SC - Rose-Hips

[Wajdi]

At 1:59 AM -0500 7/15/99, Stefan li Rous wrote:


>This is too bad. There was a discussion a while ago about medieval stews.
>There was a statment made by Master Cariadoc, I believe, that he knew of
>no medieval stew that combined both meat and vegetables. If this tagine
>could be proven to be period, it would give an example of a medieval
>stew with both meat and vegetables. It would however be from North Africa
>and not Europe.

1. The relevant sources are from Andalusia, not North Africa, so are
geographically European although culturally part of al-Islam. The relevant
paragraph from my post when we were discussing the issue some time back is:

"Actually, I'm not sure beef stew is period. More precisely, I can't think
of any non-Islamic period recipes that correspond to what modern people
think of as "generic stew." There are dishes where the meat has been
stewed, but I can't think of any where pieces of stewed meat are combined
with substantial vegetables in a thick gravy or something similar. Perhaps
someone else can offer examples."

2. Here are all of the recipes from _Manuscrito Anonimo_ that actually
describe themselves as tajines (in the title):

- --
Tajine with Cheese

Take soft cheese, not fresh that day but that has passed three or four
days, and rub it in the hand. To two ratls of this add two ûqiyas of white
flour, put it in fresh milk and break in ten eggs and sprinkle with pepper,
saffron, cinnamon, lavender, and coriander. Beat all this together in the
tajine and when it is thick, moisten it with fresh milk and cover it all
with plenty of oil. Bury in it fried small birds or cut-up pigeons,
eggyolks, and split almonds. Put in a moderately hot oven and leave until
it is dry and thickened and browned on top, take it out so it can cool, and
use it. This dish may be made green [mukhdarr; text has mukhtasar, meaning
"abbreviated"] with water of coriander seed and of cilantro and mint water
in place of saffron, and another dish will result. And he who wishes to
make this tajine with cheese alone, without fowl or meat, shall do so in
the same way, and in each of these ways it is good.

Tajine of Birds' Giblets

Clean them and stew them with oil and water and two cloves of garlic
crushed with a little cilantro, and when the giblets are cooked, crush them
with a little of the heart of an onion, and season with fine spices and
flavorings, a spoonful of murri, a little white flour, and cut-up rue.
Break six eggs over it and beat this all with the rest of the sauce from
the pot, and fry it in the frying pan with oil until it takes the
consistency of a tajine, and present it. Cut rue over it, sprinkle with a
little murri and garnish it with mint.

A Remarkable Tajine

Beat the eggs with the meat, coriander, dried pepper, caraway, coriander
juice and onion juice; pour into the pan and fry until browned and sprinkle
with pepper and rue, God willing.

And here are some more that are made in tajines (there are lots that
mention "tajine" as a utensil in the instructions).

Râhibi in a Tajine [round clay casserole]

Take the fattest parts of sheep or calf, as I have told you, and put in the
pot with salt, spices and oil; cook until almost done and take down [from
the fire]; then take an onion of great size and cook it alone and whole in
its own pot, without cutting it, and when it is done, pour off the water it
was cooked in, pierce its sides and put with the cooked meat in the tajine;
add what has been mentioned of spices and pomegranate concentrate; cover
with a lot of oil and put in the bread oven, and leave it there until it is
done and then leave it until dry ...[word or words missing]... its upper
part and take it out.

Royal Sanhâji

Take a large, deep tajine [clay casserole with a lid] and put some red beef
in it, cut up without fat, from the leg, the shoulder, and the hip of the
cow. Add a very large quantity of oil, vinegar, a little murri naqî',
pepper, saffron, cumin, and garlic. Cook it until it's half done, and then
add some red sheep's meat and cook. Then add to this cleaned chickens, cut
into pieces; partridges, young pigeons or wild doves, and other small
birds, mirkâs and meatballs. Sprinkle it with split almonds, and salt it to
taste. Cover it with a lot of oil, put it in the oven, and leave in until
it is done, and take it out. This is simple sanhâji, used by the renowned;
as for the common people, their sanhâji will be dealt with in its own
proper time, God willing.

Roast in a Tajine

Take an entire side of a young, plump kid and place it in a large tajine
big enough to hold it; put it in the oven and leave it there until the top
is browned; then take it out, turn it and put it in the oven a second time
until it is done and browned on both sides. Then take it out and sprinkle
it with salt ground with pepper and cinnamon. This is extremely good and is
the most notable roast that exists, because the fat and moisture stay in
the bottom of the pan and nothing is lost in the fire, as in the roast on a
spit and the roast in a tannur.

Roast Lamb

Take a skinned lamb, clean the inside, as in the preceding; gather the
innards, after cleaning, cover [literally, "bend"] them with grease and
wrap up in fine gut; then stuff the inside of the lamb with small birds and
starlings, fried and stuffed as was explained before; sew it up, put in a
tajine large enough to hold it and pour on it the sauce, according to the
preceding, with cilantro juice and oil; put it in the oven and leave it
until it is done, take it out and present it.
- ---

None of these sound like stews in the sense described above.



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


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