[Sca-cooks] Book Question

lilinah at earthlink.net lilinah at earthlink.net
Wed Apr 27 16:12:26 PDT 2011


On 27/04/2011 8:30 AM, Ursula Whitcher wrote:
>  (including medieval hummus with salted lemon and feta pies).

Antonia di Benedetto Calvo replied:
>  Don't be a spoon-tease!

Here is the original recipe as translated by Zaouali:

from Kanz al-fawa'id fi tanwi al-mawa'id
(The Treasure-Trove of Things Delicious for the Diversification of 
the Table's Dishes)
Mamluk period - late 13th to early 16th, probably 14th c.

Cook the chickpeas in water, then mash them in a mortar to make a 
puree. Push the puree through a sieve for wheat, unless it is already 
fine enough, in which case this step is not necessary. Mix it then 
with wine vinegar, the pulp of pickled lemons, and cinnamon, pepper, 
ginger, parsley of the best quality, mint, and rue that have all been 
chopped and placed on the surface of a serving dish [zubdiyya]. 
Finally pour over a generous amount of oil of good quality
--
"Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World: A Concise History with 174 recipes"
by Lilia Zaouali
University of California Press, 2007
p. 65

1. i would recommend removing the skins from the chickpeas if you use 
a blender or food processor - if you actually force them through a 
strainer, the skins will stay behind.

2. "oil of good quality" may be olive oil; i would also suggest using 
cold-pressed unroasted sesame oil. There is absolutely nothing to 
suggest that in SCA-period cooks using Arabic-language books used 
roasted sesame oil, which is used as a condiment (not for cooking) in 
Chinese, Korean, and Japanese cuisine; one reason is that sesame oil 
was used for frying - and one would NOT use roasted sesame oil for 
frying. And no kind of sesame oil will produce a result that is like 
modern hummus bi-tahini, since ground sesame seeds have a different 
flavor and texture from sesame oil.

-- 
Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita



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