[Sca-cooks] Cooking workshop 9/3

[Alec Story]

Would you mind linking us to the Facebook discussion?  I'd be interested to
see it.

I'm delighted to hear that the recipe worked :)

- Þórfinnr

On Mon, Sep 4, 2017 at 6:25 PM, David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
wrote:

> 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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>>>
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>>
>>
>>
> --
> David Friedman
> www.daviddfriedman.com
> http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
>
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>



-- 
Alec Story