Shakespeare's Kitchen (15 page)

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly milled black pepper

½ cup butter

¼ cup verjuice

1.
    Heat the wine in a small saucepan. Add the brown sugar, fennel, savory, rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and cool to room temperature. Place the venison in a bowl and pour on the marinade. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours, or overnight, turning the roast occasionally to ensure even marinating.

2.
    Preheat the oven to 400°F. Remove the venison from the marinade, reserving the marinade. Place the roast in a baking pan and sprinkle the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, and pepper over the roast. Dot with ¼ cup of the butter. Roast in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 145°F for medium. Allow the loin to rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving.

3.
    Meanwhile, simmer the reserved marinade for 40 minutes, stirring frequently. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and whisk in the verjuice and remaining ¼ cup of butter. Serve the sauce in a small dish alongside the venison.

Herbed Veal Rolls

SERVES 6

Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierc’d the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate-tree …

ROMEO AND JULIET,
3.5

 S
TUFFED AND ROASTED
larks were a rare delicacy in Shakespeare’s time, so veal slices were often substituted for these tiny birds. In the original recipe the suggested list of herbs is extensive and includes all sorts of greens such as strawberry leaves and endive. Mixing an assortment of herbs, lettuces, and fruit leaves makes this veal filling delicious and unusual. Whenever possible, I now add crunchy endive and snips of organic, pesticide-free fresh fruit leaves to any recipe calling for fresh herbs.

½ cup currants

⅓ cup white wine

2 hard-cooked egg yolks

2 tablespoons butter, melted

6 dried plums, slivered

1½ cups chopped assorted lettuces and herbs (such as endive, spinach, chicory, parsley, thyme, sorrel, or strawberry leaves)

3 scallions, thinly sliced

12 very thin veal slices (approximately 3 by 4 inches each)

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

¼ teaspoon ground mace

⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon ground cloves

½ cup finely diced endive

¼ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

12 long fresh chives (optional)

1.
    Soak the currants in the wine for 30 minutes. Drain, reserving the wine.

2.
    Mash the egg yolks and butter in a large bowl. Add the dried plums, currants, and 2 tablespoons of the wine from the currants and mix well. Toss in the lettuces and scallions and mix well. Season each slice of the veal with salt and pepper. Spread about 2 tablespoons of the lettuce mixture onto each veal slice, roll closed, and tie with kitchen string.

3.
    Place the olive oil in a large skillet and sear the veal for 1½ to 2 minutes per side, or until browned. Add the remaining wine from the currants, the mace, cinnamon, and cloves and gently simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the wine has evaporated.

4.
    Place 2 veal rolls in the center of each plate and sprinkle with the diced endive and parsley. If you like, snip the kitchen string and retie the rolls after cooking with long fresh chives.

Renaissance “Apple” and Steak Pie

SERVES 12

Look to the bak’d meats, good Angelica:
Spare not for cost.

ROMEO AND JULIET,
4.4

 S
LICES OF RICHLY
seasoned steak are topped with tiny lamb meatballs that look like little apples because of the way the sprig of sage leaf is centered. This pie has no top crust, so guests can easily serve themselves to a succulent meatball and slice of steak.

Twelve ¼-inch-thick slices top round or boneless shell steaks (about 4 by 5 inches each)

1 teaspoon coarsely milled fresh pepper

1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

1 pound ground lamb

½ teaspoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

½ teaspoon finely chopped thyme

½ teaspoon finely chopped sage

1 large egg

¼ cup cream

¼ cup raisins

½ recipe of
Renaissance Dough

¼ cup orange-flavored liqueur (or orange juice)

2 tablespoons verjuice

1 tablespoon butter

12 sage leaves

1.
    Pound the slices of steak with a meat hammer until very thin. Sprinkle the slices with the pepper, nutmeg, and salt, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

2.
    Combine the lamb, parsley, thyme, chopped sage, egg, cream, and raisins and form into 12 balls.

3.
    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Roll out the Renaissance Dough to ⅛ inch thick on a floured work surface. Press the dough into a 9 by 13-inch baking pan, trimming any excess dough. Bake for 10 minutes, or until light golden brown.

4.
    Preheat the broiler. Broil the steaks and meatballs for 1 minute on each side. Line the bottom of the piecrust with the cooked steaks and top with the meatballs.

5.
    Place the orange liqueur in a small saucepan and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes. Whisk in the verjuice and butter and pour over the steak and meatballs. Poke a hole in the top of each meatball with a toothpick and insert a sage leaf to form the “apples.”

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

To bake Steak Pies the French way

Season the steaks with pepper, nutmeg, and salt lightly, and set them by; then take a piece of the leanest of a leg of mutton, and mince it small with some beef suet and a few sweet herbs, as tops of tyme, penniroyal, young red sage, grated bread, yolks of eggs, sweet cream, raisins of the sun & c. work all together and make it into little balls, and rouls, put them into a deep round pye on the steaks, then put to them some butter, and sprinkle it with verjuyce, close it up and bake it, being baked cut it up, then roul sage leaves in butter, fry them, and stick them in the balls, serve the pye without a cover, and liquor it with the juyce of two or three oranges or lemons.

THE ACCOMPLISHT COOK,
1660

Steak with Elderberry Mustard

SERVES 4

G
RUMIO:
 … What say you to a piece of meat and mustard?
K
ATHARINA:
A dish that I do love to feed upon.
G: Ay, but the mustard is too hot a little.
K: Why then, the beef, and let the mustard rest.
G: Nay, then, I will not: you shall have the mustard,
Or else you get no beef of Grumio.
K: Then both, or one, or any thing thou wilt.
G: Why then, the mustard without the beef.

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW,
4.3

 T
HE MUSTARD
for this grilled steak is made with elderberry wine and elderberry vinegar, but any berry liqueur and vinegar work well. For parties I set out the mustard ingredients and ask friends to mix their own. This way guests can adjust the ratio of hot to sweet to suit their taste.

London broil (about 1½ pounds)

½ teaspoon coarsely milled black pepper

⅛ teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon coarsely ground coriander seeds

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons elderberry wine

¼ cup honey

1 tablespoon dry mustard

1 tablespoon elderberry vinegar

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1.
    Place the beef in a nonreactive pan and sprinkle with the pepper, ginger, and coriander. Pour ½ cup of the wine over the meat, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 8 hours, or overnight.

2.
    Combine the remaining 2 tablespoons wine, the honey, dry mustard, and vinegar in a small bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set the mustard aside.

3.
    Preheat the grill. Remove the beef from the marinade, brush with 1 tablespoon of the melted butter, and grill for 5 minutes. Brush the uncooked side with the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter, turn over, and grill for 5 to 6 minutes, or until the meat is cooked to medium. Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting.

4.
    Serve with elderberry mustard on the side.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

To Carbonado, broil or toast Beef in the Italian fashion

Take the ribs, cut them into steaks & hack them, then season them with pepper, salt, and coriander-seed, being first sprinkled with rose-vinegar, or elder vinegar, then lay them one upon another in a dish the space of an hour, and broil or toast them before the fire, and serve them with the gravy that came from them, or juyce of orange and the gravy boild together.

THE ACCOMPLISHT COOK,
1660

Carbonado was a method of cutting and notching meat for more even cooking. The term was derived from
carbone,
the Italian for charcoal. One 1615 recipe for beef carbonado came with a warning: “indeed a dish used most for wantonness!”

 … He scotched him and notched him
like a carbonado.

CORIOLANUS,
4.5

Prime Rib Roast with Orange-Glazed Onions

SERVES 6

 T
O ROAST
a Fillet of Beef,” as indicated in the original recipe, meant skewering and turning it on a spit before an open fire.

In this modern version the onions are divided into two batches to create a nice combination of tender onions for the glaze and firm ones for a side vegetable.

6 large onions, quartered

1 cup finely chopped assorted fresh herbs (parsley, marjoram, tarragon, rosemary, or hyssop)

1 prime rib roast, bone in (about 10 pounds, 6 ribs)

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

2 tablespoons verjuice

¼ cup
Renaissance Stock

½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice

Zest of 1 orange

1.
    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Toss the onions and herbs in a roasting pan. Reserve half of the onions in a plastic bag. Season the prime rib with lots of salt and pepper and place on top of the herb–onion mixture. Roast for 1½ hours, then add the remaining onions. Continue to roast for another hour, or until the internal temperature reaches 160°F for medium. Meanwhile, bring the stock to a boil in a small sauce pan until reduced by half.

2.
    Remove the meat from the pan and let rest. Add the verjuice and Renaissance Stock to the pan and stir to loosen the onions and drippings. Purée ¼ cup of the onions, the juices from the pan, and the orange juice until smooth and stir in the orange zest.

3.
    Place onions in the center of a serving platter and top with the roast. Serve the sauce in a side dish.

Simmered Beef “Hodgepodge” with Sherry-Parsley Sauce