The Philosophy of Food, Issue #026: Nowmbyls of Muskyls

The purpose of this blog has been to celebrate and showcase experimentation.  I have had the good fortune of being successful, for the most part, in creating delicious experiments.  This is not, however, always the case.  Tonight was one of the exceptions.

The dish is called Nowmbyls of Muskyls, and it is another anachronism.  The dish, or at least its source manuscript, originates in 15th century England.  Perhaps better transliterated of Nombles of Mussels.  Nombles, when used in medieval recipes, refers to the viscera of an animal.  This is not the case for this recipe, but the chopped (or unchopped) shellfish certainly looks the part.  The recipe is best described as mussels (or other shellfish) in almond milk sauce.

The Ingredients
-Several pounds of shellfish
-2 cups of ground almonds
-2 Tbs. olive oil
-4 cloves of garlic, chopped
-1/2 cup of sherry

Ground almonds.

Using mussels and clams.

NOMBLES!

 The Process

Boil or steam your shellfish.  I opted to boil them with chopped garlic (sauteed in the olive oil) and sherry.

Then make some almond milk.  This is done by steeping ground almonds in boiling water.  You want to use a ratio of 1 cup of almonds to 2 cup of water.  Steep the ground nuts for five minutes, then remove.  The resulting liquid is almond milk.  An alternative is to blend the ground almond into the liquid, but I do not recommend this.

When the shellfish is cooked, remove it from its shell and chop it up.  Deposit it in the almond milk and add a little saffron for color.  Serve it forth!

Sort of reminds me of making a wort for home brewing.

Word to the wise.  The steeping almond mixture foams something fierce in boiling water.  Be ready to stir frantically or face the consequences.

The almond milk, post-blending.

The Results

First.  I strongly recommend not blending the ground almond into the almond milk.  The texture of the resulting suspension is. . . unpleasantly chalky.  In the future, I think I'll put the ground almond in cheese cloth so it's easy to remove.

Second.  The dish is a bit bland.  Well, it's exceedingly bland.  It needs salt, at least.  I'd recommend tossing in some more spices.  Perhaps 1/4 tsp. allspice and nutmeg in the almond milk, with some thyme and parsley.

Thirdly.  I think the dish would do well served over something.  This could be as basic as a bread bowel, spaetzle, or rice.  Actually, spaetzle sounds like a really good idea. . .

Just about finished. . .

Imagine you're a 15th century English fisherman, just come in out of the icy fog, chilled to the bone.  Nombles would probably taste like magic in such a scenario.

Mom liked it a bit more than I.