jo_graham (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jo_graham) wrote,@ 2009-03-10 10:27:00 |
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Charmian's Main Course
For the main course of Charmian's meal I selected Chicken with Alexandrian Sauce. Apicus tells us that this sauce comes from Egypt, where it is served with poultry and fish. Admittedly, I thought it sounded a little unusual. Raisins and fish sauce are not a combination I usually consider! However, it turned out to be really, really good.
Ducks and other poultry have been served in Egypt since Neolithic times, and some of the oldest Old Kingdom monuments show duck hunts or offerings of ducks and geese. However, the chicken was a relatively new import into Charmian's Egypt.
Chickens are native to Southeast Asia rather than the Mediterranean, and seem to have come to the Black Land in the years immediately after Alexander the Great's death. !hen that first Ptolemy, Charmian's ancestor, settled in Egypt with his soldiers, veterans of Alexander's campaigns, they brought with them campaign wives and families from across the known world, from all the lands they had marched through. Perhaps it is those women, from Persia and India, who brought with them their chickens in coops in the backs of wagons, easy to take care of and their eggs a ready source of protein on the road. Chickens are cheap, eat nearly anything, small enough to readily handle, and easy to pop in a basket in the back of the wagon. They would be the ideal food from their homelands for these women, the ideal food for their children as they followed armies for thousands of miles.
However they came, within a few years of the founding of Alexandria, there were chickens there. From Alexandria they spread over the Mediterranean, and by Charmian's time were as much a ubiquitous food as they are today.
This is our small chicken, sitting in a roasting pan. Baked chicken is one of those dishes that's almost impossible to mess up. This chicken has half an onion stuffed in the cavity and has been rubbed with olive oil. That's it. It's going in a 350 degree oven for about an hour and a half. The olive oil makes the skin crispy and keeps the moisture in, making a very tender bird indeed.
Here's the chicken as it appears coming out, a lovely golden brown color.
Alexandrian Sauce (according to Apicius)
½ tsp black peppercorns
¾ tsp celery seeds
3 tbs golden raisins
1/2 cup wine
2 tsp fish sauce
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 1 tbs water
1 tbs chopped cilantro
Combine the peppercorns, celery seed, raisins, wine, fish sauce, and olive oil in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook for 2 minutes. Add the cornstarch mixture and boil for 1-2 minutes until it begins to thicken. Stir in the chopped cilantro and serve.
For the wine I have used a rose, Beringer White Merlot, which is the kind of inexpensive table wine that would have been widely used in Charmian's day. In the last installment on the dinner I'll talk more about wine, but it was ideal in this dish. The sauce jelled very quickly, and the wine jelly was a perfect base for the other ingredients. I had my doubts about this sauce before hand, but with the plain tender baked chicken it was not overpowering at all.
Here you can see it beside the chicken, prepared to serve. We also served more of the wonderful Persian Bread with this course.
Once again I'd like to thank the friends who helped cook and photograph everything, Amy, Courtney, Katy, and Lawrence.
For the main course of Charmian's meal I selected Chicken with Alexandrian Sauce. Apicus tells us that this sauce comes from Egypt, where it is served with poultry and fish. Admittedly, I thought it sounded a little unusual. Raisins and fish sauce are not a combination I usually consider! However, it turned out to be really, really good.
Ducks and other poultry have been served in Egypt since Neolithic times, and some of the oldest Old Kingdom monuments show duck hunts or offerings of ducks and geese. However, the chicken was a relatively new import into Charmian's Egypt.
Chickens are native to Southeast Asia rather than the Mediterranean, and seem to have come to the Black Land in the years immediately after Alexander the Great's death. !hen that first Ptolemy, Charmian's ancestor, settled in Egypt with his soldiers, veterans of Alexander's campaigns, they brought with them campaign wives and families from across the known world, from all the lands they had marched through. Perhaps it is those women, from Persia and India, who brought with them their chickens in coops in the backs of wagons, easy to take care of and their eggs a ready source of protein on the road. Chickens are cheap, eat nearly anything, small enough to readily handle, and easy to pop in a basket in the back of the wagon. They would be the ideal food from their homelands for these women, the ideal food for their children as they followed armies for thousands of miles.
However they came, within a few years of the founding of Alexandria, there were chickens there. From Alexandria they spread over the Mediterranean, and by Charmian's time were as much a ubiquitous food as they are today.
This is our small chicken, sitting in a roasting pan. Baked chicken is one of those dishes that's almost impossible to mess up. This chicken has half an onion stuffed in the cavity and has been rubbed with olive oil. That's it. It's going in a 350 degree oven for about an hour and a half. The olive oil makes the skin crispy and keeps the moisture in, making a very tender bird indeed.
Here's the chicken as it appears coming out, a lovely golden brown color.
Alexandrian Sauce (according to Apicius)
½ tsp black peppercorns
¾ tsp celery seeds
3 tbs golden raisins
1/2 cup wine
2 tsp fish sauce
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 1 tbs water
1 tbs chopped cilantro
Combine the peppercorns, celery seed, raisins, wine, fish sauce, and olive oil in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook for 2 minutes. Add the cornstarch mixture and boil for 1-2 minutes until it begins to thicken. Stir in the chopped cilantro and serve.
For the wine I have used a rose, Beringer White Merlot, which is the kind of inexpensive table wine that would have been widely used in Charmian's day. In the last installment on the dinner I'll talk more about wine, but it was ideal in this dish. The sauce jelled very quickly, and the wine jelly was a perfect base for the other ingredients. I had my doubts about this sauce before hand, but with the plain tender baked chicken it was not overpowering at all.
Here you can see it beside the chicken, prepared to serve. We also served more of the wonderful Persian Bread with this course.
Once again I'd like to thank the friends who helped cook and photograph everything, Amy, Courtney, Katy, and Lawrence.
