Recipe for Myma
(Baked Plaice)
by Athenaeus, The Partying Professors
AFAIK, this recipe comes from Grant and was inserted by original site author (I will say again to PLEASE buy these author's books! By doing so, you will help support them — even for books that are older and might not sell as well anymore... These authors do not do this for money, they do it for love. Please support them!
Yeah, go ahead and click here to buy this book!
Roman Cookery: Ancient Recipes for Modern Kitchens.
Yes, this book has a new cover, but I like this one better. Blah, I am so horrible.
Plaice works wonderfully with the rich flavour sof that make up this dish, although in the process it loses its own identity, a typical feature of Roman cooking in which the disguising of a main ingriedient was held to be a consummmate art. A less delicate fish such as cod or haddock could be substituted, although plaice provides the dish with great succulence. Using fish avoids the inclusion of mashed offal, intestines and blood which the meat and poultry versions demand. Barley or lentils set this dish off nicely.
Original recipe:'Epaenuetus says as follows in his "Art of Cookery": a myma of every kind of meat, and also bird, shopuld be made by fiely chopping the soft bits of flesh, adding mashed offal and intestines and blood and seasoning with vinegar, baked cheese, asafoetida, cumin, fresh or dried thyme, savory, fresh or dried coriander, horn onion, toasted onion that has been been peeled or poppy seeds and raisins or honey and the seeds of bitter pomegranante. One can have the same myma with fish.'
Ingredients
- 4 fillets of plaice
- 1 onion
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 100g/3oz feta cheese
- 150 ml/5fl oz dry white wine
- 30 g/1 oz seedless raisins
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 2 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp cumin
- A sprig each of fresh thyme
- ½ tsp asafoetida
- Sea salt
Preparation
- Slice the onion into very thin rings and fry gently in olive oil until it is clear.
- Arrange the onion slices at the bottom of a pyrex dish and place the fish fillets on top of them.
- Grind the coriander and cumin in a bowl, mix with the asafoetida and raisins and sprinkle over the fish. Place the sprigs of thyme and on top.
- Mix together the wine and vinegar and a little salt and pour over the fish.
- Thinly slice the feta cheese and arrange the slices to cover the fish.
- Put the lid on the casserole dish and bake the fish in a preheated oven at 150°c/300t/Gas mark 2 for 1 hour.
