In Which the Frog of Green starts upon her noble quest (and makes Blank Maunger)

So there I was, Tadpole, possessed of a strong urge to start a food blog.   I mulled to myself thoughtfully about what kind of food blog I would want to write.  My first instinct was COOKIES!!!  Oh my how I do love cookies.   But the issue with that is then the cookies would be sitting around the house whispering how tasty and lovely they would be with a nice cuppa something and that would not be a good thing.  A few more half-baked ideas flitted through my head before a small thought took hold and grew.   I would cook medieval recipes from original sources.   The more I thought about it the more brilliant it seemed.    Years ago my sister and I helped cook medieval feasts for the SCA in her area and it was loads of fun.    So it was settled then, I would cook recipes from medieval sources and document my efforts and results!  That brings us to here!  Huzzah!

Who am I you ask?  I am Tad, or Tadpole, or Green Frog and now in medieval fashion I am Frog of Green!   Pole of Tad just didn't cut the mustard.   I am a thirty something woman, married to the love of my life for a little over a year now.  I love to cook, bake and make lovely food to feed people.    The creation of dishes and meals is to me, at it's best, a form of art. 

I started by looking up medieval cookbooks. I found A Forme of Cury on Gutenburg online and I thought it would be a wonderful place to start.    One recipe was called Noumbles and upon researching I found it was a recipe for stewed deer intestines!  While I'm sure many medieval folk enjoyed many a bowl of steaming Noumbles I think I'll skip that one :)   I settled on a recipe called Blank Maunger.

Blank Maunger
Take capons and seeth hem, thenne take Almandes blauched. Grynd hem and alay hem up with the same broth. Cast the mylk in a pot. Waishe rys and do therto and lat it seeth. Thanne take brawn of capons teer it up smale and to therto.  Take white grece, sugur and salt and cast therinne. lat it seeth thenne messe it forth and florissh it with aneys in confyt rede other whyte and with almaundes fryed in oyle.  And serve it forth.

So here we have a recipe for chicken (capons) and rice (rys) in almond milk with sugar and salt and toasted almonds on top!  Lovely!  The anyes in confyt is candied anise and I would have no idea where to find that so I just omitted that ingredient.

Here is my version of Blank Maunger
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 chicken bullion cubes
1 1/2 cups white rice
3 TBSP butter
4 tablespoons brown sugar
 3/4 cup whole raw almonds
3-4 cups of water to blanch almonds
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/2 tbsp butter

Here's how I did it.  I started with two chicken breasts.  I cooked them in my crock pot with enough water to cover them and the bullion cubes. I chose crock pot because it was easier for me that way, I wanted to be able to forget about the chicken breasts and not have to keep a close eye on them on the stove top.  Boiling on the stove top would work just as well.    I blanched the almonds by bringing a pan of water to a full boil, removing it from the heat and putting the almonds in for a minute or so.  I used a slotted spoon to remove the almonds so the water is there to use in making the almond milk.   Then I removed the skins of the almonds.   I used two cups of the blanching water and between the food processor and the blender I pulverized the almonds.   I left the almond milk set then poured the liquid off the top   I left some of the pulpy stuff in there for extra fiber and flavor, but most people strain all that out.    I combined rice and the almond milk (there was two cups of liquid) and that wasn't nearly enough to cook rice in the end though and I ended up adding another two cups of chicken broth (I used the broth from the cooked chicken).  So if ya'll make it start out with two cups of almond milk and two cups of chicken broth from the start.   I cooked the rice like I usually do, by the directions on the package (I use a regular white rice, not instant) which for the rice I buy it's 1 cups rice to 2 cups water with a tablespoon of butter and a little salt and once it's boiling put a lid with a tight seal (we use a dinner plate that fits on the top of the pan) and turn the heat down to low and cook for fourteen minutes.     I took the chicken breasts after they were cooked and had a chance to sit and cool and I trimmed the funky bits off and sliced in into big slices and tore the slices into chunks.  I wanted to tear it because that's what the recipe said but I didn't want to tear it all up from a whole breast.   I did like the texture of the torn meat, it was nice.    Then once the rice was cooked I could see where there was a layer of stuff that had sort of separated from the rice milk so I stirred it up very well and I added some more chicken broth to make it creamy, but not soupy. I didn't have any lard(which is what I assume white grece is) and I didn't think shortening would be very nice in this dish so butter it was for our Blank Maunger.  I added three tablespoons of butter and four tablespoons of brown sugar and stirred them in well.   Then I added the chicken chunks and stirred them in.   I toasted the slivered almonds in a pan with a bit of butter, you have to watch these like a hawk and take them off when some of them start to pick up some color, they go from "barely done" to "burnt" in a hot second.     Then I sprinkled the toasted almonds on top of the rice and served it forth!

The end result was a creamy rice dish with tender chicken chunks.  The flavor was mild and nutty.   The toasted almonds on top added a nice flavor and a lovely crunch.  I enjoyed it but I can't say it will be a favorite.  This ended up being a pretty large recipe. Hubby and I ate maybe a third of it so it's probably six generous servings(or eight or nine smaller servings).  I served it with a salad and cooked broccoli for our meal tonight.


Here it is, Blank Maunger

Thank ye kindly for reading my humble blog. I will be back anon with another dish and another tale of tasty cookery!