SC - Stuff inside bread (was: Bread Soup Bowls)

[david friedman]

At 12:10 AM -0500 11/11/98, Stefan li Rous wrote:
>
>What did period folk do for food on the go? Did they always sit down to
>eat? We can't seem to find proof of sandwiches or breadbowls or flatbreads
>with meats in them (such as Greek Gyros or tortillas).
>
>Now, Elizabeth and Bear have brought up rastons recently. This was a bread
>with stuff stuffed inside it, but it appears to be only buttered bread.
>Is there evidence of anything else being stuffed or cooked inside bread
>which would then fit into the same niche as modern sandwiches?
>
Here is an Islamic recipe for precisely that.

Recipe for the Barmakiyya
Andalusian p. A-9

It is made with hens, pigeons, ring doves, small birds, or lamb. Take what
you have of it, then clean it and cut it and put it in a pot with salt and
onion, pepper, coriander and lavender or cinnamon, some murri naqi, and
oil. Put it over a gentle fire until it is nearly done and the sauce is
dried. Take it out and fry it with mild oil without overdoing it, and leave
it aside. Then take fine flour and semolina, make a well-made dough with
yeast, and if it has some oil it will be more flavorful. Then stretch this
out into a thin loaf and inside this put the fried and cooked meat of these
birds, cover it with another thin loaf, press the ends together and place
it in the oven, and when the bread is done, take it out. It is very good
for journeying; make it with fish and that can be used for journeying too.
[end of original]

Note: The Barmecides were a family of Persian viziers who served some of
the early Abbasid Caliphs, in particular Haroun al-Rashid, and were famed
for their generosity.

1/2 c sourdough	3 T olive oil for dough	1 1/2 t (lavender or) cinnamon
3/4 c water	1 lb boned chicken or lamb	1 t salt
1 1/2 c white flour	10 oz chopped onion	1 T murri (see the
_Miscellany_)
1 1/2 c semolina	1/2 t pepper	3 T olive oil
(1 t salt in dough)	1 t coriander	3 T more olive oil for frying

Cut the meat fairly fine (approximately 1/4" slices, then cut them up),
combine in a 3 quart pot with chopped onion, 1 t salt, spices, murri, and 3
T oil. Cook over a medium low to medium heat about an hour. Cover it at the
beginning so it all gets hot, at which point the onion and meat release
their juices; remove the cover and cook until the liquid is gone, about 30
minutes. Then heat 3 T oil in a large frying pan on a medium high burner,
add the contents of the pot, fry over medium high heat about five minutes.

Stir together flour, semolina, 1 t salt. Gradually stir in 3 T oil. Combine
3/4 c water, 1/2 c sourdough. Stir this into the flour mixture and knead to
a smooth dough (which should only take a few minutes). If you do not have
sourdough, omit it; since the recipes does not give the dough much time to
rise, the sourdough probably does not have a large effect on the
consistency of the dough.

Divide the dough in four equal parts. Take two parts, turn them out on a
floured board, squeeze and stretch each (or use a rolling pin) until it is
at least 12" by 5". Put half the filling on one, put the other on top,
squeeze the edges together to seal. Repeat with the other two parts of the
dough and the rest of the filling. Bake on a cookie sheet at 350° for 40
minutes.

For the fish version, start with 1 1/4 lb of fish (we used salmon). If it
is boneless, proceed as above, shortening the cooking time to about 35
minutes; it is not necessary to cut up the fish fine, since it will crumble
easily once it is cooked. If your fish has bones, put it on top of the oil,
onions, spices etc., in the largest pieces that will fit in the pot, cover
the pot, and cook for about 10-15 minutes, until the fish is almost ready
to fall apart; in effect, it is being steamed by the liquid produced from
the onions and by its own liquid. Take out the fish, bone it, return to the
pot, and cook uncovered about 30 minutes until the liquid is mostly gone.
Continue as above.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


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