Asides

Meat Porridges (Hara'is) and Oven Dishes (Tannuriyyat), Morassa Palav: Chicken with Rice, Fruit and Nuts

Morassa Palav: Chicken with Rice, Fruit and Nuts

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I had guests coming and wanted to show off something new but I wanted comfort food.  It had been an awful week for all of us.  This dish hit all the comfort spots, meaty, fatty, carby, sweet and salty.  There isn’t anything this dish can’t help with when you’re needing comfort.

Morassa Palav

Chicken with Rice, Fruit and Nuts

Translation:

This dish is also called Molamma’ Palav. Its method of preparation is that chicken meat is cut into small pieces, and after skimming, once it is cooked, rice is added.  When the rice is half cooked, golden raisins, pistachio nuts, almonds, dates, figs, chestnuts, barberries, and a large amount of chickpeas are added and mixed, and fire is prepared as in other dishes and it is steamd. Each of the above mentioned ingredients is added at different stages; for example, dates are added after the rice drained in order to prevent them from becoming mushy. (Ghanoonparvar, pg. 27)

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs. cut up chicken

2 C. Jasmine rice

1 C. ea. Almonds, Pistachio, Barberries

2 C. Raisons, Figs, Dates, Chestnuts, Chickpeas

1 C. Chicken Stock

1 C. Butter

Salt to taste

Optional:

1⁄2 large onion

3 cloves minced garlic

Pinch saffron

1 tsp ground cloves

Redaction:

Gather everything together. Here I  make a substitution of golden raisins for currents. Usually it’s the other way around but not today.

Yes, those are fresh figs.  It’s fig season here and I had a bunch on hand.  So if you need a recipe for fresh figs, here ya go!

Add the chicken and rice together and cook. Here I added the chicken stock and butter instead of water.

Yes, you can use water, I wanted more flavor hence the addition.

Half way through cooking I added the nuts and chickpeas.

With 10 minutes left, I added all the chopped fruit and chestnuts.

Serve – One bowl is all I could eat.  This rich and satisfying as only a good chicken and rice dish can be.  

For the optional: Add the chopped onions with the chicken, rice and stock with the garlic.  Add the saffron and ground cloves when you stir in the nuts.

Banquet dels Quatre Barres (2nd edistion)

Narsun – Meat with Pomegranates and Vinegar

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I tried this dish and had two very unusual reactions.  I tried it with beef and loooved it, then duplicated the recipe with chicken.  The mint sprinkled on top just makes the dish that much better.

Narsun

Meat with Pomegranat and Vinegar

Translation:

This is a Persian name, and its root is anarsirk, which means pomegranats and vinegar.  The recipe of this dish is that yu cut up fat meat small and put it in the pot with water to cover, and you put the spices on it and moderate its salt and skim it.  Cut up a small amount of onions and wash them and put in the pot.  When it is nearly done, take pomegranate seeds, as much as needed and what the pot will bear, and pound them fine.  Throw vinegar on them macerate them well by hand, then strain them and add the juice to the pot.  Take walnut meats also as much as needed pound them fine. put as much water as needed in a pot and macerate the walnuts well and add them ot the pot wehre the meat is.  Moderate it’s tasate with salt as desired and crumble bunches of dry mint onto its surface.  Throw in whole pieces of walnut meats, and sprinkle a little rose water on top of it.  Wipe the sides of the pot with a clean cloth and leave it on a quiet fire then take it up. (Rodinson, pp. 320)


Ingredients:

Basil 1/2 cup fresh

1/3 tsp cinnamon, ground cardamom, ground all spice, ground mace pinch of saffron

1/2 cup ground walnuts 

1/2 cup whole walnuts

salt to taste

2 TBS vinegar ( I used balsamic)

3 TBS pomegranate concentrate 

1/4 onion

1/2 lb fatty meat


Redaction:

I tried this with beef and chicken.  The spices were chosen for what I think works well with pomegranate concentrate and balsamic vinegar.  Your dish, your taste so be creative.  


Chop the quarter of the onion into small bits but not fine.  Remember the spicing is for 1/2 lbs. 

Here is both the beef cubes and the chicken.  The pomegranate molasses, vinegar and walnuts are added later.  

The more poundage used the more spices needed.
Put the meat with the spices, onion, ground walnuts into a pot with a little water. 

Let it cook down until almost done, then add vinegar and pomegranate concentrate.  Taste adjust as needed with salt, vinegar and pomegranate concentrate.


I forgot to add the ground walnut meat at the start so had to add towards the end.  still turned out tasty.  I didn’t like the walnuts.  I found this did nothing for the taste, even taking away from the tart, minty, sweet.  Personally, I wouldn’t use the walnuts again, but you may find you like the dish(es) better with than without.


Pull out and put into a bowl.  Sprinkle with walnuts and dried mint.  I had fresh but not dried so I used a handful of chopped mint (to taste).

Slow cook at 250 for two hours.

I was not impressed with the chicken.  To me the sauce didn’t cook down enough to be great at flavoring.  Perhaps if I had taken the chicken out and poured the juices into a pan to slow cook down the chicken dish would have been better

Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Sour Dishes (Hawamid)

Wasfat ‘Ukhraa Lilhawm fi Alkhali: Meat in Vinegar (Another Recipe For)

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When I did this dish the first time, it was completely wrong.  I had to redo the marinade and the cooking.  I left the spicing the same and now the chicken isn’t all vinegar with a hint of spices.  You can now taste the spicing and a hint of vinegar now.

Meat inVinegar (Another Recipe For)

Translation:

Another recipe, for meat: wash the meat well and put it in vinegar, keep it and marinate it in ghee flavoured with asafetida.  Mix the meat with potherbs of all kinds and put it into a cooking pot.  When it is well-cooked, add lime juice, pepper and fresh ginger and serve it. (The Nimatnama Manuscript, pg. 13).

Ingredients:

2 lbs chicken (or meat of your choice)

1 1/2 C. Vinegar

1/2 C. Ghee

1/2 tsp. Asafetida

1 tsp, ground cumin, coriander and dried parsley

1 1/2 tsp turmeric

1 Tbs. chopped ginger

1 Tbs. lime juice

1 tsp ground pepper

Redaction:

Normally you’d use a whole chicken (with skin and bones) or if you prefer red meat 2 lbs of your choice.  Here I used 4 chicken thighs with skin and bones roughly 1.5 lbs. 

The meat was put into a clay pottery pot.  Here I added the vinegar. 

The vinegar is both balsamic and generic white cider. 
I wanted a little sweet to the tart bite. You can go either way depending on what your taste is, as no particular type of vinegar is specified.  Marinade for 4 hours or overnight.

*Asafetida is very potent.  A little goes a long way and will make your hands and kitchen smell…unusual.  If you don’t have any on hand, use garlic. 


Spices shown are ground.  Don’t be afraid to play with whole spices if you have those on hand!

 Put the chicken into a baking dish. Next add the pot herbs.  Here I combined cumin, coriander, mint and turmeric together. 

I like the flavors and they go well with lime and ginger. Place in the oven for 45 minutes at 350 or until the meat is well cooked and tender.

I used a clay pot both times.  One more period than the other.  Add ghee (clarified butter) and the asafetida* (also known as the Devil’s Stink Weed) together.  Pour into the baking dish.

Once you pull the meat from the oven add the lime juice, ginger and ground pepper to taste.  Eat!

Meat Porridges (Hara'is) and Oven Dishes (Tannuriyyat), Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Shawi: Grilled Meat

Shawi: Grilled Meat

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Even though this dish says “grilled”, it’s not.  Even though it looks a little bland, it’s an amazing dish with more flavor than can be described in the word “grilled”.  Fast and easy.  You spend as much time on prepping as you do cooking.  Give this one a try, if your short on time or just need something showstopping on the taste buds.

 

Shawi: Grilled Meat

Translation:

Take fatty good grilling meat and sheep’s tail.  Chop finely.  Put in a shallow earthenware pot.  Put it over the fire.  Take for it roasted walnut hearts and throw over roasted and pounded coriander and caraway, parsley, mint and lime.  Put in the middle a little atraf al-tib.  Put in a dish and eat hot.  It is tasty.  (Kanz al-Fawa’id fi Tanwi’ al-Mawa’id/Salloum, pg 50-51)

 

Ingredients:

1 – 1.5 lbs Meat

1/2 C. Olive Oil or sheep tail fat

2 C. Roasted Walnuts

1 tsp. caraway (roasted and ground)

1 tsp. ground coriander, parsley and mint

2 Tbs. lime juice

 

Redaction:

I gathered all the ingredients together.

I had beef for grilling on hand so went with that.  Any good quality meat will do.  I cut the meat into about 1/2 to 1/3 what I would normally for making kabobs.  I wanted to have easily chewed pieces not huge dripping chunks.  The meat was then put into a shallow tajine bottom.

 

I left the lid off as the recipe didn’t say to cover.  I think my idea of small is not the original cook’s idea of “finely”.  I’m ok with this.

 

Next I took roasted walnuts, spices and lime juice. Everything was mixed together then popped into the oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

 

If you’ll notice the meat is still a little pink at the center.  This is a fast cooking dish.

 

The reason you don’t see this on a plate over roasted vegetables or sauted spinach…it was eaten to fast.  I just got enough into this bowl before it was devoured.  This is a damn good recipe!

Hasa Aldaan (Lamb Soup), Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Sour Dishes (Hawamid)

Hasa Aldaan; Lamb Soup

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This recipe came about as I was in the process of making lamb stock.  I had lamb bones in the freezer that needed to be used so I tossed them in a crock pot and cooked for a day.  My roommate, who is very pregnant, came home waxing enthusiastically about how good the soup smelled.  She was in need of food and an ear so we talked as I worked on this recipe.

Hasa Aldaan

Lamb Soup

Translation:

Another recipe for the meat of mountain sheep: take it complete with bones and wash it well and, having added asafetida, onions, fresh ginger, salt, fresh greens and fresh coriander, cook it.  Put in plenty of water.  Add some pepper and lime juice and, when it is well cooked, take it off and either eat as it is or else flavor it with asafetida essence.  (The Nimatnama Manuscript of the Sultans of Mandu, pp. 26)

 

Ingredients:

1 lb lamp with bones

1/2 onion

1/2 tsp asafetida

2 Tbs. fresh ginger chopped

1 tsp. salt (or to taste)

2 C. Spinach (or greens of your liking)

1 tsp ground Coriander or 1/4 C. chopped Cilantro

2 Tbs. lime juice

 

Redaction:

I took the broth with chunks of lamb, de-boning as I went, so that the lamb meat was shredding as I stirred.

I added spinach.  Why spinach?  Because that’s the greens I had on hand.  You can use just about any greens found so don’t limit yourself to just one type.  Try different flavors.

 

Because I was only cooking for two, I used half an onion.  The ginger chopped down to a little more than expected but I love fresh ginger in soup so I kept the extra.  I only had dried coriander on hand so that was what was used.  If you have fresh, use that! The salt ended up being 2 tsp, being to my taste.

Here everything but the lime juice has been added and is simmering.  Not boiling, simmering.

The lime juice was added at the end and give a nice bright flavor.

I liked this recipe.  It’s more than meat, greens, salt and water.  You get to play with the flavoring a little as you try different greens, with fresh or dried coriander

Banquet dels Quatre Barres (2nd edistion)

Alhams Walluhum; Chickpeas and Meat

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I had left over lamb that needed to be cooked and chickpeas that needed to be eaten.  I found a dish that incorporated both with tasty results!

Alhams Walluhum

Chickpeas and Meat

Translation:

…flavor meat with asafetida and cook it.  Add chickpea pulse.  Add cumin, fenugreek, asafetida, salt, turmeric, pepper, lime juice and garlic; cook it until it is very tender. (The Nimatnama Manuscript of the Sultans of Mandu, pp. 35)

 

Ingredients:

2 C. meat (lamb cooked with asafetida)

1 C. chickpeas (lightly ground)

1 tsp. ground cumin, fenugreek, turmeric

1/2 tsp. asafetida, salt, and ground pepper

2 tsp. lime juice

 

Redaction:

Here are the gathered ingredients.

 

I used lamb, sprinkled with asafetida, that had been previously cooked. Leftovers put to good use.

I ground the chickpeas only a little bit.  I didn’t want to make a mush of them but I did want to break them down a bit.

 

Next I added all the spices.  A note about asafetida, it’s called the devil’s stink weed for a reason.  It’s like garlic on steroids.  A little goes a long way, so use it sparingly!  If you don’t have asafetida, just use garlic.

Finally the chance to taste what was smelling so amazing!

 

The dish itself is rather unremarkable looking, slightly bland yellow.  However I wanted to add a touch of color while getting my healthy on.  Not to worry, the sauteed spinach IS optional.  If you don’t want to have spinach, don’t.  I added it because it breaks up the plating just a bit.  Mostly I did this for decoration and greens instead of a salad at dinner time.

Banquet dels Quatre Barres (2nd edistion)

Mishmishiya: Fat Meat with Apricots

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Finding myself with excellent lamb chops, I decided I needed to try a new dish.  I was skeptical at first due to the boiling of meat the recipe called for and the inclusion of jujubes and mastic.  Both of these spices are strongly overpowering if to much is included so add these sparingly!  This is an amazing dish with flavors that dance over the palate.  Try it once and you’ll be a fan!

Mishmishiya

(Fat Meat with Apricots)

 

Translation:

Take fat meat.  Boil it in a little water and take its scum away.  Take dried apricots and remove their pits and replace them with blanched almonds.  And when the meat is done, throw the apricots on it, and raisins, atraf al-tib, a stick of Chinese cinnamon, mint mastic, saffron and jujubes, and sweeten it with sugar and honey.  It comes out well. (Rodinson, pp. 356-357)

Ingredients:

4-6 lamb chops or 1 lb. cubed.

1/2 C. apricots

Enough almonds to stuff each apricot

1/4 C. raisins

1 tsp Chinese cinnamon, mint, and honey

1/16 ground mastic

4 jujubes

Pinch of saffron

Redaction:

Take your apricots and stuff them.  Then gather all your ingredients together in one spot.

Also I hate jujubes.  Note for one steak, I only had one squished jujube in the entire spice dish.  I consider jujubes to be the worst spice ever!  Use it in very small quantities! Otherwise your dish will taste like nothing more than jujubes and a hint of something else.  Don’t go overboard on the mastic.  It’s type of pine resin and also has a strong taste.  A little goes a very long way!

Take a deep frying pan and fill it half way up to the meat’s side.

Let the meat sit in the water for 4-5 minutes on each side.  Continually removing the scum as it surfaces (it won’t be much).

            While the meat is boiling, put the apricots and raisons to the side, then grind together all the spices except the honey.

            When the meat has been cooked on both sides and the water has been boiled away, remove it from the pan.  Sprinkle the ground spices over the meat,

scattering the dried fruit over the meat. Dribble the honey over that.

            My first thought on this recipe is that boiling meat is just blah!  I was pleasantly surprised at how tender and very juicy the meat came out.  The ground spices smelled amazing!  Even with the jujube and mastic, the saffron and cinnamon and mint blended with the others wonderfully.

Madira - Meat in Yogurt with Leeks, Meat Porridges (Hara'is) and Oven Dishes (Tannuriyyat), Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions

Madira (Meat in Yogurt with Leeks)

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This is a dish to try if you have a large volume of yogurt on hand and want to try a new dish.  I think it’s ok.  The flavors are good but I’ve had better yogurt dishes to be honest.  I can’t say this is amazing but it is filling.  Perhaps over noodles or rice it would be a bit better.  Perhaps with a bit of cheese sprinkled over it as well.

This is obviously a very close relative to Al-Madira in name, but that’s about it.  There are different spices and cooking style, enough so that these are barely kissing cousin recipes..

Madira

(Meat in Yogurt with Leeks)

Translation:

A pound of meat, four pounds of yoghurt.  Put them with curdled milk, a shifaya of leeks, a quarter shifaya of green onions – and if the onions are green, they can be dispensed with – and a stick of ginger, a stick of Ceylon cinnamon, both whole and the weight of a quart dirham of whole mastic.  Then you put the yoghurt in the pot, and when it boils and sticks to the ladle, throw the meat in.  When it boils tow or three times, cut up the leeks, which have been split, and throw them in.  And when the leeks boil, cut up the onions and throw them in with the mastic, Ceylon cinnamon and ginger.  When it all smells good and boils, throw in the mint, half a bunch.  Its fire should be gentle, so that it smells good and binds; if it doesn’t bind, throw in it the quantity of half an ounce of heart starch or a handful of rice.  When the yoghurt is nearly done, take it down.  (Rodison, pp. 327.)

 

Ingredients:

1 lb meat (beef or lamb) cut up.

4 lbs yogurt

1/2 C curdled milk (sour milk?)

1 leek

4 green onions

1 stick of ginger (do not chop!)

1 stick cinnamon or 1/2 tsp ground

1/4 tsp mastic

 

Redaction:

I gathered up almost everything, forgetting to picture the leeks and mint.

The yogurt went into the pot to boil.

Once the yogurt had started to boil and liquefy, I added the beef chunks.

I let this boil before adding the split, sliced and washed leek.

Bring the yogurt mixture to a boil three times before adding the onions, ginger (do NOT chop), cinnamon and mastic.

Put the flame, or stove top on low, and let simmer until the yogurt starts thickening up.  If the yogurt doesn’t thicken add rice or arrow root.

Once the dish has thickened, add the mint then serve forth.

 

The dish doesn’t look like much, and I found it a little bland but exceptionally filling.  I thought I was going to have to add starch; however as I let the liquefied yogurt reduce for about 20 minutes.  The curds came together like small granules of rice.  It takes a bit of time but it’s worth the wait.  I also found the taste and excellent blend of onion, yogurt, beef and mastic, with a slight hint of ginger and cinnamon.  I added a bit of salt and found this made a world of difference!

Ingredients and Spices, Musk

Musk

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Musk

 

Musk is noted in more medieval recipes for food and perfumes than you can shake a sword at, adding a depth and complexity to foods the same way sandalwood does.  A little goes a very long way!

Now modernly, we can get musk from whales (ambergris) also known a whale snot.

Beaver musk (castor sacks of Castor Canadensis or Castor fiber).

Civet (viverridae).

Finally ambrette musk (hibiscus ablemoschus).

Period musk is almost impossible to get.  Why you may ask?  While I was doing a bit of studying for another project (surprise, surprise), I’ve found that the original(ish) musk mentioned in period cooking came from three sources.  The Siberian musk deer (M. moschiferus), black musk deer (M. fuscus) Alpine/Himalayan musk deer (M. chrysogaster).  The glands of the musk deer were harvested (and small quantities from very small musk deer farms) by removing the scent glands of the deer.

The gland secretions would dry into small black grains that were, and are, prized for the pheromones they exude.  The description is that of a rich and earthy smell, almost heavenly.  Mostly.  Some people found it repulsive, but not so many that the deer aren’t on the verge of extinction now.

The original method for removal was to kill the deer and take the musk glands, without worry about sustainability.  This has come back to haunt those who relied on the deer’s scent gland.   Few of these animals survive, except in the most remote regions.  The price, in period is listed as being twice the weight in gold and modernly 3 to 4 times that price now.  (Nabhan, pp. 150-151).

So where does that leave the modern cook?  Up a creek for the period musk.  There is no way that musk, from the listed deer, is harvested cruelty free or without costing an arm and a leg (throw a kidney in for good measure).  There are substitutions.   There is a variety of plant based musks with beautiful earthy notes and of course synthetics.  If possible go with the plant based.  Experiment.  Try new things!  Always err on the side that more can be added but it’s going to be hard to remove what you’ve already put in!

A Winter's Tale Pear Pie, Elizabethan

A Winter’s Tale Pear Pie

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While doing research for another project, I ran across this random little gem of a recipe. I had Scappi’s butter pie crust on hand and fresh pears, along with spices and dried fruit.  I thought to myself, why the hell not!  Let’s see what happens!  And a taste new dish is recreated.

 

  • A Winter’s Tale Pear Pie

     

    Translation:

    “…saffron to colour the warden pies (pears).  Mace, dates, non; that’s our of my note; nutmegs, seven, a race or two of ginger, but that I may beg; four pound of prunes, and as many raisins of the sun.” The Clown in A Winter’s Tale (Milton, pp. 20)

     

    Ingredients:

    Pinch of saffron

    4 pears

    1 tsp ea. ground mace, nutmeg, ginger

    20 dates (pitted and chopped)

    20 prunes

    1 C. raisins

  • ***Quick note before we get started, this pie is being made in a single serving pie mold.  I gave instructions for a full pie. If you want to do a single pie just cut everything down to 1/4. 

    Redaction:

     

  • Gather your ingredients.  First things first!
  • Chop up your pears, dates, prunes.  Toss in the raisins and mix.
  •  

     

    Add your spices, mixing again.

  • Here I used a butter crust, because it is awesome! (and I love making it) along with the fact I had extra on hand.
  • Make a top for the pie.  I was pretty sloppy with this pie crust…a late night of cooking.   You can make a pretty pie topping with a little bit more effort.   If I were serving this to company, of course it would be much much nicer!
  •  

    An interesting note.  The Clown, in a The Winter’s Tale, didn’t ask for sugar.  The dried fruit and natural sweetness of the pear is supposed to cover the delicate flavors and natural sugars without any extra.

    Cutting into the pie…it just smells period.  That scent of spice and fruit that comes only with a real medieval cooking.

  • I hate to admit this, but I was skeptical about the no sugar thing.  Turns out the fruit pie is fabulous without.  Very tasty.