[Sca-cooks] Cooking workshop 9/3

[David Friedman]

Only two people ended up coming, possibly because of Labor Day. But with 
two of them, three of us, and my doing two recipes, we got through six 
recipes, all at least moderately successful, some generating new 
information.

The most interesting was probably Güllach, a Mongol/Chinese recipe that 
has been argued to be, or be connected to, an ancestor of Baklava. Here 
is the recipe as translated by Þórfinnr,  who has been working on 
Chinese culinary stuff. I also had a different published translation.

/Take "chicken clear," bean powder, and yogurt. Mix it well, spread it 
out, and shallow-fry it to form cakes. Make a layer of fine white sugar, 
pine nut meat, and walnut meat. Follow it with a layer of cake. Like 
this make 3-4 layers. On top, irrigate with Hui oil mixed with honey, 
and eat them/.

The other translation had "egg white" for "chicken clear," which seems 
reasonable, and "bean paste" for "bean powder." I tried two different 
interpretations, one using ground red adzuki beans for bean powder, one 
using soaked, cooked, mashed red adzuki beans for bean paste. I 
interpreted "Hui oil" as "ghee," as suggested by my other source.

The bean powder version, 1/2 c of ground beans plus 2 egg whites and 3 T 
yogurt, worked, fried in sesame oil (untoasted sesame oil, not the 
strongly flavored dark oil from toasted sesame seeds). It made 
reasonably crisp cakes, thicker than I thought ideal.

My first try at the other version, 1/2 c beans + 2 egg whites +4T 
yogurt, didn't work--the fried cakes fell apart. So I experimented with 
a higher ratio of egg white. With one egg white added to 1/2 c of the 
bean mixture it was workable, but the cakes were soft, like omelets.

I made a filling of equal amounts of sugar, ground pine nuts and ground 
walnuts, used each version to make a stack of alternating cake and 
filling. I then mixed equal volumes of honey and melted ghee and poured 
it on.

Both versions tasted good. I may try the ground version again, aiming at 
thinner cakes.

In the ensuing FB discussion, someone mentioned mung bean starch, used 
in making noodles including "sheets," as a possibility for the bean 
powder. That interested me because Al Warraq's recipes for making the 
sheets for lawzinaj, my current candidate for period Baklava 
ancestor/equivalent, uses starch and egg whites. I plan to see if our 
local Chinese supermarket has mung bean starch, and if so see if it works.

.


On 8/27/17 9:56 PM, Susan Lin wrote:
> Some day I'm going to take you up on this.  But, it's Battlemoor and we'll
> be here in Colorado for that. Have a fabulous time.
>
> Shoshanah
>
> On Sun, Aug 27, 2017 at 10:14 PM David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
> wrote:
>
>> We are doing one of our cooking workshops on Sunday, September 3rd.
>>
>> For those who have not attended one in the past, the way it works is
>> that you show up at 1:00, we hand you a stack of period recipes, you
>> pick one to do. We spend the afternoon with each person doing a recipe,
>> keeping track of quantities, temperatures, and times--information
>> usually not included in the original--and everyone trying things and
>> commenting when they are done.
>>
>> Everyone is welcome, including kids who like to cook. No charge. Not in
>> garb. Let us know if you are coming so we will have a count of how many
>> recipes to be set up to do.
>>
>> If there is any particular sort of food you would like to try a recipe
>> for or any particular cuisine (time and place) you are interested in,
>> let me know and I'll see if we have a suitable recipe. We have a new
>> source for a few Chinese recipes and one for lots of 13th c. Islamic
>> recipes, and will probably be doing some things from those. There are
>> also some period German "maybe sort of like pizza" recipes one of which
>> we might do. And a 10th century Islamic desert made largely from carrots.
>>
>> Location 3806 Williams Rd, San Jose, CA 95117.
>> 408 244-3330
>>
>> --
>> David Friedman
>> www.daviddfriedman.com
>> http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
>>
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-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/