[Sca-cooks] bitter orange recipes

[David Friedman]

We made Naranjiya, from al-Baghdadi, recently, using seville oranges from our little tree, which produced its first significant crop this year--enough, I think, for about two recipes of naranjiya. It's not bad, although I like Mishmishiya, the apricot equivalent from the same source, better.

Naranjiya
al-Bagdadi p. 40

Cut fat meat in middling pieces and leave in the saucepan, covered with water, to boil: when boiling, remove the scum. Add salt to taste. Cut up onions and leeks, washing in salt and water: scrape carrots, cut into strips four fingers long, and throw into the pot. Add cummin, dry coriander, cinnamon-bark, pepper, ginger and mastic, ground fine, with a few sprigs of mint. Mince red meat well with seasonings, and make into middle-sized cabobs. Take oranges, peel, remove the white pulp, and squeeze: let one person peel, and another do the squeezing. Strain through a sieve, and pour into the saucepan. Take cardamom-seeds that have been steeped in hot water an hour: wash, and grind fine in a stone mortar, or a copper one if stone is not procurable. Extract the juice by hand, strain, and throw into the pot. Rub over the pan a quantity of dry mint. Wipe the sides with a clean rag, and leave over the fire to settle: then remove.

[end of original recipe, beginning of how we do it, from the Miscellany]

5 seeds cardamom    1/16 t mastic
1 lb lamb         1 large sprig fresh mint
2 c water         3 oranges (¾ c juice)
½ t salt          1 lb lamb for meatballs
⅝ lb onion       seasonings for meatballs:
⅝ lb leeks          1 clove garlic (  oz)
¾ lb carrots        ¼ t pepper    
¼ t cumin         ¼ t coriander
½ t coriander       ¼ t cumin
½ t cinnamon      1 t murri (see p. 5)
⅛ t pepper         ½ t salt 
¼ t ginger        ½ T dry mint

Put cardamom seeds to soak in hot water. Cut up meat and bring to a boil in water with salt; turn down and simmer, covered. Cut up onions and leeks and add; cut carrots into 2.5" pieces and cut lengthwise into strips and add, by which time the meat has been going about 20 minutes. Add spices and mint. Juice oranges, add juice to pot; simmer uncovered. Make meatballs by buzzing lamb in food processor with seasonings and squeezing into balls; add to pot. Take cardamom seeds out of water, grind in mortar, and add juice to pot. Let simmer a while more, about 1 hour 15 minutes from the beginning, sprinkle dry mint over the dish, and serve.
The oranges should be sour oranges, but you may not be able to find any.


David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com
daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/