Category Archives: Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions

Plain Dishes (Sawadhij), Raihaniyya (Aromatic Herbs w/Meatballs)

Raihaniyya (Aromatic Herbs w/Meatballs)

November 22, 2009 SoshaRuark 1 Comment

Now by this time you may be thinking, “Hey, you’ve done a LOT of meatballs!” and you’d be right, I have done quite a few meatball dishes. There is a reason meatballs are well documented in favored dishes. Meatballs were a way to say “I, and my house, have become well enough off that we can spend that extra 2-3 hours taking perfectly good meat, pound it flat, add expensive spices and roll the tasty treat of meat into bite sized balls; all for YOU, our favored guest.” Meat was a luxury in period times due and meat balls even more so. As for me making meatballs, well I had some ground hamburger and a new recipe to try out.

Raihaniyya

(Aromatic Herbs with Meatballs)

Translation:

Its recipe is that you cut up fat meat small and boil it in water. Then put dainty meatballs in it and a handful of peeled chickpeas. When it is nearly done, take half as much spinach as the meat and cut it up small with the knife and half boil it. Then throw it on the meat, and adjust its salt and spices. If there remains some water in it, let it go away. Put as much melted fat of fresh tail as it will bear on it, and a scraped stick of Chinese cinnamon, and leave it until it becomes done in the fat and is completely done. Then reduce its fire, and it settles and is taken up.

Ingredients:

1 lb stew meat (beef, venison, or lamb) 1 lb of ground meat (beef, venison or lamb)

1 tsp ea. Pepper, ginger, cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon

(Alternate spices to add would be black anise seeds, hot pepper seeds, garlic, dill, thyme)

¼ tsp saffron 1 onion 1 can garbanzo beans

1 Tbsp sesame oil (olive oil if sesame is not available)

2 cups chopped spinach (de-stemmed unless baby spinach)

Salt to taste 1 tsp thyme, cinnamon, salt

(Rodinson, pp. 348)

My Redaction:

I took a 1lb brick of hamburger meat and 1lb of cut up stew meat (that was cut into bite sized pieces). The meat does not specify being all of the same. A combination of meat chunks could have been used as well as a combination of pounded meat. The meat size should be bite sized are even slightly smaller. What is the use of making a really tasty dish if guests aren’t able to enjoy a bite sized piece but have to stop, take the piece of meat from their dish, cut the meat into a more manageable piece then put down the knife and chew? With the meat in bite sized pieces, eating is all one step of select, bite, swallow, then cheer the cook on to more dizzying heights of cooking extravaganzas!

Once the stew meat size has been established, the stew meat was added to a pot with water only 1/2 inch over the meat and boiled till almost done. Modern cooking really doesn’t like boiled meat as the idea that boiling renders the meat flavorless. If spices weren’t added or oil(s) etc then yest the meat would be flavorless; however in period boiling had the added benefit of not only cooking quickly, but cleanly as well. Any sand or nasty bits on the meat went to the scum which was always skimmed off leaving clean well cooked meat in a pot.

I had preselected and measured the spices, cut up the onion, and spinach.

The spices, the little white dish to the side of the garbanzo beans, were added to the ground meat, mixed well and small bite sized meatballs were then formed, except for the last 1tsp of thyme, cinnamon and salt. Those spices will be added to the overall dish at the end.

Once the meatballs had been formed, they were added into the boiling water with the other stew meat. Don’t worry, the meat should not fall apart at the touch of water; however you do want enough water to cover all the meat to get everything well cooked, then I added the garbanzo beans.

When the meatballs have been almost thoroughly cooked, I drained all the excess water out of the pot leaving the meat and the beans. Sesame oil was added to the pot before replacing on the stove. The remaining spices; 1 tsp thyme, cinnamon, salt, were then added as well as the onions and chopped up spinach. The recipe calls for tail fat yet sesame oil was used in substitution. I’ve written before on the extreme muttiness of tail fat and how I’m avoiding that extreme at this time.

This dish smells wonderful…and tastes excellently! This is a colorful tasty warm dish that is fairly healthy in regards to the modern diet. I would suggest serving the dish with either saffron rice or even over a bed of spinach.

Plain Dishes (Sawadhij), Stuffed Chicken Skin (Franken Chicken)

Franken Chicken

November 12, 2009 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

Stuffed Chicken Skin

(also known as Franken Chicken)

This recipe was done out of curiosity. I mean really how often do you go to a dinner party and say “OMG…that chicken is a STUFFED chicken?! ” In period for a really excellent high end dinner this is exactly what they did. They made castles out of pastry and sugars, meat dishes with out meat (Romans’ were famous for this) and re-stuffing a chicken skin or a pig skin was nothing. This type of over the top cooking showed how refined and well to do the host was. This was known as “conspicuous” quality of creation.

Translation from Wusla:

There are a couple of varieties:

First Recipe: Take a chicken, scald it with boiling water and do not split either it’s belly or it’s crop. Push a meat skewer (mirwad) into its neck between the skin and the meat and use the skewer to separate the two. Blow hard into the neck (orifice) to detach all the skin from the meat. Whenever you find a little piece still attached (to the skin) which will not be freed by the blowing, use the skewer to detach it. Then use a thread to anchor the skin to the leg bones and split the bird along its back (from) the tail to the base of the neck. Remove the meat, leaving the leg bones including the thigh bones, in position. Likewise cut the wing tendons inside the skin. Stuff with rice, meat, chickpeas and onions, chopped as for stuffed trip (sakhatir). The wings are left as they are (their meat) not being separated from (their) skin, so as to complete the illusion of a (real) chicken. The skin is sewn back together and the neck is attached firmly…also being sewn up. Cook in water with stuffed tripe. This can also be fried afterward, if desired, or it can be left to finish cooking in the water.

2^nd recipe: With a stuffing of pounded meat as described abofe: take the meat of a chicken prepared as above and that of another chicken, leaving a skin wich can accommodate the meat of both chickens. Cook in water and then pound thoroughly in a mortar. Place in a cooking pot with a little chicken fat and sesame oil, some olive oil, hot seeds and parsley leaves and fry until the meat is golden. Add some minced onions and some mint. When the stuffing is cooked, fill the chicken skin with it, sew up and secure firmly at the base of the neck, after replacing the sternum in its proper place in the breast so as to give the impression of a real chicken. Cook in water, then fry and place any remaining stuffing with the chicken.

(Medieval Arabic Cookery, Rodinson, pp. 162)

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken 1 onion ¼ cup fresh parsley (or 2 tbs dried)

1 Tbs sesame oil, olive oil and chicken fat, 1 Tbs mint 1 Tbs dried peppers

1 tsp salt (or to taste).

My redaction:

When teaching classes on how to do Middle Eastern or Roman redaction, I can not stress enough on the necessity to read and re-read the instructions several times. The first read through is to get a feel for the ingredients. The second read through is a better understanding of HOW a dish was put together. In this case…how a dish was disassembled then reassembled.

I took a fully thawed fryer and scalded in boiling water for 30 seconds. The scalding tightens the skin, which helps with the skin removal process. Do not fool yourself on this part. The skin is still paper thin and extremely fragile…the scalding just helps tighten it up a bit; this does not make the skin impervious to damage.

I inserted a metal skewer, one I had laying around for kabob’s, into the neck and started to gently separate the skin from the meat by severing the connecting tissue between the two. I did not blow on the skin. (Even though the chicken was well rinsed prior to the scalding, I am not willing to put my lips on what is still mostly raw chicken!) Remove the tail of the chicken if this is included on your fryer. I was not particularly graceful in the skin removal as I would have liked; there were several holes in the skin by the time I was done.

As you can see the skin looks properly deflated. Rather embarrassed in fact as if I had caught the skin just stepping out of a hot tub. (I know…I just couldn’t help myself on that one!)

The redaction calls for not splitting either the breast or crop area, which is the front of the bird. I had to split the chicken skin along the back as there was no other way to remove the skin from the meat no matter how much skewering or blowing was done. Now here is the tricky part, and a little change to the original recipe. I decided on my first try to keep the wings but do away with the legs. The original recipe calls for the leg bones and wings (with meat) to remain attached to the skin with thread attaching the skin to the legs. Then the leg and wing joints are severed at the body with thread connecting the bottom leg skin to the bottom leg bone, while all the meat was removed carefully to leave the skin intact . This bird was NOT going to be able to do any running when all the stuffing and cooking was done! The theory was that the meat stuffing would refill the leg skin with the leg bones giving shape and definition. Knowing my own limitations for not renting the skin further…I just took the legs off but left the wings.

At this point there was a skin (see above picture) and a very naked bird waiting to be stripped of meat and bones. I took every scrap of usable meat from the chicken and ground it. The redaction calls for “pound thoroughly in a mortor”. I believe this was to render the chicken meat much like ground hamburger, making it easier for cooking then re-stuffing into our skin.

I had all the ingredients on hand and added a bit of salt.

The redaction calls for 2 oils and 1 fat. Sesame oil, olive oil and chicken fat. I had chicken fat on hand (I save the fat from roasted chicken, roughly a cup rendered per roasting) as there are many really good redaction recipes that call for throwing a pudding under a chicken and letting the chicken fat drip into the pudding pan. So save that grease because you never know when the next wonderful recipe will call for a Tbsp or two.

I went with the 2nd redaction as I did not have any cooked rice on hand but I did have onions and parsley from the garden readily available. The 2nd recipe calls for the meat of another bird. I didn’t find this necessary; however if I had actually left the leg skins attached it might have been.

The next step in the redaction calls for throwing the meat into boiling water for skimming. I don’t have to worry about sand, dirt or impurities having collected on my chicken meat so I skipped straight to the “Place in a cooking pot with a little chicken fat and sesame oil, some olive oil, hot seeds and parsley leaves and fry until the meat is golden”. Just like that…then add the chopped onion and mint till the onions are translucent. Take a taste and then add salt.

This redaction could go on any table, for dinner and do a cook proud as it is VERY tasty; however we now get to the complicated messy but interesting part!

While the meat was frying and the onions sauteing in the really heady oil mixture, take a bit of thread (I used a sturdy quilting thread…hey I had it on hand!) and sew up any rents that were made in the skin while removing. The correct thing to do for the chicken skin is to also sew up the neck and back and leaving the bottom opened for stuffing. Unfortunately for me…Murphy and his law showed up and my plans were slightly re-arranged on what should have been done to what could be done.

Keep an eye on the chicken meat while stitching up the skin!! When everything is finished cooking, take the meat and spices and let them cool till you can handle the mixture with your hands. Once the meat can be handled commence stuffing your sewn up skin. Do not over stuff. Any meat that is left over will be used around the stuffed cooked chicken, so as to not go to waste.

This is the stuffed skin after Mr. Murphy showed me that I should have sewn everything up tight prior to stuffing (NOT after) and that the belly/crop skin was so very thin that flipping the bird on to it’s back to hide the stitches was no longer an option (as the skin would split, spilling all the stuffing out).

The next step calls for boiling the stuffed skin then frying. My poor bird was not up for boiling. The skin had not been sewn up tight enough to be water tight so I opted to bake instead. I placed the bird very gently into a pottery chicken roaster (as small casserole dish would work as well) and popped the naked stuffed chicken into the oven at 350 degrees till the wings were thoroughly cooked and the skin was a nice golden brown.

There will be chicken grease at the bottom of the clay pot, as well as a little of the excess oils from cooking the meat. In period a roasting chicken’s grease was used in puddings and other dishes. It would not be going out on a limb by much to say that throwing either couscous or rice at the bottom of the clay pot prior to cooking is out of bounds, adding a wonderful rich meaty/fattiness (you NEEDED those calories in period) to a bland but satisfying carb.

While this looks likes Frankenstein dinner…it’s a very tasty treaty. I am sure that the dinner parties thrown by the sultans and caliphs had cooks who could get a chicken naked in under 3 minutes with out huge tears, I’m afraid at this point this redaction for looks gets a C – while the taste gets an A +!

Makabib al-Yuhud (Jewish Meatballs)

Makabib al-Yahud Meatballs in the style of the Jews

November 6, 2009 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

Makabib al-Yahud

(The meatballs of the Jews)

This recipe starts with lean meat. The meat is not described as being kosher. Kosher is (per Wikipidea) “…in regard to land beasts (Hebrew:Behemoth), Deuteronomy and Leviticus both state that anything which chews the cud and has a cloven hoof would be ritually clean, but those animals which only chew the cud or only have cloven hooves would be unclean.^[8]^[9] The texts identify four animals in particular as being unclean for this reason – the hare, hyrax, camel, and pig — although the camel both ruminates and has two toes, while the hare and hyrax are coprophages rather than ruminants; the latter issues have been discussed by many, including the recent book on the subject by Rabbi Natan Slifkin^[10].”

This clears up a little on the Kosher part (not knowing this prior to the redaction of this recipe), which means that rabbit, camel, hyrax, and pig would not be acceptable meats for this dish if this were to be served to a person following strict Kosher foods.

When this recipe was written, the writer did not say that the meat was halal. Now Halal meat is meat that is acceptable for eating under Islamic law. The assumption is that the meat would have been bought in the market (or slaughtered on the farm) according to Quranic verse.

So this recipe if a redaction is for an Islamic eater can include that of hare or camel but not pork, or meat of a predator (so for those living in Texas also known as Ansteorra…no coyote). The meat must not be carrion (always a sound advice for what not to eat) or that has been killed by strangulation, gored, beaten, killed by a fall, or killed in name of another other then Allah.

So on to a recipe given to us by an Islamic scripe who had dinner with a Jewish host and thought highly of the meatballs!

Translation:

Boil lean meat after pounding it fine. Then take it out and pound it again, and remove the tendons. Then pound pistachio meats, Chinese cinnamon and peppers, each separately, and like wise salt, and cut up parsley, mint and celery leaf. Then break eggs and beat them, and add the meat and ingredients sufficiently, then fry it and turn it over in sesame oil, and it comes out most excellent.

Ingredients:

1 lb hamburger meat (or ground meat of an acceptable nature)

2 Tbs ground pistachios (unsalted)

1tsp ea of mint, parsley, celery leaf

½ tsp ea of salt, ground peppercorns, cinnamon

1 egg

1 Tbs sesame oil

My Redaction:

I used hamburger meat (10% or less of fat) as the main meat basis. My reasoning on the ground beef is that it is widely available, if I had had venison on hand I would have used that instead being a HUGE venison fan. Turkey could probably have been used as well as any other good ground meat depending on the cooks choice and taste. I skipped the boiling of the meat as the hamburger was pretty tender already. Originally meat was boiled to tenderize as the animals were probably a lot tougher then the grain feed meats seen in modern times. For those curious, no…I was not going to hand grind 1 lb of beef. Some things just need to be done by machines!

I set the meat in a bowl then added the pistachios that had been roughly chopped then pounded fine with a mortar and pestle (per the recipe these too were ground assuming finely ground), the egg and the spices. The egg is used as a binding agent for the meat as lean meat does not hold together as well as a fattier grind.

After everything was combined together well meatballs were rolled out. I made mine smaller then a golf-ball but larger then a hazelnut. Some recipes call for meatballs the size of hazelnuts, which aren’t that big while others do not specify at all. I choose to stick to a comfortable bite sized portion.

The meatballs were then fried in a pan with sesame oil till done.

The recipe specifically says sesame oil. Sesame oil is very tasty and there are several varieties. The dark sesame oil leaves a very heavy oily/nutty taste while the lighter sesame oils leave a roasted nut taste. The varieties are some what in order to using extra virgin olive oil to regular olive oil. The darker the oil the more pronounced the sesame oil taste.

These are actually very good on their own. I also really liked them with a yogurt/garlic dip made with Labayniyya (meat (balls) with yogurt). The traditional dinner or lunch probably would have included either rice or couscous, vegetables (fried spinach is never wrong for meat dishes) and a flat bread used to scoop every possible bite up.

Al-Madira Meat and Leeks, Meat Porridges (Hara'is) and Oven Dishes (Tannuriyyat)

Al-Madira (Meat and Leeks)

October 25, 2009 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

Al-Madira

(Meat and Leeks)

This translation is one of my favorites, a warm rich thick yogurt meaty dish that has wonderful flavors. A great winter or fall type of dish. It’s not quite chicken soup for the soul but it does make a person go “Mmmm…comfy now!”

Translation:

Cut p fat meat medium and leave it in the pot with a little salt and water to cover. And when it is nearly done, throw big green onions on it and big Syrian Leeks, washed and with their leaves cut off. When it is done and the water has decreased, throw spices on it and adjust the salt. Then take it out of the pot and put it in another vessel, and take the water from the pot and throw yogurt on it as needed. And when it boils well, add already prepared melted tail fat, with the onions and leeks which have been taken up. Throw in a scraped stick of Chinese cinnamon, and it settles and is taken up…Throw in saffron and add sugar to it, and it comes out good.

Medieval Arab Cookery p.321

Ingredients:

2.5 lb beef/venison/goat or chicken cubed

3 leeks sliced

3 cups water (or enough to cover the meat)

1 small onion diced

½ tsp cumin, coriander, cinnamon, turmeric, saffron, and black caraway seeds (optional)

2 C yogurt

salt to taste

1 Tsp granulated table sugar

Optional: (Cariadoc makes this suggestion for chicken)

½ lemon or ¼ cup lemon juice ½ C fresh mint

Al-Baghdadi p. 41/6 (A Miscelleny)

I did this redaction following the techniques of the original while still incorporating a bit from Master Cariado’s suggestion.

My Redaction:

Here is a compilation of all the ingredients in one picture.

I cubed my meat (this time chicken). The meat used is 10 chicken thighs (a very rough equivalent to one full chicken. I then placed the chicken into a pot and covered with water.

When the chicken was mostly done I added 1/2 the onions and 1/2 the leeks. The remaining leeks and onions I sauteed in a pan with olive oil (sesame oil would work just as well to add a nutty taste).

The original translation says to add prepared tail fat with onions and leeks. Tail fat is fat from the tail of a type of sheep. This is a VERY strong mutton taste. If you ever have had mutton and prefer your mutton in small quantities, don’t add tail fat. If you LOVE mutton go to a meat market and ask for sheep tail fat and use it like you would bacon. /shudder

The leeks were cut below the start of the leaves then sliced lengthwise and cut into smaller pieces. This is for easier washing and rinsing of dirt that might have collected in the growing layers of the leeks.

After the leeks and onions have turned soft, I added spices then taste if additional salt is needed.

The pot is left to simmer for a final round of water reduction. After the water has reduced a bit more, I turn off the burner and add the yogurt, mint, sugar, sauteed onions and leeks. (The original translated recipe says to remove the dry soup to another vessel, I opted to turn off the stove instead).

I serve this either by itself or over brown rice to help sop up the extra juices. Pita bread could serve the same purpose for the sopping up. Couscous is very period for a carb/filler for an added accompaniment.

Before serving take one final taste just to make sure you have enough salt or need to add a touch extra!

Hummus Kasa, Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Vegetarian Dishes (Sawadhij)

Hummus Kasa

October 22, 2009 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

Hummus Kasa

Period hummus is very hearty. This is not the usual 5 ingredients and smooth hummus that many are use to today. Period hummus walks into a room and demands the best spot on the table because it can stand on it’s own as a meal!

Translation:

Take chickpeas and pound them fine after boiling them. Then take vinegar, oil, tahineh, pepper…mint, parsley dry thyme, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, Ceylon cinnamon, toasted caraway, dry coriander, salt, salted lemons and olives. Stir it…

Medieval Arab Cookery p. 383.

Ingredients;

1 can chickpeas (roughly blended…unless you reaaaaly want to chop them by hand)

1 C tahineh

1/3 C vinegar

1/3 C olive oil

1/2 tsp each of dried mint, thyme, cinnamon, caraway, coriander, salt, black pepper

1 tsp parsley

¼-1/3 C walnuts, almonds, pistachios (roughly chopped)

1 preserved lemon (salted and stored in olive oil)

My Redaction:

Once all the ingredients are assembled the rest is pretty easy. The nuts are roughly chopped, the garbanzo beans have been blended, the spices assembled, oil and vinegar assembled, and the preserved lemon roughly chopped as well.

Once everythign is on hand, put into a bowl and stir. Today’s palate may prefer the smoothness of everything blended into a paste however that is not quite period. Things were a tad more chunky. I put all these ingredients into a bowl then stirred everything till the tahini was well blended. Why did I base my blending on the tahini? Well…try string peanute butter into a mix. If the peanut butter is not mixed well there are lumpy parts instead of a tasty blend of spices.

Here is the blended lumpy full meal hummus with a little olive oil and mint. It’s happy to see you!

Kunafa

Kunafa (Shredded Dough Pastry)

October 14, 2009 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

Kunafa

(Shredded dough pastry)

The original translation is a bit tricky on this recipe. This is what I call a reverse redaction as the original I found is actually a modern day recipe with cream cheese and orange water as part of the ingredients. Here is a brief history and descriptions of the original types of shredded dough pastries.

Translation:

The original commentary is –Batter is dribbled onto the warmed metal through perforations. The fine ‘pasta’ that results is dried, rather then cooked, on the sheet,…to make a pastry, the kunafah dough must be baked with clarified butter and perhaps a filling such as nuts. This was then ‘drowned’ in almond oil and syrup and considered to be as fine as grasshoppers wings.

(Rodinson, pp. 223).

There is no exact recipe for this though there is a modern day recipe that I have crossed with a pastry dessert called qata’if.

Quata’if – This is of various kinds. Stuffed qata’if are baked into long shapes, stuffed with almonds and fine ground sugar, rolled round, and laid out: then sesame-oil, syrup, rose-water and fine ground pistachios are thrown on.

Judhab al-Qata’if – Take ata’if stuffed with almonds and sugar and fried; arrange oin a dish between two thin cakes, and set under a chicken. Between every two layers put sugar, and almonds, peeled chopped fine, and scented asi n tuffing. Pour on sesame-oil or if preferred fresh mil with more sugar. When cooked and fragrant, remove. Some, instead of almond and almond oil, use walnut and walnut oil (Rodinson, pp. 81, 87)

Quata’if is described as type of pancake. However the Kunafa was not a pancake but did use shredded dough or dough cut into thin slices. Rose-water, sugar, milk, eggs, honey (for the syrup) or date syrup is common to both recipes. The modern day recipe however calls for the use of orange-water which was not used in period and has been omitted. This recipe also calls for small curd cheese and a soft cheese. With the Quata’if (Judhab) calling for milk and Persian shiraz (firm yogurt) as well as numerous soft cheeses available this would not be a hard stretch to turn milk into yogurt to be used.

With a reverse redaction the ingredients were changed to reflect a more historic types of ingredients.

Ingredients:

2.5 sticks melted butter

1 lb Kataif dough

½ cup sugar

8 oz hard Persian yogurt or cream cheese softened

1 cup feta or goat cheese

2 eggs

1 cup ground pistashios

½ cup honey

1 ½ cups honey OR date syrup

1 ½ cup water

¼ cup lemon juice

2 tsp rose-water

½ cup almond oil

My Redaction:

When first doing this recipe, I combined the cheeses with the eggs and the ½ cup of honey, until smooth.

This is a bit messy but fun!

I set this aside to work on the dough. Take the Kataif dough, making sure this is at room temperature and in a large bowl, I poured the melted butter over it. Then I worked the butter through the dough, trying for an even coating as much as possible. When the dough has been as best coated with butter, I place half of the dough in a greased dish.

If you love buttery dough this stuff is awesome. I swear I consumed at least 1/2 a cup it was soooo tasty!

For those wondering, while I “could” maybe have made this with either rolled out dough and a knife to slice small strands of the rolled dough or even possibly using a pastry machine, I decided the best course of action that would NOT drive me bonkers while trying to make this was just to buy the dough at the store. This can be found (for me) in a local HEB store though I believe the local Indian or Phoenician Bakery also carries this pastry dough also.

Once the bottom layer of dough is down I pour on the egg, cheese and honey mixture. I then layer the sugar and pistachios onto this

“But where are the pistachio and sugar?” You might ask. Well, those were forgotten at the time of taking pictures. (I was in the midst of cooking 3 dishes and taking several pictures and forgot the sugar and pistachio parts…but never fear they were added!).

After the sugar and nuts are layered, I add the remaining dough on top. This is then baked till the dough is a golden brown on top.

While the dish is cooking I placed into a bowl the remaining honey, water, rose-water and sesame oil and mix thoroughly. This will look like a HUGE amount. Do not fret, all of the syrup will be absorbed. Really. All of it will be come one with the creamy salty sweet goodness that is about to come out of your oven!

Once the main dish is finished cooking and cooled (15-20 minutes) I poured the hot syrup and oil mixture on top. This is allowed to absorb into the dish until there is no excess left. Once the syrup has been absorbed into the dish, it is ready to serve.

This series of photos were taken with a honey mixture. The date syrup mixture adds a dark hue to the over all pastry as well as a very different taste. I will suggest making a full batch of dough and cheese then doing a half and half set of the pastry using two different pans for each type to cook in. I have also made this recipe using a miniature cheese cake pan (really cook looking when finished baking. Again sorry no picture. Yes I was in a hurry that night too!) I have also used miniature bunt cake pan to make miniature servings. These didn’t turn out nearly so well as the miniature cheese cake pan but they were still fun to make and even to eat!

Hubaishiyya (Meat w/Carrots and Raisins)

Hubaishiyya (Meat with carrots and Raisins)

October 10, 2009 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

Hubaishiyya

(Meat with Carrots and Raisins)

This dish can be made with any type of meat i.e. beef, venison, duck etc. I chose to use chicken as it was conveniently in my freezer when I came across this recipe.

For the original translation:

The way to make it is to cut up fat meat medium then throw it in the pot with a little salt and water to cover. Boil it and take of its scum. When it is nearly done, throw on chopped up onions, which you have washed with warm water and salt, and peeled carrots from which you have removed that which is inside them (viz. the woody core). Throw on dry coriander, cumin, cinnamon, mastic and pepper. Then take the necessary amount of black raisins and pound them fine, then macerate them by hand and strain them. Take two parts of their juice and one part of good sharp vinegar, and throw them in the pot. Pound some walnuts and macerate them with the mentioned juice, and throw them on it. Crumble bunches of dried mint onto the pot. Leave the pot on the fire to grow quiet and take it up, after wiping its sides with a clean cloth.

(Rodinson, pp. 318)

Ingredients:

8 chicken thigh 1 medium onion 2 cups carrots 1 tsp salt

½ tsp ea. Ground cinnamon, cumin, coriander, and pepper corns

1 cup walnuts 1 cup black raisins 2 tbs vinegar 2 tbs dried mint

(*Note: if using preserved raisins from the redaction, Zabb Wa-Nana, no extra vinegar, mint or cinnamon will be needed)

Redaction:

For the actual cooking part, I took the chicken cut into pieces (any meat cut into pieces will do) and placed the pieces into a pot and covered with water. I only covered 1 inch over the meat and added the salt.

This should be a thick, almost dry stew, not a soup. Think some thing that is thick enough to sop up with bread or scoop up with fingers. When the chicken was almost finished cooking I added the onions and carrots.

The carrots I could probably have used to cut smaller even though I matchsticked (roughly) the baby carrots used. As can be seen the stew is thickening well as part of the water has cooked off at this point. In period, some carrots were considered very woody to the tasty and the core was cut out to prevent a dish from having the harsh tasteless part of a carrot included. Most of today’s modern carrots do not suffer from this problem.

This stage of the dish cooked for 10 minutes or roughly when the onions were translucent. I took the cup of preserved raisins, set them into my Cuisinart and gushyfied them. Also known as pounded to a pulp. (Yes, I cheated this historic part. I was not about to spend 20 minutes pounding wet gushy raisins into a paste by hand. I will for pepper corns and mustard seeds but raisins are right out.) The raisins then the remaining spices into the dish. I added the walnuts as well which really thickened the soup up by quit a bit. Cook for 5-10 more minutes then serve with a side of rice or couscous and pita bread!

This is actually a little soupier then I really wanted however the dish was really good and makes a great winter time type of stew.

Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Zabib Wa-NaNa (Raisins and Mint)

Zabib Wa-Nana Raisins and Mint

October 10, 2009 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

Zabib Wa-NaNa

(Raisins and Mint)

This next recipe is the first step for another recipe. I figured you would want this recipe instead of having to guess where the raisins and mint came from in Hubaishiyya (Chicken with Carrots and Raisins).

The original translation goes as follows:

Translation:

Take black raisins, as big as you want, and put them in lukewarm water awhile. Then wash them and leave them on a woven mat to dry well in the shade. Then take Chinese cinnamon, mastic and rose hips, all ground fine, and a little salt all the afwah al-tib, and sprinkle them on it and put it in a glass jar. Pour sharp vinegar on it to cover by two fingers and put it up. As for mint, strip its leaves from its stems and sprinkle with those spices and afwah and put them in a glass jar and put with vinegar and cover the tops.

(Rodinson, pp. 395)

The ingredients I use are:

2 cups black raisons

1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp mastic

2 tbs rose hips

¼ tsp salt

2 tbs dried mint

My redaction for this recipe:

I took the raisins, placing them in a bowl, and soaked them in warm water for about 3 minutes. I went on to a limb and assumed the the period dried raisins were extremely dry and hard and required a lot of re-hydration which modern raisins do not. I drained the excess water from the bowl of raisins then added ground cinnamon, mastic and rose hips. (Funny store about how I have 8 lbs of rose hips on hand but that’s for another time.) Once the raisins and spices were mixed, I place everything into a jar and poured vinegar over them till the mixture was covered by 1 1/4 inch of liquid. If you want to add honey to this for a sweet(er)/tart flavor. Covering the extra 1 1/4 inch prevents mold from reaching the fruit and growing. Vinegar with or with out honey and water was one of the natural ways in which a medieval culture preserved their foods.

I don’t have a picture of these prior to cooking in the dish Hubaishiyya. At this point imagine a bowl of raisins in a bowl with vinegar. (I know sounds absolutely hideous to today’s modern palate but the sweet and sharp of these raisins arepretty good!

Fish in the Style of Jimli (Fish w/Prunes), Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions

Fish in the style of Jimli

September 28, 2009 SoshaRuark Leave a comment

Fish in the Style of Jimli

(Fish w/Prunes)

The original recipe’s translation is as follows from A Collection of Medieval and Renaissance Cookbooks, pp. A-52/An anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the Thirteenth Century

Translation:

Take a fish, such as sarda (pilchard) or tardanis (red mullet) or some good fish like them; scale, slice and plunge into boiling water. Take out immediately and wash with cold water. Arrange in the tajine and throw in vinegar and a little murri naqui, pepper, saffron, cinnamon, spikenard, galingale and a little mastic, citron leaves and pulped prunes soaked in vinegar; scatter over it (fish) chopped almonds and garlic cloves wrapped in sprigs of thyme and plenty of oil; put in a moderate oven and leave until the sauce is dry and the top browns, then leave a while and take out. And you might make this dish in a pot instead of a tajine in the oven.

Ingredients that will be needed:

1 side of salmon (or 4 pieces of Talapia) 1/3 cup vinegar

½ tsp cracked pepper corns

¼ C. soy sauce ¼ C. Sesame oil (black sesame oil was used)

¼ tsp saffron ¼ tsp cinnamon 1 tsp galingale

1/3 C. pine nuts ½ C. chopped almonds 1 handful chopped garlic cloves

1 C. chopped prunes soaked in apple cider vinegar

Sprigs of thyme (optional)

Redaction:

Take fish (in this case Salmon) cut into hand sized pieces and dip into boiling water for 15-30 seconds or until the skin turns pink. If the fish falls apart as it is being lifted from the water, then it has been over cooked. There is no explanation as to why fish is to be boiled first; however it could be do to cleaning of impurities if fresh or removing of salt if the fish were salted instead of fresh. Place into tajine or pot and then sprinkle the listed ingredients over. Cook until the soy sauce and oil are reduced.

I first decided to try this dish with a firm fleshed fish i.e. Salmon. Talapia would work just as well. The original fillet was roughly 2 lbs and about 18” long. I then cut the fish into 3 sections, roughly the size of my palm so that I could dip the pieces into a pot of boiling water easily as well as to control portion sizes. Sorry no pictures of the fish.

jimli spice with garlic prunes nuts

These are the total spices, garlic, prunes and vinegar used.

The spices were sprinkles on top of the fish while the soy sauce and oil were splashed on top of the fish and underneath (to prevent burning and sticking to the clay pot.

Black sesame oil was used though the light sesame oil could have been substituted for a lighter less strong flavor with out damaging the over all taste. My preference is to use sesame oil (either light or dark) for Middle Eastern cooking as I believe it is as authentic as olive oil with a more complex nutty taste.

Sesame Oil – “From Sesamum Indicum has competed with olive oil in India and the Mediterranean basin since ancient times. It ha an excellent flavour, rather like roasted hazelnuts.” (Toussaint-Samat, pg. 220).

The pine nuts (unchopped) with the chopped almonds and garlic were sprinkled on top. The recipe did not say to chop the garlic cloves. I did this as this ingredient was included specifically with “chopped almonds”. I believe the translation to mean both of these items to be chopped not just the almonds.

uncooked Jimli with spices

The problem with the ingredients list is that the fish really should have been the entire side of salmon and not just 1/3. However since I really love the tasted of the roasted prunes and nuts in this sauce I cooked the extra. O h my did I have extra! This was a case of my eyes were to big for my cooking! What I should have done was decrease the ingredients by about 1/3 to 1/2 for a better mix of fish to sauce.

Over all the blending of the flavors is savory with a slight sweetness from the prunes which brings the entire dish together, a very nice seasoning for fish.

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