[Sca-cooks] Re: Asabi Zainab

[Martha Oser]

Anahita wrote: 

> First, I'm curious why you made a syrup, since none is called for in 
> the original 
> 
> Second, I'm curious why you used vanilla which was only discovered by 
> Europeans in the 16th century. 
> 
> And third, i note that there is no similarity that i can tell between 
> cardamom and musk. I understand that one cannot use musk, and i 
> appreciate your note that you used cardamom for that reason. I don't 
> recall cardamom being used this way in other pastry recipes in "The 
> Book of the Description of Familiar Food". I would think that some 
> seasonings that were used in other related pastries would be more 
> likely than cardamom. 
> 
> Fourth, reading your recipe makes my mouth water. It doesn't quite 
> seem to reproduce the historic recipe, but it sounds luscious. Thank 
> you for sharing.
 

Well, first of all, I'm glad the recipe makes your mouth water!  I made them 
this past weekend for a class at the Cooks' Symposium and they went over 
rather well.  People kept peeking into my classroom to see what I was 
cooking and my mistress said they were the best I'd ever done so far. 

I made the syrup because I tried just "throwing" them in honey as the recipe 
calls for, and that didn't work out so well.  The honey was just too viscous 
and made the shells really, really sticky.  I had thought that the heat of 
the shells would help to liquify the honey and allow it to coat the shells, 
but that didn't really happen.  Then, I considered heating the honey 
somewhat to liquify it and make it easier to coat the shells, and that lead 
me to making the syrup.  I thought it was a logical step.  The syrup worked 
very well - it went right inside the shells and coated the outside and 
inside without being too sticky and messy. 

The vanilla, frankly, was just in the syrup recipe (it's the one I use when 
I make baklava).  You could certainly leave it out and just use rosewater 
instead, and I think that's the way I specified doing it in my handout, but 
when I actually made the syrup in preparation for my class, I was on 
auto-pilot and just put in the vanilla automatically.  However, as I have 
used rosewater more, I'm finding that, honestly, I just don't really care 
for the taste of it.  It's not so much the taste itself as the taste/smell 
combination - the way the fumes hit the back of my throat and go up my nose 
is unpleasant for me.  It's too perfume-y and has a kind of chemical 
"flavor" for me.  In previous incarnations of this recipe, I made a simple 
sugar/water syrup with rosewater added and didn't really care for it.  I 
definitely preferred the honey syrup I made this weekend - the rosewater was 
much more subtle and less overpowering. 

The cardamom came about because the first time I made the recipe, my husband 
was working on a cardamom bread and it just smelled so good...  I didn't 
have musk (still don't) and wanted something to season the nuts inside the 
shells.  I know it's not called for in the recipe, but I thought it added a 
pleasing flavor to the pistachio nuts.  If you can suggest something I might 
use that is similar to the flavor of musk without the hassle, I'd surely 
appreciate it.  I know there is a "musk seed" (which I also learned about at 
the Symposium last weekend), but I haven't searched it out yet.  I'll have 
to ask our local herbalist if she has any and whether I can smell it or not 
to see if my nose approves 

Thanks again for your comments! 

 -Helena