[Sca-cooks] Unique tapas

[Sharon Palmer]

>  followed by an Hispano Arabic,


You might consider this recipe, which Cariadoc 
suggested to me last fall.  I saw a dish like 
this in one of the modern cookbooks.
Ranvaig

>
>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.