[Sca-cooks] Mixed 13th c. Andalusian and Modern Moroccan "dinner party"

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Three Saturdays ago i cooked a private feast. My services were
purchased at a fund-raising auction of a group trying to buy land for
a permanent Kingdom event site.

One of the guests has a Maghribi persona, so i cooked a mixture of
modern Moroccan and 13th c. Andalusian food. (well, i also have a
Maghribi/Andalusi persona, so...)

FIRST COURSE
L'Hamrak
a relatively light soup of chicken broth with chickpeas, small fine
noodles, fresh chopped tomatoes, spices, and lemon juice. (Leave out
the tomatoes and it's peri-oid)

SECOND COURSE
The Bawarid
small bowls of hot and cold modern Moroccan and Medieval dishes

served with 2 hot flat breads, Afghan Nan (that's its Persian name,
really :-) and Sangak (a Persian bread), both of which i get at my
local Persian food store.

- Green Olives modern Moroccan style with hot pepper paste, garlic,
cumin, fennel, and other seasonings

- Black Olives modern Moroccan style with zaatar and salted preserved lemons

- Khezzu Mrqed
Carrots boiled with garlic, then sliced and tossed with paprika,
cumin, garlic, cinnamon, parsley, etc. and olive oil.
And that's not a typo in the name. Moroccan Arabic drops lots of
vowels. The "kh" is as in "Bach" or "loch". The "r" is flapped or
rolled. And the "q" is a glottal "k" (NOT a glottal stop) back in the
throat which is not so easy.

- Carrot, Radish, and Orange salad
Shredded Carrots with sliced radishes and cut up orange sections,
tossed with orange flower water, a moderate dash of sugar, a pinch of
salt and pepper, and some cinnamon.
Yes, this is a real Moroccan dish, not Fusion food. It's one of my
favorites and i often make it at camping events.
I managed to find real radishes - with a bit of bite. I've noticed in
some recent radish purchases that  in the US they seem to have nearly
no taste, and are more ornamental than flavorful. The ones i bought
that actually tasted like radishes were rosey-red and skinny, not
round, maybe 3 inches long.

- Fennel and Citrus salad
Sliced uncooked fennel bulb tossed with cut up peeled sections of
ruby grapefruit and blood oranges, seasoned with powdered cumin,
finely chopped scallions, and olive oil.

- Zalouk
Eggplant roasted in the oven, peeled, and mashed, then tossed with
garlic, tomatoes, paprika, cumin, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper,
lemon juice, HIGH QUALITY olive oil, and did i say garlic.
Yet again i made eggplant for people who said they don't like it and
yet again they ate the whole thing. I don't think i'm so great, i
just guess people have been eating awful eggplant. One thing is i
DON'T buy giant globe eggplants, i get smaller Asian ones. I find the
big eggplants tend to be spongy, watery, and bitter, and small ones
tend to be more flavorful. Around here there are Indian, Thai,
Chinese, Japanese, Pilipino, and other eggplants, including white and
green ones the size of a cherry tomato that are for eating raw dipped
in paste made of ground fresh red hot chilis with the seeds left in.
Size does matter, and smaller is often better :-)

- Bissara - Fava Bean Dip
I used canned cooked dried favas, but i hear it's great with fresh
green ones. PEEL all the beans first (and for Medieval feasts, fava
beans should ALWAYS be peeled - i've had them unpeeled - i guess
folks figured they didn't have time and would cut a corner - bad
idea). Then puree with fresh parsely, fresh cilantro, fresh mint, and
garlic, cumin, and lots of fresh lemon juice.

- Felfla Mchouiya
A salad of grilled red bell peppers and tomatoes tossed with garlic,
cumin, and olive oil. I'm no fan of bell peppers, especially green
one, but when the red ones are prepared this way they are succulent
and just fabulous. The bell peppers are placed on a hot charcoal
grill - or in my case, on a cooking sheet under the broiler. Every
few minutes i turned them, until eventually most of the skin blackens
and they are gently cooked. Then i rinse the skins off, peeling where
necessary, rinse out the seeds, and remove any white membrane on the
inside. They are cut in wide strips, but left their natural length.
The tomatoes are treated as below, Note 2, but they are only halved
not sliced. Then they're tossed with just a few simple seasonings and
plenty of HIGH QUALITY olive oil, none of that icky pale yellow stuff
they sell in the super market. This is not the place for cheap olive
oil. Anyway this dish has few ingredients and is one of my favorite
Moroccan salads.

- 13th c. Andalusian mirkas / merguez (that's a hard "g" sound, 'cuz
the spelling is French)
The evening before, i seasoned the ground lamb with murri, garlic,
lavender buds, ground coriander seed, garlic, cinnamon, salt, and
garlic.
I didn't use casings. At the dinner, i rolled the ground lamb which
i'd spiced the evening before into small "breakfast sausage" shapes,
and baked them on a layer of aluminum foil a baking sheet in the oven
at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. They cooked fairly quickly and they came
out fine. The recipe says to make a sauce of vinegar and oil. I just
squirted red wine vinegar over them. They really were better with the
vinegar than without.

A Few Notes:
1. Citrus fruits are peeled carefully so that the meat is removed
from the skins of each section - what i do is cut partway through the
peel, and break the fruit in half, then slice through the membrane on
one side and the back of a section, peel it away, cut the meat in
about three pieces, carefully put the knife under it so it falls into
the bowl, and continue, so there's no pith and no membrane in the
dish. Takes a little time, but definitely worth the effort

2. I used only Roma tomatoes. In Morocco tomatoes are small, firm and
ripened on the bush. They are not Romas, but those're the closest i
can find. And i bury my nose in the bin to make sure i get fragrant
tomatoes. And i get them at a place that has really good produce. Too
often modern methods of growing and shipping leave pale watery and
nearly odorless fruit (yes, tomatoes are fruit). These just won't do
for Moroccan food.
To prepare the tomatoes, i drop them in boiling water very briefly,
lift them out, and slip off the skins. Then i cut them in half and
rinse out all the seeds. THEN i slice or chop them for a dish.

3. I must have used at least a quart (volume measure) of garlic
cloves in this meal for 10 people. I bought a bag of fresh ones,
already peeled, at the place i get my produce.

4. I also used at least six juicy lemons and i could have used a
couple more, but that was all i'd bought.

MAIN COURSE
-- 13th c. Andalusian Thumiyya - garlic chicken - recipe already
given here Spring 2002.
-- Modern Moroccan Lamb with Prunes, spices, and a dash of honey
-- al-Baghdadi's Isfanakh Mutajjan - since i'd eaten something very
like it in Morocco 2 years ago
-- Couscous, the modern packaged variety, cooked in water with a dash
of broth and tossed with olive oil. My daughter bought me a
couscousiere, but has never given it to me, and it's stored in the
attic of her dad's house. Some day...

BEVERAGE
-- Water
-- laimun-safarjaliya - lemon-quince syrup - I made this from scratch
for the Iron Chef Persian 2001 - nice way to use up half a case of
quinces. But at that time i discovered that it's available in bottles
at my local Persian market - and other Near Eastern markets might
have it. The brand, Sadaq, is based in the LA area. So i bought a
bottle of syrup for this meal. To make it better, i added some rose
water - which is in the Medieval recipe, but not the modern product -
and lots of fresh lemon juice. It is drunk diluted with water to
taste.

DESSERT
-- Dried figs (the light colored kind), stuffed with almond paste
kneaded with rose water, then simmered (cut side up) in fresh orange
juice
My invention based on a modern Moroccan recipe for dried figs
simmered in fresh orange juice, and the modern and Medieval Near
Eastern predilection for stuffing dried fruit with almond paste.
These came out surprisingly good - i don't like figs, and i liked
these.

I used modern commercial bagged figs, so they were already rather
soft. If you used the old fashioned truly dried figs, i recommend
simmering them in the orange juice until soft first, since it will
take much longer to soften them. Then, cool a bit, slice partway
through one side, and stuff with almond paste kneaded with rosewater,
and serve in the orange juice.

Recipes on Request, since most are OOP. I will definitely post the
Mirkas/Merguez, since they actually are Medieval.

Anahita