ASSUMPTION - RECIPES FOR THE FEAST
FEAST OF ASSUMPTION
RECIPES FOR THE FEAST DAY
MAIN COURSE: YIOUVETSI - GREEK TOMATO-BAKED LAMB WITH ORZO
DESSERT: ILES FLOTTANTES
ALCOHOL
John Zmirak and Denise Matychowiak, who authored the esteemed liturgical work, “The Bad Catholic’s Guide to Good Living” (Crossroad, 2005, at p. 124), included a traditional Greek recipe for the Assumption which is served in their New York neighbourhood on Assumption Day:
Yiouvetsi Lamb with Orzo Pasta
[see also goodfood.com.au Jill Dupleix “Greek Tomato-Baked Lamb with Orzo]
1 2.5kg Leg of Lamb on the bone
2 onions finely sliced
5 garlic cloves, slivered
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons Oregano (dried)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
½ cup red wine
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tspn ground cinnamon
1 400g tin tomatoes, chopped
1 litre hot chicken stock
¼ cup feta cheese
1 tspn cumin
½ tspn ground allspice
400g orzo pasta
METHOD:
1 Heat oven to 160 degrees.
Make slits in the lamb and insert garlic. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Mix one tablespoon tomato paste, garlic, lemon and one tablespoon olive oil. Rub all over the lamb and sprinkle it with the oregano. Place in a roasting pan with two cups of water and cover the pan with foil. Bake for three hours
Roast at this heat 20-30 minutes until meat begins to brown. Check every 15 minutes and baste with pan juices. If needed add red wine. Then reduce oven temperature to 160 degrees and slow cook.
2 Heat the remaining oil and gently fry onions for 15 minutes until softened. Add remaining tomato paste, tomatoes, cinnamon sticks, cinnamon, allspice, the add orzo, mixing well. Add remaining red wine to the pan, with cinnamon stick, tomatoes and their juice.
3 When the lamb is almost ready, Bring the stock to a boil, then add it and the orzo pasta to the roasting pan. Stir well and return to the oven. Cook another 20 minutes until the orzo is done. Add water if more liquid is required. Sprinkle with feta cheese and return to the oven just long enough to melt.
4 Remove meat to a carving board and allow it to rest 15-20 minutes covered in foil or a clean tea towel. Carve and serve on a platter with the orzo. The lamb should be medium rare.
Serve sliced thickly, with beans and spinach.
[They also included, as a dessert for the Assumption feast, a recipe for Simnel Cake, which is a fruit cake with marzipan. As some of us are of the view that fruit cake is one of the devil’s fruits and marzipan even more so, those who wish to have a dessert of simnel cake can look the recipe up themselves].
Instead, I have included a recipe for Iles Flottantes, the children’s dessert, as the meringue is like clouds.
INGREDIENTS:
CUSTARD
2 cups milk
6 egg yolks
2 vanilla beans, split, seeds scraped
75g caster sugar
PRALINE
60ml water
75g caster sugar
50g flaked almonds
MERINGUES
4 egg whites
2 cups milk
¼ cup caster sugar
Pinch salt
+ 600g strawberries – hulled, halved.
METHOD
1 CUSTARD: Place milk, vanilla bean and seeds in a saucepan, slowly bring to the boil over low heat, then simmer gently for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and steep for 10 minutes. Whisk yolks and sugar in a bowl until thick (2 mins). Gradually whisk in warm milk mixture, together with beans. Stir over medium-low heat until custard thickens and leaves a path on the back of a wooden spoon when finger is drawn across, (about 9 minutes – but do not boil). Strain the custard into a bowl. Cover and let cool, then chill until cold, at least 3 hours (and can prepared ahead and chill for up to 2 days).
2 MERINGUES: Lay a smooth kitchen towel on a work surface. Pour the milk into a 10 inch skillet and bring to a simmer over medium heat. With a mixer beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the salt and beat until the whites hold soft peaks. Add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating until the whites are stiff and glossy. Using spoons, shape each meringue into ovals, let them cook and turn with a spatula. With a slotted spoon, transfer the meringue to the towel. Place the meringues on waxed paper lined baking dish. Refrigerate at least one hour and up to 3 hours.
3 PRALINE/CARAMEL: Stir sugar and half a cup of water over medium heat till golden. Remove from the heat.
4 Spoon the custard into serving bowls, placing a meringue in each bowl. Wave the caramel over the meringues.
5 Place strawberries around the meringues.
[Michael P Foley, in his book, “Drinking with the Saints”, (Regnery, at p. 214), in considering the Assumption, suggested, “And how about something with strawberry? In medieval art the strawberry is a symbol of, among other things, Mary’s fruitful virginity because the plant both flowers and fruits at the same time.”
CHOICE OF ALCOHOL:
He further observed that, because of the tradition of blessing of herbs and fruits on this feast day, it is time to break out any herbal or fruit liquor from the cabinet. These liquors include Chartreuse, made by the Carthusian monks, or Benedictine, made to a recipe of the Benedictine monks at Fecamp, in Normandy, now owned by Bacardi.
Plan B would be any cocktail with herbs or fruit in it and of course, water flavoured with the blessed fruit is always good.
[Photo: Marina Oliphant]
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