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Islamic-Feast-art - 5/27/99

"An Islamic Feast in a Barbarian Court" by al-Sayyid A'aql ibn Rashid al-Zib. A menu and recipes from an SCA event feast held in Spring 1999.

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Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 17:14:06 EDT

From: LrdRas at aol.com

Subject: SC - Menu-Ladies Tourney

An Islamic Feast in a Barbarian Court

by al-Sayyid A'aql ibn Rashid al-Zib

First Course

Sals 'Yoghurt Cheese with Garlic'

Marinated Cucumbers

Watermelon and Dates

Flat bread

Second Course

Isfidhbaya (The Simple White Tifaya)

Roz (Rice)

Shiraz bi-Buqal (Dry Curds with Vegetables)

A Dish of Chichen or Whatever Meat You Please

Recipe for a Dish of Olives

Third Course

Goat Shiwa (Goat Shishkababs)

The Making of Stuffed Eggs

Couscous

Shula Kalambar (Spinach and Lentils)

Fourth Course

Lugmat al Qadi (Judges Mouthfuls)

-------------------------------------------------------

First Course

Sals

'Yoghurt Cheese with Garlic'

First. Yoghurt is filtered and garlic is put in it.

(from 'The Link to the Beloved'; Translated by Charles Perry. A Collection

of Medieval and Renaissance Cookbooks, Vol. II. Duke Sir Cariadoc of the Bow)

Redaction by al-Sayyid A'aql ibn Rashid al-Zib, AoA, OSyc. Copyright c 1999

L. J. Spencer, Jr. Williamsport, PA.

1 pint Plain wholemilk yogurt

3 lg cloves Garlic, mashed to a paste

Nigella seed, ground for garnish (optional)*

Line a strainer with 2 layers of cheesecloth. Suspend strainer over a deep

bowl or pot. Dump yogurt into cheesecloth lined strainer. Cover with a cloth

or plastic wrap. Put in a cool place for 12 to 24 hrs. to drain.

Disgard liquid or use in breadmaking. Put drained yogurt in a bowl Blend in

garlic paste, mixing thouroughly. Leave a few hrs. to absorb and develop

flavor. Serve with flat bread. Serves 8.

(NOTE: Serving idea- Mould Sals in a mound in the center of an eathenware

plate covered with a large flatbread. Surround with an overlapping layer of

marinated or plain sliced cucumbers. Sprinkle top with nigella and mount with

a twisted cucumber slice.)

- -------------------------------

Watermelon and Dates

1/2 round Watermelon

16 Dates, pitted

Using a melon baller remove interior of watermelon, discarding seeds. Return

melon balls to shell. Sprinkle dates over top. (NOTE: A cardboard collar or

small bowl can be used to the set the watermelon on to stablize it).

- -------------------

Marinated Cucumbers

2 qts Ice water

1 qt Vinegar

40 lg Cucumbers, sliced

2/3 cp Fresh mint, chopped fine

60 cloves Garlic, peeled, lightly crushed

1 1/4 cp Olive oil

3 T Salt

Mix water, vinegar, mint, garlic, oil and salt together. Pour over cucumbers.

Leave in a cool place for several hrs, turning occasionally. Serves 160.

- -----------------------

Flat Bread

Use pitas, nan or any other flat breds or make your own by cutta loaf of

thawed frozen bread dough into 6 pieces and rolling each piece out into a

thin circle. Brush with oil and sprinkle with a seasoning of equal parts

pepper, cinnamon, cumin and coriander.

Ras

Second Course

Isfidhabaya (The Simple White Tafaya)

Take the meat of a young plump lamb. Cut it in little pieces and put it in a

clean pot with salt, pepper, coriander, a little juice of crushed onion, a

spoonful of sweet oil and a sufficient amount of water. Put it over a gentle

fire and be careful to stir it, put in meatballs and some peeled, minced

almonds. When the meat is done and has finished cooking, set the pot on the

ashes until it is cooked. He who wants this tafaya green can give it this

color with cilantro juice alone or with a little mint juice.- from 'The

Andalusian Cookbook'; A Collection of Medieval and Renaissance Cookbooks,

Vol. II, pg. A-32. Duke Sir Cariadoc of the Bow.

Redaction by al-Sayyid A'aql ibn Rashid al-Zid, AoA, OSyc.

1 lb Lamb, cut into cubes

1 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Black pepper, ground

1/2 cp Cilantro, chopped

2 tsp Onion juice

Water to cover

2 T Olive oil

1 lb Lamb, ground made into hazelnut sized mealballs, browned

1/4 cp Almonds, peeled and minced

Combine lamb cubes, salt, cilantro, pepper, onion juice, oil amd water.

Simmer until lamb is tender, stirring occasionally and adding water to

prevent sticking as necessary.

Add meatballs to lamb mixture. Continue cooking until broth is reduced and

mealballs are cooked through. Turn off heat. Let stand 10 mins. Serves 8.

- --------------------

Rice

1 cp Rice

2 cps Water

A handful of Zante raisons

q tsp salt

Bring water to a boil. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil again.

Reduce heat to the lowest possible setting. Cover tightly. Cook for 20 mins.

Remove from heat. Leave for 5 mins. Serves 6.

- ----------------------------

Shiraz bi-Buqal (Dry Curds with Vegetables)

'This is an excellent relish which both awakens and stimulates the appetite.

Take mint, celery and vegetable leeks: strip the leaves of the celery and

mint. Chop all fine with a knife the pound in the mortar. Mix well with dried

curds, and sprinkle with salt to taste and fine ground mustard. Garnish with

coarse chopped walnuts and serve. If dry curds are not available, use instead

coagulated milk from which the water has been strained, mix with a little

sour milk, and serve.- from 'al-Baghdadi' (1226 C.E.); A Collection of

Medieval and Renaissance Cookbooks, Vol. 1. Duke Sir Cariadoc of the Bow.

Redaction by al-Sayyid A'aql ibn Rashid al-Zib, AoA, OSyc

1/8 cp Fresh mint leaves, chopped fine

1/2 cp Celery leaves, chopped fine

1 Leek , white part only, chopped fine

1 tsp Salt

1 T Dry mustard, ground

1 T Walnuts, chopped coarsely

1 lb Cottage cheese, large curd

Pound in a mortar or whiz in a food processor mint, celery and leek until

mashed. Blend vegetable mixture into cottage cheese until thouroughly mixed.

Add mustard and salt, blending well. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. To

serve, sprinkle walnuts over top. Serves 4-6.

- -------------------

Dish of Chicken or Whatever Meat You Please

If it is tender, take the flesh of the breast of the hen or partridge or the

flesh of the thighs and grind it up very vigourously, and remove the tendons

and grind with the meat almonds, walnuts, and pinenuts until completely

mixed, throw in pepper, caraway, cinnamon, lavender, in the required

quantity, a little honey and eggs, beat all together until it becomes one

substance, then make with this what looks like an 'usba' made of lamb innards

and put it in a lamb skin or sheep skin and put it on a heated skewer and

cook slowly over a fire of hot coals until it is browned , then remove it adn

eat it, if you wish with murri and if you wish with mustard, if God so

wills.- from 'An Andalusian Cookbook; A Collection of Medieval and

Renaissance Cookbooks, Vol. II; pg. A-35. Duke Sir Cariadoc of the Bow.

Redaction by al-Sayyid A'aql ibn Rashid al-Zib, AoA, OSyc

2 lb Boneless chicken breast or thighs

2 1/2 ozs Almonds

2 1/2 ozs Walnuts

2 T Pinenuts

1 tsp Caraway seed, ground

1/2 tsp Black pepper, ground

1/2 tsp Lavender, dried and crushed

2 T Honey

2 Eggs

Sausage casings (see Note*)

Skewers

Grind chicken on coarse. Mix almonds, walnuts, pinenuts, caraway, papper,

lavender, honey and eggs into chicken. Grind again with medium blade. Then

force into sauage casings tying off into links.

Grill on skewers over charcoal until browned and cooked through. Serve with

murri or mustard. Serves 8.

(NOTE: The original clearly was enclosed in a bag of skin and roasted whole.

I chose to use sausage casing to gain better protion control and because it

was readily available. Thre are examples of sausages in the original

manuscripts.)

- --------------------------------

Recipe for a Dish of Olives

(The recipe for this dish is found on pg. A-13 in 'A Collection of Medieval

and Renaissance Cookbooks, Vol. II (Duke Sir Caraidoc of the Bow). The

original recipe is an extremely elaborate partridge/meatball and vegetable

dish with a sort of dumpling-like meat topping. Given the non-availibility of

period medieval middle eastern/Andalusian vegetable recipes, I used this

recipe as a base for this creation. While it cannot be said to be 'period',

the techniques and ingredients are period for Andalusia.).

Created by al-Sayyid A'aql ibn Rashid al-Zib, AoA, OSyc

1 tsp Salt

1/4 cp Cilantro, chopped

1/4 tsp Black pepper, ground

1 can Chickpeas

1 stalk Fennel, sliced

1/4 tsp Cassia, ground

1 sprig Thyme

1/4 tsp True cinnamon, ground

1/2 tsp Cumin seed, ground

1/2 tsp Coriander seed, ground

1 lb Chard, quartered

2 Citron leaves

10 Black olives

1 cp Water

1 T crumbled strong cheese

1 T chooped black olives

Mix salt, cilantro, pepper, chickpeas, Fennel, cassia, thyme, cinnamon,

coriander, cumin and citron leaves in a pot with water. Bring to a boil. Stir

down. Repeat twice. Add chard and olives to pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat

to simmer. Simmer until chard is tender. Garnish with cheese and chopped

olives.

Third Course

Goat Shiwa

"Recipe for a Pot-Grill (92), Good for the Old, the Delicate of Body and for

Weak Stomachs. Take young fat meat, cu t it small in a clean pot with a

little salt, pepper, thyme, a little murri nagi, 2 cloves of garlic, and what

oil is wanting. Place it in on a moderate fire and stir it until it is done

and spent. (NOTE (92): The word is Shiwa, which was the medieval word for

shishkabab; the sense seems to be that it is cooked in a pot, rather than

direstly over the flame, but seasoned like grilled meat (HM)'.- from "The

Andalusian Cookbook, Vol. II, pg. A-23. A Collection of Medieval and

Renaissance Cookbooks, Duke Sir Cariadoc of the Bow.

(I used this recipe as a source for an actual Shiwa recipe, using the

seasonings as a 'mairnade' and then grilling the kabobs.)

Redaction by al-Sayyid A'aql ibn Rashid al-Zib, AoA, OSyc

1 lb Goat meat, cubed

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Black pepper ground

1 tsp Thyme

1 tsp Byzantine murri naqi

2 cloves Garlic, mashed to a paste

1 T Oil

8 Skewers

Mix ingredients to gether and let sit for 1 to 2 hrs. Thread meat on skewers.

Grill over charcoal or roast until done.

- ------------------

The Making of Stuffed Eggs

'Take as many eggs as thou wilt and boil them whole in hot water, put them in

cold water and divide them in half with a thread. Take the yolks asise and

crush cilantro, put in onion juice, pepper, and coriander and beat all this

together with murri, oil, and salt and mash the yolks with this until it

becomes a paste. Then stuff the whites with this and fasten it together,

insert a small stick into each egg and sprinkle them with pepper, God willing.

Redaction by al-Sayyid A'aql ibn Rashid al-Zib, AoA, OSyc

12 Eggs, hard-boiled and peeled

1 T Cilantro, mashed

1 tsp Onion juice

3/8 tsp Black pepper, ground

1/2 tsp Coriander seed, ground

1 tsp Byzantine murri naqi

1 T Olive oil (or more)

Salt to taste

12 round Toothpicks

Blackpepper, ground for garnish

Cut eggs in half, removing yolks which are placed in a seperate bowl.

Beat cilantro, onion juice, murri and olive oil together. Add salt to taste.

Add yolks, mashing mixture until it forms a smooth paste, adding more oil as

needed.

Stuff yolk mixture into each egg half. Secure halves together with a

toothpick. Sprinkle lightly with pepper

- --------------------------------

Couscous

(While couscous is considered period, I was unable to find a period recipe

using this product. The following is a contrived 'period-like' dish based on

other period Islamic recipes for grains. Due to the prevalence of onions and

garlic in other dishes for the feast this was created for, I chose to leave

these out although their addition would improve the final dish.)

Created by al-Sayyid A'aql ibn Rashid al-Zib, AoA, OSyc

1/3 cp Chickpeas, pre-cooked

2 carrots, sliced

2 1/2 T Olive oil

1 tsp Salt

1/8 tsp Black pepper, ground

1/4 tsp Ginger, ground

1/8 tsp Saffron

2 cps Couscous

1/4 cp Raisins

1 sm Edidible guord (substitute zucchini)

4 oz Fresh favas (substitute frozen limas)

5 T Itlaian parsley, finely chopped

2 1/2 T Butter, melted

4 cps Water

In a pot put water, carrots, gourd and limas. Make a mental note of the water

level. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for 10 mins. or until

carrots are tender crisp. Add water to previous level. Add chickpeas,

raisins, oil, salt, pepper, ginger, saffron and parsley. Bring to a boil. Add

couscous. Cover. Turn off heat. Leave for 5 mins. Fluff into a serving dish.

Drizzle melted butter over top. Serves 8.

- ---------------

Shula Kalambar (Spinach and Lentils)

(Prepared in Medieval Persia to heal the sick. For the cure to be effective,

the ingredients had to be bought with money begged in the streets).- from

'The Book of Middle Eastern Food', pg. 266. Claudia Roden.

1 cp Brown lentils

8 ozs Frozen spinach (1 lb. fresh)

1/2 tsp Coroander, ground

1/2 tsp Cumin, ground

1 clove Garlic, crushed

Salt to taste

Black pepper, to taste

2 T Butter, melted

Boil lentils until tender, about 3/4 to 1 1/2 hrs. Defrost spinach and drain

well. Chop spinach leaves finely and stew gently in their own juices until

tender. Drain lentils and add them to the spinach. Season to taste. Stir well.

Add butter, and let it melt into vegetables. Serves 6.

Ras