[Sca-cooks] Musing on Mongol

[Lilinah]

Kiri wrote:
>If you look at some of the recipes that Paul cites in his information about
>the work prior to the actual translation, you will find some recipes that
>influenced what was done.  IIRC there is at least one really wonderful fried
>spinach dish that's very similar to a European one, only differing in
>seasonings.

Yes, i read the intro - i always read the introductions of books, 
otherwise i might miss some important information. I've been reading 
ASFTQ from cover to cover again - not quite done with it yet. 
However, Nawal Nasrallah's translations of ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's 
recipes are better than the English translations of the recipes in a 
German book that are quoted - of course her book was not available at 
the time.

IIRC (i don't have ASFTQ here at hand, so i could be wrong) it's 
Isfanakh Mutajjan, which is so very like a dish i had when i was in 
Morocco - same spicing (well, probably no cinnamon), but cumin, 
coriander seed, oil. I have loved spinach since i was a small child 
and we only ever had frozen at home - of course, using fresh is even 
better. So it's a dish i've been cooking almost since i joined the 
SCA - i've had a version on my website for years.

>It would also not be unreasonable to include a Middle Eastern
>veggie dish or two.  Same, same with using the Cloud Hall ms.  Mongol
>cookery was heavily influenced by both of these, so their inclusion would
>not be much of a stretch at all. In fact, in the feast where I featured the
>Mongol recipes, I did just this to get a few vegetarian dishes.

Well, when i work up a tentative menu, i'll post here - that's 
probably not until December. I'm pretty busy with some other 
projects. If i do this feast, it'll be in the Autumn of 2009, so i 
have a bit of time to plan.

I'm trying to figure out how to make kumiss - yes, Stefan, i've read 
the file in the Florilegium :-) I think it can be made with cow's 
milk, if it's not homogenized, and extra sugar is added. I'll have to 
see if there's a brewer willing to help me with it.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita

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