Recipe #08 – Brouet de vergus

Tart and tangy is the best way to describe this dish. I will admit the taste is not for everyone but if you are a fan of pickled things or of salt and vinegar chips then you will likely enjoy this as much as I did.

The original recipe is…

Pour faire brouet de vergus. Cuisiez tel grain que vouldrez en esue, vin et vergus le plus et pain passe tempré en vergus et moyeulx d’oes, espices, gingembre, graine et poivre long ; faictez boullir tout ensamble, bien assavouré de sel et qu’il passe le vergus ; jettez par dessus vostre grain bien suffrit en beau sain de lard.

 

The translation for the recipe is….

To make a Verjuice Broth. Cook whatever meat you like in water, wine and, for the most part, verjuice. Get sieved bread tempered in verjuice and egg yolks and spices – ginger, grains of paradise, and long pepper; boil everything together, well seasoned with salt; the verjuice should predominate. Pour it over your meat, which has been well sauteed in fine rendered lard.

 

Here is how I made the dish…

 

I choose to use pork for this dish because the recipe gives the option of whatever meat you like and pork was on sale when I shopped for the dish.

As with most of the rest of the dishes I have done I used french bread.

I chose to use white wine along with the verjus to cook the meat as red I think would have been too strong and also would have made the color of the dish muddy looking.

 

 

The meat was cut into bite sized pieces before cooking and the verjus was added to the bread and left to soak. While the meat boiled and the bread soaked I ground the grains of paradise and long pepper and mixed them with the ginger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the meat was cooked I removed it from the boiling liquid and sauteed it in lard. I pressed the now soaked bread through a sieve and added it, the egg yolks, the ground spices, and salt (oops forgot to take a picture) to the liquid in which the meat had been boiled. The sauce was brought to a boil and simmered a few minutes and then the sauteed meat was added to the sauce and served.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finished dish….

 

 

The Verdict….
I really liked this dish. I am a sour/tart food junkie and this had just enough zing to it to make me happy. If I make this again I will try a different type of meat. Also as the recipe says to pour the sauce over the meat I think that the  meat is meant to be in large pieces. A filet of pork or beef or chicken breast would work well I think. I think I would also add a bit more long pepper to the dish as it wasn’t as spicy as I expected it to be.