Orange Lemon Chicken

TO BOILE A CAPON WITH ORENGES AND LEMMONS
The Good Huswife's Handmaide For the Kitchen, 1594

Take Orenges or Lemmons pilled, and cutte them the long way, and if you can keepe your cloves whole and put them into your best broth of Mutton or Capon with prunes and currants and three or fowre dates, and when these have beene well sodden put whole pepper, great mace, a good peece of suger, and some rose water, and either white or claret Wine, and let all these seeth together a while, & so serve it upon soppes with your capon.

The Modern Version:

2 1/2 lbs chicken or capon, cut into serving pieces
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tsp rosewater (available from Middle Eastern groceries, or by mail order from cooking supply outlets such as Williams Sonoma;1-800-541-2233)
1 cup white wine
2 oranges, peeled and cut into eighths
2 lemons, peeled and cut into eighths
4 prunes, coarsely chopped
4 dates, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup currants
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp whole peppercorns
1/2 tsp whole cloves
1/2 tsp mace

In a large dutch oven, heat the oil and butter together until hot. Season the chicken or capon pieces with salt and pepper and place in pan. Brown well on all sides. Add the chicken stock, rosewater, and wine and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the fruit, salt, and mace. Place the peppercorns in a cheesecloth bag and add to the stock (the cheesecloth isn't strictly neccessary, but biting unsuspectedly into a peppercorn or clove can be an unsettling experience). Continue to simmer for another 15 minutes, or until the chicken is tender. Remove the cheesecloth bag containing the peppercorns and cloves. Serve in a large bowl with strips of fried bread.

TO MAKE A SALLET OF ALL KINDS OF HERBES AND FLOWERS
The Good Huswifes Jewell, Thomas Dawson, 1596

Take your hearbes and picke them very fine into faire water, and picke your flowers by themselves, and wash them all cleane, and swing them in a strainer, and when you put them into a dish, mingle them with Cowcumbers or Lemmans payred and sliced, and scrape Suger, and put into vineger and Oyle, and throw the flowers on the top of the Sallet, and of every sorte of the aforesaid thinges, and garnish the dish about with the foresaide thinges, and hard Egges boyled and laid about the dish and upon the Sallet.

The Modern Version:

1 small head of butter lettuce
1 cup watercress
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup fresh tarragon leaves
1/2 cup flower petals (you can use roses, primroses, nasturtiums, chive blossoms, violets, or calendulas, but be sure they haven't been sprayed with insecticides)
1 cucumber, pared and sliced
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced
4 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp brown sugar

Wash the lettuce, watercress, and herb leaves in cold water and pat dry or use a salad spinner; refridgerate. Rinse the flower petals in a bowl of cold water and gently pat dry; refridgerate.

Tear the lettuce into bite size pieces and combine with the watercress and herb leaves. Add the cucumber slices and toss to mix.

Mix together the oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and sugar; stir until blended. Add dressing to the salad and toss until well coated. Gently mix in the flower petals (reserving a few to garnish the salad with). Top the salad with the egg slices and garnish with the reserved flower petals.

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