[Sca-cooks] Ottoman Soup Choices

[Lilinah]

Well, i've got the starches and the desserts 
figured out, but i'm still dithering about the 
two soups, the main meat dishes, and the two 
vegetable dishes. Usually i'm way ahead in my 
menu planning, but i guess i spent time on the 
Feast for the K&Q of the West at Pennsic and let 
the Ottoman feast languish.

I'm writing to ask for what you think about the 
possible soups i can serve. I just want responses 
like, "that sounds interesting", or "yuck", or 
"hmmm, maybe"

Like the bulghur with chestnuts i posted about, most have no real recipe.

Here's what i've gleaned from the text of "A la 
table du Grand Turc", plus one soup recipe

ONE - This one had no recipe, the ingredients were listed in a record book

Sour Soup
from the Ashane Tevziname, the records of the imaret (alms house) of Mehmed II
These quantities were noted as serving 4

broth probably made with lamb or chicken
75 grams rice (2-2/3 oz)
pekmez (raisin syrup) made of 600 grams (21.43 oz) black grapes
25 grams rose grapes (1 oz)
25 grams figs or apricots (1 oz)
25 grams plums (1 oz)
almonds optional

No directionsŠ So I'm guessing:
1. Soak rice in broth to cover for some time, 
then cook until tender. [i say this because 
that's what the surviving recipes that include 
rice say]
2. Stir in raisin syrup, and fruits.
3. Add more broth, salt to taste, and simmer until fruits are tender.
4. Serve sprinkled with butter fried sliced almond.

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TWO - Buyresiyye - An actual soup recipe

Yerasimos says: "Under this name is hidden, 
without doubt, the soup with barberries (kadin 
tuzlugu shorbasi) mentioned on the occasion of 
the great feasts of 1539. It is again an addition 
by Shirvani."

Buyresiyye. Cook a quantity of meat halfway, 
crush 200 dragmes of barberries with a little 
water and pass through a sieve. Pour the juice on 
the meat, add 200 dragmes of skimmed honey, make 
some small meatballs and place them as well in 
the pot, add as well some finely chopped onion, 
100 dragmes of almonds, 100 dragmes of red 
grapes, 14 or 15 tigre [dried] apricots, and 50 
or so dragmes of rice. Add next 3 dragmes of 
crushed cloves and 10 red apples chopped fine. 
Season with salt, and when it is all cooked, 
asperse with rose water, and withdraw from the 
fire. One can use tamarind in place of 
barberries. -- Shirvani, folio 126 verso

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THREE - Other Various Soups

Soups Described by Albertus Bobovius in his 
memoirs. A Pole by birth, he spent 19 years at 
Topkapž, between 1638 and 1657, as a page renamed 
Ali Ufkî Bey

chicken broth mixed with rice,
chicken broth mixed with pasta,
chicken broth mixed with chestnuts,
chicken broth mixed with chickpeas,

and seasoned with pomegranate molasses
or seasoned with a mixture of lemon and egg yolks

[notice... chicken broth mixed with rice and 
seasoned with a mixture of lemon juice and egg 
yolks... don't know what the Ottomans called it, 
but it sure sounds like what the Greeks call 
Avgolemono]

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The main course will have one Ottoman lamb dish, 
one Ottoman chicken dish, two vegetables from 
al-Baghdadi,
Ottoman bulghur with chestnuts, and four colors 
of rice (white, red, yellow, and green)

It is likely that the chicken dish will include 
fruit and the lamb dish will include herbs, but i 
haven't quite decided...

Thanks for your opinions.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita