Shakespeare's Kitchen (8 page)

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons wine vinegar

¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

1 cucumber, peeled and very thinly sliced

1 lemon, peeled and thinly sliced

½ cup assorted baby lettuces

1 cup assorted herb leaves (such as flat-leaf parsley, hyssop, mint, sage, sorrel, or basil)

8 chive flowers

1.
    Purée the lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, and chives until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2.
    Toss the cucumber, lemon slices, lettuces, and herbs with the vinaigrette, place on a serving platter, and sprinkle with the chive flowers.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

To make a sallet of all kinde of hearbes

Take your hearbes and picke them very fine into faire water, and pick your flowers by themselves, and wash them all cleane, and swing them in a Strainer, and when you put them into a dish, mingle them with cuwcumbers or lemmons, payred and sliced, and scrape sugar, and put in Vineger and oyle, and throw the flowers on the toppe of the sallet, of every sorte of the aforesaid thinges, garnish the dish about with the aforesaid things, and hard Egges, boyled, and laid about the dish and upon the sallet.

THE GOOD HUSWIFES JEWELL,
1587

Endive Topped with Periwinkles

SERVES 6

My salad days,
When I was green in judgement …

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA,
1.5

 S
HAKESPEARE, LIKE MANY
Englishmen of his day, knew quite a bit about plants, and throughout his works he makes numerous references to herbs, weeds, and flowers. Periwinkle, with its pretty five-petal purple-blue flower, looks like violets, and indeed it was often called “sorcerer’s violet,” as it was used in love charms and potions to drive away evil spirits.

The original recipe calls for “periwinkles,” the snail-like mollusk. Taking poetic and culinary license, I chose to reinterpret this ingredient as the flower.

¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil

¼ cup honey vinegar (or any sweet vinegar)

3 tablespoons honey

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

3 heads of endive

½ cup periwinkles or other edible flowers

1.
    Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, and honey in a small bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper.

2.
    Cut the endive into thin slices, removing the tough inner core, and toss with the vinaigrette.

3.
    Place some of the endive in the center of each plate and top with the flowers.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

Another [Sallet for fish dayes]

White endiffe in a Dish with Periwinkles upon it, and Oyle and Vineger.

THE GOOD HUSWIFES JEWELL,
1587

Winter Salad with Raisin and Caper Vinaigrette

SERVES 6

For you there’s rosemary and rue; these keep
Seeming and savour all the winter long …

THE WINTER’S TALE,
4.4

 M
OST OF THE
salads in Shakespeare’s time contained dried fruit such as figs, dates, raisins, and currants. These imports from Spain and Greece were considered elegant, healthful additions to salads. For variety, I puréed the dried fruit in the original recipe into the dressing. The result was fantastic and this is now my favorite dressing even on non-Shakespeare nights.

⅓ cup large raisins

¼ cup French apple cider vinegar

¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon light brown sugar

2 tablespoons small capers, rinsed and drained

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

½ cup mixed black and green olives

2 beets, boiled, peeled, and thinly sliced

2 lemons, peeled and sliced paper thin

1 long English cucumber, thinly sliced

1 cup shredded savoy cabbage

1.
    Place the raisins, vinegar, olive oil, brown sugar, and capers in a small food processor and purée until smooth. Place the vinaigrette in a small jar with a lid. Season to taste with salt and pepper and shake vigorously just prior to serving.

2.
    Place the olives in the center of a large serving platter. Layer the beets, lemon slices, cucumber, and cabbage around the olives. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the platter.

Watercress with Roasted Parsnips

SERVES 4

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it …

TWELFTH NIGHT,
1.1

 P
ARSNIPS, BROUGHT TO
England by the Ancient Romans, were much appreciated for their natural sweetness and, like many sweet-tasting foods, were thought to “provoke lust.”

Here parsnips pair well with the slightly bitter flavor of the watercress.

½ cup almond oil

3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

¾ teaspoon salt

Dash of freshly milled black pepper

1 teaspoon light brown sugar

2 parsnips

2 bunches of watercress

2 tablespoons chopped mint leaves

2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

1.
    Whisk together the almond oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and brown sugar in a small bowl.

2.
    Preheat the oven to 400°F. Peel the parsnips and slice ¼ inch thick. Place the slices on a lightly buttered baking sheet and roast for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tender. Toss the warm parsnips with half of the vinaigrette and arrange the slices around the edges of a serving platter.

3.
    Toss the watercress, mint, and parsley with the remaining vinaigrette and place in the center of the platter.

Mediterranean Orange and Caper Salad

SERVES 6

 T
HIS SALAD RECIPE
was specified for “great feasts” and the “prince’s table.” Interestingly, not all tables at a feast received the same foods. The more elaborate dishes and rare delicacies such as roast swan or porpoise were served only to the head table. Guests of lower rank probably never even saw this gorgeous salad.

½ cup almond oil

5 pitted green olives

1 tablespoon almond butter (available at health food stores, or use 1 tablespoon ground blanched almonds)

¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and drained

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

2 cups baby spinach leaves

1 small head of red-leaf lettuce, cut into bite-size pieces

1 cucumber, thinly sliced

¼ cup assorted black and green olives, not pitted

5 fresh figs, sliced

Peeled lemon and orange slices

1.
    Place the almond oil, olives, almond butter, orange juice, capers, and lemon juice in a food processor and purée until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2.
    Toss the spinach, lettuce, and cucumber with the vinaigrette and place in the center of a serving platter. Arrange the olives, figs, and lemon and orange slices around the plate.

Feasts offered not only special foods but entertainment also. Singers, jugglers, and dancers amused diners, or actors were hired to perform a play. For example, Shakespeare wrote
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
to be performed at a wedding celebration and
Love’s Labour’s Lost
for a nobleman’s private showing.

 … Therefore let us devise
Some entertainment for them in their tents.

LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST,
4.3

Sallet of Lemmons

SERVES 4

 … She was the sweet-marjoram of the sallet, or rather,
the herb of grace.

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL,
4.5

 T
HIS SALAD IS
especially nice eaten with crusty bread and assorted olives, as was done in Shakespeare’s day. It is excellent served with fish and also makes a lovely palate cleanser between courses.

In England, health writers and physicians recommended salad as a first-course appetite stimulant, while on the Continent medical authorities suggested it be eaten at the end of the meal to “close the stomach,” a difference that still persists in Europe today.

2 lemons

1 tablespoon granulated white sugar

1 tablespoon colored crystal sugar

1.
    Using a sharp knife, peel the lemon zest in long strips and remove any white pith. Julienne the zest into ⅛- by 1-inch strips. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a tea kettle or saucepan. Place the zest in a small saucepan and add 1 cup of boiling water. Boil the zest for 1 minute. Drain the water and run the zest under very cold water. Repeat this process two more times.

2.
    Cut the lemons into ¼-inch-thick slices, removing any seeds. Toss the lemons and zest with the granulated sugar and let stand for at least 1 hour.

3.
    Spoon the lemon salad in the center of each small plate and sprinkle the crystal sugar around the salad.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

To Make a Sallet of Lemmons

Cut out slices of the peele of the lemmons long wayes, a quarter of an inch one peece from another, and then slice the lemmon very thinne and lay him in a dish crosse and the peeles about the lemons and scrape a good deale of Sugar upon them and so serve them.

THE GOOD HUSWIFES JEWELL,
1587

Grilled Tuna with Carrots and Sweet Onions

SERVES 4

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE,
5.1

 T
HE ROMANS WHO
settled in Britain in the first century
A.D.
planted onions so they could prepare their favorite Mediterranean dishes. According to Boorde, an Elizabethan health writer, onion “maketh a man’s apetyde good, and putteth away fastydyousness.” Onions were thought to help one sleep soundly and even were prescribed to cure deafness and baldness.

The cool, crisp onion–carrot salad provides a refreshing crunch to the warm grilled tuna.

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons sherry vinegar

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

1 pound fresh tuna, cut into 8 long, thin slices

½ sweet onion (such as Vidalia), very thinly sliced

2 carrots, grated

4 lemon wedges

½ cup cooked whole grain such as wheat berries, bulgur, or buckwheat (optional)

1.
    Whisk together the olive oil and vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Spoon 3 tablespoons of the vinaigrette onto the tuna, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

2.
    Preheat the grill. Season both sides of the tuna with salt and pepper. Grill the tuna for 1 to 2 minutes on each side, or until rare in the center.

3.
    Combine the onion and carrots in a small bowl and toss with the remaining vinaigrette.