Pato con nabos, Duck with turnips -- a Pinedo recipe

 It's time for another Pinedo recipe! (If you don't know what that is, search for the recipes with the label "Pinedo").

On page 193, I saw Pato con nabos, or Duck with turnips.

My Translation

Duck with turnips.

         Having put a casserole on the fire with a good piece of butter which, being very hot, the duck cut into pieces will be emptied into it.

         When it begins to take color, add bacon, chopped into small pieces, turnips, and two onions with two cloves, a head of young garlic, a bay leaf, and parsley.

         When everything is well browned, boiling water is poured over it and salt and pepper are added, allowing the stew to boil over a low heat so that it seasons well.

My Redaction

1/4 cup butter

one 4 to 5 pound duck, cut into serving size pieces

1 pound bacon, cut into about 1-inch pieces

4 medium turnips, washed, peeled, and cut into large, bite-sized chunks

1 head garlic, peeled but not broken apart

1 bay leaf

2 onions, one of which is studded with 2 whole cloves

2 tablespoons parsley (dried)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

And cloves

Preheat some water in a kettle.

Heat the butter in a large Dutch oven until very hot.  Add the duck pieces a few at a time to brown.  Turn them to brown both sides.  Once the pieces take on some color, remove them to a plate and add a few more pieces.  Repeat until all the pieces are browned and out of the pan.

When the duck is done, put the bacon and turnips into the pan.  Cook them until the bacon is nearly done.  Don't expect the bacon or turnips to brown much (if at all) as the butter, bacon fat, and juices from the duck produce a lot of liquid.

Remove most of the bacon/turnip mixture from the pan and into a bowl.  Leave a thin layer on the bottom.  Place several pieces of duck on top of it, and nestle the onions, garlic head, and bay leaf into them.  Sprinkle on the parsley.  Put on a layer of bacon/turnips, then another layer of duck.  Repeat until all the duck and bacon/turnip mix is in the pan. This might fill the Dutch oven! 

Pour the hot water over the top until the ingredients are covered.  Sprinkled on the salt and pepper.  Bring the water to a boil, then turn the temperature down so that the water is just barely simmering.

Cook for 1 1/2 hours, or until the turnips are tender, the duck is cooked, and the broth tastes lovely.  Adjust salt and pepper as needed.  

Remove the bay leaf, cloves, and garlic head before serving.  The onion should break up easily for serving.

My Notes

The redaction covers it all.  Here are the pictures.

They took on some color.

This is the right size.

They didn't brown, but the bacon was cooked.

Nestled, all snug in their beds.

Just add water.

Ready to slow simmer.

Cooked.  *SIGH*

The Verdict

The duck was tender.  The turnips were tender.  The bacon was a little chewy, which is how I like it.  

The broth was perfect:  rich but not too rich, flavorful without being strong.  Honestly, it was its delicateness that stood out.  The flavor was well-balanced with the meaty flavor as dominant (but not strong) and supported with the herbs and spices.  One guest taster thought it needed more salt, but the other two tasters thought it was just right.

The turnips could have been potatoes and I would not have noticed much of a difference.  They had absorbed some of the bacon flavor, which was good.

The only negative was the amount of fat floating on top.  It did not spoil the meal at all, but it was fattier than I am used to eating.

The whole dish made an enjoyable meal.  It came across as sophisticated and even classy.  I served it with some of Pinedo's French wafers, fresh grapes from my garden, and a side salad composed of chopped tomatoes, tomatillos, and sweet onions (slivered) dressed with salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar.

Enjoy!

The leftovers were also good.  I noticed the broth became solid when chilled.  I defatted it, and that made the food even better.

Success, in a classy way!

It helped to have a bowl on the table dedicated to holding the bones as people ate their servings.

Swedish Potato Sausage

My aunt, PV, has been a cook and a foodie all her life.  She has shared some marvelous recipes with me over the years, and I admire her skill.  Recently we were talking about food, and she told me about the recipe her Swedish father-in-law taught her to make:  Swedish potato sausage.  I asked her for the recipe so I could document it.  

Potato Sausage

5 pounds potatoes -- peel and grind

2 1/2 pounds ground pork shoulder

2 1/2 pounds ground beef chuck

2 or 3 medium onions -- grind

5 tablespoons salt

1 1/4 tablespoons pepper

1 1/4 teaspoons allspice

Beef casings (also called beef rounds), enough to make at least 10 pounds of sausage

Kitchen twine 

Cut the casings into 16-inch long pieces. Rinse the salt from them (inside and out), then soak them in fresh lukewarm water for at least ten minutes.  

Mix the potatoes, pork, beef, onions, and spices well.  

Fill this mixture lightly into the beef casings, recognizing they will expand when cooked.  Tie the ends with the twine.  Or you can skip tying them off and just leave a one-inch overhang on each end.  Do not prick the sausage.

Heat water with one tablespoon salt in a large kettle.  Bring the water to a simmer.

Add the sausages.  Simmer them for about an hour; do not boil them!

Let the sausages cool in their broth.  Then store or freeze them in their broth.

To serve the sausages, reheat them by simmering them in their broth.  Remove the filling from the casings before eating.

My Notes

My wonderful, amazing daughter volunteered to help me, and it turned out having two people made the work much easier!

I used three medium onions that weighed about two pounds total.  

I ground the meat, then the onions, then the potatoes.  Everything was put into a large canning kettle so I had room to mix them with the spices.

Beef

Pork

Onions

Potatoes

Spices on top

All mixed together.

Casings ready to go

Fortunately, I have the sausage stuffing attachment for my mixer's grinder.  It was easy to slide a casing over the tube, tie off one end, then have the grinder push the stuffing into the casing.  My daughter put the mixture into the grinder, and I was in charge of regulating how fast the stuffing went into the casing.  This is when having two people was very important.

About a pound of filling

Casing is on the tube.  Ready to be tied and filled.

In all, we used 12 casings, and they weighed on average 16 ounces each.  We tied off all but one because we wanted to try my aunt's method of leaving the ends open.  Thus, we had twelve pounds of sausages.  Hooray!

Once the sausages were made, we cleaned the kettle then heated the water in it.  I filled the kettle about half full of water.  This was plenty to cover all the sausages for cooking.

In the beginning

After about an hour of simmering, I noticed the sausages were floating instead of sitting on the bottom of the kettle.

Floating sausages

Once the sausages had cooled, I saved one out to taste.  The rest went into bags for freezing.  Each sausage was individually packaged with about 1 1/2 cups of its broth.

To reheat, I put the sausage in its broth in a pan and brought the broth to a simmer.  I covered the pan and simmered for about five minutes, then flipped the sausage and let it simmer another five or so minutes.

The untied sausage, reheating

My aunt emphasizes you should never fry or boil these sausages.  Simmer them for the initial cooking and again when they reheat for serving.  Also, the beef rounds are not digestible.  You must cut them open and scrape out the stuffing to eat it.  (A spoon helps remove the stuffing.)  Discard the casing as it is just a cooking vessel.  (Just like haggis!)

The Verdict

It was good!  The texture made us think of a corned beef hash, and the flavor was meaty with the onion, allspice, salt, and pepper as a good supporting cast.  The potato added its distinctive flavor but also made the sausage lighter in texture than a solid meat mixture would be.  It was a soft main course.

Success!  I look forward to eating the rest of them.

The main course

I served toast with it, so sometimes we ate the sausage as it was (by the forkful) and sometimes we spread it on the toast.  Both were good.

Later, I opened the casing of a cooked sausage and browned the mixture.  This was also a good way to serve it.  (Tasted great with a side dish of onions and apple chunks cooked in butter and spiced with pepper, cinnamon, and salt.)

My aunt says this is considered an authentic Swedish recipe, but noted there are spicing variations.  She has made this many times and finds the allspice, pepper, and salt mix "quite pleasing to my taste buds!"

After stuffing the casings, there was meat mixture left in the grinder and the tube, so we took that out and fried it as patties while the sausages were simmering.

This was also very tasty:  the exterior was a little crunchy and the interior was soft, so it was like eating meaty hash browns.  My only criticism is that it was too salty -- and that is easily fixed by adjusting the recipe.  I think that someone who didn't want to deal with stuffing beef rounds could make this filling (with less salt) and freeze it in small amounts, then fry it before serving.   A bonus recipe!

Mermelada de tomate, Tomato Jam -- a Pinedo recipe

My neighbors, G & T, gave me a large bag of tomatoes -- an "excess" from their family garden.  I was thrilled!  I had been contemplating Pinedo recipes and had not yet made up my mind which to make.  This clenched it.

If you are not familiar with my series of Pinedo recipes, please click on the word "Pinedo" in the Labels section of this blog or do a search on the word "Pinedo".

I reviewed the recipes that used tomatoes and decided on the one on pages 161 and 162, Tomato Jam, which would use up most of the tomatoes they shared with me.

Miss Pinedo's recipe

My Translation

Tomato jam.

         Take one ounce of sugar for each large tomato; cook to the caramel point in the pan. Add the tenth part [of the weight of the tomatoes] of onions cut into small pieces, and when it has begun to color, the tomatoes are put inside with salt, pepper, cloves, and nutmeg.

Everything will be boiled over a very high heat and when it is quite thick, it is passed through a sieve.

         It is then returned to the fire until this jam is solid. It will be emptied into jars that will be covered with double paper to preserve it.

         It can also be composed without the onion in which case it will be used for many sauces.

         You can also make pure tomato jam, which will be used for different stews.

My Redaction

6 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes

12 ounces onion (1 medium onion)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 pound sugar

The order of steps is important here because once the sugar is caramelized, it needs to be used immediately.

Core the tomatoes and chop them.  Peel the onion and chop it.  Sprinkle the salt, pepper, cloves, and nutmeg on top of the mixture, then stir it.  Set it aside.

Use a large, heavy-bottomed kettle or Dutch oven to make the jam.  First heat it over medium-high heat.

Start caramelizing the sugar by pouring in several ounces across the bottom of the kettle.  Stir slowly and calmly with a wooden spoon -- avoid splashing sugar on the sides of the pan.  When all the sugar has melted, pour in a few more ounces.  Continue stirring.  Repeat the process until all the sugar is in the pan.  

When the last bit of sugar is melted, turn the heat to low.  Stop stirring.  Watch the sugar and, if possible, use a candy thermometer to check the temperature.  The molten sugar should be a beautiful golden brown, or reach 320 to 360 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once it is ready, pour in the tomato and onion mixture.  Stir well and turn the heat back up.

Keep stirring and bring the mixture to a hard boil.  Continue boiling to reduce the mixture and get it thick.  Stir occasionally to check that nothing is sticking to the bottom of the kettle.  Reduce the heat as needed to keep the thickening mixture from splattering outside the kettle.  This could take an hour or more.

Once the mixture is thick, puree it with a stick blender or in batches in a regular blender.  It won't be smooth but will look a lot like commercially-made tomato sauce.

Return the mixture to a simmer over low heat until it gets very thick, like a jam.  Stir often to stop it from sticking.

Put into jars and refrigerate.

My Notes

I used a food processor to get everything chopped into small pieces.  I worked in small batches and combined the batches together in one big bowl.  Note that I did not put the onions into the caramelized sugar to brown before the tomatoes went in.

Everything together, before the spices were stirred in.

One pound of melted sugar did not get deep enough for my candy thermometer to reach it, so I went by color and used a meat thermometer to get a feel for its temperature.  (I held it by hand and had a hard time keeping it off the hot bottom of the pan.)

A beautiful caramel color.

When I poured in the tomato mixture, there was a lot of sizzling and splattering.  The caramelized sugar immediately cooled to hard chunks.  But with the cooking process that followed, the chunks dissolved.  I suspect it might have been better to caramelize the sugar in a smaller pan and then pour that into the heated tomato mixture.

Newly combined

As the mixture boils, it is losing water.  If you don't lower the temperature while it is boiling, the tomato mixture will splatter all over your kitchen.  (Trust me on this!)  Check for that every time you stir it.  You will feel the mixture thickening.

Reduced to thick and ready for pureeing.

Pureed.

Miss Pinedo says to cook the pureed mixture until it is solid.  I didn't let it get that far, but it was very thick and it got thicker when it was cold.  Overall, it reduced to about one-fourth of its original volume.

The Verdict

It was thick, it was red, and bits of pepper were visible in the mixture.

We tried it by itself, just off the spoon.  It was sweet, but not like a fruit jam.  It was savory from the spices.  It was rich and had a good mouthfeel.  There was a slight acid bite and a little bitter aftertaste that was not unpleasant.  The main effect was a complex flavor that hinted of tomatoes but went much further than that.

We tried it spread on a flour tortilla - delicious!  My neighbors used it as a sauce on shrimp and found it to be good.  I think it would be a good spread on a sandwich, in the place of mayonnaise or mustard.  I would put a spoonful of it on my plate to be eaten along with roast chicken or beef.  It is robust enough to enhance beef and not be overwhelmed by it.

Look closely.  See how thick it is and notice the pepper in it.

Success!  

I got about 6 cups of tomato jam from the 6 pounds of tomatoes.  I didn't can it, so I kept it in the refrigerator.  There was plenty to share with others.

As Miss Pinedo noted, you can make this without onions and even without spices.  I would prefer the complex flavors because without them, I think I would just have tomato sauce or tomato paste.

Pastés de poucins à la mode Lombarde (Chicken pasties Lombard)

I was describing how old recipes are not as detailed as what we are accustomed to in modern cookbooks and looked for some examples to illustrate it.  The following recipe, from Pleyn Delit, Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks by Constance B. Hieatt, Brenda Hosington, and Sharon Butler caught my attention and also tempted my tastebuds.  Chicken wrapped in bacon?  I'm in.

ISBN 0-8020-7632-7

This is one of my favorite books.  Find recipe #107, as the book has no page numbers.  The authors took it from the late 14th century manuscript, Le Ménagier de Paris.

Pastés de poucins à la mode Lombarde

In the Lombard manner, when the small chickens are plucked and prepared, take beaten eggs, both the yolks and the whites, with verjuice and spice powder, and dip your chickens in this; and set them in the pasty with strips of bacon.

Notice that the recipe does not tell you any measurements or what spices to use.  It also does not say to cook the pasties!

My Redaction

The authors provide their version but I wanted to try it myself without their help.  

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

4 slices of bacon

2 eggs, well beaten

1 tablespoon poudre fines spice mix (see ingredient list in the Notes below)

2 tablespoons verjuice (or you can substitute lemon juice, according to the authors)

1 batch of pasties dough or pastry dough, chilled (I used the pasties dough recipe from King Arthur Baking, click here for it.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium-sized bowl, beat the eggs with the spices and verjuice.  Set aside.

Cut the chicken breasts into pieces about 1 inch thick and about 2 to 3 inches long.  Cut eight and aim for uniformity so they bake evenly.  You will probably have some chicken meat left over.

Cut the bacon slices in half.

Cut the dough into eight equal-sized pieces.  Roll out one piece to about 6 inches in diameter.

Place a piece of bacon on the dough.

Dip a piece of chicken into the egg mixture.  The spices are mostly on the bottom, so push the meat down there to pick up a nice coating of egg and spices.  Place the chicken on the bacon, then wrap the bacon around the chicken in a spiral shape.

Wet the edges of the dough with water, fold over the chicken, pressing out most of the trapped air, then seal the edges.  Flute them or press them with a fork.  Cut some venting slits in the top. 

Place the pasty on the cooking sheet and then repeat the process for the other pasties.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.  The pasty dough should have some light browning on it.

My Notes

The King Arthur Baking recipe needed more water than they listed.  I put in about 8 tablespoons and it was still too dry for rolling well.  

I actually used 3 eggs but there was so much left over that I wrote to use 2 eggs.  One might have sufficed.

The poudre fines spice mix contains cinnamon, cloves, ginger, grains of paradise, pepper, and saffron.  

I cooked the batch for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Reasonably uniform in size

Too much egg.  

First, bacon

Then chicken

Spiral wrap

I really need to work on my pastry finishing skills.

The Verdict

They were tasty!  The chicken and bacon were both thoroughly cooked, and I think they would have been better if I had taken them out at 15 minutes to make the chicken moister.

Good with green beans.

The dough was just right -- flexible enough to roll and fold and sturdy enough to hold the ingredients without (much) leaking.  My guest tasters and I commented on its good flavor.  I was happy with its texture and crispiness.  It was not a pie crust but more like a step between pie crust and bread.  I suspect the dough absorbed most of the bacon fat, which added to the overall flavor.

Chicken wrapped in bacon was, of course, flavorful, and you can't beat that.  Chicken breast always strikes me as dry, and I felt that way about this, although it was not too dry.  However, the bacon contributed some fat to improve that.  I think using chicken thigh meat would be an improvement for me.

As a group, the dough, chicken, bacon, and spices were a good blend, an enjoyable meal, and we ate them all at dinner.  

I wished to taste more of the spices, and one of my guest tasters agreed.  The spices weren't always present in a bite, and only showed themselves sometimes.  If I were to do this again, I would sprinkle the spice mixture on the dough before wrapping it around the meat.  That would ensure enough spice and that it was spread evenly across the pasty.  Still, I am not complaining about the flavor.

We also decided to try eating the pasties with a sauce.  I created a sweet-and-sour one with verjuice, honey, salt, pepper, and some ground, toasted bread crumbs as a thickener.  We poured spoonfuls over the pasty, which was a very good addition, making it moister and adding more flavor.  If you do this, aim for more verjuice than honey, and it should tingle your taste buds with that balance of sweet with sour.  I didn't measure anything, I just combined.  I heated it up in the microwave to help the breadcrumbs absorb and thicken the sauce just a little.

With sauce.  The breadcrumbs helped keep all of the sauce from running out of the pasty.

While the batch of pasties were cooking, I decided to use up the rest of the bacon and more of the egg mixture.  First I cut more chicken breast into the same size pieces I made for the pasties.  After dipping each piece in the egg and wrapping it with bacon, I rolled it in dried bread crumbs.  Those baked for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees when the pasties came out.

These were also well-received.  Quite tasty!  They were perfect little two bite morsels, and the bread crumbs added a nice crunch.

Success!  In several ways!

French Wafers -- a Pinedo recipe

It is definitely time to play with the Pinedo book and to try a recipe.  (For more details on Pinedo's book and other recipes of hers I have tried, search this blog under the key word "Pinedo.")

Today I chose to make French wafers.  The recipe made me think this would be like a thin ice cream cone, like a sugar cone or a waffle cone.  

Her recipe:

Pages 28 - 29

My translation:

My redaction:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 beaten eggs

12 ounces whole milk

butter for the mold

powdered sugar for dusting

Start heating the mold over medium heat (5 of 10).  

Mix dry ingredients together in one bowl.

Beat eggs with a whisk until foamy and light.

Mix eggs, milk, and dry ingredients together.  You might need to adjust the amount of milk according to what your flour needs.  The result should be a thin batter.

Lightly butter both sides of the mold.  Pour a little batter into the center of the mold.  Close the lid and hold it closed until the squealing noises are through; holding it a little longer is fine as the batter is probably still spreading in the mold.

Continue to cook on that side for another 10 to 15 seconds.  Flip the mold and check the wafer's color -- if it is not a golden brown, flip it back and cook it for a few more seconds.  Cook the second side of the wafer until it is a good color, too. 

Remove the wafer and place it on a cooling rack if you want to keep it flat.  Or roll it around a dowel or other cylinder and place it on a plate.  Dust it liberally with powdered sugar.  Makes 30 or more wafers.

My Notes

Eggs are foamy

Batter is thin.

I have what I believe is a pizzelle iron, and I found using one tablespoon of batter worked quite well.  Adjust your quantity as suits your iron.

Just the right amount in just the right location.

It took me several tries to get the right amount of batter and placing it in just the right location on the iron.  I noticed that my original wafers were very thick on one side (the handles side) and very thin on the other (the hinge side).  That observation inspired me to hold the handles to resist the puffy batter from pushing the iron's sides apart.  It does still push it somewhat, but the difference in thickness was reduced and the batter spread out more across the iron.  This gave me a bigger, more uniformly thick wafer.

I love the scalloped edges, like fancy lace.

After I got the hang of putting in the batter and holding the handles, I paid more attention to how often I put butter on the iron -- every three or four wafers seemed right.  I used a silicone brush and put a very light coating of butter each time.

I also got a better sense of when the wafer was ready to be flipped and then removed.  A few times the thinnest part got too brown, and I could tell by the scent it had cooked too long.  It was worth it to check the wafer for doneness several times on both sides to get it right.

I tried rolling them with my fingers and was not satisfied with the uneven result.  So I used a dowel and that worked out much better.  Mine was about 1 inch in diameter.  I used both the uniform diameter part and the tapered part and liked both results.

Rolling on the tapered end of the dowel

My disappointment was that I fully expected them to be crispy and stay crispy -- just like a sugar cone for ice cream.  They were crispy for a short while but then got soft.  Just like my waffles, unfortunately.  But they did look good rolled and overlapped on a plate, and I dusted each layer with powdered sugar as I went along.

At one point I decided to keep them flat and I wanted them crispy, so I immediately put them on a cooling rack.  This worked well to keep their steam from making them soft.  

The Verdict

We tried them plain, and they were plain.  Notice there is no sugar or other flavorings like vanilla in the batter.  I think they are intended to be a neutral base to support and convey other flavors in the meal.

The powdered sugar made them better.

Buttering them wasn't really interesting, even though butter tastes good.

The best way of eating them was to spread them with jam first.  We tried pomegranate jelly (good), aronia berry jam (better), and Dorie Greenspan's Lemon Goop (best).  The goop does not have sugar in it, and the tartness of the lemon with its slightly salty background was just excellent.  

We declared it a success!  At least, we tried to say "success", but our mouths were full.  

I froze most of the flat ones with the idea of using them to accompany a savory stew (no powdered sugar) or to serve with ice cream.  You can see the way I served a stew with them below.

I'm not sure how to serve the wafers "very hot" because I could only make one at a time.  Perhaps they were all put on a tray in the oven until the batter was used up, then served.

The internet gives many opinions on how to get the wafers crispy and have them stay that way.  It suggests using non-stick cooking spray instead of butter on the iron.  Or to add sugar to the batter.  Or to cook it on a higher heat.  I'm not sure.  The original recipe does not state that the result will be crispy.  Perhaps they are supposed to be soft after they are rolled.  The result I got was somewhere in between a crispy ice cream cone and a softer crepe.  

Yum!  What filling should go inside there?

Savory stew with plain wafer.  Excellent!

I made a stew for dinner and served it with a single wafer.  After defrosting the wafer, I put it into the toaster oven for a very light toasting, which got it hot and made it crispy.  Not only did it look good, the wafer soaked up the stew's liquid base.  It also added a pleasant chewy starch to the meal.