Subject: Re: Subject: SC - tongue

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

Recipes Using Sumac

words in [brackets] inside quotes or recipes are my comments

Maggie MacDonald <maggie5 at home.com> wrote:
>As for the sumac, I did a web search  yesterday and came up with a 
>couple recipes that call for it.
>
>The first one was called Musakhkan, I saw a variation on this 
>elsewhere where they used thinly sliced roasted beef in place of the 
>chicken. The second recipe I found was an onion relish, that looks 
>so easy I feel I can try it confidently. I didn't mark where I found 
>these recipes, but it might have been SOAR. (but i'm not sure).
>
>MUSAKHKAN

According to Tess Mallos, author of "The Complete Middle East 
Cookbook", (1979), p. 202,

MOUSAKHAN

Mousakhan is a Palestinian speciality which calls for a very thin 
flat bread called Shirak. This bread requires considerable expertise 
in making the dough paper thin, and also should be baked on a large 
metal dome (sorj) over a charcoal fire, so I have given a substitute 
bread as Mousakhan is well worth trying.

Serves: 8
Oven temperature: 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F.
Cooking time: 1-3/4 to 2 hours

2 chickens, each about 1 kg / 2 lb.
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup olive oil
3 medium-sized onions, sliced
3 teaspoons sumak
2 Khoubiz [this is Arab flat bread]

1. Wipe chickens dry with paper towels. Rub inside and out with salt 
and pepper. Tie the legs together and tuck wings under body.
2. Heat half the oil in a large pan and fry the chickens over medium 
heat until lightly browned, turning them often. Remove to a plate and 
keep aside.
3. Add remaining oil to pan with sliced onion and fry gently, 
stirring often, until transparent. Sprinkle in sumak and cook for 
further 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Split each khoubiz into two, to give four flat pieces of bread. 
Place two pieces slightly overlapping in the base of a baking dish.
5. Place a mound of onion in the centre of each, using about 1/4 of 
the onion mixture. Put a chicken on top of each mound, and spread 
remaining onion mixture over the top of each chicken. Pour oil from 
pan over chicken and bread.
6. Cover chickens with remaining rounds of bread, with white surface 
of bread downwards. Sprinkle bread lightly with water.
7. Bake in a moderate oven for 1-1/2 hours or until chickens are 
tender and cooked thoroughly. If bread begins to burn, cover top with 
a piece of aluminium foil. The bread covering keeps the chickens 
moist, while the bread in the base of the dish absorbs the 
flavoursome juices.
8. Serve cut into portions with a piece of the bread for each serving.
- ----- end of recipe -----

[i suspect the thin soft lavosh i find in the market would be a good 
substitute for shirak]

- ----- quote -----
p. 180:
All mezze [sort of appetizers/antipasti] are served with Khoubiz, the 
Arabic flat bread now so widely available to the Westerner. Even if 
your local store does not keep it in stock, you will find the recipe 
given quite easy to follow, particularly if you bake bread. The 
Khoubiz Sorj of Lebanon and the Shirak of the Palestinians and 
Jordanians are one and the same. The same dough is rolled and 
stretched as thinly as possible without breaking the dough, and baked 
on a large metal dome called a sorj. The sorj is heated over a fire 
until very hot, and the bread draped over it. Cooking time is short 
- -- about 3 minutes -- and after cooking the bread is wrapped in a 
cloth to keep it soft. The sorj is available in varying sizes, but I 
have found that a good iron Chinese wok inverted over a charcoal fire 
works very well, even if the breads are not as large as they should 
be. Bread sheets, as they are commonly called, are used cut in 
squares and rolled up with grilled meats and salad ingredients for an 
Arabic-style hamburger [forgive Tess, she's European - sounds more 
like an Arabic-burrito to me :-)  ]. Khoubiz has a convenient pocket 
for the same kind of filling [now she's talking about pita], or 
anything you would conceivably put between two slices of bread.
- ----- end quote -----

Sometimes when i can't find flat bread, i substitute *whole wheat* 
tortillas, although i suppose you could use white wheat tortillas, i 
prefer the flavor of whole wheat.

Sumac is used both in Levantine recipes (as in the two Maggie sent) 
and in Armenian ones. I seem to recall it in Persian food as well. In 
the 1980's, when i ate in Persian restaurants in Los Angeles 
frequented by Iranians where the servings were *enormous* and the 
prices extremely reasonable, there would be a dish of sumac on the 
table. You could just sprinkle it at will on your food if you wanted 
additional tanginess - used on meats, fowl, vegetables, and rice.

Again from Tess Mallos, "The Complete Middle East Cookbook", Armenian 
chapter, p. 174:

Khareni Litzk Bulghourov -- Stuffed Vegetables

Serves: 6 as a main course, more for a buffet
Cooking time: 1-1/2 hours

6 medium-sized sweet green peppers [what Americans call "bell peppers"]
6 medium-sized tomatoes
6 long eggplants (aubergines) [i guess these are Indian, Chinese, or 
Japanese] or 3 medium-sized oval eggplants [i guess these are the 
kind more commonly found in US supermarkets]

Stuffing:
750 grams (1-1/2 lb) finely ground lamb
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup chopped, peeled tomatoes
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup finely chopped sweet green pepper [bell peppers]
1/4 cup short grain rice
1/2 cup coarse bulgar (burghul), rinsed
pinch of hot chili pepper [i think she means powdered or crushed - 
it's hard to take a pinch of a fresh one...]
1-1/2 teaspoons salt

To finish:
2 cups water
1/4 cup sumak
1 tablespoon tomato paste
pulp from tomatoes
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar

1. Wash vegetables. Cut tops from peppers and reserve. Remove core, 
seeds, and white membrane, rinse and drain. Cut off tops of tomatoes 
(stem end) and set aside. Scoop out tomato pulp with a spoon and keep 
pulp separate. Drain tomatoes. Remove stalks fro eggplants. Cut off 2 
cm (3/4 inch) from this end and keep aside. Scoop out eggplant flesh, 
leaving 5 mm (1/4 inch) of flesh. Place eggplants in salted water and 
soak for 20 minutes. Rinse and drain. [this is to make them less 
bitter]
2. For the stuffing, be sure that lamb has some fat with it. Combine 
with remaining stuffing ingredients and blend thoroughly.
3. Place stuffing in vegetables -- do not fill completely as there 
must be space for expansion. Replace reserved tops. For the 
eggplants, pare dwon reserved ends to form a cork.
4. Combine water and sumak, bring to a boil, then drain through a 
fine sieve. Discard sumak. Make liquid up to 2 cups of water if 
necessary.
5. Place pulp from tomatoes in the base of a deep, heavy pan and 
arrange stuffed peppers upright in pan. Put eggplants on top of 
peppers, placing them on their sides. Place tomatoes upright on top 
of eggplants.
6. Blend sumak liquid with tomato paste, salt and sugar and pour over 
vegetables. Cover pan tightly and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to 
low and simmer gently for 1-1/4 hours.
7. Arrange vegetables in serving dish and keep warm. Boil liquid in 
pan to reduce a little, pour over vegetables. Serve hot or warm.
- ----- end of recipe -----

Anahita al-shazhiyya