[Sca-cooks] Period substitute for tomatoes?

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

IIRC, Judith, you said you were Mizrachi. So i'd think you'd be 
interested in the Arabic language cookbooks, from the 10th through 
15th centuries. From what i've read, Jews and Muslims living together 
ate fairly similarly, with slight differences. The Muslims often used 
sheep fat, and from what i've gathered Jews preferred vegetable oil.

As i mentioned in a previous post, i've got a bibliography of SCA 
period Near and Middle Eastern cookbooks on my website that may be 
helpful.
http://home.earthlink.net/~al-tabbakhah/Misc_ME_Food/MECookbooks.html

Many of the recipes are not difficult, it's a question of your 
personal style of cooking - do you feel comfortable winging it from 
an outline, or do you prefer all the detailed quantities of 
ingredients written down.

What would probably be helpful is to get a hold of a book, spend time 
reading it to find recipes that appeal to you and suit your level of 
kashrut. Then experiment with cooking them on weeks without SCA 
events, taking notes, until you come up with recipes you know how to 
make easily for Shabbat.

Many dishes in the Arabic language corpus are meant to be eaten cold 
- these are often identified as Bawarid (pl), Barid (sing). For two 
very tasty cold chicken salads:
http://home.earthlink.net/~al-tabbakhah/Misc_ME_Food/barida.html

There are also chicken and herb roll-up "sandwiches" (Bazmaawurd). 
These can be made in advance and kept safely cool. I've got my 
versions of the historical recipes on my web site.

http://home.earthlink.net/~al-tabbakhah/2007_Feasts/Pennsic36_West_Feast.htm
1st COURSE - COLD DISHES
-- Bazmaawurd = Feast Opener - chicken "roll-up sandwiches"
-- Zaitun Mubakhkhar = Smoked Spiced Olives
-- Stuffed Eggs
-- Shiiraaz bi-Buqal = fresh cheese with herbs
-- Sals Abyad = White Sauce, tahini-walnut-mustard sauce/dip
-- Lavash [because it is like the period bread ruqaq]

2nd COURSE - HOT DISHES
-- Manti - meat wonton with yogurt sauce
-- Bustaaniyya = Orchard Dish - meat and chicken with dried fruit and spices
-- 'Adasiyya = Lentil Dish with vegetables
-- Jazr = Spiced Carrots
-- Saffron Rice

I know that you cannot eat all these dishes in the same meal, but you 
could probably make an appropriate selection - the only dishes that 
were hot were Bustaaniya and the Manti - the manti wouldn't survive 
long slow cooking, so not a good choice for Shabbat; but the 
Bustaaniya would.

http://home.earthlink.net/~al-tabbakhah/Misc_ME_Food/CairoLent14thC.html
-- Maghmuma - "Hidden", a dish of vegetables layered and cooked in a pot
-- How to Flavor Cabbage
-- Tharida (of fava beans)
-- Another Barida (a cold dish of fava beans)
All these can be eaten cold

http://home.earthlink.net/~al-tabbakhah/Misc_ME_Food/Hist-Mid-East-Recipes.html
has three recipes:
-- White Thariid of al-Rashiid - this involved cooking chicken with a 
variety of other ingredients in milk, and serving it over torn up 
bread. I know you cannot eat the chicken with milk. I have made it 
without chicken, substituting firm tofu and seitan, for vegetarians, 
although the seitan would be right out for your Celiac friends.
-- Isfanakh Mutajjan - which is stir fried spinach with garlic and spices
-- A Dish of Chicken or Partridge with Quince or Apple

http://home.earthlink.net/~al-tabbakhah/ambrogino.html
14th C - Ambrogino - a luscious and succulent Italian dish of chicken 
cooked with dried fruit and spices.

The recipe seems rather Middle Eastern to me, so i'm mentioning it 
here. I thought it was very delicious - the chicken is cooked with 
spices, almond milk, and several kinds of dried fruit. The original 
calls for fresh pork fat, but i used butter, and rendered chicken 
fat, or olive oil could also be used.

http://home.earthlink.net/~al-tabbakhah/index.html
lists the feasts i've cooked and the dishes in each, with links to 
recipes. While i cook European food, i also cook some period Near and 
Middle Eastern, so there are recipes among them you could adapt.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita