Agalita (Garlic sauce) & honeyed carrots, recipes

[raffaellasworld]

The garlic sauce recipe came from a translation of Libro di cucina/ Libro per cuoco (14th/15th c.)  (Anonimo Veneziano), which you can oogle here: http://www.geocities.com/helewyse/libro.html

III. "Agliata", roasted garlic sauce.
Agliata to serve with every meat.  Take a bulb of garlic and roast it under the coals (substitute an oven in the current middle ages).  Grind the roasted garlic and mix with ground raw garlic, bread crumbs and sweet spices.  Mix with broth, put into a pan and let it boil a little before serving warm. 

My version: 
Take two heads (not clove, whole head) of fresh garlic. Cut off just the tops and wrap in tinfoil with a little water.  Roast on a cookie sheet for about 45- 60 minutes at 350. Once cooled squeeze out of skin, thow out skins. Add 1/4 cup fresh raw garlic chopped or crushed, blend in either food processor or blender until perfectly smooth. Add liquid* and bread crumbs until desired consistency is achieved.  
The original manuscript calls for broth, I've used both chicken or beef, and have also made a tasty vegetarian alternative with either vegi broth, or vinegar which adds a slight back-kick to the in your face garlic flavor. I'd start with adding 1/4 cup of both the liquid of your choice and the bread crumbs and keep going with one or the other until its the thickness you'd like. You can either make this quite pasty or fairly liquid. If it needs to travel you can also make up the paste and add the liquid on-site. 

Serves 4 garlic lovers or up to 8 flavor weenies. :) Also great made in big batches. I used about 10 heads and went more heavy on the raw crushed garlic for the wedding and it served 100 with about 1/4 cup left over. For my brother's wedding I used about 4 heads, and one of the attendees decided it was a great chip-dip. You won't have the most romantic breath after eating it, but you probably won't get sick for at least a week either.

Honeyed carrots: 
I can't remember the original sources, just that I saw a recipe for period carrots, the basic "take a goodly amount of carrots, cooke until they are don - add hony, butter and serve it forth" kind of a thing. :) I thought, HEY, I can do that and I need a tasty veggie, so I winged it. I can't believe we went through almost all 10 pounds. 

My version: 
This was for 100 people, so I'll put down what I did then break it down to smaller portions. 
10 lb baby carrots, peeled. It would have been nice to cut them into cute little rounds, but I was limited on time and help so I ran them through my food processor with the slicing attachment. It sliced most of them long way instead of little rounds, but it worked well. I decided to make these vegetarian friendly (but not vegan) so I cooked them in vegi broth until they were still firm but not raw. I added 1/2 stick of butter to each 5 pound pot, and honey to taste (probably about 1-2 cups. Let flavors combine, drain most of liquid and serve. 

Guesstimating for 6- 8 people, depending on how much they like veggies: 
1 pound baby peeled carrots,  3 cups broth (veggie, beef or chicken your choice), 1T butter, 1/4 cup honey (honey to taste, add some, test, add more if desired). 

This is really one of those dishes that is dependent on the individual cook, how done do you like your carrots, how sweet will you like them. It turns out even yummier than I had originally envisioned. :)
 

Comments

[beweaver.livejournal.com]

oooh, many thanks! One question on the agalita. Is it supposed to be creamy or oatmeal like?

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

I usually make it creamy, sometimes the consitancy is somewhat like a creamy dressing. With patients they would call it "Honey thickness".

Other times I make it more the thickness of chip dip or pudding.

[beweaver.livejournal.com]

So there are not supposed to be any garlic chunks, yes or no? Can it be pureed?

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

No chunks left. The roasted garlic is pretty smooshy, and the original recipe calls for both the roasted and raw to be ground.

[beweaver.livejournal.com]

and I did read it. Swear to god. *sigh* Sorry bout that

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

S'okay, no sweat. Just remember that when I beg for help on 15th century stuff and miss something, 'cause I know I will. :)

[beweaver.livejournal.com]

And so will I! I know very little about 15th century anything. ;-) Sorry. 14th century geek for the most part.

[beweaver.livejournal.com]

*grin* I know next to nothing about 15th century clothing. Just FYI. What I do is 14th century. There might be some crossover, especially for under layers, but I've never spent any time looking into it really. Just FYI.

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

seewhatImean? I don't know why my brain keeps getting it confused.

[beweaver.livejournal.com]

I think it gets confusing because several SCA people who supposedly know what they are doing are mixing 14th and 15th century clothing and presenting it as 15th when it is really 14th. Just my opinion but that is what I've seen a lot of.

[alexandralynch.livejournal.com]

A period French recipe (probably Le Menagier de Paris) is to cook the carrots in vegetable broth and add poudre douce, toss and serve. I generally use a cinnamon-cardamom-aniseed blend I'm fond of with a tiny bit of sugar added.

I am fond of the garlic sauce called alapeuere that is nothing but about 20 cloves mashed raw garlic and a few breadcrumbs for texture, a couple tablespoons of cracked black pepper, and vinegar to a sauce. It acts like horseradish in impact.

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I'll have to give both of those a try, they sound fabulous. :)

I've been playing with French food a lot more lately, dragging myself away from my Venetian obsession.

[corbaegirl.livejournal.com]

If I win the lottery, I will hire you to cook for me full-time.

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

You're on! That would be fabulous.

[corbaegirl.livejournal.com]

Hell, I'll even buy a stove that works....Did I tell you that there's only one working burner on my stove? The oven works fine, but that's my great excuse not to cook very much.

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

Is it the stovetop, or the connection to the burners themseves? Did you know you can buy replacement burners? Don't worry I won't tell. ;)

[corbaegirl.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's in the connections to the burners, which I can also buy, but I'm holding out for a new stove.

[brygyt.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Have you tried "sweet spices" with the Agliata?

(I could have done with this about a week ago before this summer cold made the rounds!)

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

I've done a version with some poudre douce, and I liked it but the garlic /sweet combo seemed to really weird some people out.

I've been experiementing with trying to keep things as period as possible and also been trying to convince the food weenies that period doesn't = yuck.

[alexandralynch.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm trying that too, though my focus is c.1390-1400 France/England. But my god... lobster meat, dates, figs, garlic, cracked black pepper, and marjoram smashed into a paste and stuffed into little fried rissoles? Beans cooked with pork broth, parsley and mint? This is some good stuff.

I'm working on a Lenten meal now.