Recipe - Fig And Raisin Cream

Rapey. Take half fyges and half raisouns; pike hem and waishe hem in
water. Skalde hem in wyne, bray hem in a morter, and drawe them thurgh a
straynour. Cast hem in a pot and therwith powdur of peper and oother good
powdours; alay it vp with flour of rys, and colour it with saundres. Salt
it, seeth it & messe it forth.

125 g/4 ounce wellsoaked dried figs 125 g/4 ounce stoned raisins 275 ml/10 fl
oz/1 One fourth cups red wine (not too dry) Good pinch of ground black pepper 1/3
teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves Soft dark brown sugar
to taste 3 teaspoons rice flour or cornflour A drop or two of red food
colouring Salt to taste

Drain the figs, reserving the soaking liquid. Discard the stalk ends of
the fruit and put them in a saucepan with the raisins and wine. Add the
spices and a teaspoon of sugar and bring to the boil. Take off the heat and
cool slightly, then turn the mixture into an electric blender and process
until smooth. Add a little of the soaking water if the mixture is
stubbornly solid.

Cream the rice flour or cornflour with a little more soaking water or wine
and brighten the tint with a drop of food colouring. Blend the 'cream' into
the driedfruit puree. Then return the whole mixture to the saucepan and
simmer until it thickens slightly. Season with salt and a little extra
sugar if you wish.

The mixture can be served hot or cold over a sweet cereal dish, firm stewed
fruit or best of all ice cream. Some versions in other manuscripts are
stiffer and make a good filling for tartlets or fried puffs. One encloses
the filling in pastry to make dumplings.

from The Medieval Cookbook by Maggie Black Chapter 2, "Chaucer's Company"
posted by Tiffany HallGraham

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini