Monthly Archives: August 2010

Ingredients and Spices, Mastic

Mastic

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I was out and about shopping for baker’s ammonia (Hartshorn), that is used in Springerle cookies, when I stumbled across Mastic.  Now this spice is called for in more then a few Middle Eastern dishes.  ‘Previously I did not have this on hand so bypassed the spice’s inclusion with out fear of loosing to much of the essential flavoring in a dish.  I now have this little gem of a spice on hand so I though I would share with you a little history.

From the Kitab Al-Tabikh, the author writes that a well knowing spice  shopper, when out to purchase mastic,  should be looking for “…the kind with large, bright grains, not small, and free of dust and dirt;…”(Rodinson, pp. 39)

Mastic is a resin, hardened and stored in air tight containers before being ground into powder for consumption, from the mastic tree (Pistacia Leniscus), also known as Arabic Gum (Not gum arabic) as well as Yemen gum or tears of Chios.  The best “tears” are said to be the slightly green gold in color while the inferior tears are the white tears.

The inclusion of this spice, seems to be in a variety of recipes from savory to sweet as well as medicinal.   The taste is faintly piny and is thought to help purifier the breath. 1/2 teaspoon is the maximum amount suggested in food for four people.  So a little will go a very long way!

I purchased my small jar (roughly 1/4 cup if that) at the Phoenician Bakery in town, a small Middle Eastern Grocery store.  I have no suggestions for an online spice shop as my usual go to store http://www.worldspice.com/home/home.shtml does not carry this.  Luckily for me it was in town.

Roman Cookery, Roman Vegetarian, Zomos (Herb Sauce over Butter Beans)

Zomos (Herb Sauce over Butter Beans)

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Zomos

Butter Beans in Herb Sauce

Translation:

Put wheat groats, coriander, leeks, onion, dill, basil and a little aniseed into a mortar.  Boil on the stove and moisten with water, wine, garum and wine vinegar all mixed together.  When it has boiled and you are about to take it off the heat, sprinkle on some ground pepper.  Some people make it slightly sharp with wine vinegar by pouring over a little, and then remove it from the fire; but others boil everything when the wine vinegar has been added and by adding green herbs they make it ready to serve.

(Grant, pp. 131 from the Heidelberg Papyrus)

Ingredients:

¼ C whole barley or wheat groats                     1 leek   1 onion

1 tsp dried dill, basil, coriander              1 pinch aniseed

½ C water                    1 C wine                      1 tsp garum

¼ tsp ground pepper    1 tsp parsley

Redaction:

The day before, place the 1 C dried butter beans in a pot of water and let sit over night.

cooked beans

Before making the sauce the next day, boil the beans for 30 minutes or until soft.  Drain and set to the side.

With the translation I did a little ad-libbing this into 2 parts.  One sauce is a dry sauce with the ingredients roughly chopped, the other is a cooked with the ingredients ground into a more liquid type of sauce

Slice the onions and leeks into small pieces.  (Optional part is to fry the onions and leeks till soft before adding to the boiling pot.)

Zomos spices 2

Mix the dill, basil, coriander and aniseed in a mortar.

sauted spices

Take the water, wine, garum and wine vinegar and mix in a pot, then bring to a boil.   Add the onions, leeks and barley.

sauted 2

Boil the mixture till the barley (or wheat groats are soft).  Sprinkle with parsley and serve over butter beans.

over beans 1

This is what the first redaction looked like when the onions were coarsely chopped and barely grains were added whole.

The 2nd redaction I ground the onions and spices and cooked in the wine but did not reduce the sauce until almost dry.

sauce over beans2

Both sauces are very tasty over the beans, yet the look is very different.  This may be more of an aesthetic for the cook on how to make the sauce!