[Sca-cooks] Banana Recipe

[David Friedman]

>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?

Half a cup of each. But going back to the recipe and notes, I think 
the water is a mistake--a confusion from two different tries. The 
first time it was done at a cooking workshop, I think the person who 
did it diluted the rose water with water in order to drench without 
too much flavor, which doesn't fit the original instructions. The 
second time we used more rose water and no water. So the recipe 
shouldn't have water in it at all, just at least 2T of rose water.

>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.

We did it in the oven, which I believe is how they did it.

>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?

Tenth century middle-eastern. Big. The translation came out a few years ago.

>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.

We used the very thin bread you can get at Iranian grocery stores--I 
don't remember its name, but it seemed like the nearest equivalent we 
could think of. Much thinner than pita.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com