[Sca-cooks] Salma (Lamb and Round Noodles), was Khabisa with Pomegranate
Lilinah
lilinah at earthlink.net
Mon Mar 31 23:02:18 PDT 2008
Again, another of Shirvani's Ottoman additions to
his late 15th C. translation of al-Baghdadi, from
my translation, which appeared in Kiri's banquet.
Yes, this isn't Hauviette's version. It's mine,
but i like to share.
-------
First, Yerasimos's comments
The name of the dish comes from the Turkish
verb salmak (toss, throw, drop). It is so named
because of the pieces of dough that are dropped
into the pot. This appellation is preserved today
in the Stambuliot cuisine in a dish of risotto
with mussels - midye salmasi - cooked in their
shells, but which no longer corresponds to the
original etymology. In Anatolia, the name of
salma is given to a dish of cabbage with bulgur
or rice where the original sense appears to be
preserved.
It was part of the breakfast of Mehmed II on
16 June 1469 mixed with yogurt. At the time of
the celebration of the circumcision of 1539, it
appears among the dishes offered to the military
and religious dignitaries in the proportion of
750 gr of honey to 1 kg flour. It thus becomes a
sweetened dish that is suitable for solemn
occasions.
The "salma of wheat" (bug(carat over g)day
salmasi) mentioned among the dishes of winter
served at Topkapi in the 16th century is a
variant in which wheat in grains replaces the
pieces of dough, as it is elsewhere indicated in
the recipe which we use.
This does not appear in the original Arabic
of Baghdadi, but uniquely in the Turkish
additions of Shirvânî.
[MY NOTE: Stambuliot - adj.- of or from
Istanbul. I think it's a nice word and i'm
stickin' to it]
-------
Original Recipe
Salma / Bughra-yi kharazmi
The art of salma is a dish of wheat.
First cut in small pieces a quantity of meat of
fat sheep, wash it clean and place it in the pot,
add enough water to cover the meat and some salt.
Let it boil and lift off the foam so that the
meat is suitably cooked and add a quantity of
crushed chickpeas so that they cook at the same
time. Color it all with a little saffron and add
one or two handfuls of blanched sweet almonds.
Clean one or two heads [cloves?] of garlic, crush
them with a handful of dried mint in a mortar,
mix with a quantity of strong vinegar and a
quantity of honey and leave it to rest.
Next pass through a sieve of silk a quantity of
flour that is good, white, and pure, knead it
with a quantity of hot salted water, knead well
with the hand and cover with a clean damp cloth.
Then cut the dough with a knife into several thin
strips, fill 2 bowls with hot water, pour the
strips of dough in the water and let 2 or 3
people set to work in cutting pieces a little
bigger than a hazelnut, plunge them (the pieces)
in the water in the hollow of the palm of the
hand, flatten them and throw them into the pot in
the process of boiling. Throw rapidly into the
pot in question a sufficient quantity of this
dough flattened in the palm of the hand and
plunged in the bowl of water and boil strongly.
Adjust the salt and then add the mixture of
vinegar, garlic, and honey, and cook it all
according to their taste, more sweet or more
sour. Sprinkle on top a little dried mint.
Withdraw it from the fire after cooking and let
it rest. Then serve it and eat it.
----- Shirvani, folio 120, recto-verso
[above paragraph breaks added by me for ease of reading]
[below are my notes]
I suggest comparing with:
Salma. Dough is taken and twisted and cut in
small pieces and struck like a coin with the
finger, and it is cooked in water until it is
done. Then yoghurt is put with it and meat is
fried with onion for it and mint and garlic are
put with it.
--- Ibn al-Mabrad, 9th C.
The 9th C. recipe suggests that the meat and the
noodles are cooked separately, then served
together, whereas the Ottoman recipe seems a bit
unclear - it might be interpreted that the
briefly boiled noodles are added to the pot of
meat then the sweet-and-sour sauce is added and
they are cooked briefly before being served
sprinkled with mint.
I must say that salma remind me of those noodles
called "orecchiette" or "orechietti", from the
Italian "orecchio"=ear, only salma are fresh and
orecchiette are dried.
-----
Yerasimos's modern version
600 gr leg of lamb
4 soupspoons oil
Salt
150 gr cooked chickpeas
Saffron
2 handfuls sliced almonds (at least 1/2 cup)
1 large clove garlic
2 handfuls dried mint
1 soupspoon vinegar
1 soupspoon honey
150 gr flour
Cut meat in dice and brown them in oil. Add 400 gr hot water and let cook.
Meanwhile mix one handful of mint with the
crushed clove of garlic. Mix vinegar and honey.
Then mix both together.
After the meat is cooked, add chickpeas, saffron
crushed in a little of the broth from the pot, as
well as the almonds previously blanched.
Mix flour with hot salted water and knead to make
dough, and leave to rest for about 20 minutes,
covered with a damp cloth. Next flatten dough
with a rolling pin, cut in strips, prepare a bowl
of hot water, cut the strips into little pieces,
plunge them into the hot water while making them
into little balls the size of a hazelnut, flatten
them slightly, and throw them into the pot. Let
cook, adding hot water if necessary.
When done cooking, adjust salt, add mixture of
honey, vinegar, mint, and garlic. Lower the fire,
sprinkle with dried mint, and let rest.
-----
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
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