[Sca-cooks] Question about Camp Food

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Sue Clemenger <mooncat at in-tch.com> wrote:
>At our next A&S night, our barony will be discussing simple camp
>foods--foods that are do-able without a lot of fancy equipment, or
>spending all day over a stove, etc.
>
>What are some of the dishes from period recipes that y'all have done
>that have worked out well? We *do* have to travel a lot to get where
>we're going, so that's an issue; and I'm not looking at this from a
>no-refrigeration, period-cooking methods only standpoint, so things that
>need to be kept cold are fine.

I drive to the camping site Friday evening. The big cooking i do is
Saturday night.

I usually cook a chicken dish and a vegetable dish

To keep the chicken, i put a layer of ice on the bottom of my ice
chest, put down the chicken, so it's spread fairly evenly on the ice.
Then i pack ice around the sides of the chicken and add a layer on
top. Usually i bring unfrozen, but sometimes i bring frozen - it's
always cold here at night, and the chicken is still frozen Saturday
evening.

I have my version of that old war horse, Isfanakh Mutajjan (spinach).

I sometimes make an Andalusian dessert - with much less sugar - for
breakfast - Pomegranate Khabisa

I drink water all weekend, except for coffee in the mornings, so i
don't have a cooler full of sodas or beers. But i do bring milk for
my coffee, packed in a screw top container.

There are four recipes below...

Anahita

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

White Tharidah of al Rashid

Original
Translated by Charles Perry from a 9-10th c. Islamic collection.
Take a chicken and joint it, or meat of a kid or lamb, and clean it
and throw it in a pot, and throw on it soaked chickpeas, clean oil,
galingale, cinnamon sticks, and a little salt. And when it boils,
skim it. Take fresh milk and strain it over the pot and throw in
onion slices and boiled carrots. And when it boils well, take peeled
almonds and pound them fine. Break over them five eggs and mix with
wine vinegar. Then throw in the pot and add coriander, a little
pepper and a bit of cumin and arrange it and leave on the fire, and
serve, God willing.

4 to 6 lb. chicken in pieces - I cut breast halves in half
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas
2 Tablespoons olive oil (a little more?)
3/4 teaspoon galangal
5 cinnamon sticks
water as needed
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup *whole* milk
1 large onion (1 1/4 lbs), sliced
9 carrots (1 1/4 lbs), cut up
1 cup ground almonds
5 eggs
1 1/2 Tablespoons vinegar, cider or wine
1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
1-3/4 teaspoons ground pepper
1-1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
fresh cilantro/coriander greens

1. In a pot put chicken pieces and canned chickpeas (with liquid),
olive oil, galangal, cinnamon sticks, and some salt. When it boils,
skim off the foam (i use a cast iron Dutch oven at camping events).
[Note: i don't use the canned liquid. I rinse off the chickpeas and
drain away the water. Then i dump the drained chick peas into the
pot, and add 2 cans of water.]

2. While the chicken and chick peas are cooking, cook carrots
separately, then drain.

3. When chicken is done, pour some fresh milk into the pot. Then add
onion slices and cooked carrots.

4. Gradually bring back to a gentle boil.

5. While the chicken is coming back to a boil, beat eggs in a bowl.
Add ground almonds and a little vinegar, and mix well.

6. When the chicken has come to a very gentle boil, pour the
almond-egg mixture into the pot. Add ground coriander, pepper, and
cumin, and stir. Leave on the fire until eggs are set, a few minutes.
It should form egg shreds a bit like Chinese egg-drop soup.

7. Serve sprinkled with fresh coriander greens.

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

Recipe for a Dish of Chicken or Partridge with Quince or Apple
Manuscrito Anonimo, a 13th century Andalusian cook book

Original
Translated by Charles Perry
Recipe for a Dish of Chicken or Partridge with Quince or Apple. Leave
overnight whichever of the two [birds] you have, its throat slit, in
its feathers. Clean it and put it into a new pot and throw in two
spoonfuls of rosewater and half a spoonful of good murri, two
spoonfuls of oil, salt, a fennel stalk, a whole onion, and a quarter
dirham of saffron, and water to cover the meat. Then take quince or
apple, skin the outside and clean the inside and cut it up in
appropriate-sized pieces, and throw them into the pot. Put it on a
moderate fire and when it is done, take it away with a lid over it.
Cover it with bread crumbs, a little sifted flour and five eggs,
after removing some of the yolks. Cook it in the pot, and when the
coating has cooked, sprinkle it with rosewater and leave it until the
surface is clear and stands out apart. Ladle it out, sprinkle it with
fine spices and present it.

1 entire chicken cut up, or your preferred chicken pieces to equal
the weight of one chicken - I cut breast halves in half
2 Tablespoons of Costas rosewater (adjust to suit the strength of the
rosewater you have)
1/2 Tablespoon of good murri
2 Tablespoonfuls of oil
salt, as needed
1 fennel stalk, cut in crescents (just slice across, it naturally has
the curves)
1 whole onion, peeled, quartered and sliced
a tad less than 1/8 tsp saffron
water to cover
2 quinces or apple, peeled, seeded, and cut it up in appropriate-sized pieces
bread crumbs - i pulled out half a sweet batard
5 eggs, after removing some of the yolks
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon rosewater
fine spices - a blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and pepper - to taste

1. Put fowl into a deep pot (i use a cast iron Dutch oven at camping events).

2. Add rosewater, murri, oil, salt, fennel stalk, onion, and saffron,
and water to cover the meat. Add cut-up quince or apple into the pot.

3. Cook on a moderate fire until it is done.

4. When the chicken is almost cooked through, in a bowl mix together
the bread crumbs and eggs, with just enough flour to bind it.

5. When the chicken is done, take it off the fire. Cover it with the
paste of bread crumbs, flour and eggs. Put a lid over it (maybe here
in the old days they put hot coals on the lid - i didn't)

6. Cook it very gently covered until the coating is cooked.

7. When the coating is set, sprinkle it with rosewater and leave it
until "the surface is clear and stands out apart". To be honest, i'm
not sure what this means. I left it for a few minutes. The coating
had a texture and consistency rather like dumplings or matzoh balls.

8. The original says: Ladle it out, sprinkle it with fine spices and
present it. However, as i'm often cooking for pot lucks, i sprinkle
it with fine spices and let the diners ladle it out.


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

Isfanakh Mutajjan
from al-Baghdadi p. 206/12

Take spinach, cut off the lower roots, and wash: then boil lightly in
salt and water, and dry. Refine sesame-oil, drop in the spinach, and
stir until fragrant. Chop up a little garlic, and add. Sprinkle with
fine-ground cumin, coriander seed, and cinnamon: then remove.

my redaction... i season mine differently from His Grace, Duke Cariadoc

1 lb spinach (for camping i bring frozen chopped spinach. It doesn't
matter if it thaws in the cooler)
1/3 cup cold pressed sesame oil (from health food store - the Middle
Eastern sesame oil i've bought has been a tad bitter)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Heat oil in a heavy pan (i use a cast iron skillet) on medium heat
2. Add spinach, cook until thawed, and most of the moisture has cooked off.
3. Lower heat, move spinach to one side of pan, add garlic onto pan
itself and cook until a bit soft - a minute or two.
4. Stir garlic well into spinach.
5. Add spices and serve. I usually stir spices into spinach and then serve.

There's never enough of this, so double the recipe, for spinach lovers

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

Khabîsa  with Pomegranate
13th c. Anonymous Andalusian cookbook, p. A-24

Take half a ratl of sugar and put it in a metal or earthenware pot
and pour in three ratls of juice of sweet table pomegranates [rummân
sufri; probably tart pomegranates were more common in cooking] and
half an ûqiya of rosewater, with a penetrating smell. Boil it gently
and after two boilings, add half a mudd of semolina and boil it until
the semolina is cooked. Throw in the weight of a quarter dirham of
ground and sifted saffron, and three ûqiyas of almonds. Put it in a
dish and sprinkle over it the like of pounded sugar, and make balls
[literally, hazelnuts] of this.

(about 1/2 the above would be)

1/2 cup sugar
3 cups pure, unsweetened pomegranate juice (from health food or
Middle Eastern store)
1 Tablespoon and 1 teaspoon rosewater = 2/3 oz
[1 to 1-1/2 cups water]
1.1 cup semolina = 1/4 liter = 250 ml (this assumes the small Mudd is
what is meant; the alternative is four times as much semolina.)
1/10 teaspoon saffron, ground
2 oz whole almonds, blanched
1/4 cups sugar

Original Dessert
1. Dissolve sugar in juice and rosewater, bring to a boil, simmer for
about 5-10 minutes.
2. Stir in semolina, keep stirring and cooking about ten minutes more
3. Add saffron and almonds, stir together.
4. Pour out on a plate, sprinkle with the additional 2 oz of sugar,
form into balls, let cool.
5. If you want, sprinkle some of the sugar on after the balls are formed.

What I Do - Modified as Hot Cereal - Makes 3 to 4 servings
1. Dissolve sugar in juice, bring to a boil, simmer for about 5-10 minutes.
2. I usually add another cup or cup and a half of water, and bring
back to a boil.
3. Stir in semolina, keep stirring and cooking about ten minutes
more, until thick.
4. Add saffron, almonds, and rosewater, stir together.
5. Then i eat it like hot cereal. Adding a bit more sugar is good
here to bring out the pomegranate and rosewater. Normally i don't add
sugar to hot cereal (or cold cereal for that matter)