Rape. Take half fyges and half raisouns; pike hem and waishe hem in water. Skalde hem in wyne, bray hem in a morter, and drawe hem thurgh a straynour. Cast hem in a pot and therwith powdur of peper and oother good powdours; alay it up with flour of rys, and colour it with saundres. Salt it; seeth it & messe it forth.
(CI. IV. 85.)
Figs were a favourite fruit in Lent as a sweet snack. Some figs are stiffer and used as a filling for tartlets, fried puffs or even in pastry to make dumplings. This recipe calls for figs that are not so stiff, for use as a dressing for drizzling over desserts and fruits.
The dressing itself is very thick and sweet (not sure if this is how it really tasted in the medieval past) but do note that if you have no use for it as much as people in the past did, you should consider cutting the entire portion of the recipe by half, so that you do not need to keep any excess in the fridge for a long time. It’s not easy to pair this dressing with any other food items except for things that are really, really bland to start with.
Ingredients:
- Dried fig: 125g, stems discarded
- Dried raisin: 125g
- Red wine: 275ml
- Ground blackpepper: a pinch
- Brown sugar: 1 tsp
- Ground cinnamon: ⅓ tsp
- Ground clove: a pinch
- Corn flour: 3 tsp
- Red food colouring: 2 drops
- Fruits / ice-cream/ cereal: to serve with
Method:
- Soak dried figs in liquid for 1hr. Drain and reserve liquid.
- Combine dried figs, raisin, red wine, ground blackpepper, brown sugar, ground cinnamon & ground cloves in a saucepan. Bring to a boil.
- Set aside to cool. Blend till puree forms.
- Combine soaking liquid, corn flour & red food colouring. Blend into fig mixture.
- Return to saucepan to simmer till thickened. Season with some salt to taste.
- Scoop hot or cold over cereal or ice-cream or fruits to serve with.
Disclaimers:
- This recipe was kindly adapted from ‘The Medieval Cookbook’ by Maggie Black.
- I personally think this sauce serves better as a filling for pastry or tarts than as a topping because it’s still too thick for my personal liking and for this generation’s liking. Or minimally with oats and cereals in a cup as it’s really really very sweet, even for a person with a sweet tooth like myself!
Serving:
6 persons
