The Thorngrove Table

"Cormarye" - a delicious C.14th Pork Roast with wine & spices

Somewhere back in the deep, dark depths of my online life resides the recipe for Cormarye, the medieval cook's solution to bland pork roast. Pig is one of those meats that when it's good it's very, very good, and when it's bad it's as interesting as a Yanni concert. True, this dish tastes even more fantastic with a good quality cut, but it's also notable for its ability to rescue poor quality pork from the doldrums and raise it into something you aren't ashamed to present for Sunday dinner.

Recently I did three 90 seconds shorts for Optomen Television's "Market Kitchen" daytime TV show, and this recipe starred in one of those shorts. So rather than forcing viewers to search it out, here again is the recipe:

Cormarye
Original Text from The Forme of Cury, C.14th English:
Take Colyaundre, caraway smale grounden, powdour of peper and garlec ygrounde, in rede wyne; medle alle [th]ise togyder and salt it. Take loynes of pork rawe and fle of the skyn, and pryk it wel with a knyf, and lay it in the sawse. Roost it whan [th]ou wilt, & kepe [th]at [th]at fallith [th]erfro in the rostyng and see[th] it in a possynet with faire broth, & serue it forth wi[th] the roost anoon.

Modern Redaction:
3 lb/1.5 kg boneless, skinned Pork Loin Roast*
1/2 bottle Red Wine
1/2 c canned Chicken Broth or Stock
1/2 cup Water
1-2 cloves crushed Garlic
1 tsp ground Coriander Seed*
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
1/4 tsp ground Caraway Seed
Coriander Leaf (optional)

1. Mix together the spices, seasoning, garlic and wine.
2. Prick the skin of the meat and add to the sauce. I usually have the butcher remove the fat layer beforehand.
3. Leave to marinate for a minimum of an hour. I usually leave it overnight in the fridge, and then it is sure to invigorate even the blandest pork cut!
4. Preheat oven.*
5. Put in a roasting tray and roast until done. Use your favorite cookbook to get time and temperature right.
6. When the meat is roasted, take sauce and drippings from the roasting pan, add the chicken broth and water, and simmer briefly to make a sauce
7. Slice the roast, pour over sauce, and serve.
8. It's especially nice with a garnish of chopped fresh Coriander leaf.

Notes:
*This is a large amount for four, but a piece of pork much less than 3 pounds/ 1.36 kg won't roast properly. So make it all, and have left-overs.
*Don't leave out the caraway because you are afraid it will taste like rye bread. And don't leave out the coriander seed either - they make it taste wonderful.
*Preheating the oven to above the roasting temperature sears the meat nicely and makes sure it doesn't dry out.

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Bibliography:
HIEATT, Constance B. & BUTLER, Sharon. (transcription) ANONYMOUS. "Curye on Inglysch" (includes 'The Forme of Cury'); London, Oxford Early English Text Society, 1985. Pg.109, #54.

A hand with eating seasonally

If, like me, you are a child of modern times - which translates to 'having no more than the vaguest clue as to when things are in season' - then here's someone helping to set us on the straight and narrow with our weekly food purchases:

Eat the Seasons offers a newsletter, sent to you every Wednesday, telling you what fruit and vegetables are currently in season and therefore the best thing fo you to buy.

The website also offers articles on many of the fruit and vege listed. These contain brief history, biology, nutrition, tips and 'other stuff' sections, as well as their 'pick of the recipes' - both online and those available in popular UK recipe books (e.g. Jamie Oliver, Raymond Blanc, etc).

There is also an Eat the Seasons USA/Canada site for those of you in North America.

Although I'm probably preaching to the converted, here are the very good reasons we should eat seasonally (as listed by Eat the Seasons):

• to reduce the energy (and associated CO2 emissions) needed to grow and transport the food we eat
• to avoid paying a premium for food that is scarcer or has travelled a long way
• to support the local economy
• to reconnect with nature's cycles and the passing of time

but, most importantly, because

• seasonal food is fresher and so tends to be tastier and more nutritious

Review: Siam Central

My friend Michelle (mishypurple ) was very distraught to find a fantastic Thai restaurant - two months before she leaves London permanently! For those of us who live here however, I thoroughly recommend our discovery, Siam Central.

Tucked around the corner from Goodge St station, it has several tables outside for taking advantage of the summer sunshine. If you don't feel like sitting outside, the interior décor is elegant Asian style (that's the Pacific meaning of Asian BTW), with more space between tables than a lot of restaurants in the area. The lighting is good, the seats comfortable, and as both of us were pleased to note, the toilets were absolutely pristine. Our service was friendly (if with the occasional English incomprehension) and efficient without being pushy. We did go on a Monday night, which tends to be slow, but I picked over my main for another twenty minutes after Mish had finished and they didn't try to hurry me up.

We both started with Drunken Noodles as a main - duck for myself and mixed seafood for Mish. Both were wonderful, with a tasty chilli burn to them, but not too hot as to be inedible to people who prefer medium level heat heat (such as myself). There was a decent proportion of meat and vegetables in the dishes and the noodles were very good in taste, texture and consistency. I thoroughly enjoyed them. We also had a side-dish of Greens with Garlic, which was pungent and delicious, and drank a pleasant bottle of red (£13) to go with.

For dessert Mish had the Coconut Crepes; little green triangles of tasty pancake filled with moist coconut goodness, which she loved (as did I, from the nibble I had). I indulged in the Deep-Fried Ice-cream. Mmmm. The batter was just right - not too heavy or light - cooked into a golden-brown ball, filled with good quality vanilla ice cream and garnished with strawberry slices. Definitely a combination made in heaven!

By this stage we were definitely full (and glad we hadn't attempted starters), and finished up with coffees - an Americano and a Double Expresso. And I enjoyed my company so much I didn't even think to use my camera phone! So no graphics to go with this post, sadly. You will just have to take the good presentation as a given.

~

The bill for the meal came to £53.00, including service tip (please note it's already included in the bill).

That's £26.50 for a main, a side dish, a dessert, half a bottle of wine and a coffee each. It doesn't quite qualify as cheap, but add in the fact the food was extremely good, Siam Central gets my vote as a thoroughly nice restaurant and somewhere I'll revisit.

Siam Central, 14 Charlotte Street, W1T 2LX, tel: 02074367460