Out of town for the 4th of July. New yummy postings will be incoming after that! Have a great weekend.
All posts by SoshaRuark
Laban Condiment (Flavored Dry Cheese)
This spread is really good! It is similar to the Roman dish Moretum (Goat Cheese with Herbs) in that a cheese is flavored with garlic, salt and olive oil. Though this Middle Eastern spread is with out spices, that does not detract from the great flavor! If you like garlic, add a little more. If you are more vamperic add a little less.
Laban Condiment
(Flavored Dry Cheese)
Translation:
Take as much cheese as you like. Cut off the rind and, using a grater (iskirfaj), reduce the cheese to powder. Next, put it in the mortar with garlic and salt, then dissolve it in hot water and mix well. Finally, pour some good olive oil on it. Eat with the blessing of God. Then, with the will of god, add walnuts that have been shelled and ground up in the mortar.
Zaouali, pp. 109
Ingredients:
½ lb goat cheese 1 tsp salt 3-4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
2 Tbs olive oil 1/3 C. crushed walnuts
My redaction:
The recipe calls for a cheese with a rind. I have not found any Middle Eastern grocery stores that carry such a cheese and I’m not 100% sure that Parmesan would work so I had to compromise a little. I took a good soft goat cheese at room temperature and worked the cheese over with a fork, till a more crumbled look was achieved.
I then added the salt and the garlic to the cheese. Now here I wasn’t sure if the water was to moisten the “powdered” cheese for a better texture, so at this point since the goat cheese I was using was already moist I skipped adding the hot water.
The 2 Tbs of olive oil were added next and everything was given a good stir till well mixed.
The first round of this cheese I did not add the walnuts. This is, in my opinion, an optional step. The cheese tastes great with or with out. With out is a really nice sharp garlic and salt; with adds a nice nutty flavoring to the garlic to mellow out the bite just a little.
Tamr Mulawwaz (Stuffed Dates)
This dish is unfortunately not my favorite. It has all of my favorite flavors; Dates, saffron, honey, almonds and rose water. That the combination does not work for me is a failing on the part of my taste buds to appreciate the subtle and complex flavors that this imparts as a sweet and mild dessert. I think I would prefer the dates as an added side note to coconut ice cream…but that’s another story! This is a very good good medieval Middle Eastern dessert, unfortunately I just can not appreciate the flavors melded together as much as I prefer the individual tastes separately!
Tamr Mulawwaz
(Stuffed Dates)
Translation
Wash Iraqi dried dates in hot water and remove the pits and replace them with almonds or pistachios. Boil syrup and honey and skim. Then throw the dates in it, and when it has come to the boil twice, leave it until it is cold. Colour with saffron and flavour with musk and rose-water.
Rodison, pp. 463
Ingredients:
1 lb dates 1/3 C Almonds or Pistachios
1 C sugar 1 C honey
1/8 tsp saffron 1 tsp rose-water
My Redaction:
I took large Mejdool dates and used a rather thick wooden skewer to push the date seeds out the bottom, leaving the date intact and ready to be filled with almonds (or pistachios).
Here are the, now, pitted dates with almonds and honey to the side. As you can see, the skewer is a fairly thick type which holds up better to the pushing outof the date seeds then thinner skewers.
Stuff pitted dates with pistachios (or almonds).
Here I am stuffing the date with 2 almonds each, as the dates are pretty large. You can probably fit 3-4 pistachios per date if you prefer pistachios to almonds.
Bring sugar and honey with a little water to a boil.
I added the saffron a little early and I’m not sure that adding the saffron at this stage helped the flavor. I might suggest experimenting as saffron does have a strong flavor. Add the saffron either as the honey boils or at the end of the boiling, when the dates are cooling in the honey.
Once the syrup has boiled and has been skimmed add the stuffed dates.
Make sure there is enough honey to cover the dates. If there is not enough honey for the dates to bath in, scorching will occur which will ruin the flavor. Do not be afraid of adding more honey and sugar to keep the dates from scorching!
Let the mixture boil two times then add saffron and rose-water. The flavor is light and distinctive for the combination of sweet and rose.
Here are the cooked dates in their glossy goodness. I will probably do this dish again and experiment with the flavoring for my own tastes as the 2nd try was not as good as I remembered from the first time doing this. Try this on your own and have fun with the flavor!
Sikbaj Tannur (Oven Roasted Meat w/Vegetables)
I really like oven roasted dishes. You throw everything in a clay pot and let it sit in a low set oven for hours till tender and well blended in flavor. Excellent year round be especially good for those cool/cold fall and winter evenings.
Sikbaj Tannuri
(Oven Roasted Meat w/Vegetables)
Translation:
This and other cooked dishes, when you want them tannuri, you combine the ingredients and adjust their salt and water and spices and put them in the tannur covered overnight until morning. Sikbaj is more suitable in the tannur then others. Take meat as needed and cut into pieces larger then medium and wash clean. Add its ingredients to it, such as carrots, onions, leeks and some turnips, and season it with vinegar and date molasses and colour it with saffron, and season with salt and spices. Lid the top of the pot and put it in the tannur through out the night on a moderate fire until morning, then it is taken up.
Rodiscon, pp. 371-372
Ingredients:
1 lb chuck roast or stew meat 2 C. carrots 1 onion 1 leek
1 eggplant 1 Tbs chopped garlic ½ C. date molasses
1 tsp cumin, coriander, cinnamon, saffron, salt and pepper
Redaction:
Any type of meat can be used for this dish. Choose a well marbled cut. The meat will be slow cooking for hours and really lean meat will dry out very quickly, while marbled meat will have that melt in the mouth texture. I did substitute eggplant of turnips as this is not the season for turnips but eggplants were readily available.
This meat is beef stew meat, that was chopped in to slightly larger then bite sized pieces and placed in a bowl. Goat, chicken or lamb would work well in the clay pot for slow cooking. Experiment with the meat and the flavors so that this dish remains new and appealing!
The eggplant was cut into cubes (rough cubes) while baby carrots were used. (I had those on hand). Period wise, red carrots would have been used after the inner woody core had been removed then cut into bite sized pieces. Only 1 leek was need though 2 could have been used. I used one full yellow onion. Now onion flavoring is up to the modern cook though period onions were probably a little smaller then the store bought onions we buy today and probably a little lighter in flavor then the small intense onions that are grown with out fertilizer or regular watering. These were cut into small pieces and place in the bowl with the other vegetables.
Once the last of the vegetables were cut into pieces the ground spices and garlic were added. Everything was mixed together very well.
This is where the date syrup would be added…however having used all of mine earlier and forgetting this I had to compensate with honey. Just as tasty just not quiet what the recipe called for. If neither date syrup or honey are on hand try a few chopped up dates. You want the play of sweet against the spicy.
Oil up a tanjine or a deep pottery cooking dish (or Dutch oven) and pour everything in. Add just enough water to cover and place in the oven for several hours on a low temperature. When I cooked this I did not add water (though a little bit, about 1 cup of water, would have been good) and put the oven on for 350. 2.5 hours later…every thing came out very well cooked and VERY tender.
This was sooo yummy. I would suggest barley cooked in broth or rice cooked with saffron. The hubby liked his with a bit of cheese and lots of meat. So a bit of goat cheese sprinkled on top is also a tasty suggestion!
Adas Tannuri (Oven Lentils)
I had always wondered why lentils would be served to guests. I have tried them prior and was just not impressed with the bland flavoring. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I pulled out my freshly bought lentils for one more old fashion cooking try. I boiled up a cup for a different recipe added some butter for a tentative taste (I mean what doesn’t taste good with butter?). This batch was what converted me into a lentil lover! The lentils were startchy, a little crunchy from the cooking till the water was ALL gone and then some, to buttery melt in your mouth.
The recipe I did fix from that batch is not this. However this recipe is excellent as well!
Adas Tannuri
Oven Lentils
Translation:
Cut up fat meat in pieces larger than medium and wash them, and put them in the pot and fry them. Throw three pounds of peeled, washed, picked-over lentils on two pounds of it and a sufficiency of Swiss chard, washed and cut up four fingers (long), and add four times it’s quantity of water to it. If it is necessary to add water during the night, do so. Then adjust the salt and cover the top of the pot, and put it in the tannur overnight, and when it is morning, take it up. Pound garlic and dry coriander for it, as much as needed, and put them into the lentils, then stew it. Put finely pounded mastic cumin, and caraway on it; and lemon juice for him who wants that, for this is according to desire.
Rodison, pp. 371
Ingredients:
1 lb. chuck roast 1 bunch Swiss chard 1 cup lentils
1 tsp salt, cumin, caraway, coriander 1 Tbs garlic
4 C. water (or preferred meat stock)
Redaction:
Gather all of your ingredients in one area, so that time is not wasted wondering back and forth and doing small tasks. Part of the prepping is to de-ribb the chard and cut into smaller ribbons. To do this, cut along the main stem in the leaf on either side to separate the edible portion for the tough chewy, not so tasty, rib. Throw away the rib portion. Cut the leaves into horizontal strips roughly the size of 2 fingers. The leaves will cook down a lot!
The chuck was cut into pieces. Washing was not necessary with today’s modern packing techniques. In period though washing would be a necessity to keep dirty, ash etc from becoming ingrained in fresh meat. The meat was then fried in olive oil a little salt.
I put 1 cup of lentils into a clay pot with 4 cups of water.
The swiss chard leaves were separated from the leaf rib and sliced into ribbons, roughly 1 inch wide and 3 inches long.
Push the chard under the water, or if there is not enough water in the clay pot do not hesitate to add another cup or two. Remember this is a slow cooking many hour dish. The water will evaporate out but you don’t want the leaves or the lentils to burn so make sure there is a plenitude of liquid! (If chicken or duck stock is desired over water by all means add that instead!) Check the state of the liquids in the pot every 1.5 hours, just to make sure nothing is drying out.
The chard was then put in the clay pot with the lentils and waters then the fried meat was added along with the spices.
The entire dish was then mixed together and put into the oven for 4 hours at 350.
This is the bowl for dinner just served from the lay pot. It was hot steaming and melt in your mouth! I would say this is a more fall/winter dish but I was so hungry when I ate it I really just called it delicious!
Biraf (Sweet Cream)
There are a wonderful variety of sweets to serve, however the busy medieval Middle Eastern hostess some times has to pull a feast from thin air. All that is needed is a little cream, sugar (honey, rose water, and date syrup are optional) and a bit of fruit. This is a sweet that is simple easy and very elegant with minimal fuss.
Biraf
(Sweetened Cream)
Translation:
Wide ceramic containers are used that have the capacity of a large skillet. One draws the milk, strains it at once while it is still warm, and then puts it in these pans. This should be done in the evening when the herd comes back from the pastures. The pans are place outside, exposed to the air and the damp, but covered by a large cage. The next morning at dawn, before sunrise, with the aid of a long shell, one collects whatever has risen to the surface and transfers it to another ceramic container that is new and clean. One continues until nothing is left on top. Then the containers are covered and let be. If one fears that the sun may fall upon them, move them to a cool place. During the day one may draw out whatever has risen to the surface and serve it.
Many people prefer to eat biraf, which is one of the best kinds of nourishment, with out anything added. Others eat it with honey , others still with powdered sugar. As for Ahmad al-Safasi, he prefers to eat it with syrup and rose water because this way , according to him, is the best. I told a group of friends about this way and they liked it because, with rose water not only is it delicious but it has beneficial properties that offset the undesirable effects. If one fears indigestion after having eaten biraf with out taking anything with it, drinking sikanjubin, which is made from quinces or eat a quince, a pear or some figs. I saw some one eat zulabiyya with briaf! I tried it, and it was good.
Zaouali, pp. 110
Ingredients:
1 C. heavy cream 1/3 C. powdered sugar or honey
Optional: ¼ tsp rose water 1/3 C. date syrup or pomegranate syrup
Redaction:
Since most people do not have access to herds of milk producing animals, I used store bought heavy cream as that was what the first part of the translation was describing.
Cream rises to the top from fresh milk in cool areas. I then added powdered sugar. Regular sugar can be ground finer into a lighter sugar. Modern powdered sugar may be lighter then period powdered sugar. The sugar and cream were mixed together until slightly frothy.
Remember those candied pears from a few weeks ago? Here they are on a plate with fruit and cream. A sweet ending to any feast!
If fresh figs are not available the dried figs work well. Mind you I’d have preferred fresh but the season for fresh figs is not upon us yet, but when they are…I will be dunking fresh figs into the cream as my dinner!!
Salma (Noodles with Yogurt and Meat)
This recipe was to go with the noodles shown in Tiltin (Small Pasta Square) unfortunately the container in which the pasta was stored in had not been as dry as I had thought. I ended up with fermented crumbling squares. Soo…note to those making home made pasta, make sure the container is bone dry and stored some place that is also very dry.
I decided to post the noodle recipe as there aren’t that many recipes for noodles or pasta listed. There is a really awesome picture (I am searching as I post this) of a Persian woman rolling out noodles on a table from a lump of dough. An every day scene depicting dinner preparations of noodles. What is so unusual is that medieval Middle Eastern cooking is rarely thought to actually have many noodle/pasta dishes!
With out further ado…an excellent pasta dish for either pasta squares or regular rolled out lengths of pasta (known modernly as spaghetti).
Salma
Noodle w/Yogurt and Meat
Translation:
Take dough, twist it, cut it in small pieces, and strike it like a coin with the finger, and cook it in water until done. Then put yoghurt with it and fry meat with onions for it and put mint and garlic with it.
Rodinson, pp. 473
Ingredients:
1 C noodles (home made or store bought)
½ C yogurt 3 cloves crushed garlic 1Tbs mint
½ onion 1/3 lb chicken, beef, duck etc
My Redaction:
I had planned to use the home made noodles however the container used to store those in was not quite as dry as I had thought. The home made pasta were no good so I had to rely on store bought noodles.
Here are all the ingredients for this dish. I have 3 different types of meat on hand as I wanted to experiment with flavoring. There is chicken and duck and beef. Each was cooked in oil with onions.
This is the chicken with the onions. Nothing special preparation wise. In a skillet heat up some oil, add onions till translucent (or soft) then add meat. Continue cooking till the meat is done.
While the meat was cooking I put the noodles into a pot of water with a little salt until the noodles were done. I mixed the garlic with the yogurt and cooked the meat with onion. Once everything was mixed or cooked, I put the noodles in a bowl, with the yogurt on top, then place the meat on the yogurt and sprinkled with mint.
This picture actually has a little of all three meats for a tasty comparison. I really liked the chicken and the beef. The duck was actually twice cooked. The first time it was cooked in the the oven with the breast and leg meat being shredded into a bowl then fried with onions for this dish. The duck was really really good. By far my favorite! Extremely time consuming though so if duck is what you want be prepared to spend a bit of time on this meat!
Sibagh Tayyib (Eggplant or Apple Relish)
I had been wanting to do this recipe for awhile now. This just looked so very unusual to me. It is not a creamy eggplant dip that we see nor is it a strictly sour relish. The fact this is made with eggplant just gave it one more little curiosity twist!
Sibagh Tayyib
Eggplant (or Apple) Relish
Translation:
Boil and dry eggplants. Take walnut meat, minced parsley, honey, wine vinegar, pepper, Chinese cinnamon, ginger, garlic, oil, caraway, dried coriander and atraf al-rib. Boil them on the fire, and put the eggplant down in it and leave them until they sour.
Rodinson, pp. 399
Ingredients:
1 eggplant (or 3 apples) ½ C. walnuts 2 Tbs. fresh parsley ½ C. honey
½ C. wine vinegar 6 cloves garlic 4 Tbs. olive oil
½ tsp pepper, Chinese cinnamon, ginger, caraway seed, coriander
*Atraf al-Tib – is a combination of premixed spices that ranged from mild to spicy. These were either made at home or purchased from a spice merchant much like today’s powdered curries.
Redaction:
As can be seen from the ingredients picture, there are quite a few elements to this recipe. Once everything is assembled (peeled and chopped) the cooking goes very quickly!
The translation does not say if the eggplants are peeled or not. I used a large regular eggplant (a common black beauty I believe) though experimenting with other types of eggplants is highly encouraged (as well as using apples).
Erring on the side of caution as eggplant skin is very bitter, I peeled the eggplant then cubed. The cubes were placed into boiling water until just tender.
Once the eggplant was cooked the water was drained.
While the eggplant was cooking all other ingredients were blended into a pot and cooked till boiling.
When the eggplant had been drained and dried, the cubes were added to the spice mixture. The mixture was allowed to cook until the eggplant took the flavors of the spices, honey and vinegar. A very sweet and sour taste.
Note: In this recipe, eggplants can be substituted with apples. I would suggest cubing and cutting of the apples. Peeling of the apples is optional as apple skins are not as bitter as eggplant skin.
Try this on flat bread or meat. Very very tasty…depending on what type of spicy spice mixture you used…this can be very spicy and tasty too!
Tiltin (Small Pasta Squares)
Tiltin
(Small Pasta Squares)
Translation:
Make a dough with flour, water, salt, and a little yeast. Knead energetically and stretch it out on a table; the layer of dough should be extremely thin. Using a knife, cut squares the size of two fingers and dry (them) in the sun. Keep to be used as needed.
Zaouali, pp. 118
Ingredients:
1 cup flour ½ tsp salt 1/3 cup water (more if necessary to moisten dough) 1 tsp yeast
Redaction:
The dough was made by combining the flour, salt, water and yeast.
Then rolled out to form a very thin dough, roughly 1/16 inch in height.
When I rolled out the dough, I originally had added a bit more water then intended and had to over flour the board from which the dough was rolled out on. The dough absorbed the extra flour with out detriment to the taste. So a well floured bored is needed and if necessary a little extra can be added to help the dough’s formation.
After the dough was rolled out and evened up a bit, two fingers in width
(roughly 1 inch squares) were measured and cut with a knife.
Some of the dough squares stuck to the knife, so I did try these with a pizza cutter and had better success. Sprinkling a little flour on the surface of the dough would also alleviate any sticking.
Once the squares were cut out,
cookie sheets were lined with parchment paper and a single layer of squares were placed there on. Note: The recipe will make roughly enough pasta to fill two cookie sheets.
I took the cookie sheets to sit in the sun to dry.
I found that the drying dough formed little air pockets on the under side (due to the yeast) so that the squares looked sort of like ravioli with out the stuffing. Very cute!
If you prefer non-puffed squares just prick the freshly rolled and cut squares with a fork. This will release any air building up from the yeast and warm sunny day working on the pasta. I didn’t know to do that on this batch but I sort of like the little pillow look of these!
When the squares were thoroughly dried, they were placed in a glass jar for later use in soups and stews which call for pasta.
Qarmush Buttered Triangles
Qarmush
(Buttered Triangles)
Translation:
Take a pound of flour and knead it with water and milk. You break two eggs in it, their yolks and whites, and knead it well. Spread finely milled starch under it and roll it out with the rolling pin. Splatter with clarified butter, fold it over two or three times and cut it into triangles and put them (aside). Put the frying pan on the fire and fry them – le the fire be quiet – until done and not browned. Throw them in honey and sprinkle them with sugar.
Rodinson, pp. 431
Ingredients:
3 C. Flour 2 eggs 1 stick of butter (salted)
½ cup of milk and ½ cup of water Sesame oil
Redaction:
Mix the ingredients together,
forming a stiff dough.
Roll out on a well floured board
until very thin, roughly 1/8 inch if possible.
Brush the dough with butter.
The original said to splatter, which you can. I just wanted a more even coating so I had a small cooking brush on hand and proceeded to smear butter over rolled out dough!
Once the dough is well buttered, fold it over like so.
Brush once more and fold once again.
Cut the folded dough into triangles.
This batch of Qurmush is waaaay to thick. The layers need to be about half this size. The thicker the layers the harder to cook with out browning.
Take a frying pan, liberally coated in sesame oil, and place 2-3 triangles into the pan. Turn the burner on low.
Pay close attention to the cooking, as a golden color is acceptable but not a brown.
The thinner the dough the quicker the cook time (and easier to burn).
Once the triangles have been cooked through, pour honey on top of and sprinkle with sugar.
These were tasty even though a bit thick and chewy. If they were thinner they would be crispy and sweet. Eat them fast before then honey makes them chewy or if you like chewy desserts let them stand for a little bit with the honey and sugar topping!