Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Khushknanaj

Recipe Source: al-Baghdādī, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn al-Karīm al-Kātib. Kitāb al-Tabīkh, also known as A Baghdad Cookery Book. A. J. Arberry, trans. 1939 edition, re-published in Medieval Arab Cookery. Prospect Books, Devon, 2001 p. 86.

I've tried to make a treat called khushknānaj before, but I didn't post it. I was obviously missing something in that recipe, because the "confection" I got could have been used to replace cobblestones down by Faneuil Hall. When I was planning the menu for the big feast up in Maine I needed desserts, and I tend to prefer medieval Middle Eastern desserts to medieval European desserts. I decided to give it another try, this time using a different recipe. For those of you keeping track, this one dates to the thirteenth century AD. I was kind of nervous about it – I really didn't have enough of the other two desserts to get by. Something in this one caught my eye, though, and suggested a way to avoid making something that could be used to pave downtown streets. The recipe for the dough, not unlike the other one, called for flour and oil. However, there was another instruction: "Leave to rise."

Wait a minute. Rise? There's got to be something missing here. I'm not sure how, but maybe it's one of those things where part of the recipe was understood. You know, the way some chefs write "muffin method" instead of listing instructions. If the dough was supposed to rise, there needed to be something else besides flour and oil. Now, I don't personally know enough about bread chemistry to develop my own risen bread recipe, so I turned to my usual source: King Arthur Flour. What I did was probably akin to bibliomancy: I opened the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion to a random page. My intent was to then flip through the book until I found something suitable. However, the page I opened to was page 232, which presented a recipe called "Beautiful Burger Buns." Interesting, I thought to myself. Furthermore, the introductory notes to the recipe were, "Soft, vaguely sweet and golden yellow…" I decided that this was the recipe I would use as a dough for my khushknānaj. I had to make some small changes here to make the recipe work. I quadrupled the recipe, and I used the sesame oil called for by al-Baghdādī instead of the butter called for in the burger buns. I used active dry yeast instead of instant, which I proofed before using. I omitted the optional onion and onion powder for reasons that are probably quite obvious to you.

This may seem a little strange to you, and the true historical purist may be a little put off by my little leap based on three words. However, the recipe worked. It was the most popular dessert that night. The little almond-filled rolls transported well, kept well at room temperature and delighted most of the people who ate them.

Khushknānaj (makes 32; approx. $0.38/ea.)

4 cups water

4 ounces sesame oil

4 eggs

55 ounces flour

40 ounces sugar, divided

4 teaspoons salt

4 tablespoons active dry yeast

1 pound almonds

2 ounces rosewater (you can probably get away with more, but not everyone loves rosewater as much as I do so I toned it down for polite company.)

Equipment:

• Stand mixer
• At least 2 large bowls, one of which can certainly be the one from your stand mixer
• Food processor
• Baking sheets

1. Combine the yeast with 1 cup sugar and the water. Set aside until very frothy.
2. Divide the flour between 2 large bowls, one of which can be your food processor bowl.
3. Add 2 ounces sesame oil to each bowl along with 2 eggs each and 2 teaspoons salt each. Mix well.
4. Add ½ the yeasted water mixture to each bowl (i.e., 2 cups per bowl.) Mix well and knead until the dough is soft and smooth. Cover and set aside in a warmish place (my kitchen in July certainly counted) for at least an hour, or until visibly risen.
5. Meanwhile, combine the remaining 32 ounces sugar with the almonds and rosewater in the food processor. Process until finely ground and well combined.
6. Divide the dough into 32 pieces, roughly equal.
7. Stuff some of the almond mixture into the middle of a piece of the dough, then cover the hole with the dough. Repeat with all of the dough and set aside another 30 minutes or so.
8. Preheat your oven to 375 ̊.
9. Bake your little cookies 12- 15 minutes, or until golden and delicious. Cool completely before serving.

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: Uncooked Khabis

Recipe Source: al-Warrāq, Ibn Sayyār. Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens. Nawal Nasrallah, trans. Brill, Leiden, 2007 p. 391

This was another dessert that I made for that gathering of medieval enthusiasts up in Maine in July. I was a little leery of using coconut here. I'm not usually a big fan of coconut, but I'm getting better about that thanks to the cuisine of southern India. (Coconut doesn't have to be unpleasant and overpowering, and I'm learning to accept that.) I left it in because it's a redaction of a medieval recipe, and I have to say that I'm glad I did. It definitely added something to the dish and was in no way overpowering. I will admit that I used grated coconut from the store rather than grating my own coconut; I do not own a coconut grater, I have no desire to own a coconut grater, and don't think that I use enough coconut to make purchasing a coconut grater worthwhile. I didn't have time to skin the almonds, which certainly affects the color of the finished dish. I did color the almonds for the decoration called for in the recipe, using the official colors of our local group. The yellow didn't show up so great in the dim light I served under and the blue looked kind of black, but I knew it was there. This went over very well, and I have to say that anything that kept me from heating up my kitchen that week was most welcome!

Uncooked Khabīs (serves about 45; approx. $0.59/serving)

1 pound almonds

8 ounces grated coconut (unsweetened, of course)

3 pounds sugar

1 ½ grams saffron

1 cup almond oil

Yellow and blue food coloring

45 whole almonds

Equipment:

• Food processor
• Large bowl
• 2 small bowls
• Long roasting pan or tray

1. Divide the 45 almonds roughly in half between the two small bowls.
2. Soak one bowl of almonds in blue food coloring and one in yellow while you continue the recipe, or even longer.
3. Combine the almonds, coconut and saffron in the food processor and process until very fine.
4. Set aside ¼ pound of sugar. Pour the rest into a large bowl with the almond-coconut mixture.
5. Mix very well.
6. Add the almond oil and keep mixing. Mix until everything is "moist enough to gather in one mass." This will take a long time, and I did wind up adding a little more almond oil, but it will come out right in the end.
7. Spread the mixture evenly into the long tray and sprinkle with the reserved ¼ pound sugar.
8. Space the almonds in alternating colors evenly across the surface of the tray.
9. Serve.

Recipe: Medieval Baba Ghannouj

Recipe Source: 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.

Okay, calling this "baba ghannouj" is probably a bit of a misnomer, because it's kind of different from a modern baba ghannouj. I think it's something to do with the sourness. I'm usually not the biggest fan of baba ghannouj, but this I liked. I made it to test a recipe before my class on bawārid, although I didn't wind up including this dip in the discussion that day. I did however serve it for our Fourth of July party, and no one realized that this was a medieval recipe.

As is usually the case with my medieval recipe redactions, I did not make many changes. (More garlic would have been welcome to my modern palate, but I digress.) I did have to make one change out of necessity. The original called for "sesame oil and oil of good quality." I had run out of regular sesame oil, and toasted sesame oil would have been all wrong. I decided to stick with all olive oil for this.

Medieval Baba Ghannouj (Makes about 16 ounces; approx. $0.28/ounce.)

1 large eggplant, cut into small pieces

3 small onions, peeled but left whole

½ cup olive oil

¼ cup water

1 garlic clove, crushed

¾ cup Greek yogurt (I used fat-free because that's what I have on hand, but full-fat would be more authentic)

About ¼ bunch parsley, finely chopped

1 pinch kosher salt

Equipment:

• Deep saucepan
• Immersion blender

1. Combine the onions, eggplant, olive oil, salt and water in the saucepan.
2. Cook over low heat until the eggplant is tender and cooked. You may need to add a little more water here and there; the measurement above is intended as more of a starting point since the original said "a little water."
3. Add the remaining ingredients and remove from heat.
4. Use the immersion blender to thoroughly puree the mixture.
5. Chill thoroughly before serving.

Recipe: Khabis

Recipe Source: al-Warrāq, Ibn Sayyār. Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens. Nawal Nasrallah, trans. Brill, Leiden, 2007 p. 391

I made this dish as a dessert for a large gathering of medieval history enthusiasts up in Maine. I'll admit that I was kind of intimidated to make some of the dessert recipes in this book. Confections aren't really my strong suit – it's too much like chemistry, which I passed in high school mostly because I think the teacher felt sorry for me. Still, once I worked past the idea of making these dishes I found that it was really pretty easy. The khabīs was delicious and quite well received.

I made two major mistakes that I can identify with this dish. (I may have made more – like I said, confections aren't my strong suit, but it tasted great.) The first mistake, which was more laziness than anything else, was that I did not skin the almonds. I was really pressed for time and made a conscious decision to leave the skins on. Removing the skin would have gotten rid of the little brown flecks, which I didn't find as off-putting here as I did in the homemade marzipan. The second mistake was that I did not wait for the khabīs to set before photographing it. Ultimately the texture was much less liquid, much more akin to a very moist modern fudge, than what you see here. And have I mentioned the taste? I would make this again, and again, and again (but I don't need to be eating so many sweets.)

Khabīs (serves 25-30; approx. $0.29/serving)

12 ounces almonds, ground "as fine as flour"

2 ounces rosewater

12 ounces water

36 ounces sugar

4 ounces walnut oil

Equipment:

• Large saucepan

1. Combine the first 4 ingredients in your large saucepan.
2. Add the walnut oil.
3. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes very thick.
4. Remove from heat and transfer to some sort of storage vessel. Allow to cool completely before serving.

Recipe: Beef Bārida (“Meat Crackers”)

Recipe Source: al-Warrāq, ibn Sayyār. Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens, Nawal Nasrallah, trans. Brill, Leiden, 2007 pp 215-6

I was really kind of leery of this recipe at first. I made it mostly because I wanted to serve a beef bārida for my July class and I figured I should probably test it. This one required ingredients I already had on hand and looked relatively uncomplicated. I was kind of leery of the instruction to "cook the meat in water," which suggested boiling to me. It yielded a piece of meat that was a frankly unappetizing color and had a kind of solid texture. I thought, "Ick." Still, I had to test it out before I could talk about it in class and so out it went.

I'd expected the reaction from my test diners to be lukewarm at best. On the contrary, it was so well received that I had to sneak a piece for myself. The result was the same when I served it during the class in July. People loved this! It was easily the most popular of the four dishes I brought for people to try. Again, this dish is meant to be served cold or at room temperature, so it makes a great picnic or buffet dish.

Meat Crackers (serves about 12 as an appetizer or hors d'oeuvre; approx. cost per serving not available)

2 pounds beef brisket

20 walnuts

2 sprigs rosemary

Pinch of salt

½ cup soy sauce

¼ cup olive oil

4 hard-boiled eggs, quartered

Various herbs, to taste

Equipment:

• Mini-prep food processor

1. Put the beef in a large saucepan and boil until the internal temperature reaches 180. Remove it from the heat, let it cool and slice it into small rectangles.
2. Meanwhile, grind the walnuts, rosemary and salt together with about a tablespoon of vinegar in a mini-prep food processor. Transfer to a bowl and add the soy sauce and olive oil.
3. Transfer to a platter. Sauce with the sauce, garnish with the egg quarters and sprinkle with the herbs.

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: Spicy Shrimp

Recipe Source: Mallos, Tess. Cooking Moroccan. Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, 2005 p. 65

I made this a while ago for a weeknight meal. It fit all my criteria for weeknight meals at that point. It was something that I could make quickly ahead of time, would reheat easily, was relatively healthy and had flavor. (Weeknight dinners don't have to be spicy but it helps.) In construction it kind of reminded me a bit of a curry, although in flavor it was completely different. I did make a few changes, of course. I increased the shrimp (not needing to have 3 ounces shrimp lying around the house), increased the garlic, increased the cumin, omitted the whole cumin seeds (because I was out), decreased the oil, used chili powder (extra hot) for the paprika and used a habanero for the red chile. The result was pretty darned tasty. We both really enjoyed this dish.

Spicy Shrimp (serves 4; approx. $4.21/serving)

1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon cumin

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 habanero, finely chopped

6 garlic cloves, crushed

½ teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon chili powder (extra hot if you have it)

¼ bunch finely chopped cilantro

¼ cup water

Equipment:

• Large sauté pan

1. Heat the oil in the sauté pan over medium heat.
2. Add the cumin, ginger and habanero. Sauté 1 minute.
3. Add the garlic, turmeric and chili powder. Stir and cook until just fragrant. (This will be quick. Do not walk away or it will burn, which will both smell and taste awful.)
4. Add the shrimp. Cook until they turn pink.
5. Add the water and cilantro. Bring to a simmer and remove from heat.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Not Your Typical Potato Salad

Recipe Source: Holmin, Dalal and Dr. Maher A. Abbas. From the Tables of Lebanon. Book Publishing Company, Summertown, 1997 p. 64

Potato salad is a kind of American barbeque staple. I'm not really sure why. Traditional potato salad calls for mayonnaise, and lots of it. Mayonnaise is one of those things that I've never grown to like. I've never even been inspired to grow to like it. There's just something suspicious about it. Sure, it keeps your burger bun from getting soggy, but so does eating the burger before the bun disintegrates. It's more popular in some parts of this country than in others. Here in New England I can usually avoid it (except in things like, say, traditional potato salad). When we go on our annual non-vacation to Western Pennsylvania, though, it seems like I have to pitch a mega hissy fit to get them to leave it off sandwiches and the like.

Please don't be insulted if you're one of those people who like mayonnaise. I'm not trying to insult you, I'm not calling mayonnaise a culinary blight on the scale of a dirty bomb, I just don't like it.

Anyway, I made this for one of our usual Sunday open house dinners. After all, it was technically a cook-out. I used scallions instead of the white onion (the original offered both as options) because I could get scallions. (I don't know why I've been having so much trouble finding white onions lately, but it irks me.) I increased the thyme – I didn't need the rest of the bunch, and according to the authors of this book it's very good for you. I increased the cumin too, because cumin is one of my favorite flavors. I increased the lemon juice just a bit as well. Try this sometime soon!

Potato Salad (serves 6; approx. cost per serving not available)

2 pounds white potatoes, chopped into ½" pieces

1 tomato, diced

1 bunch scallions, sliced

1 bunch fresh thyme leaves

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon cumin

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Equipment:

• Large bowl
• Large saucepan
• Colander

1. Fill the saucepan about ¾ of the way with salted water. Bring to a boil.
2. Boil the potatoes until just soft enough to eat. Drain.
3. Combine the remaining ingredients and the potatoes in the large bowl.
4. Toss well to coat. Serve.

Recipe: Spiced Lamb Shoulder Blade Chops

Recipe Source: al-Warrāq, ibn Sayyār. Annals of the Caliph's Kitchens, Nawal Nasrallah, trans. Brill Press, Leiden, 2007 p. 360

If it seems like I'm sharing a lot of recipes from this source, there's a good reason. My husband and I recently taught a class in medieval ceramic cookers, and this cookbook is just full of medieval recipes that require (or go really, really well with) medieval ceramic cookers. I'm also teaching a class in July on medieval dishes from the Middle East that are intended to be served at room temperature, and this book has several chapters on that class of dish. Finally, it's my favorite cookbook.

Anyway, this was a dish we prepared for the class we taught in May. The original recipe called for lamb ribs. We couldn't get lamb ribs so we substituted shoulder blade chops, which were cheaper than other cuts and looked like they'd stand up to that style of cookery. It's an incredibly easy dish to make. We omitted a basting step because we felt that the Big Green Egg kept the meat sufficiently moist without it.

Spiced Lamb Chops (serves 4; approx. cost per serving not available)

4 lamb shoulder blade chops

½ cup red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Equipment:

• Big Green Egg or other ceramic cooker (You could probably get away with making this on a gas grill or even indoors, but it will lose a certain something)
• Zip-top plastic bag
• Bowl
• Whisk
• Combine all the ingredients except the lamb chops in a bowl. Whisk well to combine.
• Put the lamb chops into a zip-top plastic bag. Pour the marinade over them, seal and refrigerate overnight.
• Prepare your tannūr for indirect cooking over high heat (550 degrees)
• Cook the lamb chops about 15 minutes, or to an internal temperature over 140 degrees. If you like your lamb more well-done, let it cook longer.
• Let the chops rest a few minutes, then devour.