[Sca-cooks] Medieval Indian cooking

[Jim and Andi]

I apologize, Huette, for not communicating clearly enough. I will
happily attempt to clear up any confusion between my "rant" and the
reply to Cariadoc's question.

The Nimatnama is most certainly not Mughal, which you, as someone who
has obviously read the manuscript yourself, of course already knew. The
first two paragraphs of that email are merely urging Cariadoc to take a
look at the book because I think he would be interested. 

The third paragraph is about other early Mughal resources. I thought I
had notified the reader to the change of subject by reiterating
Cariadoc's question about other sources. 

I am quite surprised that you had never come across pre-1600
descriptions for samosas before reading the Nimatnama, there are two
samosa recipes in the Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook, one in the Baghdad
Cookery Book, and another in the Description of Familiar Foods. 

Madhavi

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces+jimandandi=cox.net at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces+jimandandi=cox.net at lists.ansteorra.org] On
Behalf Of Huette von Ahrens
Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 8:26 AM
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Medieval Indian cooking

I am sorry, Madhavi, but you have me very confused.  When several people
mentioned the Ni'matnama as Mughal, you went into a rant about how the
manuscript and the people of Mandu were not Mughal.

When Cariadoc just asked what other _Mughal_ cookbooks there were other
than the Ain I Akbari, because your rant seemed to indicate that there
were more within period sources, you now have recommended the Ni'matnama
as being a good source for _Mughal_ recipes.  I am sorry, but you cannot
have it both ways.  Either it is Mughal or it is not.  Make up your
mind.  In case you can't remember what you have said, I have included
his Grace's question and your response to him down below.

I have used the Ni'matnama several times for various SCA lunches and
banquets.  I was so happy to find that samosas were period and without
the ubiquitous capsicum peppers.  Here is a prime example of a food name
that continues for five+ centuries and changes as the people and their
tastes change.  The same goes for vindaloo from Goa.  It starts out as a
Portuguese pork dish made with garlic and vinegar called Vindalho and
with the introduction of capsicums to India becomes now the extremely
hot pork and peppers dish.  One could serve the dish called Vindalho at
an SCA banquet because it can be traced back to Portugal pre-1600
[according to Madhur Jaffrey] but not Vindaloo.

Huette