[Sca-cooks] An Andalusian Lunch at Red Dragon

[David Friedman]

>>1. Note that at the time of that cookbook, 
>>oranges are sour oranges, not the modern sweet 
>>oranges which came in from China a couple of 
>>hundred years later.
>
>I was going to use sliced sweet oranges as a 
>garnish. Seville Oranges won't be in season in 
>October, and I don't know a source for them even 
>in season.

I do have two trees--but they are both small 
(citrus grows slowly) so not much use for your 
purposes.

I don't know any other way of getting sour 
oranges, though I expect someone somewhere sells 
them--they are still used for marmalade, I gather.

>I'm not sure what else would be in season and appropriate.

Not a lot other than citrus as late as October 
here. I gather Red Dragon is an MK event? Apples, 
perhaps?

>>2. You might want to look at al-Warraq, which 
>>has a lot of cold dishes. I've recently done 
>>the soused eggplant, which is very vinegary but 
>>does have the advantage that you can make it up 
>>to a year in advance.
>
>I meant the eggplant as a vegetarian entree, not 
>a side dish, but I'll look at that.  Even if I 
>don't make it for this meal, it sounds like 
>something I'd like to try.  Thank you.

I've been playing with the idea of coming to 
Pennsic with lots of jars of preserved food from 
period recipes, using that plus bread, fruit, 
sausage and cheese to eat well and period without 
cooking. My lady wife suggests that we might get 
sick of the taste of vinegar pretty fast.

>>3. Barmakiya is good cold (but not a vegetable dish).
>
>Where is the recipe for this?  I found a 
>description of meat between two layers of thin 
>bread but nothing more.  I'm trying to avoid 
>things that require oven space on the day, but 
>I'll try it for my test audience.

You can make it the evening before.

(from the Miscellany)

Recipe for the Barmakiyya
Andalusian p. A-9 (Good)

It is made with hens, pigeons, ring doves, small 
birds, or lamb. Take what you have of it, then 
clean it and cut it and put it in a pot with salt 
and onion, pepper, coriander and lavender or 
cinnamon, some murri naqi, and oil. Put it over a 
gentle fire until it is nearly done and the sauce 
is dried. Take it out and fry it with mild oil 
without overdoing it, and leave it aside. Then 
take fine flour and semolina, make a well-made 
dough with yeast, and if it has some oil it will 
be more flavorful. Then stretch this out into a 
thin loaf and inside this put the fried and 
cooked meat of these birds, cover it with another 
thin loaf, press the ends together and place it 
in the oven, and when the bread is done, take it 
out. It is very good for journeying; make it with 
fish and that can be used for journeying too.

Note: The Barmecides were a family of Persian 
viziers who served some of the early Abbasid 
Caliphs, in particular Haroun al-Rashid, and were 
famed for their generosity.

1/2 c sourdough	3 T olive oil for dough	1 1/2 t (lavender or) cinnamon
3/4 c water	1 lb boned chicken or lamb	1 t salt
1 1/2 c white flour	10 oz chopped onion	1 T murri (see p. 5-6)
1 1/2 c semolina	1/2 t pepper	3 T olive oil
(1 t salt in dough)	1 t coriander	3 T more olive oil for frying

Cut the meat fairly fine (approximately 1/4" 
slices, then cut them up), combine in a 3 quart 
pot with chopped onion, 1 t salt, spices, murri, 
and 3 T oil. Cook over a medium low to medium 
heat about an hour. Cover it at the beginning so 
it all gets hot, at which point the onion and 
meat release their juices; remove the cover and 
cook until the liquid is gone, about 30 minutes. 
Then heat 3 T oil in a large frying pan on a 
medium high burner, add the contents of the pot, 
fry over medium high heat about five minutes.

Stir together flour, semolina, 1 t salt. 
Gradually stir in 3 T oil. Combine 3/4 c water, 
1/2 c sourdough. Stir this into the flour mixture 
and knead to a smooth dough (which should only 
take a few minutes). If you do not have 
sourdough, omit it; since the recipes does not 
give the dough much time to rise, the sourdough 
probably does not have a large effect on the 
consistency of the dough.

Divide the dough in four equal parts. Take two 
parts, turn them out on a floured board, squeeze 
and stretch each (or use a rolling pin) until it 
is at least 12" by 5". Put half the filling on 
one, put the other on top, squeeze the edges 
together to seal. Repeat with the other two parts 
of the dough and the rest of the filling. Bake on 
a cookie sheet at 350° for 40 minutes.

>>4. Cooked Dish of Lentils, from the other 13th 
>>c. Andalusian cookbook, is good, but intended 
>>to be served hot.
>>
>>5. Badinjan Muhassa, from al-Warraq, is a good 
>>cold dip, loosely speaking. Not Andalusian, but 
>>it's credited to Ibriham ibn al Mahdi, and 
>>there is a whole section of Manuscrito Anonimo 
>>described as from his cookbook.
>
>I believe that is the one that was printed in TI?

Possibly. I don't remember publishing it there, 
but it might have been in something by me or 
Elizabeth. In any case, it's in the Miscellany.

>I tried it then and love it. I considered it, 
>but then I would need a different vegetarian 
>entree.  I wouldn't want two eggplant dishes. 
>It's good to know that you consider it to be a 
>compatible source.
>
>>
>>Hope that helps. Recipes for all the above 
>>(except the soused eggplant) are in the 
>>Miscellany.
>
>I was using the Miscellany as a resource and 
>should have acknowledged that. Thank you so much 
>for providing it.  And for the print copy that 
>you gave me several years ago.
>
>Ranvaig
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-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/