SC - From His Grace Cariadoc ::::::]A ROAST OF MEAT

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
> 
> Your Grace,
> Can you tell me please, why you have to cook the lamb seperately from the
> onions & garbanzos.  It would seem to me that the juices from the meat would
> give the other stuff such a lovely flavor that you couldn't really get by
> putting the meat in at the end.
> thank you
> Phillipa

Probably because if you follow the directions and use soaked, dry
chickpeas, the meat would disintegrate by the time the chickpeas were
done. Even if you soak them, dried chickpeas take a fairly substantial
cooking time, probably a minimum of 90 minutes in most cases. And when
the mutton is cut into 3/4 inch dice, well, it cooks pretty quickly.
There are some recipes that call for fresh legumes straight from the
pod, and these cook more quickly, but this recipe doesn't appear to call
for them. 

Of course, there's nothing to stop you from adding any juices that
accumulate in your meat pan, and for serious yummers, this is probably
one of those dishes that responds very well indeed to reheating the next
day. There'd be some loss of that fresh coriander flavor and texture,
but the blending of the flavors would probably compensate.

Adamantius

> 
> A ROAST OF MEAT
> 
> (Western Islamic, 13th c. Andalusian p. A-38.)
> >From Cariadoc's Miscellany. Copyright © by David Friedman, 1988,  1990, 1992
> 
> Roast salted, well-marbled meat [cut up] like fingertips, and put in a pot
> spices, onion, salt, oil and soaked garbanzos. Cook until done and add the
> roast meat; cover the contents of the pot with cilantro and sprinkle with
> pepper and cinnamon; and if you add whole pine nuts or walnuts in place of
> garbanzos, it will be good.
> 
> 1 1/2 lb lamb or beef
> 2 15 oz cans chickpeas
> 3 small onions = 3/4 lb
> 1 t salt
> spices:
>     1/4 t cumin
>     1/2 t coriander
>     1/2 t cinnamon
>     1/4 t black pepper
> 3 T olive oil
> 1/4 c green coriander, pressed down
> 1/8 t more pepper
> 1/4 t more cinnamon
> 
> Note: an earlier recipe in the same book calls for spices and then specifies
> which ones: "all the spices, pepper, cinnamon, dried coriander and cumin."
> 
> 
> Roast meat and cut into about 1/4" by 1/2" pieces.
> Slice onions.
> Put chickpeas, onion, spices, salt and oil in a pot and cook over moderate
> heat, stirring,     for 10 minutes, turning down the heat toward the end as
> it gets dry;
> Add meat and cook one minute,
> Add green coriander and cook another minute, and turn off heat.
> Sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon
> Serve
> ============================================================================
> 
> To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
> Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
> 
> ============================================================================


- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com