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Sun May 28 20:04:55 PDT 2006


=93Dried couscous looks rather like small soup noodle, but is made by a
process of its own that
does not involve kneading:  a bowl of flour is sprinkled intermittently
with salted water as the
fingers of the right hand rake through it in sweeping, circular
movements, causing balls of dough
to coagulate.  The granules are also rubbed between the pals or against
the side of the bowl to
shape them, and when complete they are dried.

The contents of the bowl are sieved several times to obtain granules of
uniform size.=94 =96 p. 235
=93=85the suspicious silence about couscous in sources from before the
thirteenth century, coupled
with the evident Berber origin of the Arabic word kuskus, suggests that
couscous arose among
the Berbers of northern Algeria and Morocco during the obscure period
between the
eleventh-century collapse of the Zirid Kingdom and the triumph of the
Almohads in the
thirteenth.=94=97 p. 237

Rutab Mu=92Assal [honeyed ripe dates].  Take fresh ripe dates freshly
harvested for immersion
and spread the out in the shade and air for two days.  Then remove their
pits from the bottom,
using a packing needle or sharpened stick, and put excellent peeled
sweet almonds in place of
all the pits.  For every ten pounds, take two pounds of honey and thin
it with two ounces of
rosewater.  Put it up on the fire, and when it boils, remove its scum.
Then colour it with half a
dirham of saffron and throw the dates in it.  And when it boils, stir
them nicely, lightly, so that
they absorb the honey.  Then take them down from the fire and spread
them out in a tray of
briar wood.  When they have cooled off, sprinkle them with spiced finely
pounded sugar.  If
you want them to be heating, it is with musk, spikenard and a bit of
[hot] spices [afawih].  If
you want them to be cooling, spice them with camphor and a little poppy
seed.  Put them up in
glass vessels and only use them during the chilly season and when fresh
date season is over. --
Kitab Wasf al-At=92ima al-Mu=92tada (The Description of Familiar Foods)
trans. Charles Perry.

50 Dates
50 Almonds
1 lb. Honey
3 Tbsp. Rosewater
1/4 tsp. Saffron
1/2 cup Castor sugar
1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Poppy seed

Insert peeled almonds into the center of pitted dates.  Mix honey and
rosewater and bring to a
boil, skimming off any scum.  Add saffron followed by the dates. When
boiling, stir gently so
that they absorb the honey.  Remove dates from the honey and spread out
to cool.  Sprinkle
with a mixture of cinnamon, castor sugar and poppy seed.

Hope this is better.  If anyone else has a problem, please let me know
and I'll try to make
another arrangement to get these to you.  I'm hoping that my sweetie
will have a few minutes at
some point to help me put up a web site, but so far it hasn't happened.
sigh.........

Kiri



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