[Sca-cooks] Apollonia's hais

[Apollonia Margherita]

Here is the translation of the original:

Hais (al-Baghdadi p. 214/14): Take fine dry bread, or biscuit, and grind up
well. Take a ratl of this, and three quarters of a ratl of fresh or
preserved dates with the stones removed, together with three uqiya of ground
almonds and pistachios. Knead all together very well with the hands. Refine
two uqiya of sesame-oil, and pour over, working with the hand until it is
mixed in. Make into cabobs, and dust with fine-ground sugar. If desired,
instead of sesame-oil use butter. This is excellent for travellers. [end of
original]

I had about a pound and a quarter of dates, which I pitted, and then threw
in some (just under 1/3)pistachios and (2/3 of a cup) almonds and some bread
crumbs in my food processor.  I put too much in the food processor at first,
and had to take out half, but I ran it until both halves were mixed and
chopped fine.  I then put it all in the mixer (bigger than my food
processor) and mixed it together, adding melted margarine (I know, but it
was on sale for $0.25 a pound).  Then I rolled it into little balls, which I
then coated in organic sugar, since that looked better than white sugar...

Syrup of Lemon
Andalusian p. 279 (trans DF)
Take lemon, after peeling its outer skin, press it and take a ratl of juice,
and add as much of sugar. Cook it until it takes the form of a syrup. Its
advantages are for the heat of bile; it cuts the thirst and binds the
bowels.

I got 6 pounds of lemons, and juiced them by hand, and then mixed that and
the same amount of sugar together, and boiled it for abour 30-45 minutes, I
think.  I wasn't timing it, but I remember it seemed to take forever as it
was 10:30 Friday night, and I hadn't made the Hais yet...  It got down to an
orangish syrup, and the smell changed, but went back to normal when you
added the water to the syrup to make your drink...

It was all very good.  The event had a Middle Eastern theme, as that's what
our Baroness's persona is....

Apollonia