Period Islamic Cooking

Period Islamic Cooking

Islamic Cooking Handout

(Recipes from How to Milk an Almond, Stuff an Egg, and Armor a Turnip:A Thousand Years of Recipes

by Cariadoc and Elizabeth, webbed at http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Medieval.html)

Islamic and Indian Sources

Ain-I-Akbari (part of the Akbarnama) by Abu al-Fazl ibn Mubarak, H. Blochmann tr., edited by D. C. Phillott, Calcutta 1927. An account of Mughal India, especially Akbar's court, in the late 16th century. It includes ingredient lists (with quantities but without instructions) for thirty dishes and descriptions of how to make bread and arrack.  Webbed at: http://www.archive.org/details/

ainiakbari00jarrgoog

Al-Baghdadi, A Baghdad Cookery Book (1226 A.D./623 A.H.), A.J. Arberry, tr., Islamic Culture 1939, and republished in Medieval Arab Cookery (see below). There is now a new and probably better translation by Charles Perry, but we have not yet used it.

An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the Thirteenth Century, a translation by Charles Perry of the Arabic edition of Ambrosio Huici Miranda with the assistance of an English translation by Elise Fleming, Stephen Bloch, Habib ibn al-Andalusi and Janet Hinson of the Spanish translation by Ambrosio Huici Miranda, webbed at:

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/

Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian_contents.

htm.

Referred to below as “Andalusian.” Page references are to volume II of the collection of source material we used to sell.

Annals of the Caliph's Kitchen, Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq, Nawal Nasrallah tr., Brill, Leiden and Boston. A large tenth century cookbook. We also have a few recipes from the same source translated by Charles Perry.

La Cocina Arabigoandaluza, translated from Arabic into Spanish by Fernando de la Granja Santamaria and from Spanish into English by Melody Asplund-Faith. This consists of selections from a much longer Arabic original. It is referred to below as “al-Andalusi.”

Medieval Arab Cookery, Essays and Translations by Maxime Rodinson, A.J. Arberry & Charles Perry, Prospect Books, 1998. Contains, along with much else, Kitab al Tibakhah: A Fifteenth-Century Cookbook, Charles Perry, tr., original author Ibn al-Mubarrad. Also The Description of Familiar Foods, a cookbook based on al-Baghdadi with additional recipes.

The Ni'matnama Manuscript of the Sultans of Mandu: The Sultan's Book of Delights, translated by Norah M. Titley, Routledge, 2005. An Indian source c. 1500.

Murri is a very common ingredient, made by a lengthy process; this is a period recipe for fake murri.

Byzantine Murri

Kitab Wasf, Sina'ah 52, p. 56, Sina'ah 51, p. 65: Charles Perry tr.

Description of byzantine murri [made] right away: There is taken, upon the name of God the Most High, of honey scorched in a nuqrah [perhaps this word means 'a silver vessel'], three ratls; pounded scorched oven bread, ten loaves; starch, half a ratl; roasted anise, fennel and nigella, two uqiyahs of each; byzantine saffron, an uqiya; celery seed, an uqiyah; syrian carob, half a ratl; fifty peeled walnuts, as much as half a ratl; split quinces, five; salt, half a makkūk dissolved in honey; thirty ratls water; and the rest of the ingredients are thrown on it, and it is boiled on a slow flame until a third of the water is absorbed. Then it is strained well in a clean nosebag of hair. It is taken up in a greased glass or pottery vessel with a narrow top. A little lemon from Takranjiya (? Sina'ah 51 has Bakr Fahr) is thrown on it, and if it suits that a little water is thrown on the dough and it is boiled upon it and strained, it would be a second (infusion). The weights and measurements that are given are Antiochan and Zahiri [as] in Mayyafariqin.

Note: 1 ratl=12 uqiya=1 pint;

1 Makkūk=7.5-18.8 liters dry measure. Nigella, aka kalonji or black onion seed, can be found in Indian grocery stores. The following quantities are for    of the above recipe.

3 T honey                          ⅔ t nigela    

1 T wheat starch                ¼ oz carob = 1 T

⅓ t celery seed                  1 ½ oz quince

1 ½ oz bread                      ¼ oz walnut

½ c salt in 3 T honey          1 pint water

⅔ t fennel                          lemon (¼ of one)

¼ t saffron                        ⅔ t anise

Cook the honey in a small frying pan on medium heat, bringing it to a boil then turning off the heat and repeating several times; it will taste scorched. The bread is sliced white bread, toasted in a toaster to be somewhat blackened, then mashed in a mortar. Toast the anise, fennel and nigela in a frying pan or roast under a broiler, then grind in a mortar with celery seed and walnuts. The quince is quartered and cored. Boil all but the lemon together for about 2 hours, then put it in a potato ricer, squeeze out the liquid and add lemon juice to it; this is the murri. The recipe generates about 1 ¼ to 1 ½ c of liquid. You can then add another ½ c of water to the residue, simmer for half an hour to an hour and squeeze out that liquid for the second infusion, which yields about ⅓ c. A third infusion using ⅓ c more water yields another ¼ c or so.

Recipes

Buran

 al-Baghdadi p. 191 (Good)

Take eggplant, and boil lightly in water and salt, then take out and dry for an hour. Fry this in fresh sesame-oil until cooked: peel, put into a dish or a large cup, and beat well with a ladle, until it becomes like kabis. Add a little salt and dry coriander. Take some Persian milk, mix in garlic, pour over the eggplant, and mix together well. Take red meat, mince fine, make into small cabobs, and melting fresh tail, throw the meat into it, stirring until browned. Then cover with water, and stew until the water has evaporated and only the oils remain. Pour on top of this the eggplant, sprinkle with fine-ground cumin and cinnamon, and serve.

1 lb eggplant                     2 cloves garlic

1 lb ground lamb               1 c yogurt

3 T sesame oil                  ½ t cumin

½ t salt                            1 t cinnamon 

¼ t coriander                   

Cut eggplants in thick slices (approximately 1 ½"), put in boiling salted water (6 c water + 6 T salt) for 7 minutes. Remove, let stand 1 hour. Make lamb into 30-40 small meatballs (add cinnamon etc. if you wish). Fry in melted lamb fat (“tail”). When browned, cover with water and simmer until only the oil is left. Then fry eggplant in sesame oil until cooked, peel, mash, add salt and coriander. Crush garlic, add to yogurt, mix with eggplant. Put the meatballs on top, sprinkle with cumin and cinnamon, and serve.

Madira 

al-Baghdadi p. 41

Cut fat meat into middling pieces with the tail; if chickens are used, quarter them. Put in the saucepan with a little salt, and cover with water: boil, removing the scum. When almost cooked take large onions and leeks, peel, cut off the tails, wash in salt and water, dry and put into the pot. Add dry coriander, cummin, mastic and cinnamon, ground fine. When cooked and the juices are dried up, so that only the oil remains, ladle out into a large bowl. Take Persian milk, put in the saucepan, add salted lemon and fresh mint. Leave to boil: then take off the fire, stirring. When the boiling has subsided, put back the meat and herbs. Cover the saucepan, wipe its sides, and leave to settle over the fire [i.e. at a low heat], then remove.

3 ½ lb chicken or             ⅛-    t mastic

2 ½ lb boneless lamb         ½ T cinnamon

1 T salt                            4 c yogurt

2 leeks                             ½ lemon

4 medium onions               1 T salt

1 t ground coriander          ½ c fresh mint

1 t cumin                                              

Chicken version: Put chicken in a pot with 1 T salt and enough water to cover and cook about 30 minutes. If you want to serve it boned (not specified in the recipe, but it makes it easier to cook and to eat–we have done it both ways), remove it from the water, let cool enough to handle, bone, and put the meat back in the pot. Add leeks, onions and spices. Cook away the rest of the water, remove meat and vegetables, and add yogurt, lemon, another T salt and mint; mint is chopped and lemon is quartered and each quarter sliced into two or three times with a knife. Let come to a simmer and put back the meat and vegetables. Heat through, not letting it boil, and serve. Use proportionately less water if you expand the recipe substantially.

We have a recipe for salted lemon in a modern North African cookbook and plan to try using that next time.

Jazariyyah

Ibn al-Mabrad p. 18

Meat is boiled with a little water. Carrots, garlic cloves and peeled onions are put with it, then crushed garlic is put with it. Some people put spinach with it also; some make it without spinach. Walnuts and parsley are put in.

2 lb lamb                     6 cloves garlic    

[1 t cinnamon]             5 oz onions

[½ t pepper]                2 cloves crushed garlic

[¾ t coriander]             2 c spinach = 5 oz

[¾ t salt]                     ¼ c walnuts

1 lb carrots                  ¼ c parsley        

Cut the lamb up small and put it in 1 ½ c water with cinnamon, pepper, coriander and salt. Simmer 10 minutes. Add carrots cut up, whole garlic cloves, and small onions. Simmer 10 minutes. Add crushed garlic. Simmer 20 minutes. Add spinach. Simmer 10 minutes. Garnish with walnuts and parsley. The spices are based on similar recipes in al-Bagdadi.

Safarjaliyya, a Dish Made With Quinces

Andalusian p. A-48

This is a good food for the feverish, it excites the appetite, strengthens the stomach and prevents stomach vapors from rising to the head. Take the flesh of a young fat lamb or calf; cut in small pieces and put in the pot with salt, pepper, coriander seed, saffron, oil and a little water; put on a low fire until the meat is done; then take as much as you need of cleaned peeled quince, cut in fourths, and sharp vinegar, juice of unripe grapes [verjuice] or of pressed quince, cook for a while and use. If you wish, cover with eggs and it comes out like muthallath.

1 lb lamb                       1 T water         

½ t salt                         1 quince = ¾ lb

¼ t pepper                    1 T wine vinegar

1 t coriander                  ¼ c verjuice

~4 threads saffron         [2 or 3 eggs]

2 t oil

Cut up meat into bite-sized pieces, put in a pot with salt, spices, oil, and water, and cook over low heat about 10 minutes, stirring periodically. Meanwhile, peel and core quince and cut into eighths. Add quince, vinegar, and verjuice to pot and cook covered about 30-40 minutes, until quince is tender when poked with a fork. If adding eggs, stir them in and cook, stirring continuously for about 3 minutes.

Mishmishiya

al-Bagdadi p. 40

Cut fat meat small, put into the saucepan with a little salt, and cover with water. Boil, and remove the scum. Cut up onions, wash, and throw in on top of the meat. Add seasonings, coriander, cummin, mastic, cinnamon, pepper and ginger, well-ground. Take dry apricots, soak in hot water, then wash and put in a separate saucepan, and boil lightly: take out, wipe in the hands, and strain through a sieve. Take the juice, and add it to the saucepan to form a broth. Take sweet almonds, grind fine, moisten with a little apricot juice, and throw in. Some colour with a trifle of saffron. Spray the saucepan with a little rose-water, wipe its sides with a clean rag, and leave to settle over the fire: then remove.

30 fresh or dried apricots       t mastic

(2 lb pitted or 7 oz dried)         1 t cinnamon

2 lb lamb                          ¼ t pepper

1 ⅓ c water                     ½ t ginger

1 t salt                             ⅔ c almonds

14 oz onions                     [10 threads saffron]

1 t coriander                     ½ t rosewater

½ t cumin                        

If using dried apricots, put to soak for about 3 hours. Cut up meat to small bite-sized pieces, boil in water with salt; when it comes to a boil (~10 minutes) skim, add onions, and turn down to a simmer, covered. Add seasonings. Drain soaked dried apricots or wash fresh apricots, boil either in about 2 c water about 5 minutes, drain, and force through a strainer until nothing is left but the peel (or convert to mush in a food processor). Grind almonds very fine. After simmering meat 40 minutes, add ~¾ of the apricot mush to pot; mix rest of it with ground almonds and add that to the pot. Crush saffron into a little water and add it to pot. Sprinkle a little rosewater over the surface; let sit for a few minutes over very low heat, then serve.

Naranjiya

al-Bagdadi p. 40

Cut fat meat in middling pieces and leave in the saucepan, covered with water, to boil: when boiling, remove the scum. Add salt to taste. Cut up onions and leeks, washing in salt and water: scrape carrots, cut into strips four fingers long, and throw into the pot. Add cummin, dry coriander, cinnamon-bark, pepper, ginger and mastic, ground fine, with a few sprigs of mint. Mince red meat well with seasonings, and make into middle-sized cabobs. Take oranges, peel, remove the white pulp, and squeeze: let one person peel, and another do the squeezing. Strain through a sieve, and pour into the saucepan. Take cardamom-seeds that have been steeped in hot water an hour: wash, and grind fine in a stone mortar, or a copper one if stone is not procurable. Extract the juice by hand, strain, and throw into the pot. Rub over the pan a quantity of dry mint. Wipe the sides with a clean rag, and leave over the fire to settle: then remove.

5 seeds cardamom         t mastic

1 lb lamb                  1 large sprig fresh mint

2 c water                  3 oranges (¾ c juice)

½ t salt                     1 lb lamb for meatballs

⅝ lb onion               seasonings for meatballs:

⅝ lb leeks                   1 clove garlic (   oz)

¾ lb carrots                ¼ t pepper          

¼ t cumin                   ¼ t coriander

½ t coriander              ¼ t cumin

½ t cinnamon              1 t murri

⅛ t pepper                  ½ t salt   

¼ t ginger                 ½ T dry mint

Put cardamom seeds to soak in hot water. Cut up meat and bring to a boil in water with salt; turn down and simmer, covered. Cut up onions and leeks and add; cut carrots into 2.5" pieces and cut lengthwise into strips and add, by which time the meat has been going about 20 minutes. Add spices and mint. Juice oranges, add juice to pot; simmer uncovered. Make meatballs by buzzing lamb in food processor with seasonings and squeezing into balls; add to pot. Take cardamom seeds out of water, grind in mortar, and add juice to pot. Let simmer a while more, about 1 hour 15 minutes from the beginning, sprinkle dry mint over the dish, and serve.

The oranges should be sour oranges, but you may not be able to find any.

Zirbaya

Andalusian p. A-6

Take a young, cleaned hen and put it in a pot with a little salt, pepper, coriander, cinnamon, saffron and sufficient of vinegar and sweet oil, and when the meat is cooked, take peeled, crushed almonds and good white sugar, four ounces of each; dissolve them in rosewater, pour in the pot and let it boil; then leave it on the embers until the fat rises. It is very nutritious and good for all temperaments; this dish is made with hens or pigeons or doves, or with the meat of a young lamb.

1 chicken, 3 ½ lb or       20 threads saffron

  2 ¼ lb boned lamb       2 T wine vinegar

1 t salt                          2 T olive oil

⅝ t pepper                    4 oz = ⅔ c almonds

1 ¼ t coriander              ½ c sugar

2 t cinnamon                 4 T rosewater

Put cut-up chicken or lamb, salt, spices, vinegar, and oil into pot. Bring to boil, cook covered over moderate to low heat 30 minutes, stirring periodically to keep the meat from sticking. Blanch and grind almonds, mix with sugar and rosewater to make a paste. Stir this in with the meat, bring back to a boil and cook about 8 minutes until sauce thickens.

A Type of Ahrash [Isfîriyâ]

Andalusian p. A-1

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.

¼ lb lamb                      ½ T cinnamon

1 t murri                        ¼ t ginger       

2 t vinegar                     ¼ t cloves       

1 t oil                            1 oz lard (lamb fat)

2 cloves garlic               2 oz meat (beef)

½ t pepper                    1 egg

4 threads saffron           ½ c oil for frying

¾ t cumin                      3 cloves garlic

1 t coriander                  2 t oil   

½ t lavender                  1 ½ t vinegar    

Cut up lamb and mash in a mortar. Then add murri etc., garlic pounded in a mortar, finely chopped lamb fat, and beef cut up and pounded in a mortar. Mix, add an egg and mush together. Fry in a pan on medium to medium high heat until brown on both sides, turning once. To make the sauce, mash the garlic in a garlic press, combine it with the additional oil and vinegar.

Maqluba al Tirrikh 

al-Baghdadi p. 204 (Good)

Take tirrikh and fry in sesame-oil: then take out, and place in a dish to cool. When cold, cut off the heads and tails, remove the spine, bone, and scale with the greatest care. Crumble and break up the flesh, and sprinkle with dry coriander, cumin, caraway and cinnamon. Break eggs, throw on, and mix well. Then fry in sesame-oil in a frying pan as maqluba is fried, until both sides are browned: and remove.

½ lb perch or catfish      1 t caraway      

1 T sesame oil               1 ½ t cinnamon

½ t coriander                 1 egg

½ t cumin                      2 T sesame oil

Fry fish in 1 T sesame oil; let it cool. Bone and crumble it. Add spices and eggs. Fry like pancakes in more sesame oil. Tirrikh is a kind of Middle Eastern freshwater fish; we do not know what other fish it is similar to.

Recipe of Eggplant Pancakes 

al-Andalusi p. C-5

Get sweet eggplant and boil it with water and salt until it becomes well cooked and is dissolved or falling apart. You should drain the water, crush and stir it on a dish with crumbs of grated bread, eggs beaten with oil, dried coriander and cinnamon; beat it until all becomes equal. Afterwards fry cakes made with this batter in a frying pan with oil until they are gilded. Make a sauce of vinegar, oil, almori, and mashed garlic; give all this a shaking and pour it over the top.

1 ¼ lb eggplant           1 ½ t cinnamon

2 qts water + 2 t salt   2 large cloves garlic

½ c bread crumbs       2 T vinegar         

2-3 eggs                     2 T oil

1 T oil                        2 t murri

1 ¼ t coriander           about 6 T oil for frying

Peel and quarter eggplant, boil 30 minutes in salted water. Drain, mash and mix with bread crumbs, eggs, oil, coriander and cinnamon. Crush garlic in a garlic press and mix with vinegar, oil and murri for the sauce. Fry in oil at medium high, about 1-2 minutes a side. Pour the sauce over pancakes before serving.

Tabâhajah from the Manuscript of Yahya b. Khalid [Good]

Tr. Charles Perry from al-Warraq

Take an earthenware pot and pour in one quarter ratl of Nabataean murri, and of good honey an ûquiyah, and beat them. When they are mixed, strain with a sieve, then put with them a dirhem of coriander, one and a half dirhams of cinnamon and two dâniqs of ground pepper. Then take two ratls of tender meat and slice fine in wide strips and put them in this condiment for a while. Then put the pot on the fire and pour in four ûquiyahs of good oil. And when the oil begins to boil, throw the strips in the pot with the condiment and two dâniqs of milled salt. Then cook the meat until it is done and the condiment is dried. Then take it off the fire and cut up on it some cilantro, and rue, and some green mustard, and serve. And it [can be] a Tabâhajah with asafoetida, if you wish.

¼ c murri                      2 ½ T cilantro

4 t honey                       1 T rue

scant ½ t coriander        3 T mustard greens

⅝ t cinnamon                [asafoetida]

⅛ t pepper                    ⅓ c olive oil

1 lb trimmed lamb          ⅛ t salt

Beat murri and honey in a bowl, add spices and stir well. Cut meat into thin strips, removing most fat, mix into the marinade and let sit for an hour and a half. Chop herbs, removing stems. Heat oil in frying pan on high heat until a few bubbles start to come up, put in meat and marinade, and add salt. Let come to a boil and turn down to medium/medium high heat. Cook, stirring, about 15 minutes, until sauce is mostly cooked down. Remove from heat and serve with herbs on top.

Note: The quantity above is half the original recipe; all quantities are specified in the original except for the herbs at the end. The Islamic measures could be either weight or volume measures; I have assumed volumes in calculating amounts.

A Roast of Meat

Andalusian p. A-38 (Good)

Roast salted, well-marbled meat [cut up] like fingertips, and put in a pot spices, onion, salt, oil and soaked garbanzos. Cook until done and add the roast meat; cover the contents of the pot with cilantro and sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon; and if you add whole pine nuts or walnuts in place of garbanzos, it will be good.

1 ½ lb lamb or beef        ¼ t cumin         

¾ lb onion                     1 t salt

2 15 oz cans chickpeas  3 T olive oil      

¼ t black pepper            ¼ c cilantro      

½ t cinnamon                ⅛ t more pepper

½ t coriander                 ¼ t more cinnamon

Note: an earlier recipe in the same book calls for spices and then specifies which ones: “all the spices, pepper, cinnamon, dried coriander and cumin.”

Roast meat and cut into ¼" by ½" pieces. Slice onions. Put chickpeas, onion, spices, salt and oil in a pot and cook over moderate heat, stirring, for 10 minutes, turning down the heat toward the end as it gets dry; add meat and cook one minute, add cilantro and cook another minute, and turn off heat. Sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon and serve.

Mufarraka

al-Baghdadi p. 201

Take chickens' livers and crops, wash, and boil in water with a little salt: then take out, and cut up small. Mix with yolks of eggs, adding the usual seasonings as required: then fry in a frying-pan in sesame-oil, stirring all the time. If desired sour, sprinkle with a little pure lemon-juice. If desired plain, use neither lemon nor egg.

¼ t salt                         1 ½ t cumin

14 oz chicken gizzards   1 ½ t cinnamon

14 oz chicken livers       ¾ t pepper       

8 egg yolks                    2 T sesame oil  

1 ½ t coriander              ¼ c lemon juice

Bring 3 c water to a boil with ⅛ t salt, add gizzards and simmer 50 minutes. Near the end of this time, bring another 3 c of water and ⅛ t salt to a boil and cook livers in it 3 minutes. Drain both, cut up small (½"x½" pieces), put in a bowl and mix with egg yolks and spices. Heat oil and fry mixture about 4 minutes, sprinkle with lemon juice. Serve. The spices chosen are the combination al-Baghdadi most commonly uses.

Cooked Fried Chicken

Andalusian p. A-3

Cut up the chicken, making two pieces from each limb; fry it with plenty of fresh oil; then take a pot and throw in four spoonfuls of vinegar and two of murri naqî' and the same amount of oil, pepper, cilantro, cumin, a little garlic and saffron. Put the pot on the fire and when it has boiled, put in the fried chicken spoken of before, and when it is done, then empty it out and present it.

1 chicken, 2 ½ lb     1 t pepper

¼ c oil                    4 sprigs cilantro ~    oz

¼ c vinegar             3 threads saffron

2 T murri                ¼ t crushed garlic

2 T oil                     ¼ t cumin

Cut up chicken and brown it in ¼ c olive oil over medium low heat for 10 minutes. Set chicken aside. Add to a large pot vinegar, murri, 2 T oil, pepper, cilantro, saffron, crushed garlic, cumin, and heat the pot on medium for 3 minutes. Add chicken and simmer on low for 25 minutes with the lid on, stirring often. Baste with the liquid five minutes before it is done.

The making of Badî'i, the Remarkable Dish

Andalusian p. A-9

Take the meat of a very plump lamb and cut it in small pieces and put them in a pot with a little salt, a piece of onion, coriander, lavender, saffron and oil, and cook it halfway. Then take fresh cheese, not too soft in order that it will not fall apart, cut it with a knife into sheets approximately the size of the palm, place them in a dish, color them with saffron, sprinkle them with lavender and turn them until they are colored on all sides. Place them with the cooked meat in the pot or in a tajine and add eggs beaten with saffron, lavender and cinnamon, as necessary, and bury in it whole egg yolks and cover with plenty of oil and with the fat of the cooked meat. Place it in the oven and leave it until the sauce is dry and the meat is completely cooked and the upper part turns red [the translator suggests the alternative “browns” but it turns red in our experience]. Take it out, leave it a while until its heat passes and it is cool, and then use it.

1 lb lamb                          6 oz cheese   

½ t dried lavender             ½ t lavender

4 threads saffron              3 threads saffron

¼ t salt                            ½ t more lavender

½ small onion (2 oz)          2 beaten eggs

½ t ground coriander         ½ t cinnamon

2 T olive oil                      4 whole egg yolks

6 more threads saffron      2 T olive oil

Cut lamb into ½" cubes. Grind ½ t lavender and 4 threads saffron in a mortar. Combine lamb, salt, onion, coriander, lavender, saffron and oil and simmer in 1 c water for 10 minutes. Grind the second lot of saffron (6 threads) in a mortar, adding 1 T water. Cut cheese—we used mozzarella—in slices, paint them with the saffron water, sprinkle with ½ t more lavender. Drain meat and separate the fat from the broth. Put meat in the pot, cover with cheese slices. Grind 3 threads saffron and ½ t lavender in a mortar, beat with eggs and cinnamon. Pour eggs over meat and cheese. Place whole egg yolks on top, pour over everything the fat (I had about 3 T) plus the second 2 T of oil. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes, by which time the top should have turned reddish brown. Let cool, then serve.

Another Recipe, For The Method Of Kedgeree 

Nimatnama p. 15

Put three parts of mung dal and one part of rice into sweet-smelling ghee which has been flavored with fenugreek, and fry it well. Add water and salt, cook it well and serve it.

1 c dry mung beans       ⅔ c rice        

2 c water                      1 c water

½ c ghee                       ½ t salt

¼ t fenugreek                                    

Combine the beans with 2 c water, bring to a boil, turn off the heat, leave several hours (or soak in cold water overnight).

Melt ghee, add fenugreek, fry ten minutes until fenugreek seeds are dark. Add beans and rice, fry for ten minutes. Add water and salt, cook 25 minutes, let stand 5 minutes.

Cooked Dish of Lentils 

al-Andalusi no. 377 (Good)

Wash lentils and put them to cook in a pot with sweet water, oil, pepper, coriander and cut onion. When they are cooked throw in salt, a little saffron and vinegar; break three eggs, leave for a while on the flame and later retire the pot. Other times cook without onion. If you wish cook it with Egyptian beans pricked into which have been given a boil. Or better with dissolved yeast over a gentle fire. When the lentils begin to thicken add good butter or sweet oil, bit by bit, alike until it gets absorbed, until they are sufficiently cooked and have enough oil. Then retire it from the flame and sprinkle with pepper.

½ lb onions                    4 T butter (or oil)

1 ½ c dried lentils          ¾ t salt

2 ¼ c water                  12 threads saffron

1 ½ T oil                       2 T vinegar      

⅜ t pepper                    4 eggs  

1 ½ t coriander              more pepper

Slice onions. Put lentils, water, oil, pepper, coriander and onion in a pot, bring to a boil, and turn down to a bare simmer. Cook covered 50 minutes, stirring periodically. Add butter or oil and cook while stirring for about 5 minutes. Add salt, saffron (crushed into 1 t water) and vinegar, and bring back to a boil. Put eggs on top, cover pot and keep lentils at a simmer; stir cautiously every few minutes in order to scrape the bottom of the pot without stirring in the eggs. We find that if the heat is off, the eggs don't cook; if the heat is up at medium, the eggs cook but the lentils start to stick to the pot. A larger quantity might hold enough heat to cook the eggs without leaving it on the flame. When the eggs are cooked, sprinkle with a little more pepper and serve.

Rishta

 al-Baghdadi p.45 (Good)

Cut fat meat into middling pieces and put into the saucepan, with a covering of water. Add cinnamon-bark, a little salt, a handful of peeled chickpeas, and half a handful of lentils. Boil until cooked: then add more water, and bring thoroughly to the boil. Now add spaghetti (which is made by kneading flour and water well, then rolling out fine and cutting into thin threads four fingers long). Put over the fire and cook until set to a smooth consistency. When it has settled over a gentle fire for an hour, remove.

1 lb lamb                       6 T canned chickpeas

4 c water                      3 T lentils

½ stick cinnamon           2 c flour

1 t salt                          ⅜-½ c water

Cut up meat, combine it with water, cinnamon, salt, chickpeas, and lentils, simmer about half an hour. Mix flour with about ½ c cold water (just enough to make an unsticky dough). Knead thoroughly, roll out, cut into thin strips. Add to pot, simmer another ½ hour being careful not to let it stick to the bottom and scorch, serve. A favorite of ours.

Salma

Ibn al-Mabrad p. 20

Dough is taken and twisted and cut in small pieces and struck like a coin with a finger, and it is cooked in water until done. Then yoghurt is put with it and meat is fried with onion for it and mint and garlic are put with it.

1 c flour                   ½ c plain yogurt

about ¼ c water        1 T mint   

¼ lb onion                 2-4 cloves crushed garlic

5 oz lamb                  [½ t salt]

½ oz lamb fat (“tail”)    

Knead flour and water to a smooth dough. Divide it in about 8 equal portions. Roll each portion between your palms into a string about ½ inch in diameter, twist it a little, then cut it in about ¼" slices. Dump slices in a little flour to keep them from sticking. Squeeze each between your fingers into a flat, roughly round, coin shaped piece. Boil in 1 quart slightly salted water about 10 minutes.

About the same time you put the pasta on to boil, fry the onions and lamb, both cut small, in the tail (i.e. lamb fat) or other oil. Drain the pasta, combine all ingredients, and serve.

Harisah

Ibn al-Mabrad p. 22

Meat is boiled, then wheat is put on it until it gives up its starch. Then the meat is plucked off the bones and pounded [and returned to the porridge]. Some add milk.

½ lb lamb                      1 c milk

2 c water                      [1 ½ T lamb fat]

[½ stick cinnamon]        [¼ t cumin]      

[¾ t salt]                       [½ t cinnamon]

5 oz of cracked wheat   [½ T lemon]

Cut lamb into a few large pieces, put it and the water in a pot, add stick cinnamon and salt. Bring to a boil. Add the cracked wheat. Cook about ½ hour. Remove the lamb (that is why it is in only a few pieces). Cut the lamb up, pound in a mortar almost to a paste, then put it back in. Add milk. Cook another hour at a low temperature.

Render out lamb fat (“tail” in the original), sprinkle it, cumin, cinnamon, and lemon over the harisa when you serve it (this is an addition from the al-Baghdadi version of the dish; Ibn al-Mabrad gives very little information on spicing).

Tharid

Ibn al-Mabrad p. 18

Meat is boiled and bread is moistened with the broth. Yoghurt, garlic and mint are put with it and the meat is put with it. Likewise there is a tharid without meat.

1 ½ lb meat           4 large cloves

3 ½ c water           8 sprigs mint (leaves only)

4 slices bread         ½ c yogurt

Cut meat into bite-sized pieces and boil in water about 30-40 minutes, by which time the broth is down to about one cup. Crush bread into broth, chop garlic and mint, and add them and the yogurt to the bread mixture and serve the meat over it.

A recipe for Judhaba of Bananas by Ibn al Mahdi

al-Warraq p. 375

Peel the bananas and set them aside. Spread a ruqaqa [thin round of bread] in the pan and spread a layer of bananas over it. Sprinkle the banana layer with pure sugar, and spread another ruqaqa all over it. Repeat the layering of banana, sugar, and ruqaqa until the pan is full. Pour enough rose water to drench the layered ingredients, [put the pan in a hot tannur,] suspend a fine chicken over it, [and let it roast] God willing.

10 oz Iranian lavash       1-4 T rose water

3 ¼ lb bananas              4-5 lb chicken

½ c sugar

Oil the bottom of your pot. Line the pot with lavash—an Iranian thin bread that is the closest equivalent to ruqaqa we know of. Cover that with sliced (or mashed) bananas. Sprinkle over them 2 T of sugar. Cover with another layer of lavash. Repeat until you run out of banana, then put on a final covering of lavash. Sprinkle the rose water over that—4 T will leave a very strong taste of rose water, which some may not like.

Arrange your chicken so it is suspended above the layers. I did it by running a hardwood skewer lengthwise through the chicken and laying it across the top edge of my pot.

Bake the chicken until done—roughly 20 minutes a pound at 350°, to an internal temperature of about 190°—letting the drippings fall on and soak into the layered bread and bananas.

Could try doing it with whole bananas.

Qaliya Rice 

Nimatnama p. 15

Put ghee into a cooking pot and when it has become hot, flavour it with asafoetida and garlic. When it has become well flavored, put the meat, mixed with chopped potherbs, into the ghee. When it has become marinated [!mistranslation!], add water and add, to an equal amount, one sir of cow's milk. When it has come to the boil, add the washed rice. When it is well cooked, take it off. Cook other rice by the same recipe and, likewise, do not make it with cow's milk but put in four sirs of garlic and whole peppers, and serve it.

3 cloves garlic                  1 ¼ c whole milk

⅓ c ghee                          1 ¼ c water

⅛ t asafoetida                  1 ½ c rice                          

1 ¼ lb lamb                      [½ t salt]                                                                         

10 oz spinach                  

Slice garlic, melt ghee, add asafoetida, fry garlic in ghee about 20 minutes. Add meat and spinach, fry about ten minutes. Add milk and water, bring to a boil (about 8 minutes). Add washed rice, salt, cook about 25 minutes, let sit five minutes, serve.

Bread

Ain i Akbari chapter 25

There is a large kind, baked in an oven, made of 10 s. flour; 5 s. milk; 1 ½ s. ghi; ¼ s. salt. They make also smaller ones. The thin kind is baked on an iron plate. One ser will give fifteen, or even more. There are various ways of making it; one kind is called chapati, which is sometimes made of khushka; it tastes very well when served hot.

⅜-½ c ghee                   1 c milk

3 ½ c flour                    ½ T salt

Melt the ghee, stir it into the flour with a fork until there are only very small lumps. Stir in the milk until thoroughly mixed, knead briefly. Put the ball of dough in a bowl covered by a damp cloth and leave for at least an hour. Then knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, adding a little extra flour if necessary. Either:

Take a ball of dough about 2" in diameter, roll it out to about a 5" diameter circle. Cook it in a hot frying pan without grease. After about 2 minutes it should start to puff up a little in places. Turn it. Cook another 2 minutes. Turn it. Cook another 2 minutes. It should be done. The recipe should make about 11 of these.

Or ...

Take a ball of dough about 3" in diameter. Roll it down to a circle about 7" in diameter and ¼" thick. Heat a baking sheet in a 450° oven. Put the circle of dough on it in the oven. Bake about 6 minutes; it should be puffing up. Turn it over. Bake about 4 minutes more. Take it out. The recipe should make about 5 of these.

Making Bread of Abu Hamza

al-Warraq p. 123

Use as much as needed of fine samidh flour (high in starch and bran free). This bread is dry.

The dough is made similar to that of barazidhaj, except that this bread is a little thinner and smaller, it is pricked a lot with feathers [before baking], and neither buraq (bakers' borax) nor any sweetening ingredients are used in making it. However, you need to knead into it (olive oil from unripe olives), the amount of which depends on how much oily you want it to be. Moreover, after you stick them to the inside wall of the tannur and they are fully baked, take them out and stack them at the top of the oven. Keep them there until they are completely dry. Store them in wicker baskets and use them as needed.  

Barazidhaj: Take 1 makkūk [7½ pounds] good quality, pure flour, and mix with it 2 uqiyas yeast, and 20 dirhams salt and (bakers' borax). Mix them into dough [by adding water] and knead vigorously. Cover it and let it ferment.

Divide dough into small portions, the weight of each should be 1 Levantine uqiya (1 ½ ounces), brush each portion with 2 dirhams (olive oil from unripe olives), and flatten it on a wooden board to medium thinness. Prick the breads with feathers, but not much, and cover them with a dry piece of cloth.

(One fifth of the recipe)

3 ⅓ c semolina           1 ½ c water

1 T sourdough            1 ½ t salt

3 T olive oil                additional 4 T olive oil

Knead all ingredients except the additional oil together, let rise overnight, divide into about 40 1 oz portions, flour them. Press flat to a thickness of ⅛ to ¼", prick all over with a feather (I used a wooden skewer). Brush with olive oil—about 4 T for the whole batch. Bake at 350° for 20-30 minutes—longer the thicker they are. Take out. Turn off the oven, open the door to let it cool a little, then put the loaves back in on the oven rack, dry for at least half an hour at about 150-200°.

A Recipe for Ka'k Made for Abu 'Ata Sahl bin Salim al-Katib 

al-Warraq pp. 123-4

Take 1 kerylaja (2 ½ pounds) or 1 makkūk (7 ½ pounds) fine samith flour. Make it into dough using 100 dirham ground sesame seeds that have not been extracted of their oil (i.e. tahini), 1 uqiyya almond oil, and 2 dirhams salt. For each makkūk add 2 uqiyyas white sugar and 3 dirhams saffron. Knead the mixture with 10 dirhams yeast [and some water].

When dough is fully fermented, rub it with a little fat and rose water beaten together. Roll it out on a board into a square and cut it out into small squares. Bake them in the tannur by sticking them [into the inner wall]. When done, take them out and leave them at the top of the tannur for a short while to dry out, God willing.

(One fifth of the recipe)

3 ⅓ c semolina       .3 g saffron= (150 threads)

2 ounces tahini       1 t sourdough

1 t+ almond oil       1 ½ c water

    t salt                  1 T olive oil

scant T sugar         1 T rose water         

Combine all ingredients except oil and rose water and knead it smooth. Leave overnight to rise. Knead in oil (or animal fat) and rose water. Roll out about ¼" thick, cut into squares 1.5"-2" on a side, put on a baking stone in a 400° oven, bake about 20-25 minutes, cool oven to 200°-250°, dry about 30-60 minutes. They taste very strongly of saffron, which some like and some do not.

Recipe for the Barmakiyya

Andalusian p. A-9 (Good)

It is made with a hen, pigeons, doves, small birds or lamb. Take what you have of them, after cleaning, and cut up and put in a pot with salt, an onion, pepper, coriander and lavender or cinnamon, some murri naqî', and oil. Put it on a gentle fire until it is nearly done and the sauce is dried. Take it out and fry it in fresh oil without overdoing it, and leave it aside. Then take fine flour and semolina, make a well-made dough with leaven, and if it has some oil it will be more flavorful. Then roll out from it a flatbread and put inside it the fried and cooked meat of these birds, cover it with another flatbread and stick the ends together. Put it in the oven, and when the bread is done, take it out. It is very good on journeys. You might make it with fish and that can be used for journeying too.

Note: The Barmecides were a family of Persian viziers who served some of the early Abbasid Caliphs, in particular Haroun al-Rashid, and were famed for their generosity.

1 lb boned chicken            3 T olive oil

  or lamb                          3 T more olive oil

10 oz onion                       1 ½ c white flour

1 t salt                             1 ½ c semolina

½ t pepper                       [1 t salt in dough]

1 t coriander                     3 T more olive oil

1 ½ t lavender                  ¾ c water

  or cinnamon                   ½ c sourdough

1 T murri

Cut the meat fairly finely (approximately ¼" slices, then cut them up), combine in a 3 quart pot with chopped onion, 1 t salt, spices, murri, and 3 T oil. Cook over a medium low to medium heat about an hour. Cover it at the beginning so it all gets hot, at which point the onion and meat release their juices; remove the cover and cook until the liquid is gone, about 30 minutes. Then heat 3 T more oil in a large frying pan on a medium high burner, add the contents of the pot, fry over medium high heat about five minutes.

Stir together flour, semolina, 1 t salt. Gradually stir in 3 T oil. Combine ¾ c water, ½ c sourdough. Stir this into the flour mixture and knead to a smooth dough (which should only take a few minutes). If you do not have sourdough, omit it; since the recipes does not give the dough much time to rise, the sourdough probably does not have a large effect on the consistency of the dough.

Divide the dough in four equal parts. Take two parts, turn them out on a floured board, squeeze and stretch each (or use a rolling pin) until it is at least 12" by 5". Put half the filling on one, put the other on top, squeeze the edges together to seal. Repeat with the other two parts of the dough and the rest of the filling. Bake on a lightly oiled cookie sheet at 350° for 40 minutes.

For the fish version, start with 1 ¼ lb of fish (we used salmon). If it is boneless, proceed as above, shortening the cooking time to about 35 minutes; it is not necessary to cut up the fish fine, since it will crumble easily once it is cooked. If your fish has bones, put it on top of the oil, onions, spices etc., in the largest pieces that will fit in the pot, cover the pot, and cook for about 10-15 minutes, until the fish is almost ready to fall apart; in effect, it is being steamed by the liquid produced from the onions and by its own liquid. Take out the fish, bone it, return to the pot, and cook uncovered about 30 minutes until the liquid is mostly gone. Continue as above.

Zabarbada of Fresh Cheese

Andalusian p. A-42

Take fresh cheese, clean it, cut it up and crumble it; take cilantro and onion, chop and throw over the cheese, stir and add spices and pepper, stir the pot with two spoons of oil and an equal quantity of water and salt, then throw this mixture in the pot and put on the fire and cook; when it is cooked, take the pot from the fire and cover with egg and some flour and serve.

8 oz farmer's cheese         ½ t pepper    

1 c chopped cilantro          2 T oil           

6 oz onion                        1 T water      

1 t ground coriander          ½ t salt         

1 t cumin                          1 egg

1 t cinnamon                    2-3 T flour

Mix together cheese, cilantro, onion, and spices. Put oil, water and salt in a large frying pan or a dutch oven; shake to cover the bottom. Put in the cheese mixture and cook on medium-high to high about 3 minutes, stirring almost constantly, until the mixture becomes a uniform goo. Remove from heat, stir in egg, sprinkle on flour and stir in, serve forth. It ends up as a sort of thick dip, good over bread. It is still good when cold.

We have also used cheddar, feta, mozzarella and ricotta; all came out well, although with the feta it was a little salty, even with the salt in the recipe omitted. Some cheeses will require more flour to thicken it; the most we used was ½ cup.

Badinjan Muhassa

Ibn al-Mahdi’s cookbook in al-Warraq translated by Perry. (9th-10th c.) (Good)

Cook eggplants until soft by baking, boiling or grilling over the fire, leaving them whole. When they are cool, remove the loose skin, drain the bitter liquor and chop the flesh fine. It should be coarser than a true purée. Grind walnuts fine and make into a dough with vinegar and salt. Form into a patty and fry on both sides until the taste of raw walnut is gone; the vinegar is to delay scorching of the nuts. Mix the cooked walnuts into the chopped eggplant and season to taste with vinegar and ground caraway seed, salt and pepper. Serve with a topping of chopped raw or fried onion.

¾ lb eggplant        ⅛ t salt

1 c walnuts          1 t caraway seed

2 T vinegar          1 ½ T vinegar (at the end)

½ t salt                ¼ c chopped raw onion

⅛ t pepper

Simmer the eggplant 20 to 30 minutes in salted water (½ t salt in a pint of water). Let it cool. Peel it. Slice it and let the slices sit on a colander or a cloth for an hour or so, to let out the bitter juice.

Grind the walnuts, add vinegar and salt to make a dough. Make patties about ½" thick and put them on a frying pan at medium to medium high heat, without oil. In about half a minute, when the bottom side has browned a little, turn the patty over and use your pancake turner to squash it down to about ¼" (the cooked side is less likely to stick to your implement than the uncooked side). Continue cooking, turning whenever the patty seems about to scorch. When you are done, the surface of the patty will be crisp, brown to black–and since it is thin, the patty is mostly surface. If the patties start giving up lots of walnut oil (it is obvious–they will quickly be swimming in the stuff) the pan is too hot; throw them out, turn down the heat and make some more.

Chop up the eggplant, mix in the nut patties (they will break up in the process), add pepper, salt, caraway (ground in a spice grinder or mortar), and vinegar. Top with onion. Eat by itself or on bread.

Hais

al-Baghdadi p. 214 (Good)

Take fine dry bread, or biscuit, and grind up well. Take a ratl of this, and three quarters of a ratl of fresh or preserved dates with the stones removed, together with three uqiya of ground almonds and pistachios. Knead all together very well with the hands. Refine two uqiya of sesame-oil, and pour over, working with the hand until it is mixed in. Make into cabobs, and dust with fine-ground sugar. If desired, instead of sesame-oil use butter. This is excellent for travellers.

⅓ c almonds                   7 T melted butter

⅓ c pistachios                   or sesame oil

2 c (1 lb) pitted dates       enough sugar  

2 ⅔ c bread crumbs       

We usually grind the nuts separately in a food processor, then mix dates, bread crumbs, and nuts in the food processor, then stir in melted butter or oil. Dates vary in hardness—fresher is better (softer, moister). If it does not hold together, add a few tablespoons of water, one at a time. For “cabobs,” roll and squeeze into one inch balls. Good as caravan food (or for taking to wars). They last forever if you do not eat them, but you do so they don't.

Hulwa

Ibn al-Mabrad p.19

Its varieties are many. Among them are the sweets made of natif. You put dibs [fruit syrup], honey, sugar or rubb [thick fruit syrup] in the pot, then you put it on a gentle fire and stir until it takes consistency. Then you beat eggwhite and put it with it and stir until it thickens and becomes natif. After that, if you want almond candy you put in toasted almonds and 'allaftahu; that is, you bind them. walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, toasted chickpeas, toasted sesame, flour. [apparently alternative versions]. You beat in the natif until it thickens. For duhniyyah you put in flour toasted with fat. As for ... [other versions.]

Sugar version            Honey version

¼ c water                 1 c honey

1 ¼ c sugar              1 egg white

1 egg white               2 ½-3 c or more nuts

1 ½ - 2 c nuts           [ground nuts

                                  or sesame seeds]

This makes 25-40 hulwa.

Sugar version: Bring the water to a boil, stir in the sugar, continuing to heat. When it is dissolved and reasonably clear, turn it down to a simmer and put the top on the pot for two or three minutes (this is to let the steam wash down any sugar on the sides of the pot). Take the top off, boil gently until the temperature reaches the hard ball stage (250° -260° F). Beat the egg white until it is just stiff enough to hold its shape. Pour the sugar syrup into the egg white, beating continuously. You now have a thick white mixture; this is the natif. Mix it with chopped nuts (we have used almonds and walnuts) or toasted sesame seeds, or some mixture thereof. Squeeze the mixture into balls and set them aside to cool. As the natif cools it gets harder and less sticky, so you have to work quickly; the hotter you get the syrup before combining it with the egg white (and hence the less water ended up in it), the faster this happens and the dryer the hulwa ends up. If you get past 260°, the syrup may crystallize on you as or before you pour it; if so, give up and start over.

Honey version: Simmer the honey gently until it reaches a temperature of 280° -290° F. From that point on, the recipe is the same as for sugar, using the boiled honey instead of the sugar syrup. Note that honey requires a higher temperature than sugar to get the same effect. Also note that natif made from honey will be stickier than natif made from sugar (maybe you can solve this by getting the honey up to 310° without burning it; I couldn't). So use a higher ratio of nuts to natif and have the nuts chopped more finely; this helps reduce the stickiness. You may want to roll the honey hulwa in sesame seeds or ground nuts, also to reduce stickiness.

Dibs version (still experimental). Stir the dibs while simmering at medium heat about ½ hour+, until it gets to about 250°. If you do not stir, it may separate out. By 250° there is some problem with scorching.

Note: Dibs is date syrup, available from some Middle Eastern grocery stores.

To toast sesame seeds, put them in a heavy iron pot over a medium to high flame. When the ones on the bottom begin to tan, start stirring. When they are all tan to brown, take them off the heat or they will burn.

Barad

al-Baghdadi p. 211

Take best white flour, made into a dough, and leave to rise. Put a basin on the fire, with some sesame-oil. When boiling, take in a reticulated ladle some of the dough, and shake it into the oil, so that as each drop of the dough falls in, it sets. As each piece is cooked, remove with another ladle to drain off the oil. Take honey as required, mix with rose water, and put over the fire to boil to a consistency: then take off, and while still in the basin, whip until white. Throw in the barad, and place out on a soft-oiled surface, pressing in the shape of the mould. Then cut into pieces, and serve.

½ c white flour              1 ¼ c sesame oil

½ c water                     1 T rose water 

½ t dried yeast              ½ c honey

  or ¼ c sourdough

Make the flour and water into a smooth batter. If using yeast mix it with 2 t water, wait about 10 minutes, then add it (or the sourdough) to the flour-water mixture.  Let stand 2-3 hours. Heat 1 c of the sesame oil to about 300° in a large frying pan. Pour the batter through a ladle or skimmer with small holes in it, so as to form small balls in the hot oil. Cook to a pale brown (1-3 minutes), take out, drain on paper towel. Add more sesame oil when it gets low.

Mix rose water and honey, cook to 250°. Pay close attention–you want it almost but not quite boiling over. As it cools, whip it; it eventually takes a sort of whipped butter consistency, with a light color. Mix it with the fried dough, press down on an oiled plate, press down from above with another plate or a spatula. Chill before serving.

It has some tendency to come out a bit oily; you may want to use paper towels during the pressing to absorb as much of the surplus oil as possible.

Khushkananaj

al-Baghdadi p. 212 (Good)

Take fine white flour, and with every ratl mix three uqiya of sesame-oil [one part oil to four of flour], kneading into a firm paste. Leave to rise; then make into long loaves. Put into the middle of each loaf a suitable quantity of ground almonds and scented sugar mixed with rose water, using half as much almonds as sugar. Press together as usual, bake in the oven, remove.

2 c white flour                   1 c almonds 

1 c whole wheat flour         1 ½ c sugar 

½ c sesame oil                   1 T rose water

¾ to ⅞ c cold water or       more flour

  ½ c water, ½ c sourdough

 We originally developed the recipe without leavening, but currently use sourdough, which is our best guess at what the original intended (and also seems to work a little better). The two versions are:

Without leavening: Mix the flour, stir in the oil. Sprinkle the water onto the dough, stir in. Knead briefly together.

Sourdough: Mix the flour, stir in the oil. Mix the water and the sour dough starter together. Add gradually to the flour/oil mixture, and knead briefly together. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise about 8 hours in a warm place, then knead a little more.

We also have two interpretations of how the loaves are made; they are:

Almost Baklava: Divide in four parts. Roll each one out to about 8"x16" on a floured board. Grind almonds, combine with sugar and rose water. Spread the mixture over the rolled out dough and roll up like a jelly roll, sealing the ends and edges (use a wet finger if necessary). You may want to roll out the dough in one place and roll it up in another, so as not to have bits of nuts on the board you are trying to roll it out on. You can vary how thin you roll the dough and how much filling you use over a considerable range, to your own taste.

Long thin loaves: Divide the dough into six or eight parts, roll each out to a long loaf (about 16"), flatten down the middle so that you can fill it with the sugar and almond mixture, then seal it together over the filling. You end up with a tube of dough with filling in the middle.

Bake on a lightly oiled pan at 350° about 45-50 minutes.

Notes: At least some of the almonds should be only coarsely ground, for texture. Be sure to use middle Eastern (or health food) sesame oil, from untoasted sesame seeds. An earlier recipe gives us some idea of what scented sugar contained, but for this one we just add rose water.

Recipe for Murakkaba, a Dish which is Made in the Region of Constantine and is Called Kutâmiyya

Andalusian p. A-62 (Good)

Knead a well-made dough from semolina like the “sponge” dough with yeast, and break in it as many eggs as you can, and knead the dough with them until it is slack. Then set up a frying pan of clay [hantam] on a hot fire, and when it has heated, grease it with clarified butter or oil. Put in a thin flat loaf of the dough and when the bread is done, turn over. Take some of the dough in the hand and smear the surface of the bread with it. Then turn the smeared surface to the pan, changing the lower part with the upper, and smear this side with dough too. Then turn it over in the pan and smear it, and keep smearing it with dough and turning it over in the tajine, and pile it up and raise it until it becomes a great, tall loaf. Then turn it by the edges a few times in the tajine until it is done on the sides, and when it is done, as it is desired, put it in a serving dish and make large holes with a stick, and pour into them melted butter and plenty of honey, so that it covers the bread, and present it.

[From “Making of Elegant Isfunja (“Sponge”),” Andalusian: You take clear and clean semolina and knead it with lukewarm water and yeast and knead again. When it has risen, turn the dough, knead fine and moisten with water, little by little, so that it becomes like tar after the second kneading, until it becomes leavened or is nearly risen. ...]

2 ¼ c semolina flour      2 eggs  

½ c water                     1-2 T oil for frying

½ c sourdough               ⅜ c honey

¼ c more water             ½ c butter

Combine flour, ½ c water, and sourdough and knead smooth. Cover with a damp cloth and leave overnight to rise. In the morning knead in an additional ¼ c water, making it into a sticky mess, and leave another few hours in a warm place to rise. Add the eggs and stir until they are absorbed into the dough.

Heat a frying pan over medium to high heat and grease it with oil or ghee. Pour on enough batter to make a thick pancake about 7" in diameter. When one side is cooked (about 2 minutes) turn it over. Put onto the cooked side about ¼ c more batter, spreading it out to cover. When the second side is done (1-2 minutes more), turn it over, so that the side smeared with batter is now down. Cook another 1-2 minutes. Repeat. Continue until the batter is all used up, giving you about 8-10 layers—like a stack of pancakes about 3" thick, all stuck together. Turn the loaf on its side and roll it around the frying pan like a wheel, in order to be sure the edges are cooked.

Punch lots of holes in the top with the handle of a wooden spoon, being careful not to get through the bottom layer. Pour in honey and melted butter, letting it soak into the loaf. Serve.

Note: Scale the recipe up as desired to suit your ambition and frying pan. If you don’t have sourdough you could use yeast instead, with shorter rising times.

Preparation of Musammana [Buttered] Which Is Muwarraqa [Leafy] 

Andalusian p. A-60 (Good)

Take pure semolina or wheat flour and knead a stiff dough without yeast. Moisten it little by little and don't stop kneading it until it relaxes and is ready and is softened so that you can stretch a piece without severing it. Then put it in a new frying pan on a moderate fire. When the pan has heated, take a piece of the dough and roll it out thin on marble or a board. Smear it with melted clarified butter or fresh butter liquified over water. Then roll it up like a cloth until it becomes like a reed. Then twist it and beat it with your palm until it becomes like a round thin bread, and if you want, fold it over also. Then roll it out and beat it with your palm a second time until it becomes round and thin. Then put it in a heated frying pan after you have greased the frying pan with clarified butter, and whenever the clarified butter dries out, moisten [with butter] little by little, and turn it around until it binds, and then take it away and make more until you finish the amount you need. Then pound them between your palms and toss on butter and boiling honey. When it has cooled, dust it with ground sugar and serve it.

~ ⅝-¾ c water              ¼ c butter at the end

2 c semolina flour          ¼ c honey at the end

⅛ lb butter, melted         1 T+ sugar

¼ c ghee for frying

Stir most of the water into the flour, knead together, then gradually knead in the rest of the water. Knead for about 5-10 minutes until you have a smooth, elastic and slightly sticky dough that stretches instead of breaking when you pull it a little. Divide in four equal parts. Roll out on a floured board, or better on floured marble, to at least 13"x15". Smear it with about 4 t melted butter. Roll it up. Twist it. Squeeze it together, flatten with your hands to about a 5-6" diameter circle. If you wish, fold that in quarters and flatten again to about a 5-6" circle. Melt about 1 T of ghee in a frying pan and fry the dough about 8 minutes, turning about every 1 ½ to 2 minutes (shorter times towards the end). Repeat with the other three parts, adding more ghee as needed. Melt ¼ c butter, heat ¼ c honey. Beat the cooked circles between your hands to loosen the layers, put in a bowl, pour the honey and butter over them, dust with sugar, and serve. If you are going to give it time to really soak, you might use more butter and honey.

For regular flour, everything is the same except that you may need slightly more water. You can substitute cooking oil for the ghee (which withstands heat better than plain butter) if necessary.

Sekanjabin

Modern Recipe: Dissolve 4 cups of sugar in 2 ½ cups of water; when it comes to a boil add 1 cup wine vinegar. Simmer ½ hour. Add a handful of mint, remove from fire, let cool. Makes 5 c of syrup, which stores without refrigeration. Dilute to taste with ice water (5 to 10 parts water to 1 part syrup).

Note: This is the only recipe in the Miscelleny that is based on a modern source: A Book of Middle Eastern Food, by Claudia Roden. Sekanjabin is a period drink; it is mentioned in the Fihrist of al-Nadim, which was written in the tenth century. The only period recipe I have found for it (in the Andalusian cookbook) is called “Simple Sekanjabin” (see below) and omits the mint. It is one of a large variety of similar drinks described in that cookbook–flavored syrups intended to be diluted in either hot or cold water before drinking.

Syrup of Simple Sikanjabîn (Oxymel)

Andalusian p. A-74

Take a ratl of strong vinegar and mix it with two ratls of sugar, and cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup. Drink an ûqiya of this with three of hot water when fasting: it is beneficial for fevers of jaundice, and calms jaundice and cuts the thirst, since sikanjabîn syrup is beneficial in phlegmatic fevers: make it with six ûqiyas of sour vinegar for a ratl of honey and it is admirable.

This seems to be two different recipes, for two different medical uses. The first, at least, is intended to be drunk hot. In modern Iranian restaurants, sekanjabin is usually served cold, often with grated cucumber.