[Sca-cooks] Shish Kabab ton-o-questions

Sat Aug 20 04:56:36 PDT 2005

Another thing that I forgot to suggest to you is that you check out the rules and regulations of
the hall that you are going to use.  They may not like the idea of open flame.  I have cooked in
halls where candles of any sort were not allowed.  You _must_ do this _before_ the event as this
could be a situation where if you do it without permission, you could be forbidden to use the 
hall again.  In my area, good halls are hard to come by and offending the owners for a bit of
theater would be a poor choice.  However, if they don't mind, then you can proceed, with caution 
of course, as burning the hall down is also a bad thing to do. :-)

I have checked out the Medieval Arab Cookery book, and there are no kabab recipes listed.  
There are kubab recipes, but these are meatballs and Charles Perry, several times, specifically
cautions not to mix these up.

However, in the Sultan's Book of Delights, the late 15th Century Moghul Indian cookbook, there 
are quite a few recipes for skewered meats, fish and poultry.

Huette

Another recipe for a method for skewering fish: 

just as previously, we cooked mince in ghee, cook fish by the same method and mix it with 
coarsely ground roasted coriander and roasted fennel seeds. Having mixed the mince with 
potherbs, a good method is to add some ebony fruit [tindu] and wrap it in cotton and fasten 
it to a skewer.  Mix camphor, musk and rosewater in ghee and rub the ghee on to the skewered 
mince every hour. When it has become thoroughly red, serve it.

Another recipe for rustic fish kabab, namely ganvari:

having placed one sweet-scented earthenware pot on top of another, make them both hot.  Stuff 
the boned fish with churned sour milk and asafoetida and wash it with water.  Rub salt, 
asafoetida, pepper, cardamoms and dried ground cloves on it and also rub lime juice on the 
fish and roast it in the earthenware, namely clay, cooking pot.  When it has become well-
roasted, flavour it with pure asafoetida.  By the same recipe, make kababs of partridges, 
quails, kid, chicken and pigeon, and also, by the same recipe make rabbit kababs.

Another recipe, for meat:

cut kababs of thin veal, add rounds of onion, fresh ginger, cardamoms, cloves and rice flour 
and flavour it with ghee.  Add whole potherbs and, having roasted azmuda [either parsley, 
caraway, or celery seed] seed, put that in.

Another recipe, for mountain sheep:

Now the methods for cooking meat have been written down, take meat from a fat mountain sheep 
and cook kababs from it.  Add tumeric, asafoetida, green coriander, onion and salt and boil it.  
When the meat has become thoroughly cooked, flavour some ghee with asafoetida and put that meat
into it.  When it has become well-stewed, add roasted ground cardamoms, cloves, cumin and 
fenugreek and put in coriander and cook it for an hour.  Take it off after adding one ratti of
camphor and two rattis of musk.  Put extracted lime juice in one china pot and make vinegar in
another pot.  Offer whichever is preferred, put it on the dressed meat and eat it.

Another recipe is for skewered meat (sikh):

for use where fires are available, either for game birds or sheep meat.  First of all cut the 
meat very finely, wash it with tumeric and good water and boil it.  Add salt, asafoetida and
choppen potherbs and boil it.  If it has become well-cooked, tie it with a thread and marinate 
it with all kinds of potherbs mixed with lime juice.  Leave it in one place for several hours 
(to marinate) and then roast it.  When the potherbs in the meat turn red and become absorbed, 
then put musk, camphor and rosewater into ghee and rub it on the meat and roast it once more.  
When it has become well-cooked, and it is time to eat, throw away the thread.

Another recipe for the method for meat:

Boil the meat well, take it off [the fire], dry it and fasten it to a wooden skewer.  Mix 
saffron, white ambergris and rosewater together and rub it on the meat.  Put it in a cooking 
pot and add rice. Put in fresh ginger, onions and salt and cook it.  Serve it with good gravy.

Another recipe, for the method for skewering meat: 

cook the skewered meat well, then fry it in ghee.  Add salt and lovage and cook it.  Then put
vinegar, palm sugar and broth on it and put meaty brother over it.  Grind a quarter of a sir 
of almonds, walnuts, pine kernels, pistachios and raisins and make a stuffing, adding a little
palm sugar.  Cook bread with a double filling over thorns and sprinkle it with rosewater.         

Another recipe for skewered meat(sikh): 

fry the sikh well and chop some radishes and onion finely.  Put together lime juice, fresh 
ginger juice, salt, asafoetida, turmeric, fenugreek, azmuda and ghee.  Rub them on the sikh 
and revolve them over a fire.  When they are roasted, stuff them into hot thin bread and serve
them. 

Another recipe:

get a young pigeon or a chicken or a sparrow and having cleaned it well, rub it with potherbs, 
skewer it on a stick and rub it with galingale, cassia, salt and flour and either bake it or 
else cook it in soup.

CLdyroz at aol.com wrote:

> Good Evening!
> I have actually been asked to  cook a course at our December Event. ;)
> Yes, it will be my first....
> It has been requested that I prepare Shish Kababs with the usual 
> accompaniments.
> 
> Now, part of the presentation is have the Head Table presented with flaming 
> Shish Kabab on fencing foils.
> So, I have a flood of questions;
> 
> 1. If Middle/Near Eastern food doesn't contain alcohol, how am I supposed to 
> get the things to flame? Would it be better to go Greek, instead of Eastern?
> 2. What cut of meat would be best? Lamb and top sirloin beef are priced about 
> the same here. (I don't want to skimp on quality-tough meat doesn't grill 
> well)
> 3.  For the populace-the meat goes on a bamboo skewer. How much meat per 
> stick? I am thinking of about 4 oz. per person. There will be other courses, I 
> just don't know what, so far. Feast will be for about 120-150. 
> 4.  In prep work, I was thinking of cutting the beef, putting it in the 
> marinade and freezing it. But, will the freezing make it too tough? Will sitting in 
> the marinade give it an off-flavor?
> 5. Grill space and time will be limited-and probably charcoal. That means 
> doing the charcoal in stages, replenishing and so on. Is there an easier, faster 
> way to do it and still get that good flavor? Say, parboil, put on sticks and 
> then grill?
> 6. I was planning on mushrooms and onions as a veggie spacer, but I would 
> like a third if possible-any suggestions?
> 7. If I do ME, I plan on rice and falafel and pita bread and humus. Greek 
> would have rice pilaf, and...and dates. ::sigh::
> Yeah, I know-same old, same old. Any idea of what I can do or where I can go 
> to find something that will wake people up? Yeah, I know, the flames (and the 
> fencers carrying them) will catch their attention, but I would like something 
> a little different, out of the way.... Every book I can get my hands on is all 
> European. the Greek one I have is all Americanized Modern Recipes. And the 
> local librarians are not helpful....
> 
> I know this is a slew of questions. I thank you for reading them. I also 
> thank any of you who will respond. Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated!
> 
> Thank you!
> Helen Hawksworth
> Beginning Cook
> (that just means more dishes to wash:))
> (Yes, I have checked the "fleur-a-thingy"-that's where I got the pomegranate 
> recipe. :) thank you, Urtitum and Stephan. You both are wonderful! )
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks
> 

Remember that while money talks, chocolate sings.

____________________________________________________
Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page 
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs 