Friend of Silk Road Gourmet, Ms. Deana Sidney, of Lost Past Remembered has cooked several recipes with the garum I sent her.
From her magical kitchen come two sauces for chicken or fowl and a cold patina of asparagus and grouse (or figpecker, should you have one on hand) that use the garum I produced in the backyard last year.
Please check out her post, recipes and stories about one of Rome’s baddest Emperors – Heliogabalus. Deana writes, “the green sauces for the chicken are not unlike a more complex pesto that would become ubiquitous in Italian cuisine a millennium or so later. The Romans loved sauces and I loved the many recipes for the sauces so much, I just couldn’t stop at one so made two, both are fabulous.”
The patina which is made with eggs and not sheets or dough or “noodles” like those used in lasagna is a lot like a modern quiche. The eggs are flavored with a mixture of wine and garum called oenogarum – with delicious results.
Also, be in awe of Deana’s beautifully composed photos like the one above – with fresh azalea blossoms strewn across the spring table. And lastly, look forward to more dishes using garum in the Roman cookoff in the days and weeks ahead. (Words except where indicated by Laura Kelley; adapted Roman recipe and photograph of Patina by Deana Sidney).