[Sca-cooks] Re: Asabi Recipe

[Martha Oser]

Anahita writes: 

> There are several recipes for lauzinaj in "Medieval Arab Cookery". I 
> don't interpret them as being like cannoli (i *love* cannoli). I made 
> an adapted version for a feast several years ago - i used purchased 
> marzipan, not hand milled almonds, and phyllo for the wrapping. 
> Descriptions of the dough suggest to me something like, but perhaps 
> not as fine as, phyllo. Here's what i wrote in my website.
> The above, including my adapted, not really authentic, recipe is on my webpage:
> http://home.earthlink.net/~lilinah/2001_Feasts/persianrecipes.html 
> 
> Neither cannoli nor a number of other dough wrapper sound to me to be 
> "as gossamer as grasshopper wings" so i used phyllo. 
> 
> It was my first experience using phyllo and i wrote out the process 
> in detail on my webpage, but the actual doing of it is far simpler 
> than it appears. One just has to work fast - the process is 
> repetitive and somewhat mechanical, so it goes fairly quickly. The 
> ones i made were all gobbled up, so i guess it turned out ok.
 

Ah well, that explains it!  I don't have that book (yet) though the recipe I 
use is from Medieval Arab Cookery as well.  It's for Asabi Zainab and 
specifically calls for dough that you "put on a cane and fry it somewhat." 

I tried wooden dowels, but I've found the small cannoli forms work better. 

It sounds like phyllo was the right choice for your recipe, though, since my 
shells are nowhere near like grasshopper wings, unless they're 10,000 pound 
grasshoppers! 

These will be my demo for one of my classes at the Cooks' Symposium this 
weekend. 

 -Helena