puls gladiatorum

[DetlefK]

The gladiators in ancient Rome ate this or a variant of this every day.
And now they are dead.

I found the original ancient recipe in a vegan blog and added for this post the quantities I found out.

"puls gladiatorum"
(for 1 serving as a main dish or 2 servings as a side-dish)
- some olive-oil
- half an onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 pinch of mediterranean spices (thyme, rosemary... whatever)
- 50g small, dried beans
- 50g whole grains (wheat, barley, millet...)
- 250-300ml of water (less, if you use canned beans)
- salt/soy-sauce/fish-sauce

0. If you use dry beans, put them in water and let them suck on it over night. Discard the water before cooking, as it contains chemicals that will make you fart.

1. Chop the onion into rather large pieces and the garlic really fine. Carefully fry them, including the dry spices (except salt!), in not too hot oil until the garlic almost turns brown.

2a. If you use dry beans, add them into the pot, together with the water. Bring to boil. The beans need a head-start of about 15 minutes. After that time, add the grains. Boil for approx. 20-30 more minutes until the beans are soft. Beans and grains should suck up the whole water, making the dish thick. Beware: Towards the end, it's prone to sticking at the bottom of the pot.
2b. If you use canned beans, add the grains first, together with the water. Bring to boil. After about 15 minutes, add the beans.

3. Season. It will need salt, but it also tastes good with soy-sauce. The original recipe is seasoned with roman fish-sauce.



Although it's a vegan main-dish, it goes excellent with fried sausage, pig and chicken.
You could also add an egg by cracking it into the pot and letting it simmer for 5 minutes in the vapor of the dish.

[formercia]

1. Garum

http://www.grouprecipes.com/112785/authentic-roman-garum-fish-sauce.html

Recipe for authentic Roman Fish Sauce.

You can find the equivalent in any Oriental Food Store; Nuk Mam in Vietnamese.

Good stuff.

[Retrograde]

2. Most common beans are New World

The Romans had fava beans, lentils, chickpeas, and possibly black-eyed peas or pigeon peas: the ones we're more familiar with didn't reach Europe until after Columbus. So if you're interested in authenticity, go with lentils (Appicius uses them in a lot of his recipes). And don't forget the garum - or Vietnamese fish sauce, which is supposed to be close.

Actually, it sounds like the recipe would work with any legumes. I'm always on the lookout for new things to do with beans.