[Sca-cooks] Question - What Ottoman Recipes to Include in C.A.

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

OK, i am getting closer to finishing my CA. I have been asked to include some worked out recipes. I am skipping the 3 brews and the 7 medicinals. But there's still no way i can make all of the remaining 77 recipes.

So i am asking here for suggestions on which recipes to include.

Over the past number of years i have cooked 14 out of Shirvani's 43 savory recipes - most have meat; 2 are meatless, but have eggs. [Sweets & pickles to follow in another message]

Here's the list of what i HAVE cooked (most descriptions simplified):

• Muza'feriyye Pilavi - Simmer chickens, cut up, pan fry. Cook rice in broth with chicken, sugar, salt, saffron, onions, fat as needed. Serve topped with sugared almonds.

• Tavuk Chevirmesi  Batter-fried chicken & sauteed onions on toasted bread with honey and vinegar sauce

• Zirva 1 - Lamb, almonds, red grapes, dried apricots, dates, figs, salt, saffron, honey, starch

• Manti - Steamed ground lamb-filled thin dough wrappers in garlic-sumac-yogurt sauce

• Bashka Bir Turu - lit. "another dish" - Chicken in butter with onions, almonds, apricots, & fresh pomegranate syrup

• Salma-yi ve Bughra-yi Harezmi - Lamb with fresh pasta coins or bulgur and honey-vinegar garlic-mint sauce

• Zirva 2 - Meat, almonds, razaki grapes, apricots, wild apricots, figs, black Arslani plums, chickpeas, chopped onions, salt, saffron, honey, starch, poppy seeds

• Merserem - Lamb and chard in yogurt with parsley, mint, garlic greens

• Kabak keshkulu - Spiced stewed gourds with lamb

• Buyresiyye - Meatball Soup with Barberries

• Nokhad-ab - Chickpea soup with fresh sausage

• Tuffahiyye ve Seferceliyye - Syrup-cooked quinces or apples with lamb or chicken

• Seferceliyye - Lamb with Quinces, Almonds, Rosewater, Saffron

• Kayghana - Batter cooked in fat, i.e., pancakes. Shirvani has no serving suggestions; Mariana Yerasimos says they're served with honey and walnuts or soft cheese

• Mahmudiyye - Chicken and apricots with noodles and almonds

I will be including my "redactions" of the above.

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Of the remaining 29 "savory" recipes, which do you think i should try out? Note that several are VERY sweet (e.g., equal weights of meat and sugar).

Also bear in mind that there are 33 sweets recipes of which i need to include a number, although several require special skills that even most modern Turks do not have, and i certainly don't.

When recipes call for Fat = sheep tail fat, not necessarily easy to find (i'm sure i can find it where i live, but the recipes should be do-able in other places). Lard is obviously out; butter would be the closest substitute i can think of.

I'm asking for your recommendations, O SCA Cooks, because other people have different taste preferences from mine, and i want to broaden what i do.

I HAVE NOT yet cooked the following:

• Etmek ashi - Bread Porridge - water, bread, butter, eggs, pepper.

• Pirinch Herisesi - Rice cooked in broth; when all broth is absorbed, it is then cooked in milk. When done, add shredded cooked chickens, sugar, butter, rose water, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

• Dane-i Ḳabuniyye - Kabuniye pilavi - Cook lamb, cumin, cinnamon, pepper. Add minced onion, broth, salt. Add rice, broth, chickpeas, cook til rice cooked. Add dried apricots & butter, cook. Serve with apricots arranged neatly on top

• [untitled chicken dish] - Cook chicken in butter; beat eggs with sugar & cinnamon, pour over chicken, turn to coat, cook; served topped with powdered sugar

• Muhallebi - fat, rice flour, honey, meat, milk
• Muhallebi - fat, rice flour, honey, meat, milk
These two recipes are both very brief, and while not identical, are nearly the same. [There is a sweet Muhallebi that i have already cooked and am including, so I intend to skip this one]

• Zirbac Ashi - medicinal stew - Chopped lamb and chicken, vinegar, sugar or honey, cinnamon, saffron, chickpeas, almonds.

• Shekerli Ma'muniyye - Butter, rice flour, honey, shredded cooked chicken breast, rosewater, almonds, mixed; form into balls; bake on oiled tray until lightly gold; sprinkle with almonds, musk, sugar.

• Rashidiye - Equal weights meat & honey, plus saffron, almonds, starch, dried apricots, rose water, cloves, cinnamon.

• Mutancanna - Lamb, a little honey, fat, chopped onions, red razaki grapes, tigre' apricots, black arslani plums, top with crushed almonds or walnuts cooked in a little vinegar.

• Zerbudil - One sheep female, salted overnight; cut up chicken or lamb, meatballs, sheep's trotters, butter, chopped onions, chickpeas, cinnamon, pepper, cumin, mastic, almonds, apricots, rice, fat, stuffed into the sheep's paunch/rumen and cook in boiling water.
[i will leave it to others to stuff a sheep's rumen with sheep legs and feet and boil in a really big pot]

• Nergisiye pilavi - lit. "narcissus/daffodil rice" - Cut-up lamb, carrots, chickpeas, onion, rice, broth, cooked together.

• Mersmuye - Meat, chopped onions, chickpeas, sour grapes, meatballs, chopped apples, a little rice, salt, mint, crushed garlic, cooked together.

• Kapama Tavuk - Chickens cut up, chopped onions, butter, broth, spices, salt, pomegranate or lemon juice, cooked together.

• Dane-i Reshte - Egg whites & flour made into thin noodles, dried in the sun. Chicken, small meatballs, chickpeas, butter, and a casing filled with meat, pepper, onions, and chopped almonds. Cook noodles in broth. Arrange sausage and chicken meat on noodles, sprinkle with cinnamon and almonds.

• Cheshidiyye - Meat, pomegranate juice or plum juice or mulberry juice, honey, small meatballs, almonds, apricots, chopped apples, starch; sprinkle with musk, rose water

• Mu'amiyye - Meat, chickpeas and onions, lemon or orange juice, yogurt, meatballs, parsley, spinach, rice, dried mint, some spices.

• Asfuriye - Meat, chickpeas, onions, asfur (elm) seeds, lemon juice, sweet apples, rice, pepper, salt
[Since i haven't found a way to get a supply of asfur (also an ingredient in atraf al-tibb), i cannot make this, and neither can anyone else who doesn't have an elm tree handy]

• Piyaziyye - Cut-up meat cooked. Stuff hollowed onions with minced meat, rice, & lemon juice. Cover bottom of pot with chopped onions, top with stuffed onions and cooked meat, then another layer of onions. Cook. Add little lemon juice to taste.

• Tuffahiye - Cook black grapes and whole sumac berries in water, crush, strain, save liquid. Cut-up meat cooked. Fill hollowed apples with minced meat and rice. Put on top of the cooked meat, cook; add dried apricots and almonds, cook. Arrange on serving dish, sprinkle with crushed walnuts.

• Kabuniye - Cut-up meat cooked, put onto plenty of chopped onions, add chickpeas and apricots; add rice, fat, and broth, cook til done.

• Kuzu Ichi - lit. "in lamb" - Cook some meat, mix in bread, rice, almonds, dates, dried apricots, pomegranate juice, cloves, cinnamon, pepper, chopped onions. Sew into a lamb's stomach and cook. [if i can find a sheep's rumen...]

• Fistik Herisesi - Almond milk and sugar cooked to syrup; Mix almonds with rosewater, strain and take the "milk", shredded cooked chicken and half of pounded pistachios and cook on low fire. Gradually stir in rice flour, cook until almond oil comes out. Crush musk in rosewater, add to syrup, cook. Spread chicken-rice mix on dish, top with syrup, sugar, and some of remaining pistachios, repeat.

• Köfte = Meatballs - Mix ground meat, pepper, plenty of chopped onions, a little starch. Wrap around some peeled hard-cooked eggs. Cook in boiling water. [like modern Nargisi Meatballs]

• Ilik - lit. Marrow - Spleen, tail fat beaten in a mortar, add salt, fill casings or reeds, cook in water. [Nope, blended spleen and sheep tail fat, not appealing to me]

Which of the recipes i haven't made yet would you like to see recipes for? I have noted a few i cannot or will not make. I would like to include about 6 more or thereabouts.

I will be quizzing you on the sweets recipes in a few days.

I thank you for your input.

Urtatim (that's oor-tah-TEEM)