Roxalana's Redactions

Sikbaj Tannur (Oven Roasted Meat w/Vegetables)

June 7, 2010 in Meat Porridges (Hara'is) and Oven Dishes (Tannuriyyat), Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Sikbaj Tannuri (Oven Cooked Meats w/Vegetables) | No comments

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)

May 28, 2010 in Addas Tannuri (Oven Lentils), Meat Porridges (Hara'is) and Oven Dishes (Tannuriyyat), Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions | No comments

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)

May 22, 2010 in Biraf (Sweetened Cream), Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Sweetmeats (Halawat) | No comments

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)

May 7, 2010 in Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Plain Dishes (Sawadhij), Salma (Noodles w/Yogurt and Meat) | No comments

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)

May 2, 2010 in Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Sibagh Tayyib (Eggplant or Apple Relish), Vegetarian Dishes (Sawadhij) | No comments

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)

April 25, 2010 in Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Pancakes (Quata'if) and Biscuts (Khushkananaj), Tiltin (Small Pasta Squares) | No comments

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

April 20, 2010 in Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Qarmush (Buttered Triangles, Sweetmeats (Halawat), Uncategorized | No comments

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!

Judhaba (Apricot or Banana Savory Pudding)

April 3, 2010 in Judhaba (Apricot or Banana Savory Pudding), Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Puddings Baked under Meat (Jawadhib) and Puddings (Akhbisa) | No comments

This is not your regular pudding. This is both a sweet/savory crusty pudding much like a cobbler made with chicken fat instead of butter. This sounds really weird…I mean who makes a pudding of chicken fat?! Well if you wanted as many calories as possible and butter wasn’t always available, you used the fat drippings from a hanging chicken (or duck) and made a really tasty sweet and savory full fat dessert!

Judhaba

Apricot or Banana Savory Pudding

Translation:

Apricot Judhaba:

Take some sweet and mature apricots; detach (the fruit) from the pit. (Mix it with sugar.) In a clean baking pan…spread out (a flat bread) and place the mixture of apricots and sugar on top. Cover this with another cooked flat bread. If you wish to add a bit of saffron , do so and sprinkle with rose water; then hang an excellent hen over (the dish), may it please God.

(Zaouali, pp. 82)

Banana Judhaba:

Take bananas that are fully ripe. Peel them and immerse them in fine samid sour dough, kneaded as for pancakes. Then take them up and leave on some thing woven. Boil sesame oil, fry the bananas, take them out and throw them in syrup. Them them up and throw them in pounded sugar, then arrange them in a tray with fin flat breads above and below. Hang fat chicken above.

(Rodison, pp. 411)

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh or dried apricots or 4 sliced bananas 1/3 cup sugar 1 pinch saffron

¼ teaspoon rose water flat bread

1 chicken or 1 cup chicken fat

Redaction:

When I did this recipe I used dried apricots as fresh was not available. Per several other recipes dried or preserved are acceptable substitutes (see recipe: Khaukyiyya [meat with plums]). I chopped up the apricots roughly so that there were still chunks and placed in a bowl. Once the apricots were chopped I then sprinkled on 1/3 cup of sugar and enough water to just cover the dried apricots. If I had been using fresh I would not have added water as fresh apricots would have generated enough moisture from being sugared.

When I decided to retry this recipe, I had the ingredients on hand for either bananas or apricots. I decided to try a half and half. I did not dip the bananas in flour then fry them as the 2nd recipe suggests. This would have made the bananas even more flavorful however I was running a little short on time, so I mixed the sugar and saffron together then poured 1/2 of the sugar onto the apricots and then the other 1/2 onto the bananas then set the two bowls of fruit to the side.

I made a quick flat bread dough using a bread recipe and divided the resulting dough into two balls.

The first ball I rolled out and placed on the bottom of a oiled tanjin.

Now the original recipe implies cooked flat bread. I did this the first time and ended up with a burnt offering instead of a tasty dessert. I have tried with and with out oiling the tajine and cooked or uncooked flat bread. I go with oiling the tajine and uncooked flat bread. There is much less burning of bread this way.

I then rolled out the other ball of dough, roughly shaped into a circle into the oven at 350 for 10 minutes (or until slightly golden brown on top).

While the second flat bread was cooking I divided the apricots and bananas onto the raw flat bread dough in the tajine.

These were then sprinkled with a little rose water.

The next step was to place the cooked flat bread on top of the fruit.

Here is where thinks get a little different. I did not have a hook from which to cook a chicken on while placing the fruit and flat bread underneath to catch the drippings. What I did do is place a chicken on top of the cooked flat bread so that all the fat would be caught, covered with the top of the tajine and cooked till done.

This is where a cup of chicken fat can be used instead of the whole chicken. If a cup of chicken fat is readily available, smear the fat on top of the cooked flat bread and bake the dish until the bottom layer is cooked (with out scorching) and the fat has been absorbed, roughly 30 minutes. For just chicken fat a tajine is not necessary, any regular baking dish will do. If using a whole chicken, cook the dish in a tajine until the chicken is thoroughly cooked, about 45 minutes to an hour. The chicken comes out extremely tender and moist while the pudding has absorbed the chicken fat for a rich one of a kind dessert.

The apricot side tastes a bit like peach cobbler with chicken while the banana side was strongly banana flavored with chicken. Sweet savory and very unforgettable!

Candied Pears

March 23, 2010 in Candied Pears, Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Sweetmeats (Halawat) | No comments

I like pears…a lot! Sweet crunchy or not but always very juicy. I saw this recipe and thought of how pears in period were not always tasty (being rather small and hard even when ripe) and that this was a great way to make a rather hard to eat fruit into a really tasty treat!

Candied Pears

Translation:

I believe that the translation is as follows. The recipe is unclear as to whether this is the authors transcriptions or the original recipe.

Peel, quarter, and core the pears, then put them in a large pot of boiling water; take them out when they have become soft to the touch. Drain them well and put them in a glass jar. Boil the vinegar with cinnamon, cloves and sugar, then pour the boiling liquid over the pears and let them macerate for 24 hours (let cool before sealing the jar).

Decant the liquid, bring it to a boil, and pour it over the fruit once again. Repeat this step a third time 24 hours later.

Zaouali, pp. 177

Ingredients:

Firm pears (# depends on the size of the glass jar(s) being used)

1 cup vinegar

1 cup sugar

6 cinnamon sticks OR ¼ tsp cinnamon

12 cloves OR ¼ tsp clove powder

8 cardamom pods or 1/8 tsp ground cardamom

My Redaction:

First I assembled the spices, vinegar, sugar and pears. Now the number of pears here are based on the size of the jar…not the jar based on the number of pears. As you can see…I had a rather large jar on hand though several smaller jars would have worked just as well.

I took the pears and peeled them, then quartered and cored the pears. Once the pears were ready for cooking, they were put in a pot of water though I would also suggest a good honey wine for that extra sweet kick if desired.

The pears are cooked till soft. Once they are soft to the touch, the water (or wine) is drained and the cooked pears are placed into a jar or jars.

Now while the pears are cooking, take another pot and place in the vinegar and sugar. Stir till the desired balance of sweet and sour has been achieved. I do recommend a good apple vinegar or a good wine vinegar, a regular vinegar is VERY VERY tart. Oh the tartness you can taste! Add the spices to the boiling mixture.

The cloves are not whole, but in ground form at that was what I had on hand. The cardamom was an addition of mine though I think the taste would have been better if ground and not just in pod form. The recipe did not clarify on whether the spices were removed prior to pouring over the pears or allowed to steep with the candied pears. I chose to remove the spices as cinnamon in stick form can some times over flavor the dish.

Once the mixture has boiled together and achieved the desired sweet/tart/spicedness, take the mixture and pour over the pears.

Before sealing make sure the pears are completely covered so as to prevent bacteria from getting in and ruining the entire jar. The recipe suggests waiting till cooled before sealing as well as multiple boils. I bypassed the multiple boils as I don’t believe this would have been done, though I could be wrong!

I would suggest the pears with heavy cream and honey after an excellent meal!

Khubz al-Abazir (Spice Bread)

March 20, 2010 in Khubz al-Abazir (Spiced Bread), Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Pancakes (Quata'if) and Biscuts (Khushkananaj) | No comments

When I first did this recipe, I was expecting a really spectacularly spicy flavored bread or bun. Not so much. There are no spices to speak, of just nuts. I think the naming (spiced) is a bit of a misnomer. I would have said nut bread myself but here you have it. A wonderful flavorful bun if not exactly spicy just nutty.

Khubz al-Abazir

(Spiced Bread)

Translation:

Take good flour and put a third of a pound of sesame oil on every pound, and an ounce of sesame seeds and a handful of pistachios and almonds, and kneed it. And when it has risen, bake it in the bread oven in round buns, the thickness of the buns is two fingers. When they brown and are done, take them and eat them with halwa.

Rodinson, pp. 431

Ingredients:

3 cups flour ½ cup sesame oil 1/3 cup water 1 tsp yeast

2 Tbs ea sesame seeds, almonds, pistachios

My Redaction:

I believe the term “spiced bread” may be a misnomer as there is no spicing in the bread other then sesame oil with seeds and nuts.

When making this, I combined the flour and oil together then water and yeast. I have made these with just flour and sesame oil, the oil overwhelms any flavor of the nuts; hence the cutting of sesame oil by half. The water is necessary to compensate for lack of oil. The yeast is not directly mentioned but it is referred to as commented in the translation as “…when it has risen…”. Most kitchens do not have enough wild yeast to elicit this type of rising with out help from yeast.

Once the dough was mixed together, I added the nuts. The original did not mention if the almonds or pistachios were chopped so I kept them whole. The dough was allowed to rise for an hour then formed into thick “patties” about a finger’s width in height.

When cooked the buns rose to about 2 finger widths in height.

These buns are a great delivery for flavor of just about anything sweet or even savory. (I tried these with a home made spaghetti sauce the other night too!).

These buns are excellent with plum jam or halwa paste.

Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions

Sikbaj Tannur (Oven Roasted Meat w/Vegetables)

Adas Tannuri (Oven Lentils)

Biraf (Sweet Cream)

Salma (Noodles with Yogurt and Meat)

Sibagh Tayyib (Eggplant or Apple Relish)

Tiltin (Small Pasta Squares)

Qarmush Buttered Triangles

Judhaba (Apricot or Banana Savory Pudding)

Candied Pears

Khubz al-Abazir (Spice Bread)

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