Leche Lumbard

Leche Lumbard, a pottle and a recently published novel!

I'm off Re-enacting with the Conroi de Vey http://www.livinghistory.co.uk/homepages/ConroiDeVey/tomorrow at a local show.  We're just having a picnic lunch, but as my contribution I'm taking along some Leche Lumbard.  Leche what?  Leche Lumbard. It's one of those generic mediaeval recipes that has many versions and if you Google it, you will find all sorts of variations. I'm writing this late at night while waiting for some bread to finish cooking, so I won't go into the full provenance details here, but I'll post them another time. For the moment I just thought I'd give you a basic simplified version of the dish that can be made from easily obtained store cupboard ingredients. it's a sort of sticky date spread.  To make a quantity of Leche Lumbard you do this.

Take a packet of dates - the sort you can buy in bags in Julian Graves.
Put them in a saucepan and cover with some white wine - doesn't have to be expensive and better slightly sweet than dry.  Add a heaped teaspoon of powdered ginger, two heaped teaspoons of mixed spice, a couple of tablespoons of honey and several good grinds of black pepper. Cook over a moderate heat stirring frequently to make sure it doesn't burn on the bottom, until you have a thick brown mush.  Now add breadcrumbs - any sort, but preferably from a slightly stale loaf until your mixture stiffens up. The amount of breadcrumbs is up to you but the texture should be pretty much like stuffing. Dollop is out of the pan into a container and arrange as you choose. If you just leave it in a pile it'll properly look like something out of a stable, so feel free to style it as you choose. You can put some almonds down the middle and drizzle over a bit more wine.  and there you have it. Serve as you want. It goes well with pancakes, with bread, (how we shall be eating it tomorrow) and also makes quite a good tart filling if put in a baked pastry shell.
Good stuff!