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Multidisciplinary approaches to food and foodways in the medieval Eastern Mediterranean

 | 
Sylvie Yona Waksman

Byzantium and beyond

Recipe

Quail pie & Mixed pulses

Sally Grainger

Full text

Quail pie

For four individual pies

  • 4 quails
  • Stuffing mix as below
  • Splash of white wine per pie
  • Knob of butter per pie
  • Short crust pastry mix as below
  • Egg yolk for glaze

The stuffing

  • 1 onion, finely diced
  • 60 g portobello mushrooms, chopped fine
  • Oil
  • 30 g pistachio, chopped
  • 250 g lean pork mince
  • 30 g raisins
  • 30 g nibbed almonds
  • 1 fresh or dried date, chopped
  • 1 egg
  • 60 g bread crumbs
  • 1 level tea spoon ginger powder
  • 1 level tea spoon cinnamon powder
  • Generous pepper and a little salt

1Fry the onion and mushroom, add spices and cook them out in the oil. Cool, add the remaining ingredients and blend fully. Cook a small ball in hot oil, taste and adjust flavour. Trim the quail, stuff the breast under the skin and also place a ball of stuffing in the cavity.

The short crust pastry

  • 250 g plain flour
  • 125 g lard or butter
  • 60 ml cold water
  • Salt

2Crumb the fat into the flour and bind with the water and rest in the fridge until required. Roll out a quarter of the pastry into an oval and position the bird in the centre. Raise and mould a thick pastry shell around and 2/3 of the way up the bird and allow the dough to hug the bird and demonstrate the birds shape i.e. press the pastry around the legs and wings. Trim the dough straight. Pour a splash of wine over the bird and a knob of butter and pepper well. Roll the top and cut a perfect oval with a template and lay over the bird so that the shape of the legs and breast is apparent and the top curves down to meet the edges of the bottom pastry. Egg wash the edges and pinch lightly together. Egg wash the entire pie and bake at 180° for about 35 mins.

3When serving, tell guests to remove the lid and excavate the bird.

Mixed pulses

Serves 4

  • 50 g broad beans
  • 50 g green split peas
  • 50 g green lentils (not Puy lentils)
  • Chopped parsley
  • Fish sauce to taste
  • Pinch of clove and nutmeg

4Soak peas and/or beans overnight. Cook each separately and combine with a little cooking liquor in one pot. Fry plenty of onions in oil and stir into the beans with loads of chopped parsley. Season with fish sauce and finish with a pinch of clove and nutmeg.

Replica by potter J.-J. Dubernard of a champlevé “MBP” plate, possibly representing the warrior Digenis Akritas, from excavations in Thebes, Greece (photo Anemon Productions).

Replica by potter J.-J. Dubernard of a champlevé “MBP” plate, possibly representing the warrior Digenis Akritas, from excavations in Thebes, Greece (photo Anemon Productions).

POMEDOR conference “Byzantine” dinner at the Paul Bocuse Institute (Écully, France): the “Eustathios’ quail pie” with pulses (photo Anemon Productions).

POMEDOR conference “Byzantine” dinner at the Paul Bocuse Institute (Écully, France): the “Eustathios’ quail pie” with pulses (photo Anemon Productions).

POMEDOR conference “Byzantine” dinner at the Paul Bocuse Institute (Écully, France): Chef and student at work (photo Anemon Productions).

POMEDOR conference “Byzantine” dinner at the Paul Bocuse Institute (Écully, France): Chef and student at work (photo Anemon Productions).

List of illustrations

Title Replica by potter J.-J. Dubernard of a champlevé “MBP” plate, possibly representing the warrior Digenis Akritas, from excavations in Thebes, Greece (photo Anemon Productions).
URL http://books.openedition.org/momeditions/docannexe/image/10184/img-1.jpg
File image/jpeg, 1,2M
Title POMEDOR conference “Byzantine” dinner at the Paul Bocuse Institute (Écully, France): the “Eustathios’ quail pie” with pulses (photo Anemon Productions).
URL http://books.openedition.org/momeditions/docannexe/image/10184/img-2.jpg
File image/jpeg, 1,3M
Title POMEDOR conference “Byzantine” dinner at the Paul Bocuse Institute (Écully, France): Chef and student at work (photo Anemon Productions).
URL http://books.openedition.org/momeditions/docannexe/image/10184/img-3.jpg
File image/jpeg, 1,6M

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The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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