[Sca-cooks] Period Couscous References?

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

I seem to recall seeing recipes or references to couscous by some
variation of its name (seksou, kuskusu, etc.) somewhere OTHER than in
the Anonymous Andalusian cookbook, which has at least 4 recipes for
or with references to couscous (included below).

I realize i seem lazy - in fact, i'm rather spaced out at the moment
- 8 hours of sleep total in two days, cooking for 150 - i was up
until 5 AM prepping food for a feast Saturday night.

Thanks for any pointers,
Anahita

--------------------

all from:
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian8.htm

i have removed all circumflexes over vowels (i think), as they don't
reproduce well in e-mail

Vinegar Tharida, Which is One of the Best

Take the fatty meat from the fattest parts, chop it and put it in the
pot with salt, onion, pepper, saffron, cumin, garlic, strong vinegar
and a quantity of oil, put it on a moderate fire and when the meat is
done put in what you have of vegetables, such as large tender
turnips, eggplants and gourds, peeled and cooked separately (from the
meat). As for the eggplants, make the tharida with them whole and
uncut, and the turnips likewise, and the gourds  (should be) the
largest possible, after pressing out their water. And add vinegar to
taste and when it is all cooked, take it off the fire, moisten with
it the crumbled tharid of leavened bread and repeat the moistening
until it is ready, pour the couscous on it and it turns out
marvelously.


Soldiers' Couscous (Kuskusu Fityani)

The usual moistened couscous is known by the whole world. The fityani
is the one where the meat is cooked with its vegetables, as is usual,
and when it is done, take out the meat and the vegetables from the
pot and put them to one side; strain the bones and the rest from the
broth and return the pot to the fire;  when it has boiled, put in the
couscous cooked and rubbed with fat and leave it for a little (p. 57,
verso -- HM actually says p. 57, recto here) on a reduced fire or the
hearthstone until it takes in the proper amount of the sauce; then
throw it on a platter and level it, put on top of it the cooked meat
and vegetables, sprinkle it with cinnamon and serve it. This is
called Fityani in Marrakesh.


I Have Seen a Couscous Made with Crumbs of the Finest White Bread

For this one you take crumbs and rub with the palm on the platter, as
one rubs the soup (hasu; unless this is a scribal error for hashu,
"filling"), and let the bread be neither cold nor very hot; put it in
a pierced pot (the colander-like perforated top portion of a
couscousiere or couscous steamer) and when it's steam has left, throw
it on the platter and rub with fat or moisten with the broth of the
meat prepared for it. I have also seen a couscous that one makes from
a fat chicken or stuffed and fattened capons and it was as if it were
moistened only with fat, and in it were turnips of Toledo and "cow's
eyes."


Tharid Mudhakkar with Vinegar and Whole Onions

Take fat beef, cut it in the pot with salt, pepper, coriander seed,
saffron, cumin and strong vinegar; when it is almost cooked,  add big
whole onions without cutting them, cooked separately, and finish
cooking it all; when it has finished cooking, take the pot from the
fire and moisten with it a tharid crumbled from clean bread kneaded
with white flour dough, and when the tharid absorbs it and is level,
arrange the meat and the whole onions and serve it. And you might
moisten couscous with it.