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Tannuriyya: Chicken Pot Pie

Translation:

Boil one chicken, pullets (2 young fowl) in salt and water. Take a frying pan and pour tallow and oil into it. Spread bread dough in it to line bottom and sides. Now, take the (boiled) chicken, pullets or the two plump fowls and remove the cavity (wall). Spread the birds flat on the dough in the pan. Mix finely chopped cilantro and onion with spikenard, cloves, cassia and black pepper. Pour on them wine vinegar and murri (liquid fermented sauce). If you prefer, use juice of…raisins…and pomegranate seeds, instead. Add ½ C. clarified butter or sweet olive oil and 5 eggs. Mix thoroughly all these ingredients and pour them all over the chicken. Roll out another piece of dough into a disc (for a crust), cover the chicken with it, (and seal together the edges of the dough). Lower the pan into the (heated) tannur until it is cooked, God willing. (Ibn Sayyar Al-Warraq, pp. 372-373)

Ingredients:

1 boiled chicken, de-boned and shredded

2 rolled out rounds of circular dough

5 eggs

½ C. Murri

¼ C. wine vinegar

½ finely chopped large onion or one small onion

1 bunch cilantro (if fresh is not available use 1 tsp dried)

1 tsp spikenard, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves

½ C. melted butter.

Redaction:

Instead of doing one full bird, I used 4 chicken thighs, well boiled in salt water. The meat and skin were left over from making chicken stock and no one in period would throw out good meat.

Quick side note: Period chickens were not the size of the chickens we find in the grocery store today. They were a lot smaller. For an idea of true chicken size, look up the chicken type called The Sultan. Small chickens, incredibly cute! but not a lot of meat. Another period Middle Eastern chicken would have been the Orloff. A little bigger than the sultan in period and breed over time to be a much bigger bird by the Russian noble Orloff. (He liked the birds so brought a bunch home to Russia…hence the name Russian Orloff even though the birds technically started in the Middle East.) I wrote a research paper that can be found on Roxalana’s redactions under Research paper if you want to know waaaay more than anyone really wants to know about chickens in period.

You will notice a spice called Spikenard. Is modernly grown as an ornamental these days instead of as a common spice, found in the ginseng family. (https://www.britannica.com/plant/spikenard-plant-Nardostachys-genus / Dalby, Andrew, “Spikenard” in Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food, 2nd ed. by Tom Jaine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-19-280681-5)

I just went without. I also used dried cilantro instead of fresh. It’s what I had on hand.

Remember the Murri recipe awhile back? It’s here again. When you make Murri, make several cups worth. This will show up again and again in Middle Eastern recipes. If you don’t have Murri on hand, use pomegranate juice and ground up raisins. Pomegranate juice can be bought at some stores, lots of Middle Eastern and Oriental stores carry this, or it can be ordered online. For raisin juice. Soak them a little bit, then grind them well (use a Cuisinart if you have one or a pestle and mortar) and strain through a fine sieve or cloth covered sieve.

I used a simple butter crust. 1 stick of butter, mixed with 2.5 C. of flour, 1 tsp salt and 1 C. of water added a Tbs. at a time until everything comes together. Some days your kitchen is going to be so humid you won’t need all the water, but some days you will, hence the Tbs. at a time.

Roll out the dough and cover your pan.

Here you can use a Tagine if you have one, a cast iron skillet or a small pan that’s in your cabinet you use every day. (If you’re entering this dish into an A&S please note on your documentation why or why not you used the pan you did while noting what would have been used in period). Your judges will want to know if you actually know what was used in period, including what a Tannur is (https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=AOaemvKOvUqMXtldMBzHAQNcMib1l3cUWQ:1632072312805&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=tannur&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwig086Tx4vzAhXSqpUCHbfeAnQQjJkEegQIBRAC&biw=1725&bih=1000&dpr=0.8) (basically a nice sized to mucking huge in ground oven you stick dough to the sides in or lower dishes into, made with various types of mud/tiles/clay etc….that’s another paper for another time).

Lay out your shredded chicken. Cover with the onion, spice, murri and egg mixture.

Cover with the second layer of dough and seal it up. I used a simple squish the dough together then use fingers to form a semi nice looking edge found on apple pies. You can use a fork, a spoon or even a dough crimper, as long as the edges are sealed together.

DO NOT forget to add small pricks to the dough so that pockets of hot air can escape and not rip your dough apart while drying to do so.

Bake until done.

I found this more like a chicken quiche then a chicken pot pie. The flavors were a bit odd yet still enjoyable!

October 3, 2021 | No comments

I wanted to do a dish that had the unusual. Tongue doesn’t come up very often nor do several of the spices I used. Here is my redaction of this hearty stew of meat and chickpeas.

Qelyeh-yeSirab – A dish of tripe,tongue, stomach

Translation:

Its method of preparation is that the trip of mountain bovine should be cleaned and cut into small square pieces and the skin of sheep tail fat should be chopped according to the instructions for trip and boiled. Then the meat of the bovine chest is cut into small squares and added along with peeled chickpeas, onions,spices, especially cinnamon sticks, and quartered bovine tongue and simmered overnight, and in the morning high quality vinegar with sugar and saffron is added and it must be thick. If bovine tripe is not available, sheep tripe can also be made according to this recipe, and a large amount of fat is pounded and added at the step of simmering.

(ol-Hayat/Ghanoonparvar, pg, 37)

Ingredients:

Tripe (if available)

Beef (I used brisket)

Beef tongue

Cinnamon sticks

Two onions

4 C. garbanzo beans

3.5 Tbs spices containing nutmeg, allspice, ginger, gallingale, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, long pepper, grains of paradise.

½ C. Balsamic vinegar

¼ C. sugar

Large pinch of saffron

Redaction:

Tripe is one of those items that isn’t usually available at most stores. I…skipped the tripe. Terrible of me and even though I cook weird and a usual even I can’t make tripe palatable to everyone. I used beef brisket, the flat portion leftover from a full brisket that wouldn’t fit into a baking pan. The tongue was perfect.

Gather your ingredients together. Don’t worry if you think you have more than anyone will ever eat. Freezers were made for a reason!

Even though I was using the smallest possible portions, I had a mountain of meat, roughly four pounds worth. This required a minimum of two onions sliced and four cups of garbanzo beans. Even if you have a large crock pot, feel free to add more onions and chickpeas as this will be mostly a meat dish otherwise.

The brisket was easy enough to cut into squares. More fat should have been added. Feel free to add olive oil or even a bit of sesame oil if beef tallow or sheep tail fat isn’t available. I would even suggest ghee/butter.

The tongue was a pain. First you have to boil the tongue for 10 minutes in either water, broth or wine. I used broth I had on hand from a pot roast done the night before.

Next you have to skin said tongue. The skin on the tongue is rough, touch and totally inedible unless you are starving. Just don’t try it unless you want to eat shoe leather and the shoe leather will probably be preferred.

After skinning the tongue, I cut the tongue into pieces, as square as possible. Please note how the outside looks done but the inside is still raw. The boiling phase was only to loosen the outer skin/taste buds of the tongue.

The spices were fun. I had made an aratif a few months earlier for a different project and much left over. For those wondering: *Aratif’s are spice mixtures, unique to merchants and households who had their own ideas of what tasted great. I used the common and the unusual(by today’s standards) because it smelled amazing. In period, every cook and household had their own secret blend. Whatever was preferred by the head of the household or passed down through the generations.

Every thing went into a crock pot. It’s a full crock pot. Don’t worry though, everything fit…mostly. *Note the whole cinnamon sticks. Once you use a stick you can’t use it again. Throw it away.

No slow burning fire was available though I would LOVE to have an indoor fire place where I could keep a fire going slowly with the correct pottery pots, just for dishes like this. Don’t be afraid to work with what you have. If you don’t have a fireplace or charcoal grill, use a crock pot or an oven. Put the oven on 200 and let the dish cook for 8-9 hours or on low for the crock pot for 8-9 hours. Remember brisket and tongue are tough; these meats need long slow simmers to tenderize.

Once the dish is almost done, add the vinegar, sugar and saffron. You don’t need a lot, just another layer of flavor.

This can be served on its own or over rice or noodles. See which you like!

Those green things, aren’t green. It’s the onions. The chopped pieces absorbed the coloring of the spices during cooking.

***Tongue: is an organ meat and will be tough with an unusual flavor if you’re not use to it. Tongue does require long slow cooking time and if not in a period dish, it’s excellent sliced with horseradish and mayo between sourdough bread.

September 21, 2019 | No comments

I had guests coming and wanted to show off something new but I wanted comfort food. It had been an awful week for all of us. This dish hit all the comfort spots, meaty, fatty, carby, sweet and salty. There isn’t anything this dish can’t help with when you’re needing comfort.

Morassa Palav

Chicken with Rice, Fruit and Nuts

Translation:

This dish is also called Molamma’ Palav. Its method of preparation is that chicken meat is cut into small pieces, and after skimming, once it is cooked, rice is added. When the rice is half cooked, golden raisins, pistachio nuts, almonds, dates, figs, chestnuts, barberries, and a large amount of chickpeas are added and mixed, and fire is prepared as in other dishes and it is steamd. Each of the above mentioned ingredients is added at different stages; for example, dates are added after the rice drained in order to prevent them from becoming mushy. (Ghanoonparvar, pg. 27)

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs. cut up chicken

2 C. Jasmine rice

1 C. ea. Almonds, Pistachio, Barberries

2 C. Raisons, Figs, Dates, Chestnuts, Chickpeas

1 C. Chicken Stock

1 C. Butter

Salt to taste

Optional:

1⁄2 large onion

3 cloves minced garlic

Pinch saffron

1 tsp ground cloves

Redaction:

Gather everything together. Here I make a substitution of golden raisins for currents. Usually it’s the other way around but not today.

Yes, those are fresh figs. It’s fig season here and I had a bunch on hand. So if you need a recipe for fresh figs, here ya go!

Add the chicken and rice together and cook. Here I added the chicken stock and butter instead of water.

Yes, you can use water, I wanted more flavor hence the addition.

Half way through cooking I added the nuts and chickpeas.

With 10 minutes left, I added all the chopped fruit and chestnuts.

Serve – One bowl is all I could eat. This rich and satisfying as only a good chicken and rice dish can be.

For the optional: Add the chopped onions with the chicken, rice and stock with the garlic. Add the saffron and ground cloves when you stir in the nuts.

September 10, 2019 | No comments

Even though this dish says “grilled”, it’s not. Even though it looks a little bland, it’s an amazing dish with more flavor than can be described in the word “grilled”. Fast and easy. You spend as much time on prepping as you do cooking. Give this one a try, if your short on time or just need something showstopping on the taste buds.

Shawi: Grilled Meat

Translation:

Take fatty good grilling meat and sheep’s tail. Chop finely. Put in a shallow earthenware pot. Put it over the fire. Take for it roasted walnut hearts and throw over roasted and pounded coriander and caraway, parsley, mint and lime. Put in the middle a little atraf al-tib. Put in a dish and eat hot. It is tasty. (Kanz al-Fawa’id fi Tanwi’ al-Mawa’id/Salloum, pg 50-51)

Ingredients:

1 – 1.5 lbs Meat

1/2 C. Olive Oil or sheep tail fat

2 C. Roasted Walnuts

1 tsp. caraway (roasted and ground)

1 tsp. ground coriander, parsley and mint

2 Tbs. lime juice

Redaction:

I gathered all the ingredients together.

I had beef for grilling on hand so went with that. Any good quality meat will do. I cut the meat into about 1/2 to 1/3 what I would normally for making kabobs. I wanted to have easily chewed pieces not huge dripping chunks. The meat was then put into a shallow tajine bottom.

I left the lid off as the recipe didn’t say to cover. I think my idea of small is not the original cook’s idea of “finely”. I’m ok with this.

Next I took roasted walnuts, spices and lime juice. Everything was mixed together then popped into the oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

If you’ll notice the meat is still a little pink at the center. This is a fast cooking dish.

The reason you don’t see this on a plate over roasted vegetables or sauted spinach…it was eaten to fast. I just got enough into this bowl before it was devoured. This is a damn good recipe!

August 22, 2018 | No comments

Musk

Musk is noted in more medieval recipes for food and perfumes than you can shake a sword at, adding a depth and complexity to foods the same way sandalwood does. A little goes a very long way!

Now modernly, we can get musk from whales (ambergris) also known a whale snot.

Beaver musk (castor sacks of Castor Canadensis or Castor fiber).

Civet (viverridae).

Finally ambrette musk (hibiscus ablemoschus).

Period musk is almost impossible to get. Why you may ask? While I was doing a bit of studying for another project (surprise, surprise), I’ve found that the original(ish) musk mentioned in period cooking came from three sources. The Siberian musk deer (M. moschiferus), black musk deer (M. fuscus) Alpine/Himalayan musk deer (M. chrysogaster). The glands of the musk deer were harvested (and small quantities from very small musk deer farms) by removing the scent glands of the deer.

The gland secretions would dry into small black grains that were, and are, prized for the pheromones they exude. The description is that of a rich and earthy smell, almost heavenly. Mostly. Some people found it repulsive, but not so many that the deer aren’t on the verge of extinction now.

The original method for removal was to kill the deer and take the musk glands, without worry about sustainability. This has come back to haunt those who relied on the deer’s scent gland. Few of these animals survive, except in the most remote regions. The price, in period is listed as being twice the weight in gold and modernly 3 to 4 times that price now. (Nabhan, pp. 150-151).

So where does that leave the modern cook? Up a creek for the period musk. There is no way that musk, from the listed deer, is harvested cruelty free or without costing an arm and a leg (throw a kidney in for good measure). There are substitutions. There is a variety of plant based musks with beautiful earthy notes and of course synthetics. If possible go with the plant based. Experiment. Try new things! Always err on the side that more can be added but it’s going to be hard to remove what you’ve already put in!

May 2, 2017 | No comments

While doing research for another project, I ran across this random little gem of a recipe. I had Scappi’s butter pie crust on hand and fresh pears, along with spices and dried fruit. I thought to myself, why the hell not! Let’s see what happens! And a taste new dish is recreated.

A Winter’s Tale Pear Pie

Translation:

“…saffron to colour the warden pies (pears). Mace, dates, non; that’s our of my note; nutmegs, seven, a race or two of ginger, but that I may beg; four pound of prunes, and as many raisins of the sun.” The Clown in A Winter’s Tale (Milton, pp. 20)

Ingredients:

Pinch of saffron

4 pears

1 tsp ea. ground mace, nutmeg, ginger

20 dates (pitted and chopped)

20 prunes

1 C. raisins
***Quick note before we get started, this pie is being made in a single serving pie mold. I gave instructions for a full pie. If you want to do a single pie just cut everything down to 1/4.
Redaction:
Gather your ingredients. First things first!
Chop up your pears, dates, prunes. Toss in the raisins and mix.
Add your spices, mixing again.
Here I used a butter crust, because it is awesome! (and I love making it) along with the fact I had extra on hand.
Make a top for the pie. I was pretty sloppy with this pie crust…a late night of cooking. You can make a pretty pie topping with a little bit more effort. If I were serving this to company, of course it would be much much nicer!
An interesting note. The Clown, in a The Winter’s Tale, didn’t ask for sugar. The dried fruit and natural sweetness of the pear is supposed to cover the delicate flavors and natural sugars without any extra.

Cutting into the pie…it just smells period. That scent of spice and fruit that comes only with a real medieval cooking.
I hate to admit this, but I was skeptical about the no sugar thing. Turns out the fruit pie is fabulous without. Very tasty.

April 17, 2017 | No comments

There have been a few hurdles over the past few months that I have had to address and recover from. However I have a new recipe to add to my list of favorite dishes. Meat plus fire, always an excellent combination!

Sikh

(Skewered Meat)

Translation:

…for the method for skewered meat: mix meat with salt onions and turmeric and boil it with whole potherbs. Cut it into very small pieces and strain it. Then fasten one segment of meat and one piece of onion on the skewer and rub ghee, caraway, lime juice, white ambergris, rosewater and salt on it. Bake it well and when it is tender, wrap it in thin bread and serve it. (Mandu, pp. 26)

Ingredients:

2 lb cubed meat

Salt (to taste)

1 onion (finely chopped)

1 tsp turmeric

½ tsp ea. thyme, cilantro and basil

Second stage

1 onion cut into quarters

Ghee

2 tsp Caraway

1 tsp lime juice

¼ tsp rosewater

Salt to taste

Redaction:

I am going to change this slightly. Here instead of boiling the meat, I am placing the meat to marinade overnight in the first set of ingredients.

So first, take a good piece of meat with a bit of marbled fat for excellent flavor and cut it into cubes.

Then mix the marinade together.

After the meat has marinated for 24 hours (or slightly longer),

I skewer all the meat.

I alternate one cube with one slice of onion, until the skewer is filled. The onion chunks actually help with the cooking. I did several skewers with onions and several without. Those without onions cooked slower and the meat was still very red in between the chunks while the outside was done and slightly charred.

Once the skewers are ready to grill, I brush each one with the ghee, caraway, lime juice, rose water and salt mixture, every 5 minutes until the meat is done.

This is the raw meat grilling on a small clay pot grill.

The meat is smelling heavenly at this point but still a bit raw.

The meat is done and ready to be devoured.

The meat actually never made it into the flat bread. We ate the cubes hot off the skewers. It was delicious. I regret nothing!

August 4, 2014 | No comments

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