SC - An Andalusian lunch

[Kerri Canepa]

Greetings the list!

The Canton up the road from here holds a Summer Hunt every year which features a
picnic basket auction to help raise money for any number of reasons (postage,
printing of newsletter, offset event costs, etc). Since I've been perusing both
al-Baghdadi and the anonymous Andalusian cookbook, I decided to put together an
Andalusian lunch. I'm unsure as to whether picnic baskets were used for such a
thing, so I offered the lunch on a large brass tray. As an added incentive, I
also danced for the folks who purchased the lunch (dinner AND a show!).

The menu:

Meat roasted over coals
Stuffed eggs
Soft flatbread
Olives
Dates
Melon
Grapes
Pistachios
Honeyed bread

The flatbread was purchased (a bread marketed as Greek pita bread) and the
olives, dates, melon, grapes and pistachios were put out on lettuce leaves in
little bowls. The meat, eggs, and honeyed bread were made in advance.

The recipes:

Meat roasted over coals (anonymous Andalusian cookbook)

Cut meat however you wish and throw on a spoon of oil and another of murri,
salt, coriander seed, pepper, thyme; leave for a while until it has absorbed the
spices, prepare without smoke and roast on a spit and watch it.

1/2 lb beef (a lean cut), cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 tsp thyme, dried and minced
1/4 tsp pepper, ground
1/2 tsp coriander seed, ground
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp balsalmic vinegar **

Mix all ingredients together and place in ziplock bag. Marinate for 30 minutes.
Thread meat onto skewers and place under broiler. Cook 5 minutes, turn, cook 3
more minutes. Remove from skewers and serve.

** I don't have murri and I'm not even sure what might be used instead. I chose
balsalmic vinegar because of it piquancy without being too bitey.

Notes: This has a very pleasant flavor and smells wonderfully of thyme. 

Stuffed eggs (anonymous Andalusian cookbook)

Take as many eggs as you like, and boil them whole in hot water; put them in
cold water and split them in half with a thread. Take the yolks aside and pound
cilantro and put in onion juice, pepper and coriander, and beat all this
together with murri, oil and salt and knead the yolks with this until it forms a
dough. Then stuff the whites with this and fasten it together, insert a small
stick into each egg, and sprinkle them with pepper, God willing.

Ras' recipe reduced:
4 eggs, hard boiled and peeled
2 tsp cilantro leaf, ground in a mortar to a paste
1/2 tsp onion juice
1/4 tsp pepper, ground
3/8 tsp coriander seed, ground
murri (not included)
2 tsp olive oil
salt to taste

Cut eggs in half with a thread (dental floss works great too). Push yolks
through a sieve and add rest of ingredients. Mix together, adding oil if
necessary, until it forms a smooth paste. Fill each white with yolk mixture and
pin two halves together with a toothpick. Sprinkle with ground pepper.

Notes: I've found that the halves hold together better if the yolk mixture is
even with the cut surface.

Recipe of the Necessities of Bread and Confection (anonymous Andalusian
cookbook)

Take a ratl of wheat flour and knead it with twenty egg yolks, a little water
and oil. Then make small, very thin round flatbreads of it, and as soon as they
are made, fry them in plenty of oil until they are close to browning. Put them
in a dish, boil honey a little and clean it of its foam and cut almonds and
walnuts into the honey, put it into the dish, sprinkle with sugar, set whole
pine-nuts about and present it.

Honeyed bread, reduced recipe:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/8 - 1/4 tsp salt
4 egg yolks, lightly stirred up
1 - 2 tsp water
1/2 tsp olive oil
2/3 cup honey
1/4 cup almonds, chopped
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
pine nuts
oil for frying
granulated sugar

Put flour in a bowl and make a well in the center. Put yolks in the well with
olive oil and water and stir gently into flour. Add water if necessary to hold
dough together. Knead dough for 5 to 7 minutes, form into a ball and place under
a bowl to rest for 30 minutes.

Put honey in a small pot and heat to boiling, removing foam as it rises. Reduce
heat and add almonds and walnuts. Simmer while preparing breads.

Cut dough into 8 pieces. Put 1/2 inch of olive oil into a pan and set heat to
medium. Take one piece at a time to roll out, leaving the rest under the bowl.
Roll out each piece into a 3 inch very thin disk. When oil sputters when a drop
of water is put into it, put disk into oil. Turn disk when just turning brown
and remove when both sides are lightly brown. Drain on paper towels briefly and
transfer to a plate. Pour honey nut mixture over disks, sprinkle with granulated
sugar and pine nuts and serve.

Notes: Salt was not included in the original recipe but the bread is bland
without it. The trick to frying the bread is to keep the heat rather low as you
want the dough to cook all the way through without getting burned. The disks
were less than 1/4 inch thick and when cooked had a soft texture. I suspect that
if the disks were rolled out even thinner, they'd be crispier. I let the honey
nut mixture cook until all the bread disks were fried. It was a lovely carmelly,
nutty mixture which sticks to everything. Note to self: use waxed paper instead
of aluminum foil when pouring the honey nut mixture on bread. Well, I was out of
waxed paper.

Cedrin Etainnighean, OL