Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Cucumbers with Herbs and Vinegar

Okay, I was mistaken. The farro recipe wasn't my last recipe from the Maine trip. I had originally intended to test a recipe for a future event that weekend but I was thwarted. The original recipe called for red miso, which was distinctly not present in my local grocery store. (This is why I rarely use my local grocery store except for cat litter.) I had, however already purchased a large quantity of cucumbers. I certainly wasn't going to let them go bad. Way back at the end of April I provided the lunch for a similar event and found myself with a lot of leftover cucumbers. At the time, I dressed them up with some leftover herbs, vinegar and oil. It was probably one of the most popular dishes I served that day, but I didn't get any pictures so I didn't actually get to post it. I decided that I would kill two birds with one stone and serve it again at the Maine event. Without further fuss, here it is.

Cucumbers with Herbs and Vinegar (serves 30; approx. $0.69/serving)

7 English cucumbers, diced

1 bunch parsley, finely chopped

1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped

5 tablespoons olive oil

7 ounces white wine vinegar

Equipment:

• None.

1. Combine all the ingredients in a serving bowl.
2. Toss well to combine.
3. Serve.

Recipe: Lentils with Cucumbers

Recipe Source: Anonymous. "A Muzawwara Beneficial for Tertian Fevers and Acute Fevers." An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook. 13^th Century AD. Charles Perry, trans. Find the original online at www.medievalcookery.com.

I'm a little weird. I'm generally a very spontaneous person – I'll take random wrong turns just to see what's off the next exit. I try new restaurants without days and days of research beforehand. I buy new produce items just to see what they taste like. When I'm doing a big event, though, I like to plan. I like to plan far in advance, and when I'm cooking for a large crowd I prefer to serve only foods that I've made before. In this particular case I was thwarted. I did in fact plan my menu well in advance, but at the last minute I found I wasn't able to get the vegetables I needed at a reasonable price. I had to re-vamp my whole menu. For those of you who were there and wondered why everything contained legumes, well, that's why. I was looking for a last minute dish to replace one of the vegetable dishes and I found this one. It was kind of a beautiful thing. This was intended to be served cold, as most of my menu needed to be. It was vegetarian, in keeping with site concerns. It used lentils, which I had in abundance and had little use for. (Every time my husband finds out we're having lentils for dinner he calls for a pizza. No joke.)

I learned a very important lesson that day. I learned that lentils are best cooked in small batches, not in giant vats. The lentils in the giant vats burned. They burned badly. I am still trying to clean those pots, and I've badly wrenched my back trying to clean one of those pots. I was able to salvage a small amount of muzawwara, however, and when I did I thought I had another disaster on my hands. It was emphatically not a pretty dish. My notes for the servers, in re-filling the dish, were: "Put lentils on plate. Scatter cucumbers on top. Try to convince guests that it is not cat food." However, it was one of the most popular dishes there, and people really seemed disappointed when we ran out.

This dish belongs to a class of dishes known as muzawwara. Muzawwara were vegetarian dishes (I think it literally translates as "fake") served to invalids. Some of the original sources suggest that they could be fed to Christians during times when meat was forbidden as well. Vegetarianism in the medieval Islamic world was not highly regarded. While I strongly suspect that many common people ate a mostly vegetarian diet, as commoners elsewhere did, it wasn't exactly a choice and when meat was available they would have eaten it. However, those who preserved recipes for us were certainly well aware that there were health benefits to avoiding meat on occasion. Now, if I'm suffering from a tertian fever, please give me quinine and lots of it. But just to be on the safe side, I'll take some of this dish too. It certainly tastes better.

A note about measurements: I'm pulling the redaction from memory, and reducing the amount cooked from "Feed 350" to "Feed 8." I apologize in advance if the measurements seem a little strange. I only made one significant change to the original, and that's in garnishing with raw cucumber. That isn't called for in the original, but I really felt that I needed to make the dish look less like cat food.

Lentils with Cucumbers (serves 8-ish; approx. cost per serving not available)

2 cups red lentils, rinsed

Water to cover

¼ cup white wine vinegar

¼ cup olive oil

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin

Pinch kosher salt

1 large seedless cucumber, peeled and chopped

Equipment:

• Large saucepan

1. Combine all ingredients up to the kosher salt in the saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Add half of the cucumber – maybe a little more, maybe a little less.
3. Cook, uncovered, until the lentils are tender. Red lentils cook up much faster than other kinds and kind of fall apart on cooking, so be aware.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
5. Serve only when cold.

My big event lunch

This past weekend I attended a medieval re-enactment event and prepared the lunch buffet for the occasion.  I'd estimate that we had about 350 people there.  I'm not going to kid you, it was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun.  This is a bit of a different post, with links to the recipes I used and some notes about them.  There is one recipe I haven't posted and I'll get to that in the next couple of days, but I wanted to share some lessons learned with you. 

The breads:

The breads were not made according to medieval recipes.  They do however match well with the dishes I served.  I will freely admit that I went a little overboard and wound up with a LOT more bread than we actually needed or used.  I think I expected people to want a lot more bread than they did, and since we weren't sure how many folks we'd get I wanted to be sure that no one went away hungry.  At the end of the day we found good homes for it so it didn't go to waste, but I certainly learned a lesson.  I'll also admit that I became sort of addicted to baking bread.... it isn't like work, really.  Not with the stand mixer at any rate. 

Light whole wheat

This was, without a doubt, the most popular bread I served that day.  That was surprising, because I figured that the white bread would be the most popular, but I get it.  The folks in this crowd tend to know their food and it's not like anyone can really say that they don't know whole wheat is healthier now.  Anyway, this was also my favorite bread to bake. 

Cottage loaf

I only made about five of these.  That was when I thought my friends' huge chest freezer was empty.  When I got there to freeze the bread I realized that wasn't the case.  It only looks impressive.  Otherwise it's basically white bread. 

White bread

What can I say that I didn't say in the original post?  It's white bread.  I should have made more of the wheat. 

Honey Whole Wheat

This used to be the favorite bread my husband made.  I still love it, but I don't think we actually served any that day and I didn't make a whole lot of it.  I guess I had a fantasy about having a huge variety of different breads that never really took off, but this one is still a good one. 

The other dishes:

Dumplings in the Toledo Style

These were intensely popular.  They are also incredibly, deceptively filling and so sweet that I can't really eat them.  I made a lot of them, a whole heaping lot of them, and wound up giving a lot of them away.  As in by the tray full.  That's okay.  I honestly never want to see them again but I think that I'm going to be thwarted in this; the Spouse wants me to serve them at the party to celebrate our daughter's christening. 

A note on the recipe: in making so very much of this I had the opportunity to work with the dough very closely, and I learned that a moist dough is much, much better than a dry dough.  It is less tough, easier to cut and seals up better for cooking.  However, if you are not using it right away, you must wrap your resting dough in a LOT of plastic wrap.  Otherwise it will expand and eat everything in sight, which does not make for a very tasty dough and could involve the disappearance of small household pets.  The dough should feel very smooth and be sticky but still workable. 

I discussed possible alternative fillings for this with a few people.  While for purposes of this event I stuck to the original as much as possible I think basil would make an excellent substitution for the cilantro. 

Chickpea Puree

This was a proto-hummus.  It is still a proto-hummus.  It was quite popular. 

Carrots with Alexandrian Sauce

I bought the carrots for a dessert I wound up skipping - the mujabbana were sweet enough.  I still needed to use the carrots, though.  The Alexandrian Sauce would normally have been served with meat or fish, but it worked quite well with the carrots.  (The site wouldn't allow meat to be cooked on site, so I made the lunch vegetarian.)  This was one of the most popular dishes, especially with kids. 

Fava Beans in Sour Sauce with Hazelnuts

This was probably the least popular thing I served.  That's kind of upsetting, because it's the most labor-intensive dish on my menu.  I've got huge cuts under my thumbnails and on my thumbs and forefingers from shelling fava beans, as does my friend Ruth (who came over to help all last week).  I never want to see this dish again.  I never want to see fava beans again.  Even hazelnuts will take a while to find acceptance in my home again!  It wasn't a very pretty dish at the end of the day, though, so I can see where some people just weren't feeling it. 

Lentil Muzawwara

I haven't posted this yet, I'll get to it over the next few days.  It was a brand-new dish, added at the last minute when I wasn't able to get certain ingredients for another dish.  I usually wouldn't try out a dish for the first time under these circumstances but I didn't feel that I had much choice and I have to say people loved it.  It was the first thing I ran out of.  I did learn one very important lesson: lentils are best  made in small batches.  If you make them in a huge vat they will burn.  Burning lentils smell very, very bad, so learn from my mistake. 

Cucumbers with Cilantro

I had extra cucumbers when I ran out of the lentil dish, so I threw them into a bowl with some cilantro, vinegar and oil.  There is no picture.  There was no time for a picture.  They got devoured right away.  This isn't necessarily a medieval recipe, but it prevented the cucumbers from being wasted. 

 

Recipe: Light Whole Wheat Bread

Recipe Source: Shapter, Jennie. Bread Machine. Anness Publishing, London, 2001 p. 69

My house has become a gluten hell. Seriously, I suspect that someone with Celiac disease would probably react just walking past the house. I've mentioned that I'm working on a big project – a buffet lunch for about 300 people. Well, I'm making all the bread myself. It's a lot cheaper that way, and a lot better. What that means, though, is that I am CONSTANTLY baking bread. The entire kitchen is coated in a fine film of flour. I've made 45 loaves in the space of about a week and I have lots more to go.

The thing is, I'm kind of okay with it. I used to hate baking bread but now I love it. It's got a rhythm all its own, and it really isn't any work at all once you have a stand mixer. I start out by proofing the yeast – six bowls of it. Then I go get dressed for the day. Next I make the dough. I cover it, set it aside to rise and go walk the dog. By the time I get back it's time to shape the loaves. I set them aside and do something else while the oven preheats and the second rise begins. Then I bake them – while working on other things – and set them aside to cool. Eventually they're completely cool and I can wrap them and freeze them. It's quite pleasant.

Most of the loaves so far have been white, because that's what people are most comfortable with. I don't just want to serve up white bread, though. While our medieval predecessors would have been impressed, modern Americans need more whole grains in their diet. I decided to include this light whole wheat bread. I also served it for dinner on Holy Saturday because, like I said, it really isn't any work at all. The only change I made was the inclusion of powdered milk, which apparently benefits the crust.

Light Whole Wheat Bread (makes 1 loaf; approx. cost per serving not available)

1 ¾ cups lukewarm water, plus a little extra if needed

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/3 cups white bread flour

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast

1 ½ tablespoons nonfat dried milk

Equipment:

• Bowl
• Cooking spray
• Another bowl
• Stand mixer with dough hook attachment
• Baking sheet
• Plastic wrap

1. Combine the yeast, water, sugar and olive oil in a bowl. Set aside until it is frothy, about 10 minutes.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer.
3. Add the yeast mixture and knead on the lowest speed until the ingredients just come together.
4. Increase to speed 3. Knead 4 minutes. The dough should form a smooth ball around the dough hook.
5. Spray the inside of a bowl with cooking spray. Pat the dough into a round ball and put it in the lubricated bowl.
6. Cover with plastic wrap and walk away until approximately doubled in size, about an hour to 1 ½ hours.
7. Punch the dough down and shape it into your desired shape. I like these oblong loaves because they fit into the freezer better, but you can do whatever shape pleases you.
8. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside about half an hour. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 425 ̊.
9. Make 3 slits in the loaf and bake 3 0 – 40 minutes. You will know that the bread is done when it sounds hollow when tapped OR the internal temperature reaches 190 – 200 ̊ on an instant-read thermometer.
10. Serve or freeze.

Recipe: Cottage Loaf

Recipe Source: Ingram, Christine and Jennie Shapter. Bread. Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 134

This is another white bread, another that I made for that big lunch buffet I've got coming up. I chose this bread for two reasons: it used ingredients that I already had on hand and it looked pretty. The one thing I neglected to consider? It took up a LOT of space in the freezer. Oh well. It looks impressive enough, it tastes good and it was fun to make.

Cottage Loaf (makes 1 loaf; approx. cost per serving not available)

6 cups bread flour

2 teaspoons salt

¾ ounces active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 2/3 cups warm water

Equipment:

• Stand mixer with dough hook attachment
• Baking sheets
• Plastic wrap

1. Combine the water, sugar and yeast in the bowl of the stand mixer. Set aside in a warm place until the yeast becomes frothy.
2. Add the flour and salt. Mix on very low speed until the ingredients come together.
3. Increase the speed very slightly. Knead until the dough forms a ball around the dough hook.
4. Cover lightly with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about an hour.
5. Divide the dough into two pieces, one twice as large as the second. Roll the pieces into balls, cover loosely and set aside another half hour.
6. Preheat your oven to 425 ̊.
7. Put the larger piece of dough onto the baking sheet and make a cross in the center.
8. Put the second piece of dough onto the top of the first. Use your thumb to push a hole through the center of the loaf until it reaches about halfway into the center of the bottom loaf. (That's why you put the cross there.)
9. Make eight small slits in the edge of each dough ball. Brush with water if desired.
10. Bake until the bread makes a hollow sound when you tap it, about 35 minutes.
11. Serve.

Recipe: White Bread

Recipe Source: Shapter, Jennie. Bread Machine. Anness Publishing, London, 2001 p. 66

There really isn't much to say about white bread, is there? I mean, it's a canvas. It's a blank canvas to be used for… well, for whatever. I remember that when I was a kid white bread was used for all sorts of things. There were sandwiches, there was French toast, there was stuffing…. All of it was made with basic white bread. Now, of course, white bread is hideously out of vogue, isn't it? We hear so much about avoiding refined flours and carbs and getting more fiber. When my daughter gets sandwiches you can bet that they're made with whole wheat bread. The thing is, though, sometimes a white bread is just what you need.

I've got this big event coming up for the medieval re-enactment group I'm involved with. I'm preparing the lunch buffet. It's an all vegetarian lunch buffet and there will be some dips served. I needed bread to go with the dips. I should, in theory, be using Middle Eastern breads here but I'm not. I haven't found a pita bread recipe that I like for make-ahead breads and am reluctant to start messing around with it now, so close to the event. Besides, I wanted there to be something on the buffet that would be very familiar to people, not terribly exotic. I'm making a bunch of different breads, therefore, and filling up the chest freezers of my friends with loaf upon loaf of bread. White bread is really the perfect vehicle for some of these dips, so I'll probably make quite a bit of it.

I didn't make a lot of changes to the recipe, although I did add the milk powder as suggested by the author. However, this is a bread machine book and our bread machine finally died after years and years of loyal service. I had to adapt the recipe to suit my circumstances so while the ingredients came from the book the instructions are my own.

White Bread (serves 8; approx. cost per serving not available)

1 ½ cups (or more) warm water

4 ½ cups white bread flour

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 ½ tablespoons nonfat dried milk

Equipment:

• Stand mixer with dough hook attachment
• Plastic wrap
• Baking sheet

1. Combine the 1 ½ cups water with the sugar, olive oil and yeast. Let sit in a warm place until the yeast becomes very frothy, usually about 10 minutes.
2. Add the remaining ingredients. Mix on a low speed (I used 2 of 11 on my Cuisinart stand mixer) until the ingredients have come together. You may need to add a little more water here and there for consistency and that's fine.
3. When the ingredients are mixed, increase speed very slightly (I used 3) and knead 4 minutes or until the dough comes together into a ball.
4. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place until doubled in size, about an hour.
5. Punch down the dough and shape it into the type of loaf you desire – I liked the kind of oblong shape for this, but you can use whatever you like.
6. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit half an hour.
7. Preheat your oven to 425. 
8. Make three slits in the top of your loaf with a sharp knife. If you want an impressive-looking crust, brush the outside of the loaf with a little water.
9. Bake until it sounds hollow when tapped, about ½ hour to 40 minutes.
10. Serve.

Recipe: Chickpea Puree with Cinnamon and Ginger (Medieval Hummus)

Recipe Source: Anonymous.  The Treasure of Useful Advice for the Composition of a Varied Table.  Thirteenth century AD, probably Egyptian.  Published by Lilia Zaouali in Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World, M. B. DeBevoise trans., University of California Press, Berkeley, 2007 p. 130

I served this, as you probably already guessed, as a dish at our most recent and probably final Sunday open house of 2010. Hummus is a great dish to serve at things like this: it keeps for a while, so even if you don't eat all of it you can still enjoy it later in the week. I decided to make this variant because of a discussion of this recipe on one of the email lists to which I subscribe. Not that I followed the discussion, mind you – it got incredibly verbose and therefore dull, so eventually I just ignored that thread. It did, however, put the seeds in my mind, and so I made this.

When I'm trying to re-create a medieval recipe I try not to make many changes, but some are inevitable. In this case, I had to omit the mint to accommodate my husband's food allergy. I had to use rosemary for rue because rosemary is readily available and some sources suggest rue could be vaguely toxic. I just couldn't get the jar of pickled lemons open. Neither could my husband. We decided to use lemon juice instead. And finally, I declined to drizzle the lot with olive oil. The oil part is controversial (at least it is on that mailing list.) One woman insists up and down that the "oil of good quality" should be sesame oil (not toasted sesame oil, but raw sesame oil.) She may be right, and it may have been the more appropriate cooking fat in medieval Alexandria, but I'm not necessarily sold on its appropriateness here. The translator specifically mentions how she prefers this recipe in some respects to modern hummus in that it is "lighter." The reason she feels that it is lighter is because modern hummus is usually made with tahini. Sesame oil would return that heaviness to the dish. Now, I'm not saying that the other woman on the list is wrong, I'm just applying my interpretation of this recipe. Either way, I omitted the oil step because adding oil to the dish would really disagree with my husband's digestive system. Since he was the one most likely to eat this if we had leftovers, I had to keep his needs in mind.

Medieval Hummus (serves 8; approx. $0.44/serving)

2 14-oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

¼ cup red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

3 tablespoons lemon juice

¼ bunch chopped fresh parsley

½ bunch chopped fresh rosemary leaves

Equipment:

• Large bowl
• Immersion blender

1. Combine the first 5 ingredients in the large bowl and puree with the immersion blender. If you feel that the mixture is too thick, you may add some olive oil.
2. Sprinkle the herbs onto your serving platter. (I mixed them in a little so you could see them for the photo, but the recipe says specifically to scatter the herbs on the bottom of the serving vessel.)
3. Serve.

Recipe: Alexandrian Sauce

Recipe Source: Anonymous.  The Treasure of Useful Advice for the Composition of a Varied Table.  Thirteenth century AD, probably Egyptian.  Published by Lilia Zaouali in Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World, M. B. DeBevoise trans., University of California Press, Berkeley, 2007 p. 130

Just to make it clear, this recipe is for a sauce whose origins are in Alexandria, not a sauce made from Alexandrians, okay? That would be a very different website and probably would involve law enforcement in some way.

So, the main course for the big medieval feast we prepared up in Maine was roast beef with two sauces. This is not the way it was intended. I intended to serve three sauces. Unfortunately for me, I left one at home: the Alexandrian sauce. The two sauces I brought were certainly adequate and delicious, so I don't know that we needed this sauce, but I was kind of looking forward to it. I said a lot of bad words in the privacy of my tent that night.

So this recipe didn't get tasted that night, but I did sample a little of this in my kitchen before packing it up and putting it in the wrong place. This is a really simple sauce – really, really simple. I made the first version of the recipe. For the hot spices I used ground ginger and pepper. I probably could have included something else here too, but my brain was pretty fried by this point. In flavor it kind of reminded me of my husband's Lemon Sunshine Sauce. It would have been fine on roast beef, but I definitely think that this would go better on chicken or possibly even some kind of vegetable. It would probably make a decent salad dressing if you were so inclined. If you're not trying to be historically accurate, some kind of crushed red pepper would go really nicely here.

Alexandrian Sauce (makes about 1 cup; approx. $0.22/ounce)

4 ounces olive oil

8 ounces lemon juice

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon ground ginger

Equipment:

• Whisk
• Small bowl

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Whisk well to emulsify.
3. Re-whisk just before serving to ensure that the liquid and the oil have not separated.

Recipe: Medieval Dumplings "in the Toledo style" (Mujabbana)

Recipe Source: Ibn Razin.  "Book of the Excellent Table Composed of the Best Foods and the Best Dishes."  13th century AD, probably Murcia.  Published and translated in Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World, by Lilia Zaouali, M. B. DeBevoise trans.  University of California Press, Berkeley, 2007 pp. 107 - 8.

This little treat was made for the camping trip I've mentioned before, but I didn't serve it for the big dinner.  I served it just for an intimate dinner of a few friends the night before.  I didn't have to make a medieval dish for this meal, but I wanted to, and frankly this dish looked good to me.  It comes to us from Andalusia, during a period when this region of Spain was pretty solidly Muslim.  According to Zaouali, it bears some resemblance to a modern Tunisian dish.

I used the same recipe and technique that I used for the Ashak recipe I'd posted previously; the ingredients were the same, and both have been described as essentially being "ravioli."  I did, however, double the recipe.  The original recipe called for fresh cheese to be grated; a difficult concept for me to get my head around.  I decided to use pecorino; I had a lot of it on hand, it was more cost-effective than other cheeses I could think of, and it is made of sheep's milk.  (I'm not sure what the breakout between sheep and cows was in Andalusia in the 1200s, but I know that sheep and goats are easier to grow in arid climates than cows are.) 

The original recipe was also a little unclear on the cooking method.  The title of the recipe in this book was "Fried Mujabbanain the Toledo Style."  However, the instructions said to bake the dumplings in the same oven you would use for biscuits.  Well, I tried to fry them in some untoasted sesame oil, but the smoke point of of the sesame oil was not friendly to my smoke detectors.  I decided instead to boil them.  I probably ought to have baked them, but I was concerned about keeping them moist. 

The result was a fairly tasty dish, if I do say so myself.  Despite the use of honey in the sauce, the flavor was not cloyingly sweet.  Once cooked, these traveled well in the cooler and reheated fine in an aluminum roasting pan on top of our Big Green Egg, so I'd definitely say that this is a dish you can make ahead with impunity. 

Medieval Dumplings (Mujabbana) in the Toledo Style (serves 8; approx. $1.49/serving)

2 lb flour

2 teaspoons salt

2 eggs    

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup water

8 ounces grated peccorino cheese

2 tablespoons anise seed

2/3 bunch cilantro, finely chopped

1/2 cup honey

2 sticks unsalted butter

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons sugar (I used rose-scented sugar that a friend gave me, but that wasn't specified in the recipe.  Use granulated or turbinado sugar if that's what you have.)

Equipment:

• Saucepan
• Large saucepan with boiling water
• Slotted spoon or skimmer
• Rolling pin
• Pint glass or biscuit cutter
• 2 large bowls

1. Sift the flour and 1 teaspoon salt into the bowl.  Make a well in the center and add the egg and 1 tablespoon olive oil.
2. Slowly add 1/2 cup water.  Knead thoroughly to form a smooth dough. 
3. Divide the dough into two balls, cover with a damp cloth and let sit 1 hour.
4. Combine the cheese, anise seed and the cilantro in one of the bowls. 
5. When the dough is ready, roll it out on a lightly floured work surface.  Work in batches here. 
6. Cut out rounds (or whatever) using your chosen cutter.  (In this case I used a floral cookie cutter, which was probably a little silly but whatever.) 
7. Put a small amount of the filling (maybe 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon, depending on the size of your dumplings) into the middle of each dumpling and fold in half.  Use your fingers to seal the edges well.  Repeat until all the dumplings have been used.  Only re-roll and re-use scraps once; any more than that and they will become tough.
8. Boil, in batches if necessary, until the dumplings float to the surface.  Use the slotted spoon or skimmer to fish them out of the water and transfer them to your serving vessel. 
9. When all of the ravioli have been cooked, melt the butter and honey in the saucepan. 
10. Mix well and pour over the ravioli.  Sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar over the lot and mix well.
11. Serve, or store and reheat later. 

Recipe: Fava Beans in Sour Sauce with Hazelnuts

Recipe Source: Anonymous.  The Treasure of Useful Advice for the Composition of a Varied Table.  Thirteenth century AD, probably Egyptian.  Published by Lilia Zaouali in Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World, M. B. DeBevoise trans., University of California Press, Berkeley, 2007 p. 66.

Medieval cuisine in the Middle East involved a whole family of dishes that were intended to be served at room temperature or cold.  I've generally seen this type of dish transliterated as barida.  I don't know if that term is still used or if that family of dishes survives in modern Arab cuisine.  Anyway, I find this type of dish to be really amazingly convenient.  I can bring it and serve it at parties et cetera without worrying about reheating it.  This was onebarida that I brought to a kind of potluck lunch some good friends were giving up in New Hampshire. 

As is usual with medieval recipes, I've had to redact it from the typical medieval format ("take some of this, do that with it.  Add normal spices.") to a format that is useful for modern home cooks.  I used olive oil for "oil of good quality" because I know that they did use it in period and in that region and because it's my usual oil of choice.  The vinegar I used was a chardonnay vinegar; I had it on hand, it was of decent quality, and it wouldn't overpower the spices used in the rest of the dish.  I'm not sure that white wine was consumed in this time and place; a red wine vinegar may be equally or even more appropriate.  For the spice mix, I took a list of common combinations for the spice mix atraf tib that was given by the author, compared it to what I had on hand (some of the ingredients are not used for culinary purposes anymore), and mixed some up.  I used cilantro in place of the mint and rue; my husband is allergic to mint and rue is considered inappropriate for culinary use in most contexts now. 

This dish serves 6 as a side dish or appetizer.  You can probably serve 4 as a vegan main course, if you've a mind to.   

Fava Beans in Sour Sauce with Hazelnuts (serves 6; approx. $1.12/serving)

12 ounces dried fava beans, soaked overnight and skinned

1/3 cup tahini

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/3 cup chardonnay vinegar

1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger

1 teaspoon powdered cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 bay leaf

1 teaspoon spikenard

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

1/4 bunch parsley

1/4 bunch cilantro

Pinch saffron

Equipment:

• Large bowl
• Small bowl
• Saucepan

1. Put the skinned fava beans in the saucepan and add water to cover. 
2. Bring to a boil, add the saffron, and cook until tender.  I'll be surprised if this takes ten minutes.
3. Mix the tahini, olive oil, vinegar and spices (except the saffron) in the small bowl.  Blend thoroughly.
4. Drain the fava beans and add them to the large bowl.
5. Add the spice and tahini mixture.
6. Add the hazelnuts.
7. Finely chop the cilantro and parsley together.  Add it to the large bowl.
8. Mix well and serve at room temperature.