[Sca-cooks] Period Portable Lunch Foods

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

This is traditionally made with white flour flat bread, but should work with some other kind of low gluten flat bread.

BAZMAAWURD - "chicken roll-ups"

Charles Perry wrote:
"This giant canape' was the traditional first course at a banquet in pre-Islamic Iran or Abbasid Baghdad. The name comes from the Persian bazm, "banquet," and awurd, "bringing". The recipe given here is from the collection of the Caliph al-Ma'mun. It calls for the flesh of citron, a fruit with very little flesh - we know it mostly for its candied peel. Lemon is an obvious substitute."
----- "Cooking with the Caliphs", Saudi Aramco World, July/August 2006, Volume 57, Number 4. Originally in al-Kitab al-Tabikh by al-Warraq

The original is in "The Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens", translated and annotated by Nawal Nasrallah, published at the end of 2007.

Bazmaward with citron pulp called al-Ma'muni
Chop cooked chicken and spread it on ruqaq [bread as thin as textiles]. Let there be underneath the chicken some skinned walnuts, citron pulp, mint, tarragon, basil, and salt. Roll up the bread.

MY VERSION:
2 lavash (Perry also suggests: Mexican flour tortillas or other fresh thin flatbreads), about 12" diameter 
2 whole chicken breasts, cooked, boned and chopped/shredded 
4 tablespoons chopped walnuts 
3 to 4 lemons, peeled, seeded and chopped 
2 tablespoon minced fresh tarragon 
2 tablespoon chopped mint 
1/4 cup chopped basil 

1. Spread both flatbreads separately on work surface.
2. Sprinkle each evenly all over with  tarragon, mint, basil, walnuts, chopped lemon, and shredded chicken.
3. Roll up carefully but firmly and place on serving plate.
4. Cut each roll into 6 slices.

The lemon or citron and the particular herbs make this very refreshing.

Something like this, but modern, was quite popular around here (SF Bay area) a few years ago, called "Armenian sandwiches", and some other name i don't remember (anyone recall?). They generally featured cream cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and some other stuff (onions?) rolled in lavash (or i suppose a flour tortilla) and sliced.

I've also seen a modern Armenian version rather like lahm bi'ajeen (Lahmacun in modern Turkish - the "c" is pronounced like "j"), made with cooked ground lamb, chopped onions, various seasonings depending on culture, sometimes pine nuts, and sometimes lemon juice or chopped tomatoes or pomegranate seeds.
--
Urtatim (that's urr-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita