Here are some recipes and food ideas.

Some are medieval, and are featured in my books.

Others are favourites you might like to try.

The dish that killed the pope

In chapter 15 of Theodore, Pope Eugenius dies after overindulging at a feast in the Lateran Palace. The dish that killed him was a gigantic bollito misto, a collection of miscellaneous meats boiled in a cauldron so big it had to be carried by four men. It would not be practical, or wise, to serve your guests the full papal version of this dish, but a lighter version is quite acceptable, especially if you can muster 10 or 12 people to eat it. This dish is best served at lunchtime (thus giving your guests time to recover) and in cold weather. My recipe borrows from the French Pot au feu, and other European models, as well as the Italian original. The timings are approximate, depending on the quality of the ingredients, but it takes about 5 or 6 hours in all.

To cook it you will need:

• 2 pig's trotters, or calf's feet, or a pig's mask
• A shin of beef (800g or 1kg)
• A large boiling fowl (2 kg)
• Sausage meat, or farce (500g)
• 1 Savoy cabbage
• Leeks, carrots, & onions
• 2 bottles of dry white wine e.g. Vin de Pays Charentais
• A bundle of fresh herbs, e.g. bay, rosemary, thyme, etc.

Method

1. Get up very early. (If not, you will have to serve the dish in the evening.)
2. Put the pig's trotters in your largest cauldron, add a couple of chopped leeks, pour in both bottles of wine and simmer gently for two or three hours.
3. When the trotters are falling apart, add the shin of beef, topping up the cauldron with water, if necessary. Add the bundle of herbs. Simmer gently for another two hours.
4. Meanwhile, detach a couple of dozen large leaves from the cabbage and plunge them into boiling water for a few minutes. Cool and drain the cabbage leaves, then stuff each leaf with a lump of sausage meat or farce, rolling the leaves into parcels like dolmades. Arrange the stuffed cabbage leaves in a single layer in a saucepan.
5. When the beef has had a couple of hour's cooking, add the boiling fowl, topping up the water level if necessary. Add a couple more leeks, chopped, and some sliced carrots, celery and onions.
6. After an hour, ladle out some of the stock and use it to poach the stuffed cabbage leaves. These should take about 45 minutes.
7. The dish is ready when the beef is tender and the chicken is almost falling off the bone.

To serve:

1. The broth, either plain or embellished, makes a good soup, which could be your first course.
2. Remove the chicken and shin of beef. (Note: the trotters should have disintegrated and thickened the stock. The remaining fragments do not look very nice, but they have their fans. Reserve them as a special treat for enthusiasts.)
3. Drain the stuffed cabbage leaves (adding their stock to the main pot).
4. Carve the meat and arrange it artistically on a large serving dish, with the stuffed cabbage leaves.
5. Ladle out the vegetables, drain them, and arrange them around the meat, or separately if the dish is not big enough.

Be sure to send your guests on a long walk after they have eaten.

Accompaniments:

1. A large quantity of boiled potatoes, or pain de campagne.
2. Several bottles of red wine, not too refined.
3. Mustard, several sorts, e.g. Dijon, au poivre vert, whole grain, etc.
4. OR Mostarda di Cremona (mixed fruit pickled in mustard oil)
5. OR, a green sauce made of chopped capers, anchovies, garlic, parsley, breadcrumbs, with olive oil & a little vinegar.

Leftovers:

If any meat is left over, chop it up and arrange it a bowl or terrine dish, then fill up the dish with stock, reduced a little if necessary. Leave in the fridge overnight. If the stock is sufficiently gelatinous, it should set into a sort of galantine.

Figpeckers' (or quails)

In Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch, Zeno attends a feast in the eunuchs' quarters of the Great Palace of Constantinople. Among other things, he is fed on figpeckers. These are small birds such as warblers, which were roasted and served whole, their innards forming a piquant sauce. Thrushes, larks, woodcock and snipe, as well as many other species, have all been served in much the same way. However, these small birds are hard to come by, and are mostly protected in Europe.

For a roughly similar effect, I recommend quails. Quails are readily available in French and English supermarkets, though they have usually been gutted. If you find quails with their innards (a possibility in French markets), you might try the experiment of roasting them whole. They are also good stuffed with a mixture of cooked rice, gently fried onion, pine nuts and raisins. However, my favourite quail recipe is adapted from an Egyptian pigeon recipe given by Claudia Roden. My version is slightly simplified, using fewer flavourings, but it works well.

You will need:

• Quails, 1 or 2 per person, depending on how greedy they are
• 2 or 3 onions, chopped fine.
• Lemon juice
• Curry paste or powder (medium strength)
• Parsley, preferably flat-leafed, chopped
• A little olive oil (not too much, or it will cause smoke & flames when cooking)

Method:

1. Using a heavy knife or cleaver, cut the quails through the breastbone, then flatten them out.
2. Mix the chopped onion, curry paste, lemon juice, parley and olive oil. The result should be a thickish paste, which should be smeared over the flattened quails. The flavour of the quails should be spicy, but not noticeably curried.
3. Leave the quails to marinate for a few hours.
4. Grill the quails over hot coals for about 20 minutes, turning them regularly. It does no harm if the wings and legs are a bit charred at the ends. In fact, they crunch up nicely, bones and all. But the breasts should be tender and not scorched.

Serve with: plain risotto or pilaff, and a lightish red wine.

Snails

While living among the heretical monks of Cappadocia, Theodore solved a theological dispute about what can be eaten on fast days by serving stewed snails, which are not ‘flesh, fowl or fish’. (Theodore, chapter 3)

Contrary to popular belief, the Common or Garden Snail (Helix aspersa, pictured left) is perfectly edible, and in France it is eaten far more often than the larger Burgundian snail (Helix pomatia).

Collecting snails

I am wary of collecting snails in towns, as you cannot be sure what they have been eating. However, if you live in the country, or have a large garden (and do not use slug pellets), harvesting snails is perfectly safe, and combines pest control with gastronomy in a most satisfying way. They are best collected during the summer, at dawn or dusk, during rainy weather. If you search among shrubs you may find large quantities.

After collection, snails should be kept for two weeks (or longer) in an upturned bucket or flowerpot (with any holes blocked) in the shade. Conditions should be moist, but not wet. They should also be fed on dry bread, which purges them of any poisonous leaves they may have eaten.

Preparing snails

When you are ready to cook your snails, do the following:

1. Rinse the snails thoroughly with fresh water.
2. Sprinkle them with salt. This will encourage them to withdraw into their shells, and draw off some of their slime.
3. Plunge the snails into a large pan of boiling water. Simmer them for 15 minutes, to allow the slime to dissolve, than drain and cool them.
4. Using a cocktail stick, skewer, or small fork, remove the snails from their shells. This involves a twisting movement, to ease the spiral tail out of the inner coils of the shell.
5. Cook the snails (without their shells) for about 40 minutes, in stock or water flavoured with a bunch of herbs (bay, thyme, rosemary, etc.)
6. Drain the snails. At this point, they can be frozen, or used straight away.

Snail recipes

Stuffed snails (Escargot à la Bourguignonne)

In restaurants, this dish is made with large Burgundian snails, but it works just as well with garden snails.

1. Prepare the snails as above.
2. Make some ‘snail butter’ (butter mixed with crushed garlic and finely chopped parsley).
3. Put the snails back in their shells.
4. Insert a small lump of snail butter into the mouth of each shell. It should form a plug, concealing the snail.

5. Arrange the snail shells, mouth upwards, in a gratin dish.

6. Sprinkle a good layer of breadcrumbs over the dish.

7. Bake in a hot oven for 15 minutes.

Stewed snails (or Cagouilles Charentais)

In southwest France, small snails are called cagouilles. They are so popular in the Charentes that the locals call themselves cagouillards, in recognition of their supposedly slow and retiring nature. This traditional dish can still be found on the menus of humbler restaurants in the Cognac area, where 30 or 40 snails are considered a portion. I would use fewer, and serve the dish as a first course.

1. Prepare the snails as above.
2. Take a couple of slices of dark, well flavoured ham and chop them up very small. (Poitrine fumée or smoky bacon will do, though it gives a stronger flavour.)
3. Chop a medium onion finely.
4. Fry the ham and onion gently in a little butter, until the onion is soft and golden.
5. Add the snails (without their shells), some chopped garlic, a spoonful of tomatoe purée, and a bouquet garni.
6. Pour in enough red wine to cover the ingredients.
7. Simmer gently for an hour or so.
8. Add a little flour, or beurre manié, to thicken the sauce.

Serve the stewed snails in one of the following ways:

• Traditional: put the snails back in their shells, arrange them in ramekins, with the sauce. Garnish with parsley.
• Easy: as above, without the shells.
• Confusing: spoon the stewed snails into little puff-pastry cases, or onto small squares of toast. Cover them well with sauce. Your guests may mistake the snails for mushrooms, until you explain what they have eaten.