[Sca-cooks] Banana Recipe

[Stefan li Rous]

Master Cariadoc related a banana recipe and his redaction:
<<< A recipe for Judhaba of bananas by Ibn al Mahdi
Al-Warraq p. 375 >>>

Unfortunately, it looks like the digestifier didn't like some of the fractions. 

<<< Bananas: 40 ounces.     Ruqaqa: 10 oz iranian
thin bread  Sugar: _ c  _ water     2T rose
water >>>

Can you tell us again how much sugar and water you used?

I'm assuming that the spit is in front of the fire with the layered bananas and bread underneath this. So it gets the drippings and some of the general heat from the fire, but not being over coals or a fire doesn't really bake. Or does it get browned from being this close to the fire? Or am I wrong about it not being over coals? In the latter case, it would seem to cook much faster than the chicken and risk being burned.

Hmmm. But the original *is* is an oven (tannur), right? So maybe it is meant to get 'baked' more than it would be sitting in front of the fire.

Also, I'm not familiar with this cookbook, although we've probably discussed it here before. Where is it from and when?

It sounds interesting. I don't know where I could find this rugaga though. I wonder if flour tortillas or perhaps pits bread might make a reasonable substitute.

I'm also questioning the amount of rose water, which Cariadoc mentions later. It's hard to see how only 2T of rose water will "drench" through to the bottom layers. Unless you add some as each layer is added. Even then it doesn't sound like it would "drench" it. But as someone else pointed out, if you drench it, the rose water might be overpowering.

Thanks,
   Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****