[Sca-cooks] Question re. arab recipe "Samak Madhkhur"

[Terry Decker]

>- page 481 "Samak Madhkhur" is.... "raw fish fillets sprinkled with salt
and
>spices, rolled up in orange and citron leaves and stored in vinegar until
>you want to fry them"
>
>Citron leaves?? - is this a particular plant or can I substitute something
>like lemon tree leaves?

Given the "orange and citron" part, what I think they mean is Citrus medica.
It is closely related to the lemon (Citrus limon), and in fact, the fruit
resembles large lemons, so you can probably use lemon leaves.

There is a globular watermelon (Citrullis lanatus var. citroides) which is
also referred to as a citron.

>
>I found the following spice mixture - would this be the one to use? (and
how
>*important* would be the inclussion of "Common ash"? - I'm of course
>assuming this is ash from the fire and not ash tree leaves?)

You got me there.  Genus Fraxinus is in the olive family, but I was under
the impression they were all more northern trees.

>And finally - how long can you keep it stored in the vinegar?  Would it
have
>a marinating affect? Would too long an immersion risk the eater to food
>poisoning (I'm thinking storage in the days here) or is simply an overnight
>soaking??
>
>Mari

Vinegar pickles fish fairly quickly and the acidity is too great for most
pathogens.  I would think you could keep this quite a while, but I would
probably refrigerate it just to be safe, as I did when I prepared pickled
whiting for feasts.

Bear