Venetian Chicken with Almond Milk & Dates

The Persian and Arab fondness for using sugar, spice and ground almonds in savoury dishes spread both East, notably to Indian Mughal cuisine, and West to Medieval European cookery. This recipe is based on one handwritten in a fourteenth-century cookbook from Venice. At the time, the city lay at the end of the fabled spice route, the European hub of spices and silks arriving from the East. Just as Venetian art and architecture drew on Islamic influence,, so too does thiis sweetlly spiiced br