Category Archives: Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions

Bedouin Chicken Grilled, Plain Dishes (Sawadhij)

Grilled Bedouin Chicken

May 30, 2012 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

So I had a weekend with out A/C. No A/C means, other then hot and sticky, the in ability to use a computer with out it overheating in the lower part of Ansteorra during the day. Means I had lots and lots of time to do some cooking. So I decided to do a project I had been meaning to try for awhile now. A little down time on the computer and lots of ideas for cooking. Not always a bad idea!

Bedouin Chicken Version #1

I have come across meat cooked in the Bedouin style mentioned in Rodinson. However I have yet to be able to find any other description other then “cooked in the Bedouin style”. This leaves me with out a compass and to my own devices. This makes a few people I know a little nervous. Never know whats going to show up for dinner on days like this!

I am attempting to reproduce from period ingredients and cooking styles a possibility of what meat (or in this case a chicken) could have looked like and in the methods available for cooking.

Ingredients:

1 chicken (innards removed) 1 Med onion 1 head of garlic cloves (skinned and crushed)

¼ C olive oil (almond oil or sesame oil could also be used)

1 tsp cumin and coriander (each)

1 cinnamon stick (broken into pieces)

3 TBS Ras el Hanout spice (this can be bought or made)

Redaction:

This is an attempt to reproduce a roasted chicken with only a reference in Medieval Arab Cookery (Robinson) from the line “Meat cooked in the Bedouin style.” Now there are several paragraphs that comment on how those who wrote the history of their travels would try to one up on their meals in the style of “We ate scorpion meat grilled on hot rocks with spices so hot tongues melted and eyes boiled forth”. The stories were well received and provided great entertainment but do little for those trying to redact an actual dish.

The above ingredients could be used on any animal that is stuffable or just using the Ras el spicing as a rub. Three is a reference or 5 to mixed spices for period Middle Eastern cooking. I’m going with a store bought variety instead of making my own. This is mentioned in both Rodinson and Zaouali.

Ras el Hanout spice is made from nutmeg, sea salt, black pepper, ginger, cardamom, mace, cinnamon, ground allspice, turmeric and saffron. This is an incredible spice if you ever get a chance to use it. I want to rub just about everything I come across with this then lick it off, it’s just that good!

So back to the chicken. Now for a desert traveling tribe there are a few cooking methods available for meat. Stewed, dried, grilled or buried in coals. Stewing and drying can also be done in the city so not exactly unique. The grilling for a traveling tribe would have been done via metal rods/tripods, or metal sheets (Iddison). There is also the cooking method of wrapping meat (usually fish or chicken) in a dough and then burying the meat in hot coals.

Today’s meat cooking experiment, is the grilling via oak hardwood. The types of wood available in the Middle East would have been Alder, Ash, Beech, Cherry, Hornbeam, Maple, Walnut and Oak. (pakbs.org). I started the hardwood a couple of hours before putting the chicken on the coals.

Once the fire was started and burning well, back to the kitchen to wrestle with a featherless chicken!

The spices were set up and prepped.

The onion was sliced into wedges and put into a bowl.

The garlic was peeled and smashed (but not chopped) then the cinnamon stick was broken into bits.

These were mixed together then the dried spices of cumin and coriander added along with 1/8 of the olive oil.

The chicken is then stuffed to the max! No holds bar, fill ‘em up stuffing the chicken.

The next step is to make the rub. Pour the 3 tbs of Ras el into the olive oi.

Form a paste.

Spread this on the chicken.

Place chicken on a plate and take to the grill.

Due to not having a metal tripod I had to do this the old, but not ancient, way of cooking. A grill. The coals in the grill will be as hot in a pit just not as deep and much closer to the meat then if using a tripod for grilling. Move the coals to either side of the center, so that there is a coal free well. This will keep the heat directly off of the meat and minimize burning. I tried putting the chicken on the top rack, with out a center rack.

When I closed the top lid, the chicken jumped from the top rack into the fire. After rescuing the bird, I replaced the center grill and placed the chicken there.

The fire cooks both slower and faster then expected. The skin and top portion of the meat cooked quicker then expected but the inner breast meat was not cooked when the leg meat started to wiggle. As opposed to the oven method of cooking roughly an hour, the chicken took much longer over coals. Roughly 1.5-2 hours.

Once the meat was cooked through, I pulled out the stuffing and sliced up the meat to arrange on the plate.

There is a little bit of the Ras el sauce to the side for dipping.

The breast and thigh meat was very tender and juicy however the wings and legs were very well done and an almost complete loss for eating. I am looking forward to doing this again! Very very yummy!

References:

Rodinson, M., Arberry, A., Perry, C., (2001). Medieval Arab Cookery. Prospect Books. Cromwell Press.

Corbin, J., (1999). Arabic Recipes & History for Medieval Feasts.

Perry, C., (2005). A Baghdad Cookery Book. Prospect Books: November 2005.

Bedouin Food, Iddison, Philip. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/encyclopedia/definition/bedouin-food/202/

Zaouali, L., (2004)., Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World. University of California Press.

http://www.pakbs.org/pjbot/PDFs/40%285%29/PJB40%285%291851.pdf

Plain Dishes (Sawadhij), Tannuriyya (Lamb Stew)

Tannuriyya (Lamb Stew)

May 21, 2012 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

Tannuriyya:

Lamb Stew

So I was curious to do a little of the unusual with different meat types. I choose lamb neck. I usually use leg of lamb when cooking but for once I wanted to try the meat from a different portion of the lamb. Some thing that a slightly lower class of cook would have to use to make this dish. I was not disappointed!

Translation:

Take lamb or veal and cut it up medium. Then stew it with coriander, cumin, salt, milled thyme, whole Chinese cinnamon and peeled chickpeas, and throw one and a half times as much water on it. Then boil it and throw away its froth. Throw pounded walnuts made into paste on it and put it in the tannur until done, and take it up. It comes out excellently.

Ingredients:

3 lbs Lamb meat ¼ C dry corriander 1 tsp ea. cumin, salt, thyme

1 whole cinnamon stick 2 C dry chickpeas 1.5 C pounded walnuts

Redaction:

Take the twoe cup of chickpeas and boil in 5 cups of water w/salt till cooked.

This is one cup for display.

When boiling the dry chickpeas, check every 30 minutes to make sure the water doesn’t drop so much that the beans are scorched. Taste after 2.5 hours of boiling for a soft texture that isn’t to crunchy.

Set out your spices.

Fresh coriander was not to be had so dry it is.

In a pot, put in the 3 lbs of lamb.

Here I am using lamb neck meat. I wanted to try a different cut of meat then the usual leg of lamb chunks.. Lamb neck is a little fattier and includes the neck bones for richer stock. Leg of lamb is perfectly ok to use! This will feed about 4-6 people as the meat will shrink.

Add roughly 6 cups of water or enough water to cover the meat by an 1.5 inches.

Once the meat and water have been combined add in the spices,

then the chickpeas.

Give everything a stir or two to mix the spices and meat. A getting to know you swirl if you will! Again keep an eye on the water level.

Simmer everything together until the meat is thoroughly cooked and tender. This takes roughly 1.5-2 hours.

Combine the ground walnuts with the reduced stew.

Here there was an issue with the grinding. A paste was unable to be achieved so I had to do with ground walnuts.

The consistency is not quite right though the taste is still very very good.

This is a very rich dish. The meat is tender and succulent while the garbanzos add a nice crunch. The walnuts add a really nice creamy thickness to the dish. Give this a try any time you have lamb on hand!

Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Samak wa-Agras (Hard Almond Candy), Sweetmeats (Halawat)

Samak wa-Aqras (Hard Almond Candy)

May 29, 2011 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

Samak wa-Aqras

(Hard Almond Candy)

Translation:

A pound of and a half of sugar; half a pound of peeled almonds, pounded fine and flavoured with a little musk. Take half a pound of bees’ honey and put it in a cauldron with an ounce of rose-water until it boils. Skim it, then take an ounce of starch and dissolve it with rose-water and put it on the honey, and stir awhile until it gets its consistency. Then throw the pounded sugar and almonds on it, and beat it hard with a poker until it thickens. Then take it down from the fire and leave it on a smooth tile until it cools, and make it into fishes and cakes and other shapes in carved moulds. Sprinkle them with finely pounded sugar and pistachios. Colour the fishes with a little saffron dissolved in rose-water, and take it up.

(Rodinson, pp. 459)

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs sugar ½ lb ground almonds ½ lb honey 1/8- ¼ tsp rosewater

½ C sesame oil (optional mistake)

Redaction:

All the ingredients gathered in one place. For candies and quick dishes, it’s always a good idea to have everything right by the stove and ready to go in the amounts you want.

If you will notice that I have saffron, cinnamon and turmeric at the bottom. These were to color the candies at the final stage. However due to the dark amber color the colors would not have shown through so I deleted the coloring step and these spices were not needed. Please feel free to experiment coloring with spices or vegetable juices. The caveat is that coloring in period with spices i.e. turmeric or cinnamon would usually change the flavor to inedible due to the amount of spice needed to color a candy.

I actually did this a little differently then the directions here. I did not skim the honey as the honey I have is purified already with out any inclusions such as wax or bee parts. So I mixed the honey and the sugar together.

Then I added oil (this is the accidental addition that is not prescribed in the recipe) and rose water.

Now here, I added sesame oil the first time (by mistake). I was channeling the ingredients from a slightly different recipe when doing this redaction very early in the morning. You can omit the sesame oil with out any worries! I am just adding this oops! as a this is what I did and the dessert came out pretty tasty still type of thing.

Once the honey sugar and oil were well mixed (I used a wooden spoon instead of a poker) I added the almonds into the mix with a little rosewater.

The mixture was boiled till reaching the soft ball stage of candy making.

The soft ball stage is where a drop of the candy being made is dropped into a bowl of very cold (icy) water.

If a ball forms then the candy is said to have reached the ball stage. Hard or soft ball stage is determined on whether the candy ball in the water is soft or hard to the touch. (That is my understanding at least).

Here the recipe is a little unclear. Do you put the pot that everything has been boiled in and set the pot to cool or pour the mixture on a smooth tile (which would be very messy) to cool. I made the decision that they mean the pot and not pour the mixture onto a flat surface. I did not let this stand for more then a few moments, while I pulled out the molds selected.

I gave the molds a quick wipe with sesame oil and then poured in the mixture to harden.

The molds used were simple candy molds of silicon and not the metal or Birchwood molds suggested. I don’t have the metal casting skill or wood carving skill to attempt anything like that. As for the coloring, the candies came out a really nice dark amber and any saffron painting would have been lost as to delicate.

A closer look for better detail.

The candies are crunchy and chewy. Sweet and nutty. Very nice!

Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Tharid - a brief overview, Tharid or Thaida

Tharid or Tharida

March 25, 2011 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

This dish is considered by many modern day Arabs to be a holiday dish. In Medieval Middle Eastern times this dish was claimed by the prophet Muhammad to be the best of all dishes and there for entered into Tradition (sunna), to be respected, passed down and maintained. (Zaouali, pp. 68)

There are as many ways to make Tharid as there are to make modern day lasagna. The basics are a tender meat with crumbled/broken bread that has been moistened with broth. The meat, bread, spicing, vegetables etc vary widely from region to region and person to person. There are spicy, plain or sweet Tharids available. Some thing for everyone’s taste.

Coffee, Digestive Beverages (Hadimat), Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions

Coffee part 2

October 7, 2010 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

Coffee Part 2

I love my coffee. Over the years, I have developed a fondness for differently prepared types of coffee. I would never have thought that different preparations could yield widely different tasting coffees. Yep, I’ve done the same type of bean in two different brewing methods and come up with a different taste. I mean I really liked the regular drip coffee you can make or by buy, then I really got into the whole espresso machine made Americano Coffee. Then, then I discovered a french press. This was the best way I have found to make coffee. (Note this is my opinion…and nothing but my opinion).

When using the french press I do like using regular beans, unflavored. For some reason the flavor just comes out oddly in a french press then it does in either a drip or from and espresso machine. The french press, is not period, having been invented some time in the 1800’s. However the mechanism for making coffee in a french press are closer to boiling coffee grounds, but instead of waiting for the water to cool, grounds to sink, then reheat your coffee for drinking; all you have to do is press down on a screen and viola! you have your favorite beverage hot, ground free and ready for adding that little bit of sugar and a hint (or a cup) of cream.

So I am going to do a demonstration of as close to period as I can with what I have on hand.

So the pictures I do have are of the coffee grounds having been added and water. I usually let this steep for about 3-5 minutes depending on how strong a flavor I want. If I am feeling really really decadent I add a Tbs of coco powder for just a hint of chocolate. (My coffee! Don’t judge me! hehehehe)

Now I like this lid as the filters are 3 part. One for the main area, where the coffee comes through. There is extra on the sides where grounds like to try and make a run for it into the main body of the coffee and finally at the actual pour spout there is another filter to help keep the grounds in their place and out of my mug!

Here you can see the press at the bottom of the glass, while the wonderful elixir known as coffee is waiting to be poured.

Here is the final image with coffee and cookies ready for consuming! Yes these are the shortbread cookies that are really really excellent for noshing on when consuming a strong drink like coffee. Enjoy!

Coffee, Digestive Beverages (Hadimat)

Coffee

October 3, 2010 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

Coffee

Coffee is not just a morning indulgence nor, from historical writings, as benign a drink as one would have assumed. Coffee is a very Middle Eastern beverage that at one point rivaled wine in consumption and the indulgences associated with wine houses.

Coffee Plant: of the genus Coffea; the description is an evergreen bush from which the seeds (also known as beans) are the prized fruit of the bush. Coffea Arabica and Coffea canephora are the two most commonly grown in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. (Wikipidea).

Origin: Coffee (Coffea) is thought to have started in Ethiopia then moved to the Arabian peninsula, via Sufi monasteries, migrating north then across the Atlantic. This movement followed trade but not the exact route of the Silk Road. (anonymous, http://www.coffeeresearch.org/coffee/history.htm)

Making of Coffee: There were more then a few travelers, priests and scholars who wrote of coffee and the making of this popular drink. In Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Rise of the Coffeehouse, one of the period commenter’s is Jaziri, says of the descriptions and preparations of coffee “…in the summer the Arabs use the husks, and in the winter the kernels of the bean, to benefit from the application of “cold” nature of the husks and in the summer, and the “hot” nature of the kernels in winter.”. Another example is from Kha’ir Beg “cooked from the husks of the seed called bunn that comes from Yemen”. A third example would be that of the Jesuit priest who say “water boiled with the rind of the fruit which they call Bune. (Hattox, pp. 83-84)

The actual preparation was written by Niebhur as the bean was roasted slightly pounded then had boiling water poured over the grounds to produce a pleasant tea like beverage. This type of coffee qahwa qishirya, with the flavoring of tea, is still served today in Yemen and tastes like an oddly spiced tea. (Hattox, pp. 85). I would be curious to try, what sounds to be a milder version of what most people consider a strong stimulating drink.

Both a mortar and a mill were used for grinding of the bean as well as the husk after being roasted. These methods were noted by the Flemish traveler Joannes Cotovicus. Though in later years, coffee millers took to the supplying of ground so that the individual coffee houses no longer had to worry about roasting and grinding their own coffee. (Hattox, pp. 85)

The coffee pot has been sketched as a squat round bodied pot “tinned inside and out” Hattox, pp. 86) with a narrow pouring spout and a side handle either sticking straight out or curved.

I have included a slightly out of period picture. The description of this by the seller on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/listing/35229892/antique-middle-eastern-brass-coffee-pot

“The Arab coffee pot is called ‘Dallah’, a traditional pot with a long spout, used to make Arabic coffee. Dallah a symbol of welcome as coffee is always served to guests.

This particular pot was obviously created as a functional piece, likely for the makers personal use and presumably spent some time warming in the embers of a desert fire. Based on the crude decorative style I believe the piece dates to the 1800’s. I am uncertain as to the country of origin, however research suggests that the bird images used to decorate this dallah, might be that of a Simorgh, which is a famous mythical giant bird in Persian literature.

MEASUREMENTS:
Height – 10″
Mouth – 3 1/4″
Width – 9 1/4″ (spout to handle)
Base – 3 1/8″
Weight – 1.12 lbs (28 oz)

IMPORTANT:

I should – CLARIFY – that this IS NOT the EXACT coffee pot photographed in the National Geographic magazine, but rather the former owner used this publication source as a research reference for identifying the type of pot and it’s origin. They didn’t have the advantage of internet research back in the 1970’s.

coffee pot pics

Serving: Coffee was served in small cups as seen in the sketches provided by Hattox in Coffee and Coffeehouses, by both coffee houses and by street vendors.

Venues: Coffeehouses were considers venues of social gathering for men but also where chess, backgammon and eventually card games were played, some times for stakes. These houses were also the places where speech was more free and some times seditious plans, so much so that the sultanate Murat IV the forth had the “meeting places of the people, and of mutinous soldiers” torn down under the guise of places of fire hazards. (Hattox, pp. 102)

Coffees part in history is fairly colorful and well traveled. There is no denying that coffee like tea and wine has a place in the great drinks of history.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee

http://www.coffeeresearch.org/coffee/history.htm

Hattox, R., (1985). Coffee and Coffehouses.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/35229892/antique-middle-eastern-brass-coffee-pot

Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Mufarraka (Chicken Livers), Plain Dishes (Sawadhij)

Mufarraka (Chicken Livers)

July 24, 2010 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

Occasionally I have a craving for chicken livers. I like mine fried in a little bit of olive oil till crunchy on the outside yet still juicy on the inside. Some times I’ll want to save the livers from a chicken for one of those days I’m craving that little bit of crunchy tasty iron treats. Unfortunately saving livers can some times be to much of a good thing when I find I have 12 of them tucked away in the freezer. So what do you do when you have a few extra chicken livers and gizzards? Why you spice them up of course!

Mufarraka

Chicken Livers

Translation:

Take chicken livers and gizzards, wash them, boil them in water with a little salt, then take them out and chop them small. Then mix them with the whites of eggs, put the necessary amount of the described spices on them, and fry them in a pan with sesame oil, stirring continuously. If you want it made sour, leave some filtered lemon juice on it. If you want it plain do not leave lemon juice or eggs on it.

Perry, pp. 79

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken livers and gizzards

½ tsp coriander, cumin, ground pepper, thyme, turmeric, dill

3 egg whites

My Redaction:

I took chicken livers and gizzards saved from the chickens used in other recipes (or just dinner)

and boiled them till cooked.

I cheated just a touch. Some of the livers are actually turkey livers I had on hand as well. (Shhhhh!)

Once cooked and cooled, the livers and gizzards were chopped up smallish, roughly the size of the pinky tip.

The mixture was then combined with the spices and eggs, the fried in sesame oil.

I tried lemon juice on part of these and part was left plain.

Both ways taste excellently either as a main dish or scooped up and used as a condiment on good bread!

Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Mujabbana (Sweet Cheese Pockets), Sweetmeats (Halawat)

Fried Mujabbana in the Toledo style

July 12, 2010 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

Well I am a little late in getting a new update posted. Since I have been slightly remiss in getting a new recipe out to you, my adoring fans! I am posting this incredibly sweet delectable treat. Just for you!

Fried Mujabbana in the Toledo Style

(Sweet Cheese Pockets)

Translation:

A dough is prepared using extra-fine flour and water, salt and oil as indicated in the recipe for oven-baked mujabbana. An amount of fresh cheese equal to three quarters of the amount of flour is grated. Is mixed with aniseed and mint juice and fresh coriander (cilantro), as already indicated. The dough is rolled out with a rolling pin to make (small) round leaves. Place the necessary quantity of grated cheese in the middle of each piece of dough, and pull back the edges toward the center pressing downward lightly. The little packets one obtains in this way are placed in a copper or ceramic pan and cooked in the oven that is used for cooking biscuits and such things.

When the little packets begin to brown, they are taken out of the oven and arranged on a ceramic or wooden serving dish, one on top of the other. They are then covered with honey and fresh melted butter. After they are sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, they can be eaten, God willing.

Zaouali, pp. 107

Ingredients:

Dough:

1 C flour 2 Tbs olive oil 1 Tbs water

Stuffing:

¾ C goat cheese (feta) ½ tsp aniseed ½ tsp coriander ½ tsp mints

3 Tbs melted butter 1/3 C Honey

Cinnamon and sugar for sprinkling on.

My Redaction:

When I first did this recipe I thought the cheese pockets were a savory treat, then I realized that the final preparation was for a sweet and savory with the honey, butter, sugar and cinnamon finish. Wow! These are awesome!

Mix the dough together, then roll out on a well floured surface.

I made small rounds using a biscuit cutting tin. From one cup of the dough mixture I was able to make 7 rounds.

Mix the cheese with the aniseed, coriander and mint.

The recipe calls for mint juice. The only mint liquid available was a syrup. The cheese mixture does not call for any sugar so I decided a syrup was not the way to go, instead I substituted dried mint. I did not have fresh coriander on hand as it was the wrong time of the year, so dried coriander was used instead. The cheese was Feta though any good goat cheese would do well. The cheese and the spices were mixed in a bowl and set to one side.

After the cheese mixture was complete, I took a dough round and put part of the mixture into the middle then folded the dough over and sealed the edges by pressing firmly down.

Once all the dough rounds were filled, they were moved to an oiled cookie sheet and set into the oven at 350 till brown (roughly 10 minutes).

Uncooked cheese dumplings.

Cooked cheese dumplings.

If you’ll notice one is now missing. Had to do a taste test on the yummy savory goodness. It was really tasty!

I then pulled the cheese packets out of the oven and placed on a plate. I did not stack them one on top of the other but placed them side by side for better sweet coverage.

I poured the melted butter over them,

then the honey

and finally sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.

These are just incredible fresh from the oven with warm melty butter and honey. Perfect for a dessert or a side nibble with coffee. They did not last long at all. Even after a filling dinner, there is always room for a sweet and savory cheese dumpling!

Laban Condiment (Flavored Dry Cheese), Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Vegetarian Dishes (Sawadhij)

Laban Condiment (Flavored Dry Cheese)

June 19, 2010 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

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.

Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Sweetmeats (Halawat), Tamr Mulawwaz (Stuffed Dates)

Tamr Mulawwaz (Stuffed Dates)

June 8, 2010 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

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!

Sosha Lyon's O'Rourk's Medieval Redactions English, Italian, Middle Eastern, Roman, Medieval Redactions and Recipes, Medieval Research Papers, Subtleties – Grill Mistress of the Pork