SC - Fava beans?? (and thanks)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

At 1:50 PM -0800 12/4/98, Micaylah wrote:

>Another thing that I am having a problem with is the dessert/sweets area. I
>am having a problem finding really yummy period or per-iod like recipes. If
>some of you could post your favorite transportable SIMPLE sweet recipes I
>would be grateful.

...



>Barley Pilaf with Pine Nuts

...

>Lentils and Leeks

...

>Nucato (Honey-Nut Crunch)
>Cherry Bread Pudding
>Blak Perys (Pears with Carob Cream)

Some of these I don't recognize, and I don't think I hav ever seen a period
recipe similar to your "Blak Perys." Where are they from? Or are they in
the "perioid" category?

All of the following transportable sweets are from the Miscellany--you can
find more. For future reference, given that it is webbed, would people
prefer me to just post the names of the dishes?

Gingerbrede
Curye on Inglysch p. 154 (Goud Kokery no. 18) (GOOD)

To make gingerbrede. Take goode honey & clarifie it on e fere, & take
fayre paynemayn or wastel brede & grate it, & caste it into e boylenge
hony, & stere it well togyder faste with a sklyse at it bren not to e
vessell. & anne take it doun and put erin ginger, longe pepper &
saundres, & tempere it vp with in handes; & than put hem to a flatt boyste
& strawe eron suger, & pick erin clowes rounde aboute by e egge and in
e mydes, yf it plece you, &c.

1 c honey	1/4 t pepper 	30-40 whole cloves (~ 1 t)
1 1/4 c breadcrumbs	1/4 t saunders	(or 5 t sugar, pinch powdered cloves)
1 t ginger	1 T sugar

Bring honey to a boil, simmer two or three minute, stir in breadcrumbs with
a spatula until uniformly mixed. Remove from heat, stir in ginger, pepper,
and saunders. (The pepper should be long pepper; we usually substitute
ordinary black pepper.) When it is cool enough to handle, knead it to get
spices thoroughly mixed. Put it in a box, cookie tin, or the like, squish
it flat and thin, sprinkle with sugar and put cloves ornamentally around
the edge. Leave it to let the clove flavor sink in; do not eat the cloves.

An alternative way of doing it is to roll into small balls, roll in sugar
mixed with a pinch of cloves, then flatten them a little to avoid confusion
with hais. This is suitable if you are making them today and eating them
tomorrow.

- ----
Prince-Bisket
 Hugh Platt p. 14/94

Take one pound of very fine flower, and one pound of fine sugar, and eight
egges, and two spoonfuls of Rose water, and one ounce of Carroway seeds,
and beat it all to batter one whole houre: for the more you beat it, the
better your bread is: then bake it in coffins, of white plate, being basted
with a little butter before you put in your batter, and so keep it.

4 c flour (1 lb)	5 eggs	2 t rose water
2 c sugar (1 lb)	4 t caraway seeds (1 oz)

Beat all ingredients together one whole hour (or do a fourth of a recipe at
a time in a food processor, processing it for several minutes or until the
blades stall). Spoon out onto a greased cookie sheet as 3" biscuits and
bake about 20 minutes at 325°. You end up with very hard biscuits which
keep forever.
- ----
Hais
al-Baghdadi p. 214/14 (GOOD)

Take fine dry bread, or biscuit, and grind up well. Take a ratl of this,
and three quarters of a ratl of fresh or preserved dates with the stones
removed, together with three uqiya of ground almonds and pistachios. Knead
all together very well with the hands. Refine two uqiya of sesame-oil, and
pour over, working with the hand until it is mixed in. Make into cabobs,
and dust with fine-ground sugar. If desired, instead of sesame-oil use
butter. This is excellent for travellers.

2 2/3 c bread crumbs	1/3 c ground pistachios
2 c (about one lb) pitted dates	7 T melted butter or sesame oil
1/3 c ground almonds	enough sugar

We usually grind the nuts separately in a food processor, then mix dates,
bread crumbs, and nuts in the food processor, then stir in melted butter or
oil. Dates vary in hardness; if it does not hold together, add a few
tablespoons of water, one at a time. For "cabobs," roll into one inch
balls. Good as caravan food (or for taking to wars). They last forever if
you do not eat them, but you do so they don't
- ---
To Make an Excellent Cake
Digby p. 219/175 (GOOD)

To a peck of fine flour take six pounds of fresh butter, which must be
tenderly melted, ten pounds of currants, of cloves and mace, 1/2 an ounce
of each, an ounce of cinnamon, 1/2 an ounce of nutmegs, four ounces of
sugar, one pint of sack mixed with a quart at least of thick barm of ale
(as soon as it is settled to have the thick fall to the bottom, which will
be when it is about two days old), half a pint of rosewater; 1/2 a quarter
of an ounce of saffron. Then make your paste, strewing the spices, finely
beaten, upon the flour: then put the melted butter (but even just melted)
to it; then the barm, and other liquours: and put it into the oven well
heated presently. For the better baking of it, put it in a hoop, and let it
stand in the oven one hour and a half. You ice the cake with the whites of
two eggs, a small quantity of rosewater, and some sugar.

Scaled down: (1/16th)
2 c flour	1/2 t cinnamon	1/4 c ale yeast settled out of homemade
3/8 lb = 1 1/2 sticks of butter	1/4 t nutmeg	     mead or beer (or 1 t
dried yeast
5/8 lb currants = 2 c = 10 oz	1/2 T sugar	     dissolved in 3 T water)
1/4 t cloves	2 T sack (or sherry) 	1 T rosewater
1/4 t mace		8 threads saffron

Icing:
1/8 egg white (about 2 t)	1/4 t rosewater 	2 T sugar

Mix flour, spices, and sugar. Melt butter, mix up yeast mixture, and crush
the saffron in the rosewater to extract the color. When the butter is
melted, stir it into the flour mixture, then add sack, yeast mixture, and
rosewater-saffron mixture. Stir this until smooth, then stir in currants.
Bake at 350° in a greased 10" round pan or a 7"x11" rectangular pan for 40
minutes. Remove from pan and spread with a thin layer of icing. We usually
cut it up into bar cookies.
- ---
Khushkananaj
al-Baghdadi p. 212/14

Take fine white flour, and with every ratl mix three uqiya of
sesame-oil[one part oil to four of flour], kneading into a firm paste.
Leave to rise; then make into long loaves. Put into the middle of each loaf
a suitable quantity of ground almonds and scented sugar mixed with rose
water, using half as much almonds as sugar. Press together as usual, bake
in the oven, remove.

2 c white +1 c whole wheat flour	12 oz = 1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c sesame oil	1 T rose water
6 oz almonds =1 c before chopping	3/4 to 7/8 c cold water or
additional flour for rolling out dough	1/2 c water, 1/2 c sourdough starter

"Leave to rise" is a puzzle, since the recipe includes neither yeast nor
water. The recipe does not seem to work without water; perhaps the author
took it for granted that making a paste implied adding water. We originally
developed the recipe without leavening, but currently use sourdough, which
is our best guess at what the original intended (and also seems to work a
little better). The two versions are:

Without leavening: Mix the flour, stir in the oil. Sprinkle the water onto
the dough, stir in. Knead briefly together.

Sourdough: Mix the flour, stir in the oil. Mix the water and the sour dough
starter together. Add gradually to the flour/oil mixture, and knead briefly
together. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise about 8 hours in a warm
place, then knead a little more.

We also have two interpretations of how the loaves are made; they are:

Almost Baklava: Divide in four parts. Roll each one out to about 8"x16" on
a floured board. Grind almonds, combine with sugar and rose water. Spread
the mixture over the rolled out dough and roll up like a jelly roll,
sealing the ends and edges (use a wet finger if necessary). You may want to
roll out the dough in one place and roll it up in another, so as not to
have bits of nuts on the board you are trying to roll it out on. You can
vary how thin you roll the dough and how much filling you use over a
considerable range, to your own taste.

Long thin loaves: Divide the dough into six or eight parts, roll each out
to a long loaf (about 16"), flatten down the middle so that you can fill it
with the sugar and almond mixture, then seal it together over the filling.
You end up with a tube of dough with filling in the middle.

Bake at 350° about 45-50 minutes.

Notes: At least some of the almonds should be only coarsely ground, for
texture. The sesame oil is the Middle Eastern version, which is almost
flavorless; you can get something similar at health food stores. Chinese
sesame oil, made from toasted sesame seeds, is very strongly flavored and
results in a nearly inedible pastry. We do not know what scented sugar
contained.
- ---
Ibn al-Mabrad p.19

Its varieties are many. Among them are the sweets made of natif. You put
dibs [fruit syrup], honey, sugar or rubb [thick fruit syrup] in the pot,
then you put it on a gentle fire and stir until it takes consistency. Then
you beat eggwhite and put it with it and stir until it thickens and becomes
natif. After that, if you want almond candy you put in toasted almonds and
'allaftahu; that is, you bind them. walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, toasted
chickpeas, toasted sesame, flour. [apparently alternative versions]. You
beat in the natif until thickens. For duhniyyah you put in flour toasted
with fat. As for ... (other versions.)

Sugar version:	Honey version:
1 1/4 c sugar	1 c honey
1/4 c water 	1 egg white
1 egg white	2 1/2-3 c or more nuts
1 1/2 - 2 c nuts = ~10 oz

This makes 25-40 hulwa, depending on size.

Sugar version: Bring the water to a boil, stir in the sugar, continuing to
heat. When it is dissolved and reasonably clear, turn it down to a simmer
and put the top on the pot for two or three minutes (this is to let the
steam wash down any sugar on the sides of the pot). Take the top off, boil
gently until the temperature reaches the hard ball stage (250°-260°F). Beat
the egg white until it is just stiff enough to hold its shape. Pour the
sugar syrup into the egg white, beating continuously. You now have a thick
white mixture; this is the natif. Mix it with chopped nuts (we have used
almonds and walnuts) or toasted sesame seeds, or some mixture thereof.
Squeeze the mixture into balls and set them aside to cool. Note that as the
natif cools, it gets harder and less sticky, so you have to work quickly;
the hotter you get the syrup before combining it with the egg white (and
hence the less water ended up in it), the faster this happens and the dryer
the hulwa ends up. If you get past 260°, the syrup may crystallize on you
as or before you pour it; if so, give up and start over.

Honey version: Simmer the honey gently until it reaches a temperature of
280°-290° F. From that point on, the recipe is the same as for sugar, using
the boiled honey instead of the sugar syrup. Note that honey requires a
higher temperature than sugar to get the same effect. Also note that natif
made from honey will be stickier than natif made from sugar (maybe you can
solve this by getting the honey up to 310° without burning it; I couldn't).
So use a higher ratio of nuts to natif and have the nuts chopped more
finely; this helps reduce the stickiness. You may want to roll the honey
hulwa in sesame seeds or ground nuts, also to reduce stickiness.

Dibs version (still experimental). Stir the dibs while simmering at medium
heat about 1/2 hour+, until it gets to about 250°. If you do not stir, it
may separate out. By 250° there is some problem with scorching.

Note: Dibs is date syrup, available from some Middle Eastern grocery stores.

Toasted Sesame: To toast sesame seeds, you put them in a heavy iron pot
over a medium to high flame, and watch them carefully. When the ones on the
bottom begin to to tan, start stirring. When they are all tan to brown,
take them off the heat or they will burn.
- ---





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


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