[Sca-cooks] Fwd: Recipe redaction, A Type of Ahrash

[Sandra J. Kisner]

It sounds wonderful!  Even without an allergy to blame I must admit I'd be tempted to leave out the lavender (as an obvious "scribal error").   :-)

I know I've been told not to smoosh ground beef too much when making hamburgers (not something I do often), as it changes the texture of the final cooked patties (less juicy).  I wonder if over-working the lamb could have the same effect?

Sandra

-----Original Message-----
From: Sca-cooks <sca-cooks-bounces+sjk3=cornell.edu at lists.ansteorra.org> On Behalf Of Linda Barta
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2018 2:12 PM
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fwd: Recipe redaction, A Type of Ahrash

That sounds delicious. I love lamb. Thanks for the notes/tips. 

HL Dagmar von Selk

Sent from my iPhone
Ours is not to rewrite history; but to learn from it to improve the future. 

> On Jul 5, 2018, at 12:58 PM, pixel <pixel at hundred-acre-wood.com> wrote:
> 
> Some more love for the e-list...
> 
> Last night I redacted "A Type of Ahrash" from the Anonymous Andalusian 
> cookbook for supper:
> 
> A Type of Ahrash
> This is the recipe used by Sayyid Abu al-Hasan and others in Morocco, 
> and they called it isfîriyâ. Take red lamb, pound it vigorously and 
> season it with some murri naqî', vinegar, oil, pounded garlic, pepper, 
> saffron, cumin, coriander, lavender, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, chopped 
> lard, and meat with all the gristle removed and pounded and divided, 
> and enough egg to envelop the whole. Make small round flatbreads 
> (qursas) 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.
> 
> My redaction:
> 
> 2 lbs ground lamb
> 2 eggs
> 2 T soy sauce (for a vague murri-esque flavor)
> 2 T vegetable oil
> 1 T cider vinegar (because it was either that or distilled white)
> 3 T spice blend
> 
> Smoosh together until thoroughly blended. Make small patties, fry in 
> olive oil. We did not use the vinegar/oil/garlic sauce (the Consort 
> referred to it as "salad dressing" and informed me it was not 
> necessary), and keen eyes will note that although garlic appears in 
> the original recipe it does not appear in my redaction, because I 
> forgot it. The resultant patties were still delicious. The recipe made 
> 14, it probably would have made 16 if I hadn't made them slowly larger 
> over time. The remaining ones are going into the freezer to be dinner one night at our camping event next week.
> 
> Consort opined that another couple teaspooons of spice blend would not 
> have been too much spice--I thought it was fine as it was, but agreed 
> with him that any more than another T would be too much. I initially 
> thought that I was going to need to add breadcrumbs, because it was 
> very loose to start with, but after it was well mixed it was just 
> sticky. I didn't add additional lard because the lamb was about 80% 
> lean, and I read (possibly in the Flori-thingy, possibly in one of the cookbooks) that "red lamb"
> meant lean meat. As it was, it was just perfect, not too greasy, not 
> at all dry.
> 
> Spice blend:
> 2 T each whole grains of paradise and cubebs, ground
> 2 T ground cumin
> 2 T ground cinnamon
> 2 T ground ginger
> ~ 1 t whole cloves, ground
> ~ 1/2 t saffron, ground with the cloves, etc.
> 
> Keen eyes will note the absence of pepper, coriander, and 
> lavender--Dependent #2 is horribly allergic to both pepper and 
> coriander/cilantro while Dependent #4 is horribly allergic to 
> lavender. In the interests of not poisoning household members, I 
> substituted of grains of paradise and cubebs for the pepper and 
> coriander, and just omitted the lavender entirely.
> 
> --
> Margaret FitzWilliam of Kent, OL
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