Just a little something for Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s day is not a well known feast in The Netherlands, but it is being increasingly commercially exploited by florists and confectioners. Who would blame them. However, at the beginning of February I am still recovering from the commercial violence of the December month and would rather not be forced into following the suggestions of the shopkeepers. Therefore, a present that can be prepared at home: rose jelly.

Will the ‘real’ Saint Valentine please declare himself?

For those of you who wonder who Saint Valentine was: we do not know exactly. There are no less than fourteen saintly Valentines, because the name, which means something like Valiant, was popular during Late Antiquity. However, there already was a Saint Valentine-cult in the fourth century.

The Saint Valentine that until 1969 was celebrated on 14 February by roman-catholics is either Valentine of Rome or Valentine of Terni. Maybe they are even one and the same person. Traditionally the ‘Lover’s Day’ is connected to this Sint Valentine. The American researcher Henry A. Kelly published a study in 1986 on the cult of Valentine in the works of the fourteenth-century English poet Chaucer, with quite surprising findings. Chaucer was probably the first to introduce ‘Valentine’s Day’, in the poem The Parlement of Foules. Three eagles have their eyes on the same female eagle. To resolve the dilemma, the birds debate on the question on “St. Valentine’s Day, when every bird arrives there to choose his mate” (For this was on seynt Valentynes ​​day, / Whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make). There is one snag: the female bird has to agree with being chosen (#MeToo!).

From the context in this poem, and from other works from Chaucer, Kelly states that 14 February is improbable as the beginning of the mating season. He identifies a rather obscure Valentine (✝ 325), bishop of Genoa, as a possible candidate. His feast day is 2 or 3 May, and that is much more likely as the start of the mating and breeding season. As Kelly points out, Chaucer had traveled to Italy several times, and he has also visited Genoa. So he could have been familiar with Valentine of Genoa and, when deciding on a day on which the birds would convene, he chose the Genoese Valentine’s day. However, outside of Genoa this particular Valentine was not known, so it was not long before the feast day (which was made up by Chaucer) got associated with a Valentine who was more well known and who was celebrated on 14 February. All nice stories and legends about this Valentine as a patron of lovers have been made up. And since then, scholars have been trying to explain why ‘the start of the mating season’ would be in the coldest period of Winter. There is even mention of a ‘psychological Spring’.

The relics of ‘the real Valentine’ can be visited in the Church of St Syrus in Genoa (not to be confused with the basilisc of St Cyrus).

Edible flowers

If you want to present your loved one with something less obvious than a bouquet of flowers or a box of chocolate, consider this present below. You can eat flowers. Just think of cauliflower, broccoli, artichokes and zucchini flowers. There are other edible flowers: roses, violets, gillyflowers (Matthiola incana), nasturtium (Tropaeolum), marigolds, some orchids, dandelions, et cetera. Below is a recipe for flowers in jelly, but the jelly can be made without flowers as well. See also the seventeenth-century salad with flowers.

Warning

Do NOT use flowers from a florist. These flowers are often saturated with pesticides and other chemicals, and are not to be eaten! Buy only flowers which you’re sure are unsprayed. Some greengrocers can deliver them. Or you can grow them in your own garden, but be sure not to use pesticides and such.

The taste of flowers is not up to their looks. Whatever shape or colour they have, they taste mainly like cress. Sugared flower leaves of violets and roses are delicious and decorative. Deep fried courgette flowers are a treat. But although the fresh roses in the gelatine pudding on the picture look beautiful, they have little taste. When serving this jelly, be sure to serve a second dessert, for example a pink pudding made in the same jelly mould, like the almond jelly on this page, or even this medieval strawberry pudding. Or use the flower jelly for decorative purposes only. Then one can use any flowers that are available.
For about  5 decilitres (2 cups) jelly; preparation in advance 5 minutes; preparation 15 minutes + cooling, setting and demoulding.

Rose jelly

2½ dl (1 cup) water
250 gr sugar
3 to 4 Tbsp rose water
a few drops red food colouring
6 gelatine leaves or the equivalent of powdered gelatine
red mini roses,

Preparation in advance

Decide which mould to use for the jelly, preferably a metal one that will conduct the heat well. Determine the volume of the mould. If it is not stated on the mould itself, just place it on a scale and fill it with water. Because 1 decilitre weighs exactly 100 gram, it is easy to know the volume. The amounts in the recipe are for 5 decilitres.

Preparation

Combine water and sugar in a pan, and bring to the boil until the sugar has dissolved. Take the syrup off the fire, then add rose water and a few drops of red food colouring for a pink jelly. Some lemonade syrup from red fruit is also a possibility.

Put the gelatine leaves one by one in a bowl with cold water and let them soak for about ten minutes. Do not put all the leaves in at one go, because the leaves can stick together, and the inner leaves will still be hard. Squeeze the gelatine leaves one by one and dissove them in the sugar syrup. Wait until the jelly has cooled a little but is still liquid.

Choose the most decorative roses and cut them just below the flower.

Pour a thin layer of jelly into the mould and arrange the roses on it with the open side down. Fill the mould with the rest of the jelly. The flowers will start to float. So, place a flat cutting board on the mould with weight. Some of the jelly will run over. The flowers are now trapped in the jelly, remove the board only when then the jelly is completely set.

To serve

Dip the mould in hot water, put a serving dish upside on the mould and turn them together. If the jelly does not come out, just repeat the dipping.

For the picture of the rose jelly I have used flowers from a miniature rose bush from the florist. So, these are probably not edible. I prepared a second jelly without flowers. The jelly is of course rather sweet, but this is more a decorative dish than a culinary one.

Almond jelly

This jelly is prepared in the same way as the rose jelly. But, being opaque, leave out any flowers.

100 gr almond flour
3½ dl water
250 gr sugar
a few drops almond essence
a few drops red food colouring
6 gelatine leaves or the equivalent of powdered gelatine

Preparation in advance

Make almond milk – Pouring 3½ dl boiling water over the almond flour, stir it and leave for twenty minutes. Then strain the almond milk, pressing the almond pulp to get as much milk as possible. You’ll need 2½ dl (1 cup) almond milk.

Preparation

Combine almond milk and sugar in a pan, and bring to the boil until the sugar has dissolved. Take the syrup off the fire, then add vanilla essence and a few drops of red food colouring for making a pink jelly.

Put the gelatine leaves one by one in a bowl with cold water and let them soak for about ten minutes. Do not put all the leaves in at one go, because the leaves can stick together, and the inner leaves will still be hard. Squeeze the gelatine leaves one by one and dissove them in the almond-sugar syrup. Wait until the jelly has cooled a little but is still liquid.

Pour the jelly into the mould. Leave to cool and settle.

To serve

Dip the mould in hot water, put a serving dish upside on the mould and turn them together. If the jelly does not come out, just repeat the dipping.

 

 

 

For the picture I have used more gelatine, to make sure the jelly was firm enough to cut out the stars and exchange them. I also used more food colouring than in the jelly with roses (carmine red).

Bibliography

The editions below were used by me. Links refer to available editions.

• Henry Ansgar Kelly, Chaucer and the cult of Saint Valentine. Brill, Leiden, 1986.

Recipes for rose jelly and almond jelly
These jellies are especially for valentine’s Day.
© Author Christianne Muusers