[Sca-cooks] Interesting find from Bib. Palatina

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

I get the digest, so there has probably already been the big reveal:
That message was sent out on April 1st (April Fool's Day)
(get it? get it?)

On the other hand, this weekend one of my classes at the West Coast Culinary Symposium (hosted in An Tir this year) cooked actual lamb "burgers" from the Anonymous Andalusia (one of the Ahrash recipes). We ate them with mustard - Sinab - which includes ground almonds, although the original says to serve them with a sauce of oil, vinegar, and garlic. I may have posted this recipe here a few years ago. I've tried to remove all the special characters...

A Type of Ahrash Called Isfiriya
(Medieval Moroccan Lamb Burgers)
This is the recipe used by Sayyid Abu al-Hasan and others in Morocco, and they called it isfiriya. Take red lamb, pound it vigorously and season it with some murri naqi', vinegar, oil, pounded garlic, pepper, saffron, cumin, coriander, lavender, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, chopped fat, and meat with all the gristle removed and pounded and divided, and enough egg to envelop the whole. Make small round qursas (flatbreads) out of them about the size of a palm or smaller, and fry them in a pan with a lot of oil until they are browned. Then make for them a sauce of vinegar, oil, and garlic, and leave some of it without any sauce: it is very good.

Commentary
This is the third recipe in the 13th century anonymous Andalusian cookbook. It is the second one for Ahrash, and there is another Ahrash recipe, #78. This one is identified as coming from Morocco, although the others are not identified with a particular region. One of the others tells the cook to make meatballs, not patties.

My Version

1-1/2 lb. ground lamb
2 Tb. soy sauce, instead of murri naqi' (source 2)
2 Tb. wine vinegar
2 Tb. olive oil
6 cloves garlic, pounded
1 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. saffron, crumbled
2 tsp. cumin	
1 Tb. coriander
1-1/2 Tb. lavender buds
1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
scant 1/4 tsp.cloves
2 eggs, beaten
olive oil for frying

Sauce
3/4 c. white or red wine vinegar
2 Tb. olive oil
6 garlic cloves, smashed

1. Pounded meat has a different texture from ground meat, finer, smoother. To achieve this, run the ground meat through the food processor. Do not process too much. When the eggs are mixed in, if the texture of the meat it too fine, the patties will not stay together.
2. Season with soy sauce, vinegar, oil, garlic, pepper, saffron, cumin, coriander, lavender, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, processed meat, and eggs. 
-- I used soy sauce, based on Charles Perry's experiments of making murri from scratch.
-- I omitted sheep fat because modern sheep are less lean.
3. Make small round patties the size of the palm of the hand or smaller.
4. Fry them in a pan with a lot of oil until they are browned. Patties shrink while cooking.
5. Make sauce of vinegar, oil, and garlic. Serve on the side; it needs to be stirred before using.
-- There's a sauce for meatballs in the same cookbook that includes murri which is even more flavorful.
-- And then there is Sinab, mustard sauce, see below.

Sources

An anonymous 13th century Andalusian cookbook. Charles Perry, trans., commonly known as "The Anonymous Andalusian cookbook":
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian_contents.htm
According to Nawal Nasrallah, in personal e-mail exchanged between us in the summer of 2008, the actual title of the book is Anwa' al-Saydala fi Alwan al-At'ima, which I translate as "Phamacopeoia of the Preparation of All Kinds of Food".

Charles Perry. "What Rot!", Los Angeles Times, 14 January 1998
____________. "Still Rotting", LA Times, 18 February 1998
____________. "Rot of Ages", LA Times, 1 April 1998
____________. "O.K., It's Rotted", LA Times, 1 April 1998

Alan Davidson, editor and contributor. The Penguin Companion to Food. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: 1999, 2002.

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Recipe for Making Sinab

Clean good mustard and wash it with water several times, then dry it and pound it until it is as fine as kohl [32]. Sift it with a sieve of hair, and then pound shelled almonds and put them with the mustard and stir them together. Then press out their oil and knead them with breadcrumbs little by little, not putting in the breadcrumbs all at once but only little by little. Then pour strong vinegar, white of color, over this dough for the dish, having dissolved sufficient salt in the vinegar. Then dissolve it well to the desired point, and strain it thoroughly with a clean cloth; and there are those who after it is strained add a little honey to lessen its heat. Either way it is good.

[32] i.e., very finely powdered-kohl is powdered antimony. (HM)

Powdered Mustard Seed
Blanched Almonds
Fine Breadcrumbs
Salt
White Wine Vinegar
Honey, optional

Grind almonds.
Mix well with mustard powder.
Knead to get oily (this works best with very fresh almonds), otherwise you might want to add a few drops of almond oil.
Add breadcrumbs little by little, kneading between additions.
Dissolve sufficient salt in the vinegar.
Pour vinegar over mustard mix.
Stir to blend thoroughly.
Then strain it in a fine sieve to remove any lumps.

Optional: After straining add a little honey.

This will be hot, no matter what, when first made. I would suggest making it a few days before you plan to use it.

Since we were making things on the spot, i bought Dijon mustard (the kind with white wine in it), then ground almonds and mixed them into the mustard. It's cheating, i know, but we were busy making several other dishes, too!

Urtatim (that's oor-tah-TEEM!)