[Sca-cooks] Questions in prep for a spanish feast

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

>Third, I know people refer to a certain period islamic recipe as being a
>sort of ancestor of baklava. Can anyone point me to this recipe? I know
>it's in part of the 100s of pages I've been searching through and probably
>in the Florilegium but I'm getting overwhelmed.

There's also Lauzinaj, almonds ground with sugar wrapped in a light 
pastry in the Book of the Description of Familiar Foods, al-Kitab 
Wasf al-At'ima al-Mu'tada, dated 1373, complete text translated and 
introduced by Charles Perry in "Medieval Arab Cookery".

I have his English translation and my recipe on my website:
http://witch.drak.net/lilinah/persianchef.html

My version was simplified, as i was Iron Chef Persian at a time when 
i was homeless. Since i didn't have a kitchen to experiment with 
dough wrappers, i made it with marzipan and phyllo. Perhaps it would 
be more historical with a less finely ground almond mixture. While i 
think that the dough was not phyllo, i am encouraged by the 
description of the dough as being as gossamer as grasshoppers' wings 
to use it as an acceptable substitute until i can make further 
experiments.

Anahita