SC - Period cookshop at Pennsic?
Cindy M. Renfrow
cindy at thousandeggs.com
Fri Aug 25 13:46:58 PDT 2000
At 7:34 PM -0700 8/24/00, Susan Fox-Davis wrote:
> > Is there any evidence to suggest that the modern qata'if product of
> > shredded phyllo/borek is what is referred to in Al Baghdadi, etc.?
> >
>
>No evidence on paper. It's all just flour and water. I'd serve it
>at a banquet, but
>probably wouldn't try to enter it in a documentation-intensive
>competition situation... yet.
As usual, I am bothered by this distinction. The way you put it
suggests, at least to my eye, that the problem is not "it isn't true"
but "I can't document it." But the only reason documentation matters
is as evidence that something is true.
Prior to Adamantius's post, everyone in this thread was taking it for
granted that the assertion that shredded phyllo was what al Baghdadi
referred to was true. No evidence had been offered, and I gather
noone here has any evidence. "It's all just flour and water" isn't
really an answer, given the wide range of things you can do with
flour and water--and besides, we don't even know, at this point, that
qatâif is just flour and water.
For a little additional information, the following are out of
Manuscrito Anonimo, a 13th c. Andalusian cookbook--parenthetical
comments by Charles Perry, the translator.
The Making of Qatâif
Put a potful of water on the fire until it boils, and throw in
coarsely ground semolina, and cook it on the fire until it becomes
pudding ('asîda). Then take it out of the pot and put it in a dish;
boil honey and pour it on top, with pepper, and present it, God
willing.
[This is an aberrant recipe. Qataif are basically crepes, very thin
breads or things made from them.]
Jûdhâba with Qatâif
Take a new qaswila [a cazuela or earthenware casserole] and wash it
and pour in it fresh oil. Then put a qatâif or a ruqâq (thin
flatbread), according to the size of the mold (the earthenware
casserole); then break over it four eggs and a handful of ground
sugar or honey, then add qatîfa [the rarely used singular of qatâif]
in addition, or two ruqâqs, and break over them four eggs and a
handful of sugar, and do all this the same as you would chicken. Then
proceed to cover it all up with fresh milk and a little fresh oil;
arrange it in the tannur or in the bread oven and put on it the
chicken or a fat rib or whatever fat meat you wish and leave it until
it is done, arrange it on the marble, sprinkle with sugar and serve,
God willing. And if you want to use sugar or almonds in place of
eggs, it is very excellent.
Recipe for Fidaush (Noodles)
This is made from dough and has three types: the long one shaped like
wheat grains, the round one like coriander seeds that is called in
Bijaya (Bougie) and its region humais [literally, little garbanzos]
and the one that is made in thin sheets, as thin as paper and which
is food for women; they cook it with gourd, spices and fat; it is one
of the qatâif. Fidaush is cooked like itriyya [see next recipe].
Recipe for Abbasid Qatâif
[p. 69, recto] It is made from the pierced musahhada that has already
been mentioned. Take peeled almonds, pound them and let them dry
until they are like semolina. Add as much again of sugar, spikenard,
cloves, and Chinese cinnamon. Then take a flatbread (raghîf) of the
aforementioned musahhada, free of burns, and sprinkle it with those
almonds and ground sugar aplenty. Sprinkle it with rosewater in which
some camphor is dissolved, and fold it until it is a half circle.
Glue the edges with dough wetted in rosewater, and put it in a
frying-pan full of fresh oil. Boil it, and then take it out
immediately and remove it so it drains of the oil. Let if float in a
syrup of roses or julep or skimmed honey. You might make raghîfs on
raghîfs, filled inside, and glue the margins together, and they will
turn out circles and halves.
None of which sound like shredded filo. I take it that Charles
Perry's parenthetical comment sums up at least what he knows--very
thin breads or things made from them--which is consistent with all
save the first recipe.
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
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