Blank Desne (White Desire)

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Blank Desne (White Desire)

Blank Desne (White Desire) is a traditional Medieval recipe for chicken in a spiced almond milk sauce. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Medieval version of White Desire.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

140 minutes

Total Time:

160 minutes

Serves:

Rating:

Tags : Spice Recipes Chicken Recipes Fowl Recipes British Recipes English Recipes

Original Recipe

Blank Desne

(from A Forme of Cury)

Take Brawn of Henn⁹ or of Capons y ſoden oute þ^e ſkyn. et hewe hē as ſmale as þ^u may. et grind hem ī a mort^r. aft^r take gode mylke of Almand⁹ et put þ^e brawn þ⁹. et ſtere it wel to gyd⁹ et do hem to ſeeþ. et take flo^r of Rys et amydo^un et alay it. ſo þat it be chargeant. et do þ⁹to ſug^r a gode ̲pty of white grece. and when it is put ī diſh⁹ ſtrewe uppon it blanche powdo^r. and þenne put in blank deſire and mawmenye ī diſshes togider. and su^re forth.

Modern Redaction

Note that the amydoun mentioned in this recipe is wheat starch, used as a thickener.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts, 4 chicken thighs
200ml Almond milk
2 tbsp rice flour
2 tbsp amydoun
2 tsp s
50g sugar
butter for frying

Method:

Remove the skins from the chicken pieces and place in a casserole dish and cover with water (if you want you can add half an onion as well as a sprig of thyme, rosemary and savory to this as well as some chicken bones to make chicken stock). Place in an oven pre-heated to 180°C (350°F/Gas Mark 4) for two hours. Take out the meat (and if making stock keep the liquid). Chop the meat and allow to cool.

Once the meat has cooled place in a food processor and add the almond milk. Pulse a few times to chop the chicken and blend it into the almond milk. Tip the resulting paste into a bowl and add the rice flour, sugar and and amydoun. Mix to a stiff paste (add more rice flour if needed).

Heat butter in a frying pan and with a large spoon take some of the meat paste and spoon into the pan. Fry on medium heat for about eight minutes until golden brown then turn over. Pile the patties on a plate, sprinkle with blaunche powder and ladle the sauce made for mawmenee around it. Serve immediately.

Find more Medieval recipes as well as more recipes from the Forme of Cury here.