[Sca-cooks] Middle-Eastern 'Nibbles'?

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Because the list doesn't allow messages over 40 KB, here's Part Two

----- Part Two - Beverages and Sweets -----

Laimun Safarjali - Lemon-Quince-Rosewater Syrup Beverage

When I was shopping for ingredients for the 
feast, I went to a Persian food store. I searched 
the shelves in hopes of finding a (synthetic) 
musk flavored extract or syrup called for in a 
couple recipes. Much to my surprise, I found a 
bottle of Lemon-Quince syrup from an American 
Persian food supplier. I bought it to taste test. 
It was delicious. My homemade syrup was even more 
delicious.

Original:
One part quince juice and three parts filtered 
syrup, in both of which you have boiled pieces of 
quince until nearly done. They are taken up, and 
the syrup takes it consistency. To every pound of 
the whole you add two ounces of lemon juice. Then 
return the pieces of quince; they improve the 
consistency. It is scented with musk, saffron and 
rose-water and taken up and used.
(Book of the Description of Familiar Foods, p. 
442-443, "Medieval Arab Cookery")

My Recipe:

2 dozen quinces
5 - 8 pounds granulated white sugar
juice of 12 lemons
several capsful rosewater, Cortas brand

1. Cut quinces in quarters. Core and remove 
flower and stem ends. Cut further into eighths 
(that is, each quince is ultimately cut in eight 
pieces).
2. Put quinces in deep kettle, cover with water and turn fire to high.
3. Pour in 5 lb. sugar. Stir well.
4. When liquid begins to boil, reduce fire to 
medium and continue to simmer, stirring 
frequently so bottom of pan doesn't burn.
5. Do NOT mash quinces. I did and it was a BIG 
mistake. I did not get enough syrup, although the 
mashed quinces were delicious.
6. When liquid has thickened and has become a 
lovely amber-rose color - many hours later - 
remove from heat and allow to cool.
7. When cool enough to manage, put a strainer 
over a deep bowl, and begin scooping out quinces 
and liquid. Allow to strain without mashing or 
pressing fruit. Remove resulting liquid to 
another large container.
8. After you've drained the quinces well, and 
syrup has cooled, check the consistency and 
flavor. It should be somewhat syrupy and have a 
tart-sweet flavor. It doesn't need to be clear. 
In fact, the original recommends having some 
fruity bits in it, so you can add some mashed 
quince at this point. If syrup isn't sweet 
enough, put in kettle on high fire, add more 
sugar, stir well, bring to boil, then reduce to 
high simmer, and cook down a little more.
9. When syrup is thoroughly cooled, add lemon juice and rose water.
10. To drink, fill a pitched about 2/3 full of 
water and add a bit of syrup. Taste. Add more 
syrup until you are satisfied (the commercial 
syrup, much denser than mine, is diluted 1 to 5). 
It should have a sweet-tart flavor, redolent of 
quinces and roses.

---------------------

Syrup of Pomegranates
Original

Take a ratl of sour pomegranates and another of 
sweet pomegranates, and add their juice to two 
ratls of sugar, cook all this until it takes the 
consistency of syrup, and keep until needed. Its 
benefits: it is useful for fevers, and cuts the 
thirst, it benefits bilious fevers and lightens 
the body gently.
13th Century Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook, trans. Charles Perry

My Version

2 quarts unsweetened pomegranate juice
2 cups granulated white sugar

Put pomegranate juice in a sauce pan.
Turn heat on medium-high. Stir in sugar - it 
probably won't all dissolve at once.
Keep stirring until it comes to a boil.
Reduce heat to a simmer.
Stir occasionally until reduced by half.

To Serve: Pour a little syrup in a glass and add water to taste. Stir.

---------------------

Syrup of Mint: Way of Making It
Original
Take mint and basil, citron and cloves, a handful 
of each, and cook all this in water to cover, 
until its substance comes out, and add the clear 
part of it to a ratl of sugar. The bag: an uqiya 
of flower of cloves, and cook all this until a 
syrup is made. Its benefits: it frees bodies that 
suffer from phlegm, and cuts phlegmatic urine, 
fortifies the liver and the stomach and cheers it 
a great deal; in this it is admirable.
Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook, trans. Charles Perry

My Recipe:

I have simplified this a bit

a large handful of fresh mint
a large handful of fresh basil
a large handful of citrus leaves
a small handful of cloves
1 lb. granulated sugar

Put ingredients in a 2-quart saucepan.
Add water to cover, about 1-1/2 quarts.
Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes.
Strain to remove leaves and cloves, saving liquid back in saucepan.
Add sugar to liquid.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, 
stirring to make sure sugar dissolves.
Cook until a syrupy, about 15 or 20 minutes.

Serve syrup in clear pitcher. Add a small amount 
of syrup to drinking vessel, add water to taste 
and stir.

NOTE: I live in California, so i can get fresh 
citrus leaves fairly easily. Citrus leaves are 
also used in Southeast Asian cooking, so you 
could look for dried citrus leaves in an Asian 
specialty market.

---------------------

Rutab Mu'assal - Honeyed Dates - stuffed with almonds, scented with rosewater

Although I find even dates NOT cooked in honey to 
be cloyingly sweet, these were a big hit. People 
came from the dining room to pick them off the 
trays after my course had been removed.

Original Recipe:
Take fresh-gathered dates, and lay in the shade 
and air for a day: then remove the stones, and 
stuff with peeled almonds. For every ten ratls of 
dates, take two ratls of honey: boil over the 
fire with two uqiya of rose-water and half a 
dirham of saffron, then throw in the dates, 
stirring for an hour. Remove, and allow to cool. 
When cold, sprinkle with fine-ground sugar 
scented with musk,camphor and hyacinth. Put into 
glass preserving-jars, sprinkling on top with 
some of the scented ground-sugar. Cover, until 
the weather is cold and chafing dishes are 
brought in.
(al-Baghdadi - p. 88, "Medieval Arab Cookery", 
and p. 39, "In a Caliph's Kitchen")

My Recipe:

100 pitted Deglett-Noor dates
200 blanched peeled whole almonds
1-1/2 cups honey
1 Tb. rose water, Cortas brand

1. Put almonds into dates, one at a time - some 
dates won't hold 2 almonds. Also, check for pits 
- dates are mechanically pitted and the machine 
could miss something and you don't want to break 
any of your diner's teeth.
2. When all dates are filled, warm up honey in a 
saucepan on medium heat. You just want it to be 
smoothly flowing.
3. When honey is warm, stir rosewater into it.
4. Then put dates into pan of honey on the stove. 
There should be just barely enough to cover the 
dates. DO NOT STIR.
5. When honey just gets bubbly around the edges, 
remove from heat and let cool. DO NOT STIR. I 
assume the type of dates they were using were 
somewhat hard. Most of our dates are pretty soft 
and stirring them after they've cooked in the 
honey will break them up or even dissolve them.
6. When cool, carefully remove dates one at a 
time to decorate serving dishes as desired.

---------------------

al-Mauz - Batter-fried Bananas

Bananas travelled from South and South East Asia 
to Persia and to the Arab world, although they 
would remain a rarity in the Western world until 
the advent of refrigeration.

In the original, the bananas are batter-fried, 
then layered with bread and cooked under a 
roasting chicken. I just served the bananas.

Original Recipe:
Jawadhib al-Mauz - Banana Jawadhib (a sort of 
parallel to Yorkshire Pudding) (Jawadhib are 
Persian in origin)
Take bananas that are fully ripe. Peel them and 
immerse them in a fine samid [semolina] 
sourdough, kneaded as for pancakes (Anahita sez: 
see my note below - using the word "pancake" is 
misleading). Then take them up and leave on 
something woven [a basketry tray?]. Boil sesame 
oil, fry the bananas, take them out and throw 
them in syrup. Take them up and throw them in 
pounded sugar, then arrange them in a tray with 
thin flat bread above and below. Hang fat chicken 
above it [in the tannour [oven]].
(Familiar Foods, p. 411, "Medieval Arab Cookery")

My Recipe:

33 bananas cut into thirds
semolina flour
unbleached white wheat flour
2 eggs, beaten
water as needed
sesame oil for frying
crushed almonds
cinnamon powder

1. Peel bananas and cut into thirds - they were 
easily handled on a clean dry baking sheet - I 
think this was better than dumping them all in a 
bowl.
2. Mix together semolina and white flour in a large bowl.
3. Beat eggs in a smaller bowl and beat in a cup of water.
4. With a whisk, beat eggs into flour, adding 
water as needed to achieve a batter thicker than 
pancake patter. Keep some water handy, as over 
the course of the frying process, you will likely 
need to add more water.
5. Put banana pieces into batter - I could fit 
about five whole bananas into my bowl and into my 
pan...
6. Put enough sesame oil to cover the bottom of a 
large skillet and put on a high fire. When pan 
begins to warm, turn fire down to medium.
7. Put batter covered bananas into hot oil - I 
allowed them to drain a bit over the batter bowl 
before putting them on to cook. Make sure that 
there is only one layer of bananas in the pan so 
they will cook evenly.
8. Cook on one side until golden - turn to brown 
whole surface - I found my bananas ended up with 
three sides.
9. While bananas are cooking, put another bunch of pieces into the batter.
10. When medium golden brown on all sides, remove 
to tray or serving dishes to cool slightly. Keep 
them in one layer, don't pile them on top of each 
other. When cooling/draining tray gets full, move 
banana pieces to serving dishes.
11. Keep repeating process, adding more oil to 
pan as necessary (I added about every three or 
four pansful I cooked); add more water to batter 
if it gets thick and make more batter if you run 
out.
12. When all banana pieces are cooked and on 
serving dishes, sprinkle with crushed almonds and 
powdered cinnamon. This was a last minute idea - 
if you think of another way to garnish them, feel 
free. They are certainly sweet enough that they 
don't need honey or syrup in my opinion.

NOTE: These were surprisingly well received. I 
figured that once the initial surprise was over, 
no one would be terribly interested in fried 
bananas. There were very few pieces left after 
the course was cleared and some folks came back 
to nibble or take them home.

The original was made of some sort of semolina 
sourdough batter. Although it is described as 
being for "pancakes", there really aren't any 
pancakes like our modern ones that I can think of 
in the Near Eastern corpus. Rather there are some 
very flat, almost translucent, stretched-out, 
stove-top cooked pan breads. I haven't eaten any 
Near Eastern sourdough breads that I know of... 
so this would be something to test and experiment 
with... I did use semolina flour, which give the 
batter a golden color, more flavor, and a 
chewy-crunchy texture that many folks commented 
on positively. I added a couple eggs to my batter 
to help hold it together and give it some lift, 
since I wasn't working with a kneaded sourdough.

---------------------

Lauzinaj - Phyllo-wrapped rose-scented marzipan

This is a originally a Persian dish. References 
to it can be found in pre-Muslim Persian 
literature. It was the only dish in the 
pre-Muslim legendary history "King Khusraw and 
His Page" recommended as being suitable for both 
summer and winter.

Isa ibn Hisham said, "Bring us some throat-easing 
Lauzinaj, for it slips into the veins. Let it 
be... [fresh], the crust paper thin, generously 
filled, pearled with almond oil, starry in color, 
melting before it meets the teeth..."

Another writer said, "lauzinaj... in a wrapper as 
gossamer as grasshopper wings."

Original Recipe:

Lauzinaj: One part almonds, pounded coarsely. Put 
a like quantity of finely pounded sugar on it 
with a third as much rosewater, and melt it with 
it. When it thickens, throw one part sugar on it 
and take it from the fire. It is dry lauzinaj.

As For The Moist: It is that you take a pound of 
finely milled sugar, and you take a third of a 
pound of finely milled blanched almonds, and 
knead it with rose-water. Take thin bread such as 
sanbusak bread - it is better if even thinner; 
the best and most suitable is kunafa - and spread 
out a sheet of that bread and put the kneaded 
sugar and almonds on it, then roll it up and cut 
it in small pieces. Arrange them in a vessel and 
refine as much fresh sesame oil as needed and put 
it on them. Then cover them with syrup dissolved 
with rose-water and sprinkle them with sugar and 
finely pounded pistachios, and serve.

Another Variety: It is that you take starch [sc. 
flour?] and knead it hard, and as much as it 
stiffens, thin it carefully so that it becomes 
like fresh milk. Take the carved mirror and heat 
it and pour in it with the "emptier" and take it 
up. Then roll up pistachios, sugar, musk, and 
rosewater in it. Pack them snugly, cut them, and 
put hot sesame oil and syrup on them, and 
sprinkle them with sugar. This can be eaten right 
away.

(ALL from the Book of the Description of Familiar 
Foods - which has over 1/2 dozen Lauzinaj recipes 
- pp. 456-457; also in al-Baghdadi, p. 84; both 
in "Medieval Arab Cookery")

My Recipe:

1 package phyllo / filo dough sheets
5 pounds almond paste (almonds, sugar, bitter almonds)
----- less sweet and more almondly than marzipan
----- but you can use marzipan if you can't get almond paste
----- some bakeries may be willing to order this 
for you if your food market won't
several caps of rose water, i use Cortas brand
1 cup light sesame oil or clarified unsalted butter (NO margarine)
1 cup honey
6 ounces shelled natural (i.e., uncolored) pistachio nuts

The directions look complicated, but this was 
actually a rather simple and easy procedure.

    1. Thaw and prepare phyllo according to 
package directions - thaw for several hours then 
place on a clean plate, cover with waxed paper 
and then with a clean damp towel. Do not let the 
towel touch the phyllo.
    2. Put marzipan in a large bowl and with the hands work rose water into it.
    3. Prepare a clean dry surface large enough to 
hold 10 marzipan snakes about 1/2 inch in 
diameter as as long as the largest dimension of 
your phyllo sheets. Cover with waxed paper.
    4. Then with the hands, roll the marzipan into 
"snakes" no more than 1/2" in diameter and as 
long as the longest dimension of your phyllo 
sheets, then place them on the waxed papered 
surface. Make ten "snakes".
    5. Prepare a clean dry baking sheet about the 
size of a phyllo sheet - cover with baker's 
"parchment" - this is a type of paper available 
in baking and gourmet shops. It will keep the 
pastry from sticking to the pan.
    6. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
    7. Cover another clean dry surface the size of 
a phyllo sheet with waxed paper. Fold back the 
damp towel and the waxed paper, very carefully 
and gently remove one phyllo sheet, and place on 
prepared waxed paper surface. Recover remaining 
phyllo sheets.
    8. With a pastry brush, gently brush phyllo 
sheet with sesame oil, being sure to get the 
edges very well.
    9. Again, gently take a phyllo sheet from the 
pile, lay it on top of the first prepared sheet, 
and brush well with sesame oil.
   10. Then place one marzipan "snake" about 1" 
from the long edge of the phyllo sheets. 
Carefully draw up the one inch margin over the 
"snake", then roll "snake" in the dough.
   11. Gently remove phyllo-wrapped "snake" to 
parchment covered baking sheet and brush well 
with sesame oil.
   12. Continue process of brushing phyllo sheets 
with oil, layering them, and rolling marzipan 
"snakes" in them, then transferring them to 
baking sheet and brushing outer surface with oil. 
Repeat until you have make ten "snakes".
   13. Although my directions look long, this 
whole process went rapidly with me and one 
assistant.
   14. With a sharp knife mark the top "snake" 
into ten equal pieces. Then with the knife, cut 
through all ten "snakes" so that you have one 
hundred pieces. Size will vary depending on size 
of phyllo sheets. Mine were 18 inches in the 
largest dimension, so each cut piece was 
approximately 1-3/4 inches long.
   15. Put baking sheet in center of oven and bake 
for about 5 minutes. Check to see if pastries are 
browning evenly. If not, turn pan so paler pieces 
are in the warmer part of the oven.
   16. Bake for several more minutes and check 
again. The phyllo will brown fairly quickly and 
you don't want to over cook them. Most ovens 
don't heat exactly accurately, some being hotter 
and some cooler, which is why it is important to 
check frequently.
   17. When pastries are a medium golden-brown, 
remove from oven and let cool on heat-proof 
surface.
   18. If you decide they aren't brown enough, you 
can reheat them before serving.
   19. Just before serving, gently and carefully 
remove pastries from baking sheet onto serving 
plates, drizzle with warm honey and sprinkle with 
crushed pistachio nuts.

NOTE 1: I used three large baking sheets as work 
surfaces - one covered with waxed paper for the 
marzipan "snakes", a second covered with waxed 
paper to hold unfolded phyllo sheets and on which 
"snakes" were rolled in phyllo, and a third on 
which to actually bake the phyllo-wrapped 
marzipan. All the sheets were approximately 18 
inches long and 12 inches wide.

NOTE 2: For the event, the marzipan snakes were a 
bit larger in diameter and only wrapped in one 
sheet of phyllo. The directions above will make 
what I think is a better pastry.

NOTE 3: While i suspect that phyllo was not used 
in period, it is clear from descriptions of this 
dish that the pastry wrapper was rather thin and 
light. SInce i didn't have the manpower, space, 
or experience to make wrappers myself, i bought 
phyllo.

---------------------

K'ak - Butter Cookie Rings
This is a modern recipe but very similar to a 14th c. recipe
which at the moment i'm not finding...

makes 24 or more cookies

8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter
----- or good quality light sesame oil
1-1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 c. white flour, sifted
at least 24 almond halves

* Prepare Cookie Dough:
1. Soften butter to room temp. and cream with an 
electric mixer in a large bowl.
2. Beat powdered sugar into butter (or sesame 
oil), a little at a time. When all is added, beat 
until smooth.
3. Sift flour into sugar-butter, a little at a time.
4. When all is added, beat until dough become stiff.
5. Chill dough in refrigerator until quite firm.

* Shape Cookies:
1. Make walnut-sized lumps of dough.
2. Roll into a "thin sausage" by hand and join ends to form a ring.
3. Place circles on ungreased baking sheets about 1" apart.
4. Press 1/2 almond onto each joint.
5. Chill the dough rings before baking them.

* Bake Cookies:
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Bake for about 15 min. until almonds are very 
pale gold, but cookies are still white.
3. Let stand on baking sheet for about 1 min. to cool slightly.
4. Then carefully transfer to wire cooling rack and leave until cold.

Some 14th c. recipes add chopped nuts - 
pistachios would be excellent - and a little 
rosewater to the dough.

To make more cookies for a feast, make several separate batches.

---------------------

Irnin - Sweet-filled Buns

Folks have been wondering if there was a period 
recipe for mamoul. Well, there is. But it's not 
called Mamoul. It's called Irnin (macron over 
second "i" so it's pronounced something like: 
err-NEEN).

The following three recipes are from The Book of 
the Description of Familiar Food, translated by 
Charles Perry and published in "Medieval Arab 
Cookery"

Irnin (One)
Take as much flour as necessary and knead it like 
khubz al-abazir dough. When it has risen, take a 
round wooden mould and make the dough into thin 
cakes the size of the mould. Roll them out and 
put them in the mold and fill them with sugar and 
almonds in thirds [Perry notes: perhaps one part 
almonds to three parts sugar] pounded and kneaded 
with rosewater.  Bring their heads together and 
seal them tight, then bake them in the bread 
oven. When they are slightly browned, remove 
them. Some people take as much dry dates as 
needed and remove the pits and knead them with 
sesame oil and put some al-afwah al-tayyiba in 
them, and they make it a stuffing for those buns 
instead of sugar and bake them.

Irnin (Two)
Take excellent flour, and on every pound put four 
ounces of sesame oil, an ounce of sesame seeds, 
and a handful of pistachios and almonds. When it 
rises, make cakes from it and bake them until 
they are brown. It is khubz al-abazir [spice 
bread].
If you want to make irnin from it, when it is 
risen take a round mold and make the dough into 
thin cakes the size of the mold, and fill them 
with pounded sugar and pistachios or almonds in 
thirds; that is, two parts sugar and one part 
pistachios or almonds, which you will have 
flavored with rosewater, musk, and camphor. 
Thoroughly seal their heads, then put them in the 
bread oven, and remove them when they are lightly 
browned.
Some people knead dry dates with sesame oil and 
remove their pits and put some of the afawih 
[spices, here perhaps rosewater, musk, and 
camphor] in it and make it the stuffing for those 
cakes.

Khubz al-Abazir
Take good flour, and put a third of a pound of 
sesame oil on every pound, and an ounce of sesame 
seeds, and a handful of pistachios and almonds 
and knead it. And when it has risen, bake it in 
the bread oven in round buns; the thickness of 
the buns is two fingers. When they brown and are 
done, take them and eat them with halwa.

[MY NOTE: musk and camphor are not safe to eat - so don't use them]

My simplified Recipe:
Makes 30 to 36 squares

FILLINGS
One:
1/2 lb. dates, pitted and chopped (about 1-1/3 cups)
2 Tb. good sesame oil (NOT dark roasted Chinese)
spices:
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
1 Tb. Cortas rosewater (less if using 
concentrated rosewater from alcoholic beverage 
store)

Two:
1/2 lb. pistachios or almonds
1 lb white extra-fine granulated sugar
2 tsp. rosewater (see note above)

DOUGH
3-1/4 cups medium or fine semolina
a pinch of salt
1-1/2 sticks salted butter, melted
2 TB. orange flower water
1/2 cup water

* Prepare Filling:
One:
1. Put dates in a saucepan with cinnamon and 
cloves and a few tablespoons of water.
2. Cook on low heat, stirring and mashing with a wooden spoon until puree-like.
3. Remove from pan and let cool, shaping into a ball.

Two:
1. Chop nuts medium-fine.
2. In a large bowl toss nuts together with sugar.
3. Sprinkle evenly with rosewater, stir.

* Prepare Dough:
1. Put semolina in a large bowl and mix in salt.
2. Make a well in the middle of the semolina.
3. Pour in the melted butter, rubbing with your 
fingertips until all the grains are coated with 
butter.
4. Add orange flower water and just enough water to bind the mixture.
5. Knead until smooth.

* Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

* Make Cookies:
1. Butter a baking sheet or jelly roll pan.
2. Divide dough into 2 equal parts.
3. Take one half. Place it on greased baking 
sheet or jelly roll pan. Flatten somewhat.
4. Place ball of dates on top and flatten 
somewhat. (oiling your hand helps keep you from 
sticking)
5. Flatten second half of dough somewhat, and 
place it on top of the date or nut filling. Then 
flatten the whole thing evenly until you have a 
big, flat "cake" about 1/2 inch thick.
6. Cut/mark 1 inch squares or lozenges (lozenges 
look nicer but may be more difficult, so squares 
will be fine).
7. Bake in preheated oven about 15 minutes or 
until done (could be shorter, could be longer), 
checking often. Cookies should NOT change darken.
8. Remove pan from oven.
9. Cut through bars and cool on wire racks.

To make more for a feast, make several separate batches.
If you like, you can mix date and nut fillings, 
although this doesn't appear to be "period".

---------------------

Carrot Paste

ORIGINAL
Take a ratl of carrots, of which you have cleaned 
the interior. Cook it in a ratl of water, some 
two boilings, then take it off the fire and let 
it dry a little, over a sieve. Add it to three 
ratls of honey, cleaned of its foam, and cook all 
this until it takes the form of a paste. Then 
season it with ginger, galingale, cubeb and 
flowers [of clove?], half an ûqiya in all for 
each ratl. Eat it like a nut at meals. Its 
benefits: it fortifies coitus and increases 
desire beautifully; it is admirable.
the 13th c. Anonymous Andalusian cookbook, trans. by Charles Perry

My Recipe:

5 lb. carrots, cleaned and peeled
5 c. water
2-1/2 lb. honey
2 cups sugar
1 Tb. + 1-1/2 tsp. ginger
1 Tb. + 1-1/2 tsp. galingale
1 Tb. + 1-1/2 tsp. cubeb
1 Tb. + 1-1/2 tsp. clove

1. Cook carrots in water until soft.
2. Add honey to carrots.
3. Cook until very tender, mashing a bit.
4. Add sugar and a bit more water.
5. Cook and continue mashing until it forms a 
paste. If you mash by hand, there will be some 
lumps, which is what i did. For a smoother paste, 
you could puree the pulp in a blender.
6. Remove from heat, then season it with ginger, galingale, cubeb and clove.

NOTES:
* I added sugar instead of more honey because i 
think the flavor of the honey would be 
overpowering, whereas sugar adds sweetness with a 
less assertive flavor.
* This reminded me incredibly of a Pharsi 
Gujarati sweet i've eaten which is made with 
grated carrots cooked with sugar, cardamom, and 
other spices.
* There were many favorable comments on this 
recipe. I thought it was delicious.

---------------------

Moroccan Cinnamon Dusted Orange Slices
A number of modern writers have mentioned this as a historical dish,
although i haven't yet found the original 
reference, so this *may* be "period"...

10 lb. sweet oranges
1 cup sugar
2 Tb. cinnamon
2 Tb. orange flower water
2 Tb. rose water

1. Cut off the ends of each orange and peel off orange skin - leave white pith.
2. Slice oranges crosswise, that is, across the 
sections, removing seeds as necessary.
3. Put orange slices into large shallow bowl.
4. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon, then with flower waters.
5. Toss to distribute seasonings evenly.
6. Keep cold until serving.

---------------------

Koshaf - Egyptian Dried Fruit Compote
This is a modern recipe
Makes over 3 gallons

10 lb. dried apricots
5 lb. prunes
2-1/2 lb. raisins
3 lb. halved almonds
1-1/2 lb. pistachio nuts or pine nuts (we used pine nuts)
water as needed
2 cups granulated white sugar, or to taste
3/4 cup rose water
3/4 cup orange blossom water

1. Put dried fruits in a large container.
2. Mix in nuts.
3. Cover with water.
4. Stir in sugar.
5. Add rose water and orange blossom water and stir.
6. Let the fruits soak for at least 48 hours.
7. Check every so often and stir, adding more 
water as needed, during the first 36 hours.

---------------------
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
-- 
"The truth must be taken wherever it is to be found,
whether it be in the past or among strange peoples."
	-- al-Kindi, Baghdad (801-873)