[Sca-cooks] Cilantro Potaje

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Saturday His Grace, Duke Cariadoc, and his Lady Betty Cook, hosted a 
cooking experium - they printed out a bunch of recipes and those 
attending each selected one and gave it a whirl. This time they were 
all from either the Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook or the 1529 De Nola.

One recipe that was worked out was the Potaje de Culantro from De 
Nola (trans. of orig. recipe below).

While the final dish was interesting and i would eat it again, it was 
certainly not worth the enormous amount of effort Halima, who cooked 
it, expended.

The text implies that it is moist, but grinding the quantity of nuts 
and cilantro that Halima used did not result in anything at all 
moist. Halima tried grinding the ingredients by hand, then grinding 
them in a food processor and grinding the resultant stiff paste by 
hand in a mortar (enlisting the assistance of some other 
participants). I suggested adding some water, which she did (a 
relatively small amount), then forcing the resultant paste through a 
wire sieve. The final dish was almost as thick as a nut butter, but 
not as oily. Now, i like eating nut butters straight from the jar, 
but others might not, so...

I was wondering if anyone else had tried it, what they did, and what 
were the results.

I suspect that, among other things, we needed a lot more cilantro and 
fewer nuts...

Anahita

30. ANOTHER POTTAGE OF CORIANDER CALLED THE THIRD
OTRO POTAJE DE CULANTRO LLAMADO TERCIO
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-MANUSCRIPTS/Guisados1-art.html

You must take green coriander, and cut it finely, and grind it in a 
mortar together with dry coriander, and then take toasted almonds and 
toasted hazelnuts, and grind them separately in a mortar; and when 
they are well-ground, mix them with the almonds, and resume grinding 
everything together; and when it is well-ground, strain it through a 
woolen cloth, and set it to cook in the pot; and cast in all fine 
spices with saffron, and vinegar, and sugar; and set it to cook with 
little fire just until it is a little thickened; and remove it from 
the fire, and prepare dishes, and upon them cast sugar and cinnamon.