Читать книгу Crazy Feasts - Dr. Marilyn Ekdahl Ravicz Ph.D. - Страница 5

Cabbage and Leeks

Beets in Mustard Sauce

Mensa Secunda

Imperial Cheesecake

Stuffed Dates Apicius

Fried Wheat Cakes

Fresh Fruit

Two ingredients merit explanation: garum and lovage. Lovage was a popular herb, which Romans considered medicinal. While lovage (an umbelliferous plant) is still popular and easily grown, I’ve never seen it in a supermarket. So I agree with others that chopped celery leaves make a fair substitute. You can also easily grow lovage, which is seasonal and requires little special care.

For garum, you have two alternatives. One is to use the Southeast Asian fermented fish sauce or nuoc mam available in Asian markets. These sauces are also made of fermented fish, sea salt and herbs; however, dilute them slightly with water and/or a few drops of light soy sauce. The other alternative is adding 1 teaspoon of anchovy paste to one cup of white grape or apple juice with a dash of light soy sauce and chopped oregano (see Edwards, p.305 for other suggestions). I’ve used the anchovy paste alternative with a dash of asafetida (sorry there’s no extinct silphium), and found it quite acceptable. A variety of Asian fish sauces are easily available now. You can make your garum in a small jar with a screw on lid and keep the remainder in the refrigerator.

The following adaptations rely heavily on tested recipes from two translations of Apicius’ Latin book De Re Coquinaria: A Taste of Ancient Rome, Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa, trans. Anna Helklotz; and Romanae Artis Coquinariae Liber (The Roman Cookery Book), Barbara Flower and Elizabeth Rosenbaum. Also of interest for reference is Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger’s The Classical Cookbook, as well as The Roman Cookery of Apicius by John Edwards. I also consulted the Dover edition of Apicius, reprinted from Vehling’s translation. Then too, there’s our ever-handy Google, to which recipes are added constantly. (See the bibliography for details, or check out Stefan’s Florilegium on-line).

Mulsum and antipasto service