Category Archives: Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions

Halwa (Sweet Paste)

Halwa was an experiment as I was making spiced buns and the spread mentioned was this.  There was one SMALL problem though.  There was no readily available translated recipe.  The recipes I do have listed are period but more like…the pirate guidelines rather then hard set-in stone rules.  So a bit of trial and error was needed.  This is the sweet lick your fingers clean result!

Halwa

(Sweet Paste)

Translation:

#1)  Pick over the rice, wash it, crush it in a mortar, then cook it in water with the rind of a bitter orange.  When the rice is almost cooked, add some milk and cook it over a gentle fire, taking care to stir it.  When the rice has absorbed the milk remove the orange rind and add some sugar.  Remove the rice from the fire and spread it on a dish.  Sprinkle it with ground cinnamon and add almonds and hazelnuts toasted and ground.

#2)  …a tea-cup of sugar, two tea-cups of samn (melted butter, sesame oil or fat), three tea-cups of flour.  The sugar is boiled in half a cup of water.  The flour is toasted in the hot samn until it turns russet brown.  Then the boiled sugar is added.  The mixture is poured into a receptacle and subsequently cut up as desired.

Rodinson, pp. 194-195

Ingredients:

1/3 cup water               2/3 cup sugar                2/3 cup melted butter

1 cup flour                    ½ cup milk

*spices: date syrup, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, rose-water

Redaction:

The translations aren’t given as recipes more like a map; to quote “Here is a recipe for muhallabiyya from the Jewish quarter of Tunis…”  The recipes are then compared to the a dish called helva or helfa in Arabic.  There is discussion that helfa is actually a Turkish pronunciation of the Arabic halwa.   So as you can see this is more like negotiating on a committee to get exactly the right type of sweet…you end up with a camel.

I took both recipes and looked for similarities, which are sugar, flour (wheat or rice) and fat.  Spicing seems to be optional and up to the cook’s discretion.

halwa spices

Now some of this is white on white (unfortunately…I did try to mitigate that but not as well as I had thought!).

First thing I did was add 1/3 cup water and 1/3 cup sugar to boil.  Notice the 1/3 cup not 2/3.  The other 1/3 will be used a little later.

First the butter was added to a pot then the flour until a nice dark brown.   I made a roux from the butter and flour.

halwa light

Now this is what the mixture looks like after a couple of minutes cooking with stirring.  The white of the butter/flour is browning slowly into a sweet roux.

halwa cooking russet

This is about the darkest you want the roux to get.   The difference time wise in cooking is only 3-4 minutes, so attention has got to be paid while stirring!  Other wise…things just get messy and not in a covered in honey and lick it off good way.

The dark russet coloring in the roux took about 10 minutes with constant attention paid to the stirring and boiling of the butter/flour mixture.  Once the roux was established at a good coloring, I added in the sugar water to the flour/butter mixture.  There was  extreme boiling and steaming when the two mixtures met, so watch the hand placement as an FYI.  Once the sugar water and the roux had been combined the milk was added.  The mixture thickens very quickly at this point.

Here I tasted the mixture and determined a bit more sugar was needed.  Add the other 1/3 cup or not depending on if a sweeter paste is desired.

I then split the paste into 3 bowls to experiment with flavoring.

cooked halwa w spices

One was given 1 Tbs of date syrup, another 1 tsp of rosewater, the third ¼ tsp of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.  I stirred each ramekin thoroughly and tasted the connections.   My favorite was the spicing.  The date syrup was very sweet and taste while the rose-water mixture was almost light and tripping on the tongue.  Next time I make Halwa I will try with candied citrus peels or even candied ginger, perhaps maybe a few grains of paradise as well!

halwa w buns

Khubz al-Abazir (spice bread) was used as the carrying medium.

Plum Jam (with Chicken)

Plum Jam

This is a reverse redaction as no recipe has been found other then a mention of “plum jam with chicken” for a wedding feast.  When redacting how a plum jam could have been made I referred to the recipes used for both carrot jam and squash jam.  Both of these jams required sugar (some times honey) and spices.  So I imagine that some where a recipe reads as follows for plum jam

“Take ripe plums, with out stones, and cut them up small.  Add sugar and spices to a clean pot with them and cook till thickened.

Ingredients:

8-10 ripe plums            ½ cup sugar                  1/3 cup of water

1/2 tsp ea: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, saffron, lavender

My Redaction:

Since this is being based on a comment and the recipes from two other jams the spicing is up to the whim of the cook.  Spices may have been added or may not; however I feel fairly confident that any cook who would add a whole cornucopia of spices to carrot jam would be more then happy to bring spices to brighten the flavor of plums in sugar.

plum jam spices

I cut up the plums and added them to a pot with sugar and water.  The plums can be cut up very small or if desired ground.  I did use a cuisinart on part of the plums though I found that the plums left un-ground cooked down almost as well as the finely chopped plums.  The spices were added at about the same time as the sugar.

sliced plums in juice with sugar and spices

The pot was allowed to simmer (NOT boil) for about an hour or until the jam thickened enough when stirred with a wooden spoon that a line drawn on the back of the spoon did not drip.I have tried this with roasted chicken.

plum jam w chicken

The jam can be used with roasted chicken, I might even suggest a nice bit of roasted lamb as well.  This makes for a very sweet dipped chicken!

Mutajjan (Lamb or Goat with Spices)

I had a bit of spare lamb meat on hand from doing a presentation for another lamb dish, so I decided to try another dish of tasty lamb.  Mutton is not some thing I am eager to eat on a regular basis due to the very strong flaovr however a good lamb should never be passed up!

Mutajjan

(Lamb or Goat with spices)

Translation:

#1.)  Take a suckling kid, scald it and cut up into joints, then boil it lightly in vinegar and take it out.  Then dry it off and fry it in fresh sesame oil.  When it is done and lightly browned, throw soy sauce to cover on it and season it with the well-known spices, which are coriander, caraway and finely milled Chinese cinnamon.  If you like, sprinkle it with a little lemon juice, and it comes out excellently.

#2.)  Boil a kid, after being cut up into joints, in water and salt.  Then fry it in sesame oil and season it with mentioned spices and put in vinegar and soy sauce mixed together.  It comes out excellently.

#3.)  Joint a kid and boil it in vinegar and throw it in sesame oil and fry it in it and flavour it with spices.  If you want it sadhij, boil it in water with mastic and Chinese cinnamon, and fry it in fresh sesame oil and season it with spices.  These recipes might be made with lamb also.

Rodinson, pp. 377

Ingredients:

2 lbs goat or lamb (cubed)

2 TBS sesame oil

1 tsp ea. cinnamon, caraway (seeds or ground), coriander cumin

1/3 cup vinegar

1/3 cup soy sauce

My Redaction:

The choice is between lamb or goat.  Either meat has a rather strong flavor and requires a little extra seasoning.  If beef is chosen instead cut the spices down by half.  The meat I did go with was lamb, which is readily available.  The cut of the meat is cubed leg.  The meat will cook down so don’t worry if 2 lbs sounds like a lot.

The recipe does not specify a cut just that the meat is well marbled; and lamb meat is certainly well marbled!

Mutajjanat spices

Take the cubed meat and boil in water with the vinegar till tender.  If a stronger vinegar flavor is preferred wait to use the vinegar till just before removing the cooked meat from the end stage of frying.  Drain the meat thoroughly.

Place the meat in a large enough pan with sesame oil and cook till browned.

boiled lamb about to be fried

Add spices (and vinegar if desired NOT extra vinegar though) and toss so that all the meat is well coated.

mutajjanat w spices

The vinegar and soy sauce cut down the mutton taste (even in lamb) that is present, making the dish less gamy.  The spices can be toned down or added to depending on the taste of the cook.

cooked lamb

This dish would be excellent over saffron rice or even stuffed into bread with a garlic yogurt sauce.  Very very yummy!

Sikanjabin Persian Mint Tea

During the hot Ansteorra summers at either home or on the road for events, some times plain water just wont quench that heat/fighting induced thirst that demands 2 gallons of water poured down the throat every hour.  This tea is a little odd with the vinegar but quite tasty…so tasty I keep this in the fridge just for regular days and not as an event only drink!

Syrup of Simple Sikanjabin

(Mint tea w/vinegar)

Translation

Take a ratl of strong vinegar and mix two ratls of sugar, and cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup.  Drink an uqiya of this with three of hot water when fasting.  While mint is not mentioned in the period translation (there seems to be only 2 listed with both being used for medicinal purposes) it is included in a large variety of period drinks of flavored syrups that are meant to be drunk, either hot or cold, but cut with water prior to drinking.

A Miscelleny pg. 104

Ingredients:

1 gallon water

1/3 cup vinegar

2/3 – 1C table sugar

3 – 4 TBS dried loose leaf peppermint

My Redaction:

Add water, mint,  vinegar and sugar in a pot and boil for 2 minutes.

tea spices

That’s just about all there is; however I do add a few suggestions.  I do not put the mint in a tea ball but let the water boil .  The boiling causes the mint to sink to the bottom, so that when poured into a pitcher there is very little loose mint floating on the top or in the tea.

boiled tea

Unfortunately I don’t have any pretty pictures to show with the tea sitting in a decorative glass bottle.  This is fairly utilitarian on my part.  Give this a try though on one of those hot heat intensive days and you’ll be hooked!

Lozenges

Lozenges

There is a bit of confusion when it comes to the term lozenges for Medieval Middle Eastern cooking.  Per Rodinson

“: A dish found in every cookery book of the middle ages, called lozenges, losinges, lesynges etc.  These different names ended up meaning, in French or neighboring languages, the geometric term losange or lozenge which displaced the word rhombus in Franc, England and, to a varying extent, other countries…It seems…that the origin of the word was the name of a widely consumed Arab dessert called Lawzinaj, a dish made with almonds, called lawz in Arabic….found the recipe translate in Latin and Italian cookery books from the end of the thirteenth and fourteenth century….round plates of sweets cut into rhomboids, which is easier then cutting into rounds.  One of the most famous is Baklava.  In modern Turkish, the word Baklava is used for rhombus as a geometrical shape.  This shows that the name of a dessert can give its name to a shape…” (p. 210)

Lozenge can also mean a throat soother or even a type of breath freshener which is where this recipe is going.  Another term for breath freshener is Pastille.  However we are going to stick to the term lozenges.

Lozenges were used “…at the end of a meal, it was customary to clean the teeth with a toothpick and lozenges made from musk, sandalwood, amber, spikenard, cloves, aloe wood, roses, cinnamon, and the like were sucked in order to guard against bad breath.” (Zaouali, pp. 57)

There are no actual recipes listed for lozenges on how to make.  This proved to be a small quandary until I came across a modern day recipe on how to make small hard cinnamon candies.   The recipe was modified to what would have been on hand and probably used (spice wise) for taste.

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cup sugar               2Tbs honey

¼ tsp ground cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, black pepper

¼ tsp whole anise seeds and whole lavender flowers

1 sheet wax paper

1 dull knife OR Pizza Cutter

12X12 pan

Redaction:

The recipe for a breath freshener has intrigued me for some time, however there was not a recipe listed in A Baghdad Cookery, Medieval Arab Cookery, or Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World, I had to improvise slightly.  The cookery books merely made mention that recipes were present at one point in some cookbooks listed under perfumes and were used at the end of meals to fresh the breath.

I found in a modern day cooking magazine (Savuor) the recipe for making cinnamon hard candies.  The modern day recipe listed light corn syrup which is not period in any way shape or form.  I substituted honey and came out with excellent results for a hard but flavorful lozenge.  The spicing was a little different then that listed in Zaouali’s book.  Several of the spices suggested were either cost prohibitive or not readily available.  So I made a slight change in spicing to reflect ingredients on hand.

The 12X12 pan is a guess on my part.  I do know that they had small pan or could have even used a small frying pan as a cooling tray.  While wax paper is not period, a small rectangle of material could have been used as a lining.  This lining is necessary so that the lozenges do not stick to the bottom of what ever dish is used for cooling the mixture.

Prepping:

Timing is critical.  From start to finish the dish is roughly about 10 minutes.  The final 3 when the honey mixture is cooling is the most important if lozenge shaped candies are to be formed.  Prep the 12X12 pan first, by lining with wax paper and setting next to where the stove is.

Take all the spices and mix them up into a small bowl or ramekin and keep with in easy reach from where you will be cooking.

lozenges spices

Next measure the sugar into a bowl.  Finally get the honey.

To make the lozenges:

The honey is poured into a small cooking pot and heated.  The sugar is then added to the honey and combined with a wooden spoon.

honey sugar pot

This mixture is heated till boiling.

honey sugar melted

No candy thermometer is used as they were not period.  I tested the candy readiness of the honey/sugar mixture when stirring and by the boiling of the honey.  When the honey and sugar started to boil furiously and small threads came from the wooden spoon after stirring, like so.

bubbles

It’s time to turn off the stove, add the spice, stirring, then pouring the mixture onto a wax paper lined 12X12 pan.

mix on wax paper

The mixture will cool into candy hardness in about 4-5 minutes.

After two minutes start to test the hardness of the mixture.

lines in honey

When the knife can cut a line into the candy and the line does not immediately fill in, start to cut lines horizontal then vertically down to the wax paper.  The candy will harden in a couple of minutes but still try to keep filling in the cuts.  Don’t stop!!!   Keep cutting the lines until the candy turns hard.

Lozenges on was paper

Once the candy hardens pull out the wax paper (or if you choose muslin cloth for the lining) and break of sections at a time.

Pieces of Lozenges

Serve at the end of meals or for a uniquely spiced candy for yourself!

Baid Mukhallal (Pickled Eggs)

My theory on how pickling of eggs resulted, was that a chicken farmer with an overabundance of eggs tried various means to save eggs for future use, one of which was the farmer putting hard boiled eggs in vinegar.  Vinegar being an acid and hostel to bacteria, made for the perfect holding liquid but not every one liked vinegar eggs.  This means either the same farmer or  some other enterprising soul  decided to add spicing, making the eggs tastier, there for even yummier!

Pickling seems to cross many boundaries with the different regions having different spices for their pickling.   So with out further ado…I present the historic Middle Eastern pickled egg,  with out the chicken.

Baid Mukhallal

(Pickled Eggs)

Translation:

Take boiled eggs and peel and sprinkle with a little ground salt and Chinese cinnamon and dry coriander.  Then arrange them in a glass jar and pour wine vinegar on them, and put it up.

(Rodinson, pp. 397)

Ingredients:

6 hard boiled eggs        ¼ tsp salt, cinnamon, and dry coriander

Glass Jar                      Vinegar to cover

My Redaction:

This dish is very simple.  Hard boil 6-10 eggs (depending on the size of your glass container).  Water, eggs and heat for about 30 minutes.  After boiling for 30 minutes, I turn off my gas stove and let cool in the water till they are able to be handled easily, then peel.

eggs spices

The third spice next to the cinnamon and cumin is salt…a little hard to see in a white dish.  Sorry about that.

After the eggs are peeled, the recipe says to sprinkle…now sprinkling can mean a light coat or a heavier coat of spicing.  I choose to use a heavier coating of spicing for a stronger flavor that will off set the vinegar.

eggs rolled in spices

I mixed all the spices together then rolled the egg in the mixture.  Once the egg was liberally coated I place the egg into a glass jar.

jar of eggs

The amusing part was the eggs bounced slightly when dropped into the jar.  It was funny at the time! So here we have 6 eggs in a jar with spicing.  There should be just a little left over as 1/4 tsp of these 3 spices coats 6 eggs almost perfectly.  I believe there wasonly 1/8 of spicing remaining.  Put the remainder of the spicing into the jar then fill with vinegar.

I used apple cider vinegar, instead of wine vinegar.   Apples were used in a variety of dishes and I believe that if the flesh of the apple was used then juice was made.  If apple juice was made then apple vinegar was not far.  That and wine vinegar was not on hand though procurement today would be fairly easy.

Depending on the size of the jar, the size of the eggs and the number of eggs used will determine how much vinegar you will need.  Fill the jar with vinegar AFTER putting in the eggs.  Make sure the eggs are covered completely.  Covering the eggs completely lessens the chance of bacteria getting a foot hold into the boiled eggs, causing a loss of the entire batch.

A little light snack or a compliment to a spicy dish.

Jawaarish (Carrot Jam)

I have a few cups of baby carrots on hand and was going hmm….that and a real craving for some thing sweet.  Voila!  I have found this little gem of a recipe.  A period way to turn a salty veggie (in my mind carrots need to be slathered in butter and salt to be yummy) into a sweet treat.

Historically speaking carrots could be preserved by either drying or turning into jam with out loosing to much nutritionally while still retaining a vitamin and caloric necessity, but this is probably one of the sweetest ways to preserve carrots…ever.

Jaawarish

(Carrot Jam)

Translation:

It is necessary to select fresh, red carrots, to wash them, clean them and cut them as thinly as possible.  Put them in a ceramic pot, add a little bit of honey, and cover them with water.  Cook them until they are soft, then strain off the water with a sieve and add a quantity of skimmed honey equal to that of the carrots.  Mix in seasonings chosen from among pepper, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cubeb, spikenard, mace, galangal, aloe wood (aquilaria aqullocha), saffron and musk.  Cook to thicken the carrot jam…Pour into a glass Jar and consume as needed.

*Note: Wild carrots were considered very pungent and not particularly edible though good for medicinal purposes. (Staug, pp. 44).   In the medieval Middle East, there were many varieties, the two main being distinguished by their color, either yellow or red (some times purple) (victoryseeds).  The red were considered more edible as the yellow were woody in hardness of the main stalk.  A similar but not completely the same type of red carrot can be found in today’s farmers market marked as “heirlooms”.

Zaouali, pp. 135.

Ingredients:

2 C carrots                   1 C honey                1 pinch saffron

1/4 tsp ea of ground pepper corn, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, mace cinnamon

1/4  tsp anise seed

My redaction:

I have a couple of choices of carrot types in the summer when the farmers markets are open, giving me the choice between either a red or even a yellow variety of carrot, and not just the ubiquitous orange type.  My choice is far more limited during the winter and due to my narrow choice in the winter when I did this recipe, I used what was on hand.

I took 2 cups of modern  day baby  carrots (or regular orange carrots if available) and sliced them in the  “matchstick” style. I did matchstick as the carrots, in period, were quartered with the inner core removed to take out the woody taste, which leads me to believe that to cut them thin matchstick is an excellent choice.  However slicing thinnly in 1/2 circles after the carrot was cored could have happened just as easily.

CarrotsHere are the carrots, sliced with the multitude of spices and the first 2 Tbs of honey.

carrots w spices

The next step after cutting the carrots into thin slices is to place them  in a shallow casserole dish covering with water and adding 2 Tbs  of honey.  The recipe says to just add a little bit of honey and cover them with water.  I figured 2 Tbs is enough to still give the carrots a little sweetness while cooking them in water.

carrots water honey

Unfortunately the honey is lost in the picture.  This is to just give an idea on the carrot:water ratio which is to put in just enough water to cover the carrots.

Cook until the carrots are soft.

baked carrots

Now I judge soft carrots to be when I can stick a fork in them easily.  These were really tender after cooking for about 45 minutes at 400.  Keep an eye on the carrots though, your oven may be hotter or cooler and either scorched or undercooked carrots are not good.

Once the carrots are soft, drain the water and honey.

Period honey was a bit more “raw”, with wax and bees parts so required cooking prior to using skimming of the foam which contained the extra unwanted bits.  Modern honey is usually cleaned of inclusions so skimming is not necessary.  With that not if the honey used is from the store pour the remaining cup of honey onto the carrots.  If the honey is freshly drawn from a hive, start by cooking all of it in a large container, skimming off any froth that develops.

Once the carrots and honey have been combined in a pot add the ground spices and saffron.

carrots spices honey start

The honey may not look like enough, you want just enough to cover with out submerging.   The honey will thicken and reduce, so what was 2 cups of carrots and honey will coalesce into about a cup of jam.

Add the spices and start to cook the honey and carrots on the stove till thickened.  I would suggest to stir the mixture together and taste how the spices flavor the honey and carrots.  The fresher the spices the better the out come.  The mixture of spices suggested by the original recipe is very good though I added a couple of extra myself and did not add a couple due to availability.

This batch took 3 heating sessions.  I didn’t want to scorch the honey or carrots, so I would heat the mixture till it boiled then allow to cool.  The first two times the mixture was not thick enough which means either I didn’t heat the mixture enough, allow enough time to boil, or I added to much honey to my batch or a combination of the three.  The flavor is not ruined if the jam has to be heated more then once, so don’t worry if the honey hasn’t condensed enough the first time.

Jam

Once the jam is cool, spoon into a glass jar, securing the lid tightly.  As you can see the 2 cups of carrots have reduced to about one cup of jam here.  I used a recycled jam jar with a screw on lid.  Period containers would have been of glass but the lid would have been the type to fit onto the top and not a screw top.

I have to admit a little bread and a spoon to scoop the jam on to and you are in a spicy sweet carrot heaven!

Shiraz Leban bi-Buqul (Thickened Yoghurt with Herbs)

It’s pronounced HHHHerbs…because there’s an H in it!  Waaay to much Eddie Izzard.  I just couldn’t resist.  I know, I should probably try harder but it’s just sooo much fun!  Any way, back to our regularly scheduled recipe addition.  Today is more yogurt, or yoghurt, and a bit of herb spicing.

Shiraz Laban Bi-Buqul

(Thickened yoghurt with herbs)

Translation:

Take mint, celery leaves and vegetable leeks and strip them all from their stalks and cut them up finely with the knife.  Throw them in the mortar, and, when they release liquid after pounding, dry them off.  Then mix them well with shiraz (yoghurt drained of whey).  Throw a little salt on it, as much as it will bear, and mustard pounded fine, and moderate its flavor with the mustard…If you like, put pounded walnuts on it.

Medieval Arab Cookery p. 398-399.

Ingredients:

1 C yogurt                                            1/3 C chopped mint

1 Leek                                                             salt to taste

1 ½ tsp ground brown mustard seed     1/8 tsp pepper

1/3 cup celery leaves chopped

My Redaction:

This recipe is extremely easy.  A little care needs to be taken when washing the leek but other then that the dish is pretty much just chop, mix and eat.

Yogurt spices

Leeks are grown in sandy muddy soil which collects in the upright leaves.  The dirt needs to be washed out of the leeks other wise you have a very gritty muddy dish.  Not everyone’s favorite.  When I chop a leek I cut of the roots and the dark green hard leaves, leaving me with the pale green and white sections.  These are cut into halves then halved again.   Then I slice the quarters into 1/8 inch pieces (roughly).  These are put into a bowl and rinsed with running water till there are no more blotches or sandy bits to be seen or felt.

Using only the light green and white part  doesn’t sound like a lot, however once the leek is sliced into smaller bits it sort of falls to pieces and fluffs up considerably.  You should get roughly 1/2 to 1 cup worth of chopped (no compressed) leek pieces from that small bit left over.

If leeks are not available or in season I have made do with shallots or a mild onion in a pinch.

The mustard seeds are ground.  I did use a mortar and pestle this time as only a little mustard seed was needed.  The mint was actually store bought.   For adding the mint I would suggest 1/2 of the called for recipe, taste, then add a bit at a time.  I like the minty flavor as it compliments the yogurt’s depth and the leeks mild onion.  The celery leaves were optional this time around; however I usually use the inner leaves found on a celery bunch’s heart.  Definitely a nice inclusion though.

Yogurt mix

Once everything has been prepped mix into a bowl and you are ready to consume!

Samak Malih Bi-Labin (Salty Fish in Yogurt)

The name Salty Fish in Yogurt is a bit of a misnomer as the fish is dotted rather then covered, but that could just be a translation or an aesthetic point.  No matter the naming the taste is very very aesthetically pleasing to the palate and easy on the cook!   This is a 10 minute dish, including cooking and mix time while giving very full flavor for only a small bit of effort.

Samak Malih Bi-Laban

(Salty Fish in Yoghurt)

Translation:

Take salted fish, wash it, cut it up medium and fry it as we have mentioned.  Then take it from the pan hot and put it in yoghurt and garlic.  You throw nigella and finely milled Chinese cinnamon on its surface, and it is eaten hot or cold.

(Medieval Arab Cookery, pg. 390)

Ingredients:

Fish fillets (Talapia)                   1 Tbs sesame oil            1 cup yogurt                 6 cloves garlic

Salt to taste                                    1/8 tsb cinnamon

*The original recipe calls for salted fish.  My thought that this is fish stored in salt so as not to spoil, a common way to store meats during the middle ages; however with today’s advent of modern miracles i.e. the refrigerator getting truly salted fish is almost impossible.

My Redaction:

We start with the fish and ingredients that go with this simplistic but very tasty dish.  fish with spices

The fish of choice for the moment is Talapia.

A quick notation on fish for Middle Eastern cooking here: Fish are declared the best in the Baghdad Cookery courses as those that are river fish.  Three types of fish are mentioned specifically; Zajar, sturgeon; bunni or banana, carp; and the most admired variety, shabbut; however no recipes listed call for a specific type of fish, nor recipes from the Iraqui book known as ‘al-Baghadadi, or in the Syrian Kitab al-Wusla ila al-Habib.  (Rodinson, pg. 479-480). I have used the mild flavored fish tilapia as a substitute for fish found in today’s Middle Eastern rivers

When I make this dish, I mix the cup of yogurt with the well chopped garlic cloves first.   This bowl of garlicky yogurt is set to the side while I get the fish going.

yogurt with garlic

The next step is to take the sesame oil and pour it into the pan.  Heat the pan then lay the fillets into the oil.  (no picture here sorry was busy not splattering kitchen with the oil or burning the quickly cooking fish).  Salt each fillet side.  Don’t be worried about over doing the salt, don’t add teaspoons of salt but do add more then a few grains.  Remember this was originally made for salted fish…fish packed in salt to retard spoilage.

When the fish is thoroughly cooked on both sides place on a plate and dot (or smear) with a TBS or more of the garlic yogurt mixture.

fish with sesame and yogurt

Sprinkle with a little cinnamon and voila!  I know, I know…the cinnamon sounds really weird to the modern palate to be adding to yogurt with salt and fish instead of yogurt and sugar.  Try it this and you’ll be going “Oh wow!!!”.  Yes the dish really is that awesomely awesome not to mention handsome with the garlicky yogurt and a dash of cinnamon.

Samak Maqlu bil-Khal wal-Tahina (Fried Fish with Vinegar and Tahini)

This is a really good fish dish, that doesn’t have a strong fish taste (for those who really can’t stand the strong fishy taste of…fish).  I also used tilapia, a rather mild flavored fish.   The bite of the vinegar melds well with the tahini and both combine very nicely with the fish and spices.   A warming bit of fishy goodness!

Samak Maqlu bil-Khal wal-Tahina

(Fried Fish with Vinegar and Tahini)

Translation:

Take salted or fresh fish, wash it well and dry it, then cut it up medium and fry in sesame oil  Throw a little dry coriander on it.  Then take as much vinegar and tahineh as needed and dissolve it until mixed; you moisten it with vinegar little by little until it has the desired consistency.  Season it, and if you wish, put in a little ground mustard and nuts or nuts with out mustard.  Then take it from the pan hot, and first put sesame oil in the pan, and coriander and milled Chinese cinnamon, and it is eaten.

Ingredients:

5 Tilapia fillets              3 Tbs sesame oil           1 ½ tsp coriander

½ cup tahini                  ¼ cup vinegar               3 Tbs pine nuts and pistachios

Salt to taste

My Redaction:

I laid out all the ingredients needed (except the coriander).  This is for 5 fillets though the recipe can be expanded or cut as needed depending on the size of fillets being cooked.

Fish with spices

In the far right corner are the nuts, roughly 3 Tbs each un-chopped and unsalted.  Any type of nut can be used from walnuts to hazelnuts, in multiple combination or singular i.e. just pine nuts.  I just happened to like the idea of pistachio and the rich nuttiness of pine nuts.

Before adding the oil to the pan I combined the tahini and vinegar together.

tahini and vinegar

The vinegar curdles the tahini a little bit, though the sesame seed paste absorbs the vinegar very quickly and makes a thick paste after the original curdling.  You can add more vinegar . if you prefer a sharp bite however do not add so much that the flavor of the tahini or fish is over powered.  Do not worry if the mixture still looks like peanut butter in thickness after combining.

Next, I heated up a pan with 1 ½ tsp sesame oil.  I used lightly toasted sesame oil instead of dark though either could be used.  Once the sesame oil was heated up I placed the tilapia into the oil then sprinkled coriander on top and allowed to brown on one side.

fish with corriander

You may be asking why this is bubbling instead of frying and I can answer that question.  The fillets were still a little frozen and the water is now frying out of the fish.  This sort of worked out very well.  With the water and the oil cooking very hot, I placed a lid over the fish to hep with the cooking time, which actually cooked the fish a little faster.

Once the bottom was browned I flipped the fillets over to brown on the other side, sprinkling with coriander.  With the top now on the bottom browning I dotted the browned side of the fillets with the tahini and vinegar mixture, covering the side as thoroughly as possible with the generous dolloped teaspoon.  By this time the other side should be browned and I flipped the fillets over again to warm up the tahini.  This was a quick 1-2 minute browning before I removed the fish from the pan.  Sorry no pictures of the tahini dotting as I was moving very fast to make sure nothing burnt.

Finally I added the last of the sesame oil to the frying pan and mixed the nuts with the oil till the nuts were sizzling.  Roughly 2-3 minutes.  I sprinkled the tilapia with salt then removed the nuts from the oil sprinkling those on top of the fillets.

cooked fish with nuts

Now the fillets do crumble on removing from the pan (or at least mine do).  So don’t worry about the non symmetrical fillets.  The fish will still taste excellent.  Sprinkle with just a touch of coarsely ground salt or regular salt and enjoy this with sesame roasted carrots or garlic fried spinach!