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Embractum Baianum (Baian Stew)
Embractum Baianum (Baian Stew) is a traditional Ancient Roman recipe for a classic seafood stew flavoured with dates, herbs, spices, wine and fish sauce. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Ancient Roman version of: Embractum Baianum.
prep time
20 minutes
cook time
10 minutes
Total Time:
30 minutes
Serves:
4
Rating: 
Tags : Ancient Roman Recipes
Original Recipe
Embractum Baianum: ostreas minutas, sphondylos, urticas in caccabum mittes, nucleos tostos concisos, rutam, apium, piper, coriandrum, cuminum, passum, liquamen, caryotam, oleum.
Translation
Mince the poached oysters, mussels or scallops and sea nettles put in a sauce pan with toasted nuts, rue, celery, pepper, coriander, cumin, raisin wine, broth, reduced wine and oil.
The 'sea nettle' mentioned here is a jellyfish, one of the species in the genus
Chrysaora.
Ingredients:
20
oysters (tinned will do if you can't find fresh)
20 Venus clams
40
mussels
8 small squid cleaned and cut into rings (keep the tentacles intact to garnish)
100g roasted pine nuts, roughly chopped
2 celery sticks (finely chop both the stalk and the leaves) [
alexanders for a more authentic taste]
handful of fresh
rue, finely chopped
250ml (1 cup) dry white wine
10 pitted dates, chopped
50ml
garum
50ml
passum
olive oil
pinch of freshly-ground black pepper
pinch of ground coriander seeds
pinch of
ground cumin
1 sprig of finely-chopped
parsley to garnish.
Method:
Soak the oysters, clams and mussels in cold salted water for a few hours so that they open and purge any sand inside. Replace the water after the first hour to remove any sand.
Pour some olive oil in to a large heavy-bottomed saucepan and add the pine nuts, celery, dates and garum. Cook gently without burning. After a few minutes of continual stirring add the rinsed and dried molluscs (in their shells, discarding any which have not opened and which do not close again when you tap then on the table) and the squid. Stir them in and increase the heat. Add the wine and allow this to boil (removing the alcohol) before adding the passum and the rue.
Cook over a medium heat until the molluscs steam open (should take about five minutes) then season with pepper and pour into a bowl. Arrange the squid tentacles on top and add some freshly-chopped parsley to garnish.
Find more recipes from Apicius' De Re Coquinaria along with information on Apicius and his cookbook, all part of this site's Ancient Roman recipes collection.
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