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

[Mark Calderwood]

At 15:36 8/10/02 +0000, you wrote:
>"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 had the same problem when doing the menu for my Andalusian feast in
August, I must have read that passage a hundred times hoping the penny
would drop. The dishes described are very similar, but that seems to have
been the style of court cuisine that developed in the 10th century and
predominated by the 13th (Rodinson quoted in Roden). Also the recommended
dishes seem to be very specific; it's my opinion that the author is either
describing a particular meal, or a meal of his favourite dishes.

If you look at the general structure of the list, it goes feminine (watery)
dishes, a contrasting sour dish, then more substantial meat and vegetable
dishes, followed by lighter and sweeter dishes. (I just quietly pretended
the dish of murri never existed.) Once I had that framework, I could build
the menu around that. I took each dish of the listed type as the main dish
of the course, and added starches and vegetables to complement it.

I did make a few judgement calls, such as getting some vegetable and relish
recipes from al-Baghdadi to round out the menu, but I didn't think that's
unreasonable given the volume of commerce between the Islamic east and
west. I also opted to have the relishes/dips, bread and nibbles on the
tables for people to munch on (and the Middle Eastern grocery wholesalers
was four blocks away and I went slightly beserk). We did use tables (as
Ziryab is credited with introducing tablecloths of cloth and suede into
al-Andalus) but placed them on the floor without unfolding the legs, we sat
around them on cushions and carpets. (There were painted hangings on the
walls, mosque lamps and chandeliers, and even authentic Andalusian music, I
have a record of Ziryab's compositions).

You've probably noticed these recipes are quite fiddly, complexity (and
presentation) was highly valued in the new style of court cookery. I think
it's a really good idea to give most if not all of these dishes a trial
run- I did my own redactions as I found existing ones to be very oily and
under spiced, I can send them to you if you like. Also it's worthwhile
using the "new" style of service, one dish after another rather than all
plopped on a mound of rice- it's no extra effort, and if you've gone to all
that trouble doing great authentic food it seems strange not to serve it
authentically too.

Giles