Fava Beans in Sour Sauce

Fava Beans in Sour Sauce with Hazelnuts

From Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World pg 66, translated from Kanz Al-Fawa’id Fi Tanwi’ Al-
Mawa’id
Used for the February 2013 Cooks Guild Meeting, subject Dried Legumes and Things Preserved for
Winter.

Fava beans (ful), which today form the basis of Egyptian diet, were seldom used in the medievalrecipes that have come down to us, probably for the simple reason that they belong to popular cooking.Our authors are interested particularly, if not exclusively, in the cuisine of the elite classes of theirsocieties.Clean the beans and cook them in water. Let cool and then drain. Mix tahina with oil of good quality,
vinegar, atraf tib, mint, coriander [seed], and some roasted crushed hazelnuts.
Chop parsley, mint, and rue root and mix everything together in vinegar. Color the beans with a bit of
saffron. Let them [soak] in this mixture before serving them in a dish. They have a good flavor as well
as a splendid fragrance.
Anyone who likes dried fave beans should first boil them, then shell them and prepare a sauce with
vinegar, coriander [seed], scented oil, and a little sumac and thyme. They are then ready to serve.

It seems to me that the first two paragraphs are giving a recipe for fresh Fava beans and the last
paragraph is a recipe for dried Fava beans. The first recipe sounded tastier and I had all of the
ingredients but I only had about half of the ingredients for the second recipe so I used what I had left of
my dried Fava beans with the first recipe. Here is my redaction:
9.8 oz dried Fava Beans (soak them at least overnight and up to 24 hours in cold water, when
they have soaked enough the skins should have softened and slip on the bean. Peel the skins
off. Some of the beans will take longer than others so put the peeled beans in a seperate
container with water so they don't dry out.) Once they have all been peeled cook them in 6
cups water with ½ TBSP salt. The recipe says to let them cool before draining but in the
time it took for them to cool the beans became mushy. I would suggest cooking them less
time (I cooked them for 2 ½ hours) or, what I think would be easier to monitor, drain them
as soon as they are done. I had imagined that you would get whole beans in a sauce but
about ¾ of them were broken up after sitting in the hot water.

½ cup plus 2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil (that is what it is referring to by the phrase “oil of good
quality”
2 TBSP Tahini
9 to 10 TBSP white wine vinegar warmed and then mix with saffron crushed between the fingers. (I
used 8 strands but that didn't seem like enough to color or flavor it, I may have needed
more or the vinegar may not have been hot enough to soak the saffron in
1 ½ to 2 cups chopped parsley
½ cup whole, shelled hazelnuts roasted at 350 degrees F and then ground to a powder
3 pinches (3/20 tsp) Atraf tib
3 TBSP crumbled dry mint or 6 TBSP chopped fresh mint
1 tsp ground coriander seed

After the vinegar with the saffron has changed color and cooled mix it into the Tahini with the olive oil.
Mix in all of the other ingredients except the beans to make a dressing. Gently mix in the beans and let
sit at least 30 minutes or make a few days ahead and store in a covered vinegar proof container.