This week’s recipe is a bit of a misnomer. It’s cheesecake with no cheese …. or cake. So why the heck is it called cheesecake? Honestly, we don’t really know, but we can take an educated guess.
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This week’s posting is not as much a recipe as directions for a class or dishes or a culinary technique. You see, fricassee (sometimes spelled frykecy or fricase) can be used both as a noun (a fricassee) and a verb (to fricassee). It’s origins are believed to be a smash up of two French words - frire (to fry) and casser (to break) - and was used to describe any dish consisting of small pieces of meat, fried in butter, and served in a sauce.
Read MoreIt’s Week 4 of the 2022 Great Colonial Cook Off and you know what that means ….. It’s Fish Week!
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This week’s recipe features the weird-to-us combination of savoury and sweet that was a hallmark of medieval and Tudor food. Interestingly, it is also vegetarian.
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This week’s recipe goes by many names: frumenty, frumentee, furmity, fromity, fermenty…. Whatever you decide to call it, it’s a classic.
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This week, we’re sticking with tradition and that means kicking things off with a beverage. When Lori first suggested we give 17th century coffee a try, I wasn’t convinced. Sure, coffee was a thing in 17th century England, but would we find an actual recipe? And does making a cup of coffee actually qualify as “cooking”?
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This week we’ll be making tortelleti. Yup, that’s right. We’re making our own pasta. If that thought has you breaking out in a cold sweat, fear not. As always, we have work arounds for anyone who isn’t up to the task of making fresh pasta from scratch.
Read MoreWelcome to fish week! Cook Off veterans know that the season wouldn’t be complete without a fish dish. And while it may be difficult to top the 2017 sleeper hit, cod with apples and onions, we think this week’s recipe might just give it a run for the money.
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A.K.A. The day Elizabeth accidentally traumatized her family by disguising blood pudding as chocolate cake.
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Hey Cook Offers! Welcome back for Week 3 of the 2021 Great Colonial Cook Off. This week’s dish - Apple Fritters - is pretty much guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser.
Read MoreWelcome back! This week’s recipe (or more accurately, recipes) are two old takes on what most of us now know as French Toast: Panperdy & Poor Knights Pudding (try saying that 3 times fast!).
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Cue the trumpets! It’s Week 1 of the Colony of Avalon’s 2021 Great Colonial Cook Off!
Keeping with tradition, we’re kicking things off with a beverage. And while a steaming hot mug of something with a warming kick would be perfect in Ferryland this week (where it’s a mere 9 degrees Celsius today), those of you suffering through the heat wave will be happy to hear that we’ve gone for something more refreshing.
Read MoreSo, in honour of Wynne, Hoskins and every other lover of free fruit, we’re wrapping the 2020 Great Colonial Cook Off up with a simple, yet delicious, wild berry tart. Since it’s raspberry season here at the Colony of Avalon, we’re going with them. But feel free to use whatever fruit (wild or otherwise) is in season where you live.
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After last week’s pie extravaganza, we figured we’d go for something simpler and a little less labour intensive. This week’s recipe - Carrett (carrot) Pudding - is a 17th century classic. Every cookbook we’ve seen from this time period includes at least one, but more often several versions of this dish.
Read MoreThis week we’ve got not one but three recipes for you to choose from. Each is a variation of a culinary classic - apple pie - and range from the simple and straightforward to the downright bizarre (this is the Colonial Cook Off after all). It’s your choice which one (or two or three) you cook.
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Winner, Winner, Fish Dinner! I cooked this dish for the first time for dinner guests last week (go big or go home, right?) and it was a slam dunk! Surprisingly quick and easy to prepare and absolutely delicious. I will definitely (definitely!) cook it again.
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Varenne’s recipes were a departure from medieval-style cooking (heavily spiced, sweet and/or sour) to one that was based on natural flavors, fewer ingredients, a limited use of spices and uncomplicated cooking methods. This week’s recipe definitely fits that mould.
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Cook Off veterans know that we like to start each season with a beverage. This year, we’re keeping to that tradition, but with an added twist ….or rather, an added shot … or two! Yes, that’s right cook-offers, this season’s beverage is a boozy (very boozy) one.
Read MoreThe Newfoundland food fishery is in full swing, which means it’s time for everyone’s favourite Colonial Cook Off tradition …. the fish dish.
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