[Sca-cooks] Suggestions Needed

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Martha Oser wrote:
>William de Grandfort wrote:
>  > Almond Fingers / Assabih bi Loz (featured in medieval manuscripts 
>as 'lauzinaj') these are little
>  > 'cigars' of fila dough filled with almonds, pistachios, walnuts 
>and sugar, and fried.
>
>Do you have a source for these?  I'd like to see it.  I make Assabi with
>shells of fried dough kind of like cannoli shells.
>
>Many thanks!
>
>  -Helena

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.

----- begin quote -----

Lauzinaj - Phyllo-wrapped rose-scented marzipan

This is a originally a Persian dish. References to it can be found in 
pre-Muslim Persian literature. It was the only dish in the pre-Muslim 
legendary history "King Khusraw and His Page" recommended as being 
suitable for both summer and winter.

Isa ibn Hisham said, "Bring us some throat-easing Lauzinaj, for it 
slips into the veins. Let it be... [fresh], the crust paper thin, 
generously filled, pearled with almond oil, starry in color, melting 
before it meets the teeth..."

Another writer said, "lauzinaj... in a wrapper as gossamer as 
grasshopper wings."

Original Recipe:
Lauzinaj: One part almonds, pounded coarsely. Put a like quantity of 
finely pounded sugar on it with a third as much rosewater, and melt 
it with it. When it thickens, throw one part sugar on it and take it 
from the fire. It is dry lauzinaj.

As For The Moist: It is that you take a pound of finely milled sugar, 
and you take a third of a pound of finely milled blanched almonds, 
and knead it with rose-water. Take thin bread such as sanbusak bread 
- it is better if even thinner; the best and most suitable is kunafa 
- and spread out a sheet of that bread and put the kneaded sugar and 
almonds on it, then roll it up and cut it in small pieces. Arrange 
them in a vessel and refine as much fresh sesame oil as needed and 
put it on them. Then cover them with syrup dissolved with rose-water 
and sprinkle them with sugar and finely pounded pistachios, and serve.

Another Variety: It is that you take starch [sc. flour?] and knead it 
hard, and as much as it stiffens, thin it carefully so that it 
becomes like fresh milk. Take the carved mirror and heat it and pour 
in it with the "emptier" and take it up. Then roll up pistachios, 
sugar, musk, and rosewater in it. Pack them snugly, cut them, and put 
hot sesame oil and syrup on them, and sprinkle them with sugar. This 
can be eaten right away.

al-Kitab Wasf al-At'ima al-Mu'tada (The Book of the Description of 
Familiar Foods), 1373, has over 1/2 dozen Lauzinaj recipes - in 
"Medieval Arab Cookery" on pp. 456-457.

----- end quote -----

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.

I now have a food processor and a friend with a food mill, so i'm 
willing to grind my own almonds.

If i were a skilled pastry cook or knew one, i'd like to try making a 
pastry closer to the original. What i'd really love to learn is how 
to make Maghribi warqa, but i don't really know what they're like 
when home-made (i guess i ate some in Morocco, but i wasn't studying 
them with great care, as i was busy eating them :-)

Anahita