[Sca-cooks] Cilantro Potaje

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Vicki Shaw wrote:
>Sounds like a lovely thing this potaje but is there a redaction for it?
>Like how much of the ingredients and can one really use wool to sift ground
>nuts?

Well, the point of the "mini-events" that Cariadoc and Betty host is 
to work out the recipes - i.e., create a redaction. I sent the 
original recipe with my original message and that's what Halima was 
working from. What she worked out was not entirely successful. That 
is why i was asking about it on the list.

I don't have what she did written down. However, Duke Cariadoc 
meticulously typed into his computer everyone's list of ingredients 
and quantities, as well as the process involved.

I've been meaning to ask him or Betty to send me mine. I thought it 
was yummy - it was a chicken recipe from the Anon. Andalusian 
cookbook. I didn't get a printout, although i think i remember the 
basic process and my ingredients, although not the quantities i used, 
but i think i could recreate it.

The chicken was cooked in a puree of onion, cilantro, and spices. The 
breast into meatballs - i used the breast raw, but the recipe could 
be interpreted as using the breasts cooked, although that doesn't 
seem logical to me. When the chicken is pretty much done, the 
meatballs are added to the sauce and cooked until just about done, 
then the dish is dotted with egg yolks, which cook in the sauce, and 
a blend of egg whites, ground walnuts, and saffron is poured over the 
stuff and cooked until done...

Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:
>  I sent a long and detailed reply to the list last night, and it never
>  appeared.  Here is a briefer version.
SNIP

You sent it directly to me. If you like, i can forward it to the 
list. I found your information extremely helpful. I'll forward it to 
Halima.

I am afraid i am not a literalist when dealing with Medieval and 
Renaissance recipes. I couple my knowledge of modern cooking, my 
experience eating all manner of foreign food, and my experience 
cooking much of said foreign food, to my interpretation and cooking 
of Med/Ren recipes. I suspect that we all do this to some extent, 
since in many of the recipes processes are left out, processes are 
not always given in the correct order, quantities are often not 
given, etc. I try not to interpret from an entirely modern American 
point of view - i try not to let my modern "expectations" get in the 
way -and i think mine are mitigated very much by much experience with 
a lot of foreign cuisines - so that, for example, the idea of adding 
cinnamon to a meat dish never seemed at all strange to me. But i also 
know that interpreting the recipes literally will lead to many 
problems.

Halima was trying to be as literal as possible and added the small 
amount of water very reluctantly when it was apparent beyond all 
doubt that the recipe was not going to produce any liquid to speak of.

Anahita