in a corked bottle.  I suspect I will be sharing this liquamen with fellow foodies to get their take on it.  At least I hope I will.

I am thankful to the friends who gave me encouragement and advice on fermenting fish.  I would not have finished it without you.  Special kudos to D G-T!

Four Sauces for a Chicken -- Sauce #1: Roman Empire!

I had company coming, someone who has been experimented on before at my table, so I felt like trying something fun.  I decided to buy two roasted chickens and make sauces to be served with them.

But what sauces?  There are so many from a variety of cultures and eras.  Well, since my love for Roman Empire food is growing, I decided to try one that appeared to be a challenge to prepare.

This recipe comes from Cooking Apicius, by Sally Grainger.  I love this book and have used it several times before for this blog.  (Do a label search on "Roman Empire."  You will find them!)

ISBN 1-903018-44-7

This recipe is on page 60 and has the undistinguished title of

Sauce for Cooked Meat

Ms. Grainger explains that a person of the time would be eating while reclining on one side, using one hand to bring the food up to the mouth.  When at first she tried this sauce, she interpreted it in a modern fashion, making it "thin, hot, plentiful and pourable" and found it disappointing.  But "When I considered them more as a pickle or dipping sauce, the likely use of these sauces became clear."  In other words, the sauce needed to stick to the meat to avoid it dripping onto the diner.

The challenge, in my view, was to make this sauce and closely follow the complicated-looking directions.  Here goes!

1 heaping tsp cumin seeds
1 level tsp myrtle berries *  (see note below)
generous freshly ground black pepper
2 heaped tsp chopped fresh parsley
1/2 small leek with the dark green removed
2 hard-boiled eggs, shelled
2 dessert spoons honey
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fish sauce

Ignore the dry parsley.  It butted its way into the picture unannounced.

Roast and grind the cumin and myrtle, mix with the pepper and combine with the parsley.  Chop the leek and cook in a little water.  Strain and place in a food processor or large mortar and grind or process into a paste.  Add the cooked eggs and process or grind again.  Add the spice and herb mixture, honey, vinegar, oil and fish sauce and blend by pulsing a few times.  Tip into a bowl and store until required.  Only store in the fridge if you are preparing or storing left-over sauce overnight.  Preparing it the day before does improve the flavour but bring back to room temperature before serving.

My Notes

*Special note:  I do not have any myrtle berries.  Apparently I could grow them but not in time for today's cooking spree.  To find a substitute I turned to The Epicenter which had a description:

Myrtle seeds are purple-black berries that are used whole or coarsely ground.  Its leaf is used whole or chopped.  Myrtle berries are sweet, with juniper and rosemary-like flavors.  The leaves have spice, astringent, and bitter taste [sic] with a refreshing, fragrant, and orangelike aroma.

Ah ha!  I decided to substitute in juniper berries, which I toasted, and then added a pinch of dried rosemary before grinding.

I toasted the juniper separately from the cumin seeds but combined them in the mortar.  I wasn't sure how long to toast the juniper but I stopped when I sniffed the berries and got a lovely resiny scent.

Toasted.

Ground (includes the rosemary).

I used about 1/2 teaspoon of ground pepper.

Honest, that was the smallest leek I could find in the store!  I used this much of it:

I used one of those big white pieces.

To cook the leeks, I put them in a pan with enough water to cover.  They simmered for a short while -- I stopped cooking them when most of the pieces were transparent.

In the beginning.

Processing that small amount of cooked leeks in my food processor was probably the most challenging part of making this sauce.  I had to stop it many times to scrape the leeks down off the walls.  But with persistence, I got it to nearly a paste consistency.

Adding the eggs helped even more.

I chose to use red wine vinegar for this recipe.

The instructions say to just pulse the mixture a few times after adding the herbs and spices and liquids, so I did.  But I wasn't convinced it was that well mixed.  So I stirred it after it went into the bowl.

It made about 3/4 of a cup.

The Verdict

I served it with thin slices of chicken for dipping.  We also had some fresh bread and a simple green salad.

Both light and dark meat.

I put all the sauces on plates.  There was one set of plates to be shared between every two people.

Roman sauce on the far left.  And this gives you a preview of the other sauces!

The idea was to dip your meat into the sauce and eat it but there was a problem.  The sauce was too thick to allow for easy dipping!  We ended up spooning some onto our plates and then spreading the sauce onto each piece.

You can see how firm the sauce is.

So how did it taste?

It was very intriguing.  Creamy, lightly spiced, slightly sweet, a little rich with a good mouthfeel.  It was hard to taste individual flavors but the blend was lovely.  The more I eat food with cumin, the more I love it and this sauce was no exception.  Success!

My guest tasters all enjoyed it.  Most of us agreed it was the best sauce of the four.  I certainly did.

I think the thickness was just right once I took it all out of the food processor, however the sauce sat for several hours before dinner and I think it thickened up.  If this happens again, I would double check the consistency just before serving and thin it with a little vinegar as needed.

As for the preparation challenge, I was pleasantly surprised to find it easy to make.  I thought the toasting, grinding, cooking, processing steps would be difficult but they weren't.  It is a definite do-again recipe.

I think I could just eat this sauce with a spoon.  Yes, it is that good.