The Celtic Hearth

A Mawmenye of Gyngere & Skirrets

The Period Soup/Stew Competition:

Northwinds Security entered The Iron Chef Renaissance Cook Off at Kearney Renaissance Festival this year and won first prize! I was honored to be able to prepare our entry. My dear friend Steve donated lamb so I based the stew on the Medievalish dish created by Madeline Cosman 'Mawmenye' (Lentils with Lamb) .

The original recipe uses turnips and cinnamon to flavor the lentils and lamb. My redaction features ginger and carrots. I was fortunate enough to have heirloom white and pale yellow carrots with me (Trader Joes had them) so into the pot they went along with a foraged leek, half an onion, some extra spicy ginger beer I brought to drink and a bummed bottle of creamy Guinness (minus a goodly swallow for the cook). I spied about a cup of leftover broth from Top Ramen and slipped it in the pot, too. For flour, pancake mix sufficed.

For the competition we were given ordinary store-shelf lentils, but I think this would be very good with yellow lentils. I originally created the dry Ginger Spice Mix for Teriyaki (just add soy sauce, honey, a bit of white wine and garnish with toasted sesame seeds). It contains basic spices found in medieval cooking and is similar to Powder Duce. The sugar in the spice mix really brought out the sweetness in the carrots. I omitted the dried fruits (having none at hand), but golden raisins & white figs would have been a nice touch as a garnish. There was Herbs de Province at hand so I added a pinch which gave it a soft hint of rosemary and basil without overpowering the dish. For the garnish I used curly parsley.

Winning Recipe: Lentils & Lamb Stew w/ Carrots & Ginger

1 lb small 1/2" chunks lamb - remove all fat & gristle
1/3 cup flour seasoned with a 1/2 tsp Ginger Spice Mix
2 cups oil, for frying
Dry Ginger Spice mix: 3 tb ginger, powdered, 3tb garlic, granulated, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1tb pepper, 2tb sugar, 1tb Salt, pinch celery seed
pinch herbs de province
white and yellow carrots 3 cups, chopped
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 leek, chopped
12 oz ginger ale
8 oz dark beer
1 cup broth
1-2 sp salt, to taste
water, as necessary

2 cups cleaned lentils cooked in 6 cups distilled water - add optional lamb shank but no salt or acids (reserve w/ liquid). Do not overcook. I cooked per package "for salads".

Method:
Season the lamb chunks with about 1 TB of the ginger spice mix and allow them to marinate while you prepare the lentils. Set aside the lentils when done ( don't drain). Heat the oil in a deep pot. Flour the meat chunks and fry 1/4 at a time until browned. Drain each batch well. When finished frying the meat, dump the oil from the pan and deglaze the browned bits with a bottle of ginger ale and 8 oz of dark beer (you may need to let the pan "soak" a few minutes to loosen all the bits). Add back the meat. Add the onions, leeks & broth. Gently simmer, covered for 30-45 mins, adding water as needed and stirring frequently to prevent sticking. It will thicken quite a bit. Test meat for tenderness before adding carrots. Add carrots and cook for 15 mins longer, adding water as necessary. Add lentils and their liquid to the pot and simmer together for another 15-30 mins. Garnish with parsley. Cooking times are approximate as I was working outside in cool weather over propane.

My inspirational recipe (another redaction published in 1976) is from _Fabulous Feasts - Medieval Cookery and Ceremony_ 1976, 1992 by Madeleine Pelner Cosman, George Braziller, Inc.

"Mawmenye - Lentils And Lamb

1 1/4 lb Lean lamb, cut into small
Pieces 1/2" by 1/2"
1/4 ts Pepper
1/2 ts Salt
2 tb Butter for sauteing
1 c Chicken broth
1 c Dry lentils
4 c Beef broth
1/4 ts Cinnamon
1/4 ts Salt
1/2 ts Dried basil
1 c Diced turnip or squash
1 c Currants
3/4 c Coarsely cut figs
'Gold' leaves of any edible
-plant, such as young
-celery leaves or 6 to 8
-dandelion flowers
Instructions:

Salt and pepper lamb and then brown in melted butter.
Add the cup of chicken broth; gently simmer for 45 minutes or until lamb is tender.
Wash and pick over lentils to eliminate any stray stones.
Bring lentils to a boil in 4 cups of beef broth, reducing heat to low; simmer for 15 minutes. Combine cinnamon, salt, and basil, and stir into diced turnips [or squash]. Add turnips, currants, and figs to the lentils and cook very slowly for 10 minutes. Stir lamb into lentils. Turn out into attractive serving bowl and garnish with gold leaves or 'plant' with dandelions."

Barb' s Winter Cameline w/ Currants:

Excellent with roasted meats, especially game.

Wine, aromatic spices and currants simmer gently together to create this tantalizing redaction of Medieval Europe's most popular condiment. Cameline, so named because of its characteristic camel-brown color, was traditionally made with cinnamon, vinegar, sugar, bread crumbs and other spices or fruits varying from region to region. It is similar to an intensely spiced sweet and sour sauce.

Ingredients: 

Bottle of good red wine ( I used Merlot last time)
3 cinnamon sticks plus 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
1 piece of dried galangal
2 slices of fresh ginger
1 tsp of grains of paradise
1/2 nutmeg, grated
1 tsp whole cloves
2 tsp black pepper corns
1/2 - 1 cup (to taste) cider vinegar
1/8 tsp saffron threads
1-2 tsp salt (to taste)
2 slices soft  white bread, grated

Package of Mexican cone sugar (4 cones - about 8 oz)
8 oz jar currant preserves
1/4 cup honey (if needed)

Method:

Gently simmer the wine, vinegar, spices and bread together until it has reduced by at least half. Strain the mixture and add the sugar, honey and currant preserves. Simmer gently until desired consistency. Check salt, sugar & vinegar for good balance- adjust as necessary. Seal in glass jars. (Preserves well).

Redacted from these sources:

Source 1
(Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books, T. Austin (ed.)):
"Sauce gamelyne. Take faire brede, and kutte it, and take vinegre and wyne, & stepe þe brede therein, and drawe hit thorgh a streynour with powder of canel, and drawe hit twies or thries til hit be smoth; and þen take pouder of ginger, Sugur, and pouder of cloues, and cast þerto a litul saffron and let hit be thik ynogh, and thenne serue hit forthe."

Source 2
(The Forme of Cury, ~1390 C.E.)
"149. Sawse camelyne. Take raysons of coraunce & kyrnels of notys & crustes of brede & powdour of gynger, clowes, flour of canel; bray it wel togyder and do (th)erto salt. Temper it vp with vyneger, and serue it forth."

Source 3
(Goodman of Paris, French, 14th c.)
"Note that at Tourney to make cameline they bray ginger, cinnamon and saffron and half a nutmeg moistened with wine, then take it out of the mortar; then have white bread crumbs, not toasted but moistened in cold water and brayed in the mortar, moisten them with wine and strain them, then boil all together and put in brown sugar last of all; and that is winter cameline. And in summer they do the same but it is not boiled."