[Sca-cooks] Period Chicken Salad

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Margaret FitzWilliam wrote:
>On Mon, 14 Aug 2006 lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
>  > BARIDA OF IBRAHIM IBN AL-MAHDI
>  > 9th century, 'Abbasid Dynasty, Baghdad
>  >
>  > I served this at a Laurel vigil buffet for two vigilees simultaneously.
>  >
>  > ORIGINAL
>  > translated by David Waines in "In a Caliph's Kitchen", pp. 82-83
>  >
>  > Two parts almonds and sugar and two parts vinegar and mustard mixed
>  > together in a vessel with partially dried safflower adding colour
>  > around the edges. Cucumber peeled, qutha and faqqas and pomegranate,
>  > chopped up small and sprinkled around the vessel. Add a little oil.
>  > Take a fine young chicken, cooked in vinegar, jointed and cut up in
>  > pieces and placed over the other ingredients in one vessel. Decorate
>  > the dish with pomegranate (seeds) and with almonds and olives chopped
>  > up fine.
>
>I have a question about the pomegranates. Would it make any sense to use
>some pomegranate juice in with the mustard in lieu of actual pomegranates,
>which are darned hard to find this time of year?

They are there for flavor and color. If you can't find pomegranates 
(yeah, it's a little ahead of the season), i'd skip them.

If you like, you could sprinkle some
(1.) sumac
OR
(2.) barberries (if dried, briefly soaked)
around the edges along with the chopped cucumbers, since that would 
add a nicely contrasting warm color and a tart flavor like the 
pomegranates would. I'm not saying the taste would be the same, but 
the effect would.

Sumac is used in 'Abbasid recipes. I have not seen barberries used in 
them, however. I have found barberries in at least one late 15th c. 
Ottoman recipe, and they are used in modern Persian recipes.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita