[Sca-cooks] barad

[Stefan li Rous]

Cariadoc gave a recipe and his interpretation:
> (From the Miscellany)
>
> Barad
> al-Baghdadi 211/13
>
> Take best white flour, made into a dough, and
> leave to rise. Put a basin on the fire, with some
> sesame-oil. When boiling, take in a reticulated
> ladle some of the dough, and shake it into the
> oil, so that as each drop of the dough falls in,
> it sets. As each piece is cooked, remove with
> another ladle to drain off the oil. Take honey as
> required, mix with rose water, and put over the
> fire to boil to a consistency: then take off, and
> while still in the basin, whip until white. Throw
> in the barad, and place out on a soft-oiled
> surface, pressing in the shape of the mould. Then
> cut into pieces, and serve.
>
> 1/2 c white flour 1/2 t dried yeast + 2 t water 1/2 c honey
> 1/2 c water      or 1/4 c sourdough 1 T rose water
> about 1 1/4 c sesame oil
>
> Make the flour and water into a smooth batter.
> Mix yeast and water, wait about 10 minutes, then
> add to the flour-water mixture.  Let stand 2-3
> hours (12-18 hours if your are using sourdough
> instead of the yeast/water mixture). Heat 1 c of
> the sesame oil to about 300° in a large frying
> pan. Pour the batter through a ladle or skimmer
> with small holes in it,

Where does this "with small holes in it" come from? The "reticulated  
ladle" bit? Otherwise I was envisioning larger chunks, like donut  
holes. It doesn't say to mold them though before dropping in the oil.  
But if you don't need symmetric blobs, maybe it doesn't matter.


> so as to form small balls
> in the hot oil. Cook to a pale brown (1-3
> minutes), take out, drain on paper towel. Add
> more sesame oil when it gets low.

Okay, still sounds like frying donut holes.
> Mix rose water and honey, cook to 250°. Pay close
> attention-you want it almost but not quite
> boiling over. As it cools, whip it; it eventually
> takes a sort of whipped butter consistency, with
> a light color.

Yes. I'll agree here.

> Mix it with the fried dough, press
> down on an oiled plate, press down from above
> with another plate or a spatula. Chill before
> serving.

But where in the original recipe do the fried dough balls and the  
honey icing get together? Is that what the "throw in the barad"  
implies? Where does this pressing between oiled plates come in? Or is  
that a substitute for a mold? And the chilling?

This was sounding like mold the honey mixture and then do something?  
with it. Put it on top of the fried dough? If they icing and dough  
get together sooner, then maybe put icing on top of/all over dough,  
put single dough nut hole in mold and squish to conform to mold.

>  It has some tendency to come out a bit oily; you
> may want to use paper towels during the pressing
> to absorb as much of the surplus oil as possible.

Hmmm. My experience with donut holes says if the oil is too cool, you  
get oily donut holes. If it is too hot, the outside of the donut  
holes browns but the inside is still doughy. But if these dough balls  
are as small as grains of rice, that might cause them to absorb more  
oil in the pot than larger donut hole size blobs of dough. Smaller  
volume to surface area.

> ----
> The first time we made these my squire Dain, part
> way through the process, told us that he knew
> what they were--rice krispie treats.


Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****