Last night we had our Solstice dinner, celebrating the long night with the kids and a couple of (newlywed) friends (Hi Kristen & Shane!). I posted the menu a couple of days ago, and I thought I'd make a couple of notes about how it went.
Roast Capon - I'd never cooked a capon before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Both before and after cooking it really looked just like a chubby chicken. I made the stuffing as per the directions (but using whole hard-boiled eggs instead of just the yolks), and cooked it in the oven for two and a half hours.
The result was ... a chubby chicken. The meat had a very nice flavor, and was moist to the point of being buttery. The stuffing was loaded with flavor, and went really well with the capon. What did surprise me was the amount of fat in the capon. Even after cooking there were still layers of fat here and there. Yummy, but this is not a diet bird.
Roasted Turnips - This is an old standby now. It's almost as much a custard as it is a turnip dish - add some sugar and it could just about pass for a dessert. However, with all the eggs, butter, and cheese - this one is also not diet friendly.
Brussels sprouts (steamed, plain and simple) - I made about four tons of sprouts for this dinner and there were no leftovers. None. Aren't these supposed to be one of the least liked vegetables? I didn't even smother them with cheese or cream sauce. I didn't add bacon. I didn't add sugar. Just plain old sprouts. Either the world isn't like I've been lead to believe, or I have a weird family and friends.
Applemoyse (with snowe) - Ok, this is now officially my favorite medieval recipe. Not only is it incredibly quick and easy to make, but everyone seems to love it (including me). I made it properly this time (which adds the oh-so-difficult-and-tedious step of separating three eggs), kept it warm until serving, and topped it with snowe that I'd made ahead of time and kept in the fridge. I think I'll make some more for dessert tonight.
All that's left for my holiday season is the dinner on Christmas Eve. There's some extended-family drama that may complicate things, but we'll see how it goes.
18 hours ago
2 comments:
I'm thinking about trying the applemoyse, but making it "from scratch". I think roasting the apples and adding rosewater would give it a great flavor that using storebought applesauce couldn't match.
I've made the applemoyse "from scratch" before, usually with parboiled apples, but also with pears. It's quite good that way (especially when boiled in wine instead of water). I haven't tried using roasted apples though.
The nice thing about using applesauce (all natural, no sugar added) is that it's a lot quicker to make and the flavor isn't significantly changed.
I save the rosewater for the snowe, that way there's a difference in flavor to go with the temperature contrast.
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