Blancmange as a savory dish

A Modified Medieval Dinner of Delish +3

Blancmange is a ubiquitous medieval dish, and a careful reading of the many, many, many recipes reveals a lot of different ways to interpret the recipe. My first attempt to do so was straight out of Pleyn Delit and I didn't like it very much.

I needed a quick dinner tonight, though, and something that would appeal to omnivores. Digging through the fridge, I found I had some vegan mushroom soup I had made some while ago, and it occurred to me that this would be a very good way to try blancmange again.

I'd like to say I felt all kinds of clever, but it's not like rice cooked in mushroom soup is any sort of unexpected dish here in the land of hotdish. What I did feel pretty good about was the realization that it would serve as a veganized blancmange, as the soup had been made of equal parts mushroom broth & sweetened almond milk, plus flour, salt, little garlic. So, into the pot it went, one measure of the soup, one measure of water, a teaspoon of Better Than Bullion's no-chicken base, and one measure of rice.

I couldn't believe how good it was when compared to the Hieatt redaction . And it does not taste like your usual Lutheran Church Basement cuisine. Thank heaven. Instead, a hint of savory, a hint of sweet, and what I imagine the flavor profile of blancmange might have been before it evolved into the milk jello of modern cuisine.

That, in and of itself, would be a fine medieval blancmange. Mushrooms instead of chicken and otherwise almonds, sugar, rice. The blancmange is served with asparagus, onions, and a mock chicken breast that had been defrosted and "seared" in olive oil.