SC - Best food for War

[david friedman]

At 9:39 AM -0500 2/24/00, Seton1355 at AOL.COM wrote:
>What is this and may we have the recipe please?
>Thanks
>Phillipa
><<
>  Barmakiya keeps pretty well, is intended as traveller's food, and is
>  good. It can be made with meat or fish. >>
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It's two layers of  bread/pastry with a layer of cooked meat, onions, 
etc. in between, baked. As we make it, at least, it is much flatter 
than a pasty, which is a vaguely similar dish from Frangistan. The 
recipe is in the Miscellany, as are recipes for most things I 
mention, which is why I usually don't bother giving them. This one is:

- ---
Recipe for the Barmakiyya
Andalusian p. A-9 (Good)

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.

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 p. 3-4)
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.

David Friedman
Professor of Law
Santa Clara University
ddfr at best.com
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/