[Sca-cooks] pre-Baghdadi Recipes in Waines - PT. 3

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

--- PART THREE ---

 From Anahita

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

In a Caliph's Kitchen
David Waines
Riad El Rayyes Books Ltd.
56 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7NJ
1989
ISBN 1-869844-60-2

See first message for explanation of format and info included here.

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

Maghmuma - pp. 94-95

WAINES: The word means simply 'covered', in reference to the bread
covering of the pot at the end of the preparation. Another version of
this dish is made in several layers, each on 'covering' the other.
This particular recipe was devised by Ibrahim ibn al-Madhi

ORIGINAL: Take fresh and tender asparagus and boil lightly, then cut
up into small pieces and remove. Take meat and cut up into small
pieces. Next from a chicken, remove the fat, the gizzard and liver
and after cleaning, add them to the pot, except the liver which may
be put in last. Pour over this washed oil and crushed chick peas,
ground salt, white of onion[,] fresh coriander and leeks all chopped
up. Pour in water just less than enough to cover the contents and
boil until cooked. When cooked, add the asparagus with chopped
walnuts, chopped cheese and pitted olives[,] adding as well dried
coriander and pepper. Take an egg and break it into a dish adding to
it also pepper and coriander. Beat vigorously. (The cheese and olives
have already been added to the pot before the egg is poured over top
and stirred in.) Add also some murri and cook until the contents dry
out. Next take bread loaf and cut round it so that it is the size of
the pot and fry it in oil until done. Then place it over the meat and
spices in the pot. If you wish, when emptying the pot, ladle the
contents onto the bread and serve, God willing.

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

Aruzz mufalfal - p. 98

I am including here Waines' comments on a dish from al-Baghdadi (i'm
not including al-Baghdadi's recipe)

WAINES: Plain rice dishes, was we know them, are not found in the
cooking manuals which may appear surprising given its widespread
consumption in medieval times. Possibly this is just a hint of the
fact that rice was regarded as poor man's fare. More likely, however,
is that rice was used as a thickening agent in other dishes, or
cooked with milk and meat as in Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi's recipe for
Aruzziya. This one is taken from the later cookbook of al-Baghdadi,
and comes closest to what today would be recognized as the  usual
preparation of rice

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

Sumak summaqiya - pp. 100-101

WAINES: This recipe comes from the anonymous work which is in all
probability of Egyptian provenance. The dish takes its name from the
spice sumac which comes from the fruits of a wild Mediterranean bush,
the best qualities growing at the altitude in rocky, mountainous
areas away from the coasts. The fruits are dried, crushed and sieved,
forming a coarse-grained purple-red powder, the process alluded to in
the recipe itself. Sumac has a pleasant astringency owing to the
malic acid and is used as a souring agent in place of lemon or
vinegar.

ORIGINAL: One requires fresh fish, sumac, sesame seed paste, garlic,
pepper, onion, dried coriander, lemon (or candied lemon peel [hey
this is what Waines added]), hazelnuts, and sesame oil. Mince the
onion fine and fry it in oil. Sieve the sumac, grinding it and
processing it twice through the sieve until its effective properties
have been extracted. Then place the minced onion in a pan and grind
in all the other ingredients, adding over it the sesame seed paste
and the juice of lemon from which the seeds have been removed. Heat
until the mixture has boiled. Wash the fish, cut into large pieces
and add to the pan, boiling until done. Place the contents in a
vessel. Roast some hazelnuts and grind them adding them to the
surface of the dish and then serve.

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

'Ashiqua - pp. 102-013

WAINES: This is one of Ibrahim's preparations belonging to a group of
dishes called 'lover' or 'beloved' (ma'shuqa), referring to the
female of the pair. It is perhaps the most subtle of all his dishes
with a wide range of flavours and aromatic nuances.

ORIGINAL: Cut up bustard, or duck, or chicken. Then wash and clean
the bird. Put it in a pot with oil and chickpeas and salt. Onion and
fresh coriander are both chopped up and boiled and then the stock is
poured over the contents of the pot and cooked. Pound the meat of the
leg very fine together with fresh and dried coriander and onion and
al little pepper and cinnamon. When the foil is cooked, the ground up
ingredients are thrown in. Grind up almonds, walnuts, and pistachios
together mixed with the juice of unripe grapes and throw in. If you
desire to put in spinach or sarmaq, then do so.

[My Comments: i'm not sure what sarmaq is... I'll see if it's
mentioned in "Medieval Arab Cookery"]

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

Mutajjana Ibrahimya - pp. 106-107

WAINES: This preparation, attributed to Ibrahim ibn al-Madhi, is a
variation of a recipe which was a favourite of Ibrahim's great
nephew, the Caliph al-Wathiq who is also said to have compiled a
cookbook. It is unusual for the layered effect it is supposed to
achieve

ORIGINAL: Take one kaskari chicken or two young birds, remove all
their meat and from it make a thin cake and place it in a pot. With
the meat add a third of ratl of chopped onion and half uqiya of
chopped fresh coriander. Pour over this water to cover it to twice
its depth, a third of a ratl of pleasant oil and salt as required.
Place the pot on the fire until it comes well to the boil. Next take
truffles, of a variety suitable, as much as the weight of the meat
and cut them up in a fashion thicker than the cake and fry in the pot
until everything therein is cooked. Then add an amount of dried
coriander which the finger tips together can hold, pepper the weight
of one dirhem, ginger and galingal of each half a dirhem, and
cinnamon a dirhem. Stir. Take fifteen eggs, break them into a vessel
and beat them together with some fresh coriander and mint, both
chopped. Then pour into the pot and stir until the egg has broken up
and mixed with the cake and the truffles. Wash the sides of the pot
and cover it until required. Let the eggs be poured into the pot only
after it has been removed from the fire but before the boiling has
entirely ceased.

A preparation called Ibrahimi is made in the above manner except that
in it there is half a ratl of vinegar mixed with a dirhem's weight of
saffron. There is no salt except half a dirhem's weight and there is
a quarter ratl of murri al-Razi. The remainder of the preparation is
as above.

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

'Adasiya - pp. 108-109

WAINES: This dish is found in the earliest culinary manual compiled,
by al-Warraq. Named for its chief ingredient, the lentil ('adas),
which is probably the oldest cultivated legume and is native to
southwest Asia, possibly northern Syria and Iraq. The original recipe
calls for the inclusion of meat, but it can be prepared as well
without for those with vegetarian preferences. A variation of this
recipe suggests using beet root which could be substituted for the
fresh coriander.

ORIGINAL: You cook the meat with chopped onion in oil and when the
pot has been brought to the boil, and the scum removed, husked
lentils are thrown in and cooked thoroughly. Then you pour in vinegar
and spice it with coriander and cumin; throw in garlic (as well).
Whosoever wishes may throw in ground cheese; whosoever wishes may
colour it yellow wit saffron. Throw in beet root without the cheese
and garlic. Whosoever wishes may throw in something sweet.

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

'Ijja Mu'tamidiya - pp. 110-111

WAINES: This recipe for medieval omelette has been taken from what is
likely the only surviving Egyptian culinary work which is, however,
anonymous and undated. The recipe is named after someone called
Mu'tamid, a name carried by a number of Caliphs or wazirs. The
physician al-Razi recommends using oil in the cooking of omelettes
rather than clarified butter (samn) because oil is lighter and make
the food easier to digest. He also suggests using only the egg yolks
rather than the whites, again for the sake of digestion.

ORIGINAL: Take the breasts of two young fowl and slice the meat
finely; take a ratl of meat and slice it similarly. Wash the meat and
pout it into a pot on the fire. Pour a ratl of oil into the pot and
two dirhems of salt. Boil until nearly cooked. Then take a quarter
ratl of cheese, slice it, and add it to the pot with the meat. Season
with two dirhems of dried coriander and a dirhem each of pepper and
cinnamon. Add ten olives, pitted. Break into the container twenty
eggs and pour an uqiya of murri over them, beating them vigorously.
Stir the contents of the pot and leave on the fire until firm. Then
pour over it the egg. Chop up some rue over it. Remove and serve.

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

Aruzziya - pp. 112-113

WAINES: Rice cooked in milk seems plain enough, but with the
additional flavours of the smoked beef and the fatty pieces of lamb,
this dish is one of Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi's more unusual creations.
The curing of meat by smoking was an operation often performed in the
domestic kitchen. Here the intention seems to be less a process of
slow, low-temperature cooking than a complex chemical treatment of
the meat by smoke which is finished off by means of frying.

ORIGINAL: Take red meat from the lower thighs and also from the tail
fat and cut both into fine thin slices. Then smoke the meat until it
is well done. Next take a pot and pour oil into it and when sizzling,
throw into it the tail and the smoked meat and fry until cooked. Then
sprinkle salt and water over it but do not use murri so as not to
spoil it. Next, take a large pot and pour fresh milk into it half
full and boil, when at the boil throw in a stick of galingal,
cinnamon and salt as much as needed. Then take the rice and wash it
very well and add it to the milk. When cooked through take the fired
meat and its oil, add to the pot and stir in vigorously and serve,
God willing.

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

Mubazzar - pp. 114-115

WAINES: Literally, this dish means 'seasoned with spices' (abazir).
The effect of the preparation is to make spicy, but somewhat dry,
pieces of meat which go well either with a rice accompaniment or
mixed in with the rice itself. A recipe of Ibrahim ibn al-Madhi.

ORIGINAL: Take a side of lamb and stew it in good strong vinegar
until it is half done. Remove from the fire and leave it in its
vinegar until it has cooled off. Then remove the meat from the
vinegar and firmly express its juices. Then throw over it coriander,
cumin, pepper and cinnamon each ground. Then lower the meat into the
oven and leave until it has lost its moisture.

[My Comments: So, is this just cooked meat with all the moisture
cooked out or a sort of proto-jerky?

In Java in Indonesia, women take meat, cook it, cool it, cut it in
very very thin slices, rub it well with a tasty ground spice blend,
then place it in frames fitted with screens (and topped with another
screen to keep out the flies) on the roof and leave until dried out.
This takes a few days - it is brought in at night or if it's rainy,
so that it doesn't get moist. It is not eaten as it, however, but
cooked with a small amount of water to soften, then shredded as a
condiment and eaten with rice.]

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

Fustaqiya - pp. 116-117

WAINES: This dish takes its name from the pistachio nut (fustuq). A
very simple dish to prepare, it comes from the early collection of
recipes compiled by al-Warraq. The pistachio nut,which is native to
Iraq and Iran, is a relative of the cashew, which might be
substituted if pistachios are not readily available.

ORIGINAL: Take the breasts of chickens, and half boil in water and a
little salt. Drain off the water, and take the flesh off the bones,
pulling it into threads. Then put back into the saucepan, covering
with water. Take peeled pistachios as required and pound in the
mortar. Put into the saucepan and stir, boiling. When almost cooked,
throw in as much sugar as pistachios. Keep stirring until set; then
remove.

[My Comments:
First: Whoa! I really don't agree about substituting cashews for
pistachios! Such a huge difference in flavor and texture! While they
are also nothing alike, i'd suggest either hazelnuts/filberts or
walnuts, since both of these two nuts are used in other Near Eastern
recipes.

Second: So does this 9th century recipe remind anyone a bit of
blancmange or migraust?]

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

Bustaniya - pp. 118-119

WAINES: This is a preparation of one Abu Samin about whom nothing is
known for certain but who may have been a professional chef in the
employ of the Caliph al-Wathiq. If so, Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi would
surely have known of his skills. His name which means "Father of
Corpulence', or 'obesity' if one is being less kind, seem appropriate
to his profession. The dish is named not after any particular
ingredient, as was the custom, but after the orchard (bustan) from
which the selection of fruits was made.

ORIGINAL: Take small sour pears, wash and wrap in a moist cloth if
they are dried pears, but if they are fresh, then macerate them in
water and strain through a sieve. Then take chicken breasts, and cut
them lengthwise into finger-sized strips and add to it as much meat
as you wish. Next throw in peaches and boil (with the meat). Season
the pot with pepper and ma'kamakh, oil and some spices, some sugar,
wine vinegar, and five almonds ground up fine; add to the pot. Then
break eggs over (the contents) and allow to settle, God willing.

[My Comments: One of the dishes i cooked as "Iron Chef Persian",
although i left out the ma'kamakh]