Jingles Feast Recipes


Drinks

Sekanjabin (Recipe by Claudia Roden; a recipe in the Anonymous Andalusian cookbook for "simple sekanjabin" omits the mint.)

Ingredients: Water, Vinegar, Sugar, Mint

Julab (from a recipe of Ibn Sina)

Ingredients: Water, Sugar, Rose Water


Sideboard


Barmakiyya (Andalusian)

    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.

Ingredients: Lamb, Onion, Salt, Pepper, Coriander, Lavender or Cinnamon, Murri, Olive oil, Flour, Semolina, Sourdough, Murri


Badinjan Muhassa: (Al-Warraq)

    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.

Ingredients: Eggplant, Walnuts, Vinegar, Salt, Pepper, Caraway seed, Onion


Bread of Abu Hamza (al-Warraq)

    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.

Ingredients: Semolina, Sourdough, Salt, Olive oil


Crumbly crackers (al-Warraq)

Take 1 kaylaj fine samidh flour and take for it ½ ratl tabarzad (white cane sugar) dissolved in 1 ratl water. Knead vigorously and set dough aside to ferment.
    After dough has risen, pour on it, 5 Baghdadi uqiyyas oil of skinned almonds and knead lightly.
    Cut out dough into regular even-sized discs using a mold (qalab) and sprinkle them with hulled sesame seeds. Prick the pieces with a feather and bake them in the tannur until they are golden. Take them out of the oven and set them aside I nthe open air for about an hour until they dry out. When eaten they will crumble in the mouth.


Ingredients: Semolina, Sugar, Almond oil, Sourdough, Sesame seeds


Quince preserves (al-Warraq)

Quarter and core quince, put it in a pot with honey, and pour water on it. Let the pot come to a boil then drain the quince, return it to the pot and add honey to it. Do not use water this time. Cook the qunce again until it is well done.

Ingredients: Quinces, Honey


A Recipe for Conserving Apples (al-Warraq)

Choose large and fragrant Lebanese apples, peel and core them, and take 10 ratls of these.
   Take honey [and vinegar], boil them in a pot, and add the prepared apples to them. Let the apples cook gently on slow fire stirring constantly until apples become as mushy as khabis (thick pudding).
   Add to the pot, 2 uqiyyas cassia, and 1 uqiya of each of the following: black pepper, cloves, black cardamom, and mace. Also add ½ uqiyya spikenard and 3 nutmegs with outer skins scraped. However, before adding them to the pot, you need to grind and sift each spice separately then mix them well, and add them to the pot. Besides, the amount of honey and vinegar used should be enough to cover the apples.
   Finally, add 1 mithqal (4 ½ g) crushed saffron. Stir the pot until the ingredients mix well and look like khabis. Transfer the conserve into a clean vessel, God willing.
   Know that pear conserve is done exactly like apples.


Ingredients: Apples, Honey, Vinegar, Cinnamon, Pepper, Cloves, Black Cardamom, Mace, Spikenard, Nutmeg, Saffron


Main Dishes - meat

Rishta (Al Baghdadi)

    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.

Ingredients: Lamb, Cinnamon, Salt, Chickpeas, Lentils, Flour


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

Ingredients: Murri, Honey, Coriander, Cinnamon, Pepper, Lamb, Cila
ntro, Rue, Mustard greens, Olive oil, Salt


Apricot Jhudaba (al-Warraq)

    Choose sweet and fully ripe apricots an remove the pits. In a clean judhabadan layer the apricots alternately with a layer of sugar until the pan is full. However, before doing this, yous should have lined the bottomof the casserole with a thin round of bread (ruqaqa), and [after you finish] you need to cover the apricots with another thin round of bread (ruqaqa).
    If you wish, add a little bit of saffron and drench the apricots and sugar in rose water. [Put the casserold in a hot tannur,] suspend a fine plump chicken above it, [and let it roast], God willing.

[We combined this recipe with the following, using apricots but layering the bread as in the banana recipe]

A recipe for Judhaba of Bananas by Ibn al Mahdi

al-Warraq

 

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.

Ingredients: Dried apricots, sugar, thin bread (ruqaqa and lavash), rose water, chicken.
[Ruqaq contains flour, sourdough, baking powder, salt, olive oil. Lavash contains flour and yeast.]

Khall wa zayt (al-Warraq)

Prepare a deep platter. In a big cup, put 3 ratls wine vinegar, a piece of ice, and water. Stir the mixture until ice dissolves. Add to the mixture, a lump of sugar, a bit of salt, and dry well leavened white ka’k. Stir the mixture with a spoon. Take the ka’k out put it on the patter, and pour the remaining liquid in the cup over it.
    Pour olive oil over it, and chop in it pulp of small and smooth cucumber, fresh thyme leaves, pungent fresh basil, and a little salt.
    Serve the dish, God willing, with hot [roasted] pullets.
 
Ingredients: Wine vinegar, Sugar, Salt, Olive oil, Cucumber, Thyme, Basil, Chicken


Ka'k
(al-Warraq) included in the Khall wa zayt above

    Take 1 kaylaja or 1 makkuk fine samith flour. Make it into dough using 100 dirhams ground sesame seeds that have not been extracted of their oil, 1 uqiya almond oil, and 2 dirhams salt. For each makkuk 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 rosewater beaten together. Roll it out on a board into a square and cut it into small squares. Bake them in the tannur by sticking them. When done, take them out and leave them at the top of the tannur for a short while to dry out, God willing.



Ingredients: Semolina, Tahini, Almond oil, Salt, Sugar, flour (in sourdough, very small amount), rose water, olive oil for fat (saffron omitted since this was supposed to be white ka'k)


Vegan

Adasiyya (al-Warraq)

    Wash and pick over hulled lentil and cook it until it falls apart and becomes mushy. Cook with it round onion, olive oil, and salt. Add some vinegar.
    You have the option of adding to it sugar and saffron. Alternatively, if you do not like to use saffron or onion, put bruised garlic cloves and a dusting of cumin in the pot after adding the vinegar.

Ingredients: Lentils, Onions, Olive oil, Salt, Vinegar, Sugar, Saffron


Baridah of carrots
(al-Warraq)

    Boil the carrots, cut them [crosswise] into rings like dirhams (coins), and set them aside.
    Chop onions, fresh herbs, and rue. Fry them very well in olive oil and pour on them murri and vinegar. Add as well cassia, black pepper, galangal, coriander seeds, caraway seeds, ginger, spikenard, and cloves, all ground. Bring the pot to a good boil, and pour the vinegar mixture all over the carrots, which have been put on a platter. Chop rue on it and serve it, God willing.

Ingredients: Carrots, Onion, Parsley, Mint, Basil, Ci
lantro, Rue?, Olive oil, Murri, Vinegar, Cassia, Pepper, Galingale, Coriander, Caraway seeds, Ginger, Spikenard, Cloves

Ruqaq
(al-Warraq)

Two kinds of ruqaq are made: labiq, and jarmāzaj. The first variety is small and neatly shaped into perfect rounds flattened into extreme thickness. Jarmāzaj is larger.

Ruqāq is made, kneaded, and cut the same way barāzidhaj is done. However, labiq weights 2 Baghdadi ūqiyaas (2 ounces) and karmāzaj weighs 3 to 4 ūqiyas (3 to 4 ounces). Moreover, ruqāq breads are not priced with feathers and the tannūr is heated before flattening the breads. As soon as one piece is flattened, it is immediately stuck into the tannūr, which is to remain hot all the time.

You cannot bake more than one bread at a time [because they are thin and bake fast]. You need to flatten the ruyqāqa, stick it into the tannūr, and wait until it is done. It should be wiped with water the moment it is taken out and while it is still at the top of the oven. The breads are to be stacked as they bake until the whole batch is finished, God willing.


Ingredients: Flour, sourdough, baking powder (Baker's borax, conjectural), salt, olive oil.
 
(barāzidhaj--recipe referred to in the above)
    Take 1 Makkūk (7 ½ pounds) good quality, pure flour and mix with it 2 ūqiyyas (2 ounces) yeast, and 20 dirhams (2 ounces) salt and būraq (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 uqiyaa (1 ½ ounces), brush each portion with 2 dirhams (1 t) (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 the with a dry piece of cloth.
    Light the tannur. Let it get hot then wipe clean its inner wall and wait for the fire to subside. With the help of a piece of cloth transfer the breads to the tannur and stick them into the oven. If you like, squirt some water on them [before baking].
    When they are done, take them out of the oven, and drape them with a piece of cloth for an hour or so, God willing.


Desert

Latticed fritters (al-Warraq)

    Make soft dough using ½ ratl good quality fine samidh flour, yeast, [and water]. Cover the dough and let it ferment overnight. In the following morning, knead ½ ratl starch with yeast dissolved in water, and mix it with the pepared batch of fermented dough. Knead them together, adding water bit by bit until the dough becomes very soft—similar to ‘ajin al qatayif (crepe batter). Add a small amount of (baking borax) that has been dissolved in some water. Let it rest for a short while.
    Prepare a nut cup for the batter. It is made by cutting off the rounded end of a coconut, which leaves you with a cup-like shell. Pierce a small hole in its botom, the width of a mil (probe or bodkin).
    Choose an iron or copper frying pan with a flat base. Pour fat, enough to cover the zalabiya [while frying]. Light the fire underneath the pan. When the fat becomes hot, scope some of the batter into the coconut shell, held with the left hand, and the hole blcoked with a finger. Then hold the filled shell from its rim with the right hand—above the frying pan—and let the batter run through the hole into the hot fat, simultaneously moving your hand in circles to make the lattice form. You can make them like discs, balls, or squares. If your batter was done right, the moment the batter falls into the hot oil, it will puff and look like a bracelet with a hollow interior.
    As soon as one zalabiya is done, take it out of the fat and dip it in honey, which has been boiled and skimmed of its froth and perfumed [with rose water, musk, or camphor]. Keep the pieces drenched in the honey until they absorbe enough of the syrup. Then take them out and arrange them in the dessert platter.
    If they turn out to be good, serve them. (further instructions if they don’t turn out right omitted)

Ingredients: Semolina, Sourdough, Starch, Baking soda ("Baker's Borax--conjecture), Olive oil, Honey, Rose water


Khushkananaj (al-Baghdadi)

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.

Ingredients: White flour, Whole wheat flour, Sesame oil, Sourdough, Almonds, Sugar, Rose water


Hais (al Baghdadi)

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.

Ingredients: Almonds, Pistachios, Dates, Bread crubs, Butter, Sugar



Hulwa (Ibn al-Mabrad)

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.]

Ingredients: Sugar, Egg white, nuts or dried apricot or both


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). ...

Ingredients: Bread, Starch, Anise, Fennel, Nigella, Saffron, Celery seed, Carob, Walnuts, Quince, Salt, Honey, Lemon

Some of the worked out recipes can be found in the Miscellany, others in the Recipes for the 11th Edition of the Miscellany.

Note: Rue has been regarded at least since Roman times as an abortafacient but also extensively used as an herb and medicinally. I have been unable to find any clear evidence of what dose is hazardous and my guess is that the tiny amount used in one of our recipes is not, but women who are or may be pregnant may wish to avoid the dish or at least avoid the bits of green leaf on it, some of which are rue.