Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Rabbit Barida

Recipe Source: al-Warrāq, Ibn Sayyār. Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens. Nawal Nasrallah, trans. Brill, Leiden, 2007 p. 214

This past July I had the opportunity to teach a class on cold dishes from the medieval Arab world at a gathering of medieval history enthusiasts up in Maine. The class went very smoothly, much better than I had imagined. (If you're reading this and you were in the class, thank you for making it such a pleasant experience.) I liked the idea of teaching this class because it gave me an opportunity to cook from my favorite cookbook in the whole wide world, medieval or modern. I served some samples in the class; this was one of them. I've also served it at one of our Sunday open houses, mostly to give me a chance to serve it.

Rabbit is kind of an unusual meat in the modern West. I think that might be changing, though. My local Greek market was selling them frozen – not unusual to find them frozen in an ethnic market. Recently I got a phone call from my husband from a large chain grocery store near our house that shall remain nameless. (They remain nameless because they once sold me a rotten duck.) This store was selling rabbit fresh, and lots of it. I'm pretty pleased by this, since rabbit meat is tasty and relatively lean. I will spare you the health benefits listed by al-Warrāq, as they might cause this website to be barred by safe search.

Anyway, I didn't make a lot of changes to this recipe. I try not to when I'm re-creating a medieval recipe. That said, there were some changes that I just had to make. I couldn't chop the rabbit easily and it would make the rabbit more difficult to serve during the class if I had, so I treated it more like a pulled rabbit. The rabbit was roasted on our Big Green Egg – there is no suggestion in the recipe that the rabbit should have been roasted in this manner in period, but we know that they were using a similar tool to roast meat in period and there is no indication that it should not have been used in this case. We rubbed the rabbit with our Greek-style rub, because it works well with rabbit. The vinegar I used was red wine vinegar. The soy sauce is a stand-in for murrī, which was made in almost the same way. Someone else has made murrī following a period recipe and it apparently tastes like soy sauce, and the recipe is similar to soy sauce, so it makes a good substitute. I couldn't get the two different types of asafetida so I used what I had. I couldn't get rue so I used rosemary – very different flavors, but much less likely to cause a harmful reaction. I ran out of caraway seeds and so left them out when I served this to my class. The "different spices" I used were based on personal preference.

The sauce went over decently, but out of all of the meat dishes I served this one was the least popular. It was probably the least familiar to modern Western palates, and the sweet and sour flavor wasn't necessarily to everyone's taste. (It also had to compete with a beef bārida that was incredibly popular, so that probably has a lot to do with it.)

Rabbit Bārida (serves 2 – 3 as a main course; approx. cost per serving not available)

1 rabbit, roasted, carved and cooled. We roasted the rabbit on our Big Green Egg and we think this is the best way of doing it, but there is absolutely no reason you couldn't do this in your oven at home. Roast at 375 ̊until done; if you're using the Egg cook over indirect heat.)

¾ ounce ground cumin

½ ounce ground coriander

1 gram asafetida

3 grams caraway seeds

12 grams olive oil

15 grams sugar

2 whole onions, peeled

Equipment:

• Bowl
• Whisk

1. Carve the rabbit and arrange it on a platter.
2. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Mix well and allow to sit. I probably let it sit about an hour before I served it the first time. For the class, I let it sit an hour and then removed the onions; the sauce continued to sit for a good 48 hours.
3. Just before serving, remove the onions from the sauce. Pour the sauce over the meat and serve.

Recipe: Strawberry Wine Jelly

Recipe Source: Kingry, Judi and Lauren Devine, editors. Complete Book of Home Preserving. Robert Rose, Toronto, 2006 p. 123

I know I've mentioned this repeatedly, but we had a real bumper crop of strawberries this past spring. Seriously – I didn't think it was possible to get so many berries from such a small plot of land. This is especially surprising considering that weather in the early spring (a sudden cold snap, IIRC) led meteorologists around here to predict a poor strawberry crop. I don't know about the commercial growers but we did just fine, thank you. I found myself casting around for something to make with our strawberries. Preserves seemed to be the most sensible. I made this one at the same time that I made the Strawberry-Honey Jam that has been so popular.

This jelly was not nearly as popular as the strawberry-honey jam. It has a much milder flavor. My husband went so far as to discourage me from making a second batch of this stuff, since the strawberry-honey jam was such a hit. I will not publicly repeat what I told him. I actually prefer this jelly. Yes, its flavor is mild and delicate. It also matches just perfectly with almond butter on toast. I am more than happy to hoard my jelly until next year and share the strawberry-honey jam.

A note about the recipe: this book is put out by the Jarden Corporation. I've got a couple of books by them and they are very, very firm that the recipes are not to be altered in any way. The warnings are pretty dire. This, therefore, is the unchanged recipe, although the language in the instructions is my own.

Strawberry Wine Jelly (makes approx. 6 4-oz jars; approx. cost per serving not available)

1 cup sliced hulled strawberries

2 ½ cups dry white wine

3 ½ cups granulated sugar

1 pouch liquid pectin

Equipment

• Jars, bands, lids, ladle, canning funnel, canning tongs, water bath canner
• Large saucepan
• Large stainless steel bowl
• Strainer
• Cheesecloth
• Potato masher
• Another large clean bowl

1. Prepare your jars for canning according to your brand's instructions.
2. Combine the berries and wine in the stainless bowl. Use the potato masher to crush the berries well.
3. Line the strainer with dampened cheesecloth – several layers – and set over a clean bowl. Pour the crushed berry – wine mixture into the strainer and let sit for one hour. This should get you 2 ½ cups of berry-infused wine. (I'm describing it this way because my dad was very concerned that I had started drinking cheap wine made from strawberries.)
4. Transfer the wine to the large saucepan.
5. Stir in the sugar and bring to a full rolling boil over high heat.
6. When the boil cannot be stirred down, stir in the pectin.
7. Boil another 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
8. Remove from heat and skim.
9. Ladle into hot jars, leaving ¼" headspace. Lid and band the jars, screwing the bands on to fingertip tightness.
10. Process 10 minutes in the boiling water canner.
11. Wait 5 minutes, then remove from canner. Cool and store.

Recipe: Milk Chocolate Pistachio Tart

Recipe Source: Dusoulier, Clotilde. "Vive la Tarte!" Martha Stewart Living no. 199 p. 180, June 2010. Find the original recipe online here.

When I was a little girl pistachios were a big deal. They always came in their shells, which had been dyed a kind of brilliant red that stained the tips of your fingers. I have no idea how they got that way. They made appearances at Christmas, when I would have to be told multiple times that it was perhaps not the most polite thing to eat all of them. (But really, which would you rather do: have pistachios and eat them, or be polite? Especially when you're five?) My love for pistachios has continued into adulthood, but it's changed a bit. Now I know that I can cook with them. I do cook with them on a regular basis, too. When I saw this recipe in Martha Stewart Living I knew I had to have it. After all, chocolate and pistachios? What can possibly go wrong?

I really only made one change to this recipe. I'd like to have made more, but I don't usually make a lot of changes to baked goods. The change was olive oil for safflower oil. I don't keep safflower oil on hand and don't have the storage space for a whole lot of oils, so I use olive oil for almost everything. There were probably a couple of procedural changes as well. When the tart first came out of the oven I was kind of disappointed. This did not look like I had envisioned. I was almost ashamed to serve it, but served it anyway. I'm glad I did. It was delicious. Amazingly delicious. Even my husband liked it.

Milk Chocolate Pistachio Tart (serves 10; approx. $0.92/serving)

¾ cup flour

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

½ cup chopped pistachios

¼ teaspoon salt

1 stick butter

¼ cup sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup pistachios

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon olive oil

5 ounces milk chocolate chips

½ cup heavy cream

¼ cup whole milk

1 egg, beaten

Equipment:

• Fluted tart pan
• Mixing bowl
• Heatproof bowl
• Small saucepan
• Food processor
• Stand mixer

1. Lubricate the fluted tart pan with your lubricant of choice. The original recommended cooking spray, which is usually my preference, but if you've got a different favorite try it and let me know how it comes out.
2. Combine the flour, first ½ cup chopped pistachios, cocoa powder and salt in your mixing bowl. I'm finding the flexible-side mixing bowls to be very useful for this sort of thing – they make it a lot easier to pour the stuff into the mixing bowl. If you don't have them, though, I don't know that it's worth going out and buying some
3. Put the butter in your stand mixer bowl and beat on medium until "fluffy." You'll know when that is.
4. Add the sugar to the butter. Beat until pale.
5. Reduce speed to low and add vanilla.
6. Add the flour mixture. Beat until barely combined and the dough holds together. Refrigerate 15 minutes.
7. Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the tart pan. Refrigerate until firm, at least one hour.
8. Preheat your oven to 325.
9. Bake the crust 30 minutes. Let cool completely and lower temperature to 300 ̊.
10. Pulse the whole ½ cup pistachios with the next ¼ cup sugar and ¼ teaspoon salt in the food processor until they begin to clump together.
11. Add the oil and process to a smooth paste.
12. Spread evenly into the bottom of the tart shell. Get the whole paste to be flat and smooth.
13. Put the chocolate into the heatproof bowl.
14. Combine the cream and milk in the saucepan until almost – but not quite – boiling. Pour over the chocolate and let stand 2 minutes.
15. Whisk until smooth. Let cool 10 minutes.
16. Add the egg and stir until combined.
17. Pour the bowl mixture over the pistachio paste.
18. Bake until just set, 30 – 35 minutes.
19. Cool and serve. You can garnish with more finely chopped pistachios if you want – it looks pretty.

Recipe: Cauliflower Stew with Tomato and Olives

Recipe Source: Wise, Victoria Jenanyan. The Armenian Table. St. Martin's Press, New York, 2004 p. 224

I've got a kind of weird obsession with vegetables. I don't feel that I've done my job unless at least three of the dishes on the table contain significant amounts of vegetable. They don't have to be vegetarian dishes, but they cannot consist of meat with a tiny piece of parsley to garnish. I made this during the spring for one of our Sunday open houses as one of the vegetable sides, and it went over pretty well. I did make a few small changes. I used a combination of colored cauliflower florets, because they were pretty and not much more expensive than buying a head of cauliflower. I did not use Kalamata olives, because I got distracted by some other kind of green olives that looked delicious. Even the most virulently anti-cauliflower people will enjoy this. It also reheats well, so it works as a make-ahead dish.

Cauliflower Stew with Tomatoes and Olives (serves 8; approx. $1.28/serving)

1 ½ pounds cauliflower florets

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 cup good-quality olives – I used green olives here, Kalamata will suffice

2 more tablespoons lemon juice

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

Equipment:

• Large sauté pan
• Large bowl

1. Put the cauliflower florets in the large bowl. Add water to cover along with the first 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and the teaspoon of kosher salt. Set aside 30 minutes.
2. Heat the oil in the sauté pan over medium heat.
3. Add the tomatoes and little salt to taste. Cook 2 minutes.
4. Drain the cauliflower and add it to the pot with 1 cup water. Bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes. The cauliflower should be tender enough to be pierced with a fork, but not limp and soggy and nasty.
5. Transfer to the serving vessel of your choice. Add the olives, remaining lemon juice and a little parsley. Serve.

Recipe: Leftover Party Hash

We entertain a lot during the summer. I enjoy it, I really do. I like the challenge. Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming, though, like when we had our town fireworks party one night and Sunday open house the next day. I originally hadn't really planned to serve much on Sunday, but we got a decent sized crowd so the menu expanded. Of course, I hadn't bought any extra food. Fortunately, I didn't really need it. We had leftover chicken from the party, and leftover barbeque sauce from the party. I don't remember why we had the corn, I think I'd intended for it to be just for my husband and me. Anyway, I combined them to form this tasty one-dish meal.

Leftover Party Hash (serves 8; approx. cost per serving not available)

3 ears of corn, kernels only

1 cup finely chopped onion

2 tablespoons olive oil

Pinch kosher salt

Leftover roasted chicken (about 3 cups worth, maybe), shredded

2 cups barbeque sauce

Equipment:

• Wok or sauté pan

1. Heat the oil in the wok.
2. Add the onion and the salt. Cook until the onion is softened.
3. Add the corn. Sauté until the corn is just softened.
4. Add the chicken. Sauté until the chicken is heated through.
5. Add the barbeque sauce. Cook until heated through.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Marinated Zucchini

Recipe Source: Butcher, Sally. Persia in Peckham. Prospect Books, Devon, 2007 p. 231

When I made this recipe, I set it out on the table and turned my attention to something else. My husband was hungry, so he helped himself to a small piece of what we'll call "vegetable." You see, cucumbers and dill are two of his favorite flavors, and having them in combination is just his idea of heaven. Unfortunately for him, this was not a cucumber. Once he got over the whole "not-a-cucumber" thing he actually quite liked the dish and had seconds. Still, if you could have seen the look on his face when he bit into the zucchini!

I made some small changes. Mostly I increased the garlic and reduced the oil to accommodate my husband's dislike of oily dishes. I usually chop fresh herbs together – in my head, this helps them mix together better. I don't know if that has any basis in reality or not.

Marinated Zucchini (serves 8; approx. $0.81/serving)

2 pounds zucchini, sliced very thin

10 garlic cloves, crushed

½ bunch dill, finely chopped

1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

½ cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

Equipment:

• Nothing special is required for this recipe.

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl. A bowl that has a lid is ideal. Mix well and cover.
2. Let this dish sit at least overnight. I had it keep a good 3 – 4 days with no problem.
3. Serve.

Recipe: Sour Fish Curry

Recipe Source: Thompson, David. Curry Cuisine. Fall River Press, New York, 2006 pp. 217 and 222

This recipe looks like a pain, but it was actually pretty simple to make. It was also very easy to make ahead and then reheat later, which has gotten to be pretty important around here. I did make a few small changes. I only had one kind of red chili, so that's what I used. I used Lemony Vegetable Broth for the broth and mustard greens in place of "other Asian greens." I omitted the chili garnish and since I couldn't get birds-eye chilies I used a combination of habanero and Serrano chilies. I actually had the roots of my cilantro that week, so I was able to use that as directed. I also omitted the shrimp paste, as I couldn't get it.

Sour Fish Curry (serves 4; approx. $3.29/serving)

2 cups Lemony Vegetable Broth

1 pinch kosher salt

9 ounces fish, cut into small pieces

1 bunch mustard greens, chopped

2 tablespoons tamarind concentrate combined with 2 tablespoons water

2 ½ tablespoons fish sauce

1 teaspoon chili powder

8 dried red chilies, soaked and chopped

1 habanero chili, chopped

2 Serrano chilies, chipped

1 more pinch kosher salt

¼ cup chopped shallots

2 teaspoons chopped cilantro root

Equipment:

• Mini-prep miniature food processor
• Large sauté pan or wok

1. Combine the dried chilies, fresh chilies, pinch kosher salt, chopped shallots and cilantro roots in the mini-prep and grind to a paste. If you need more liquid, add a little of the chili soaking liquid until your desired texture is achieved.
2. Bring the broth and second pinch of kosher salt to a boil in the sauté pan.
3. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.
4. Add the curry paste to the mix. Return to a boil.
5. Add the mustard greens and simmer until the fish is tender.
6. Add the tamarind water and fish sauce. Let the flavors marry for a moment or two.
7. Return the fish to a boil. Reduce the heat and add the fish, simmering until cooked.
8. Serve.

Recipe: Turnip and Strawberry Salad

Would you believe that my husband, up until this year, had never heard of salad turnips? It's sad but true. He was very excited to grow some turnips in our garden this year, but was quite disappointed by the yield. The turnips we got were sized like radishes. I told him that they were salad turnips. He moped about for a bit – he does love turnips – and asked if I could use the greens. I said yes, and then I used the turnips too. He was very pleasantly surprised by this dish. The strawberries also came from our garden.

Turnip and Strawberry Salad (serves 4; approx. cost per serving not available)

About 15 salad turnips, thinly sliced

About 1 pound strawberries, hulled and sliced

1 package salad greens

3 garlic cloves, crushed

Rice wine vinegar

Equipment:

• Small bowl

1. Combine the first 3 ingredients in your serving bowl.
2. Combine the vinegar and the garlic in the small bowl and whisk well.
3. Pour the dressing over the salad.
4. Serve.

Recipe: Black-eyed Peas with Fennel and Tomatoes

Recipe Source: Wolfert, Paula. The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, 2003 p. 245

I know I've said this before, but the great thing about vegetarian entrees is that you can use them as side dishes if no vegetarians show up. When we host our Sunday open houses we never know how many people will join us for dinner, and out of those who do stay we have no idea how many vegetarians there will be or how strict they are. This dish is pretty easy to make and delicious enough that people might forget that there's no meat in it.

I made a couple of changes. I don't think I've ever seen frozen black-eyed peas in the supermarket. I went with dried peas that I'd soaked for a while. I played with the quantities of some of the ingredients as well – more fennel, more chard, more tomatoes. I also used canned tomatoes.

Black-eyed Peas with Fennel and Tomatoes (serves 8; approx. $1.85/serving)

10 ounces black-eyed peas, soaked and drained

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 fennel bulbs, halved and sliced as thin as you can get them

1 onion, finely chopped

¼ teaspoon fennel seeds, bruised

1 bunch Swiss chard, leaves only, leaves shredded

1 14-oz can diced tomatoes

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Large saucepan

1. Fill the saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Add the black-eyed peas and cook until just tender, 10 minutes or so.
2. Drain the peas and set aside. Wipe out the saucepan.
3. In the same saucepan, heat the olive oil.
4. Add the onion, fennel and fennel seeds. Cook until soft and pale golden.
5. Add the chard and tomatoes with ¾ cups water. Season to taste and cook, uncovered, 20 minutes over medium-low heat.
6. Serve either warm or cold

Recipe: Artichokes with Beans and Almonds

Recipe Source: Başan, Ghillie. The Complete Book of Turkish Cooking. Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 134

Here we go with another backlogged recipe. This recipe was kind of a different treatment of artichokes. Pretty much the whole top of the artichoke gets discarded. This was great for my compost heap. The frugal shopper in me kind of gasped at the amount of waste, though, and I didn't enjoy this so much that I would make it again. I made a few changes, like reducing the olive oil and omitting the sugar. It wasn't bad, and my husband liked it, but he's an artichoke fan. I'm not sure that I can recommend it, given the amount of waste, but if you happen to really love artichokes and want to do something with them I guess here you go.

Artichokes with Beans and Almonds (serves 4; approx. cost per serving not available)

4 large artichokes

2 cups fava beans, shelled and cooked

2 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of one lemon

¾ cup toasted almonds

1 bunch dill, chopped

14 oz diced canned tomatoes

Equipment:

• Large bowl of acidulated water
• Large sauté pan with lid

1. Prepare your artichokes: Trim the stalk and make it even. Pull off all the leaves. Dig out the choke and cut out the base into a nice neat cup. Drop into a large bowl of acidulated water. Repeat with the remaining artichokes.
2. Put the artichokes in the sauté pan.
3. Combine the oil, lemon juice and ¼ cup water and pour over the artichokes.
4. Cover and gently poach 20 minutes.
5. Add the beans and almonds. Cover and cook another 10 minutes.
6. Add half the dill. Season to taste and turn off the heat.
7. Remove the artichokes from the pan and arrange on a serving platter.
8. Combine the tomatoes with the pan mixture, then heap into the cups. If there is any of the pan mixture that does not fit into the cups, serve it on the side.