SC - Food Mills

[Gedney, Jeff]

At 9:46 AM -0400 11/4/97, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

>'Fraid I've never heard of Dafair.

The recipe from the _Miscellany_ is:
- ---
The Making of Dafâir, Braids
Andalusian, p. A-25

Take what you will of white flour or of semolina, which is better in these
things. Moisten it with hot water after sifting, and knead well, after
adding some fine flour, leavening, and salt. Moisten it again and again
until it has middling consistency. Then break into it, for each ratl of
semolina, five eggs and a dirham of saffron, and beat all this very well,
and put the dough in a dish, cover it and leave it to rise, and the way to
tell when this is done is what was mentioned before [it holds an
indentation]. When it has risen, clean a frying pan and fill it with fresh
oil, then put it on the fire. When it starts to boil, make braids of the
leavened dough like hair-braids, of a handspan or less in size. Coat them
with oil and throw them in the oil and fry them until they brown. When
their cooking is done, arrange them on an earthenware plate and pour over
them skimmed honey spiced with pepper, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon, and
lavender. Sprinkle it with ground sugar and present it, God willing. This
same way you make isfunj, except that the dough for the isfunj will be
rather light. Leave out the saffron, make it into balls and fry them in
that shape, God willing. And if you wish stuffed dafâir or isfunj, stuff
them with a filling of almonds and sugar, as indicated for making qâhiriyât.
- --
Note: the recipe calls for a dirham of saffron = 3.8 grams, which is an
incredible amount of saffron.  If this is a scribal error for a danaq, it
would be .6 grams.

dough		                                                     sauce
1 lb semolina = 2 3/8 c	3 eggs	1 c honey
1 c water	.6 gram saffron (see note)	1/2 t pepper
1 1/2 c flour	~1 T oil to brush on	1 t cinnamon
leavening:  1 c sourdough starter	oil for frying	1 T lavender
1 t salt		1 1/2 t sugar to sprinkle on

Add water to semolina 1/8 c at a time, mixing, until all of semolina is
barely moistened.  Add sourdough, 3/4 c flour, and salt, and knead until it
is a smooth elastic dough. Crush saffron into 2 t water; add it and eggs to
dough and knead in. The dough being too soppy for braiding, add another 3/4
c flour.  Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour and a
half.  While the dough rises make the sauce:  grind the lavender and add to
the honey with pepper and cinnamon; boil honey and spices about 10 minutes
on medium heat.  Flour a cutting board, take small lumps of dough (about 2
tablespoons), roll into 6" strings, and braid three together into braids 6"
long. Let rise half an hour.  Heat about 1/2" of oil in a frying pan at
medium high heat (to 275° with a candy thermometer) and fry the braids a
few at a time, so that there is room to turn them over as they fry, until
puffed up and light brown on both sides: about 2-3 minutes total. According
to the recipe they should be brushed with oil before frying, but I could
not see any difference between the ones I brushed and those I did not.
Drain braids on paper towels, put on a plate, drizzle with the sauce and
sprinkle with a little sugar.  Makes 15 braids.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


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