[Sca-cooks] Help with planning Islamic feast (longish)

[Vincent Cuenca]

Call me a nut, call me a masochist, but I'm gonna try it again.

Last night at officer's meeting, the autocrat for our annual February event
was bemoaning the fact that three separate head cooks had backed out on her.
  My wife leaned over and whispered, "Do you want to try it? The baby should
be four months old by then; it shouldn't be a problem."  Now, I hadn't been
drinking or smoking anything unusual, so I can only explain my volunteering
as a fit of insanity.

Not only that, but I've been fiddling around with the 'Anonymous Andalusian'
cookbook, trying to see if I could come up with a coherent menu.  Nobody's
done Andalusian/Maghribi food for this event before.  Sure! A new challenge!
  My laurel will be so pleased!  It'll be fun, and way cool!

Hang on a second!  I have no idea how to structure the menu! There is a
brief passage regarding the ordering of courses, but the dishes described
seem to be nearly identical:

"The first dish to be presented is a feminine one, such as baqliyya
mukarrara and the various kinds of tafâyâs; after this the dish jimli; then
muthallath (meat cooked with vegetables, vinegar and saffron); then the dish
of murri; then mukhallal (a vinegared dish); then mu'assal (a honeyed dish);
then fartun; then another mu'assal."
Baqliyya, jimli and  tafaya all seem to be stews of fowl or lamb cooked with
vegetables.  Muthallath is the same as the first three, only with vinegar
and saffron.  Murri enters into a lot of dishes; could 'a dish of murri' be
another stew? Mukhallal is meat dish braised with spices, mu'assal is meat
braised with honey, and so on.  Basically, a lot of braised and stewed lamb,
chicken, and beef.  There are recipes for roasts and starchy dishes and
vegetables all sorts of other things, but I don't know how they enter into
this structure.  And how do I start the menu?  What should I have on the
tables for everyone to munch on while they're waiting?  Should I even have
tables? (At least I know what beverages to serve!)

I know some folks out there concentrate heavily on Islamic cuisine.  I've
read through His Grace Cariadoc's recipes, and I've got some ideas, but if
anyone has more input (menus, redactions, websites, et al) I would greatly
appreciate them.

Gratefully,

Vicente


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