Isfunj al-Qulla: Sponge Cake Cooked in a Jar

I have a memory, more plausible than most from that time, that soon before my first stroke I ordered
cake to share with my husband on his birthday. I didn't get the cake, I don't even know if this is a real
memory or one of those confused hallucinations but I have decided that if I had to die I would like to
eat cake.

Isfunj al-Qulla

(Sponge Cake Cooked in a Jar)

I have learned in the last year or two that bread has been made for thousands of years and that some of that early bread was flat unleavened bread and some was raised by yeast.(1) But packaged yeast didn't come out until many centuries later. It could only be made in quantity after yeasts were discovered by Louis Pasteur who saw yeasts under the microscope for the first time.(2) Before that point wild yeasts developed in mixtures of flour and water (sourdough) which were kept going for centuries and passed down from generation to generation. Yeasts were also cultivated from the Lees which is a by product of making alcohol. Period recipes for some breads such as Manchet call for Beer or Ale Yeast or Barm.(3)
This is a medieval middle eastern cake made with sourdough. I have made this several times since
February and what I handed out at the Newcomers Event in May went over very well. It seems we all
like cake. This is a translation from Kitab Fadalat al-khiwan fi tayyibat al-ta'am wa-l-alwan (“Book of
the Excellent Table Composed of the Best Foods and the Best Dishes”) an Andalusian cookbook(4)
written by Ibn Rezinin in the 13th century.(5)

“Knead semolina or extra-fine flour, making a soft, light dough. Take a small new jar and pour into it
quite a lot of oil, enough to coat the walls and the bottom. When the dough has risen, fill up the jar
[with it], almost as far as the neck, and stick a palm rib inside, or a reed without knots that has been
soaked in oil, and take the jar to the oven. Leave it far from the fire until the cooking [is done]. At this
point, remove it from the oven and gently stake it to pull out the reed. Into the space occupied by the
reed pour some honey and samn or melted butter, let it sit for a moment, and then delicately break the
jar so that the contents remain perfectly intact. Sprinkle with cinnamon, moisten again with samn and
honey, and eat, may it please God.”

When I first tried redacting this recipe I followed the instructions as closely as I could. The first step was to make the sourdough. I've tried many recipes for making sourdough and I find this one works best for me:
½ cup whole wheat flour
mix ½ tsp honey in ½ cup unchlorinated water
(since I have city water I boil tap water for a couple of minutes and let it sit uncovered until only warm, that takes about an hour and releases the chlorine back into its gas form. It takes a lot less time to do that than to let it sit overnight.)
Mix the ingredients to make a batter. Cover with a cloth towel and leave in a warm dark place with
some air circulation.
Stir once a day and feed with more water and flour every 5 to 6 days.

When you make the sourdough starter you need to do it in a glass container (I use a jar) and stir it with a wooden spoon. The reason for this is that metal can give it an off taste and the sourdough doesn't develop well in plastic. Once it has started fermentation it can be transferred to a plastic container if you wish. You must use un-chlorinated water because chlorine will kill the yeast you are trying to develop. You must keep it out of direct sunlight because sunlight will also kill yeast.

Since at that time I didn't have semolina and the gluten content is so high in that type of flour that it would make the cake tough I used a combination of white and whole wheat all purpose flour figuring that was close to the “extra-fine flour” of the middle ages. I use about 1 part whole wheat flour to 3 parts white flour and then add a little wheat germ.

After 2 to 3 days you should find that it no longer smells like wet flour and has taken on a pleasantly
sour smell or may even smells like fresh baked bread. You should also see some good bubbles (that is
fermentation). If you get fermentation but the smell isn't pleasant that means that your local yeasts will probably not taste good either. (Different varieties of yeasts and bacterias which also live in sourdough live in different areas and they all taste different.) I thought I had photos at this step but they never get saved in the camera.

Continue stirring once a day until day 5 or 6. This is a photo of the dough at day 5. You can see that
fermentation has almost stopped. It is time to feed the yeasts.

Feeding is just adding more flour and water in an equal amount to what is already in the batter, because I was in a hurry to get a decent amount of sourdough started I started with one cup each of flour and water and 1 tsp of honey. Here I am splitting it in half so that there is ½ cup of flour in each batch and then adding ½ cup of flour and ½ cup of water (remember to use un-chlorinated water). The honey only needs to be added to get fermentation, after that you don't need to add it.

10/23/12 This morning it didn't seem like there were many bubbles but in looking closer I realized that the dough was just kind of thin so it couldn't rise well. I added about ½ a cup of whole wheat flour and 1 ½ cups white flour with some wheat germ added to total 2 cups flour. I also added 1 cup of water and ½ tsp of kosher salt. I mixed the flour in a ½ cup at a time and added the water part way in so that I could keep the dough mixable. Below is showing the additions of flour, how full that made the glass jar which holds 5 to 5 ½ cups and the last photo showing how dark the batter ended up. The mix of whole wheat and white flour is because in order to make what they referred to as a “white flour” they “bolted” or sifted much of the bran out of it.

 The flour can be added to the sourdough starter all at once or over 2 or 3 days. This time I did it all at once. Since it was more than half full I put the jar in a bowel (non-reactive metal) because when it rises it often overflows and makes a big mess if the overflow is not contained and the overflow is needed to fill the baking dish. Since I did that in the morning I stirred it in the evening to work in more oxygen (yeasts breathe oxygen and need it to continue multiplying, it's the same reason for the final kneading of bread.)

10/24/12 I checked the sourdough this morning and it had only risen enough to touch the cloth cover

and not overflow. The other one I was running with the extra was only about half full and completely

overflowed. I figured out that it probably works better with my yeasts to feed them more slowly but I

am working on a deadline. It also still seems just a little thin so I added ½ cup of bread flour and another ½ tsp of kosher salt to help strengthen the gluten strands. I will let it rise till this evening and

then see if it is ready to bake. The other batch of sourdough I am hoping will be ready soon enough so

that I can make a second cake with ground candied orange peel (my modification of the original

recipe). Since there is a recipe in the same book for candied citron peel which I followed in making the candied orange peel I don't think it is too much of a stretch to think that it could have been ground and added to the cake.

The cake dough is ready to bake. I coated a glass bread pan with butter (the recipe said oil but I used

butter since the cake has melted butter and honey drizzled over it and more ingredients mean more

chance of allergy issues) The first cake I tried to make I tried baking it in a can with a wooden spoon

soaked in oil inserted into the center. I tried to do it that way because I didn't have a reed or palm rib to use and I didn't bake it in a jar because the only jars I have are glass and when it is broken to get the cake out it would leave small invisible shards that would kill anyone who tried to eat the cake. Using the can didn't work either. In the first couple of pictures on making the sourdough it shows a burnt wooden spoon lying in front of the glass jar. That's how the spoon got burnt. In order to get the cake cooked on the inside it had to become so overdone and burnt on the outside that the whole thing

including the can had to be thrown away. This is how I do it now.

Coat a glass bread pan with butter on nonstick cooking spray. Fill it about ¾ full with the sourdough

cake batter. Let it rise in a warm place for about 30 to 60 minutes, hopefully it will rise almost to the

top of the bread pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and bake on the middle rack until it separates

from the sides of the baking dish and a toothpick inserted in several places comes out clean. I thought

that takes about 30 minutes but I was checking it every 5 to 15 minutes for at least another half hour. I

think if I had not taken it out to check it as often it would probably have taken 50 to 70 minutes. The

second cake I made with ground orange peel was still slightly moist at 50 minutes so I gave it another

15 minutes.

After it is removed from the oven start heating ¼ cup of butter and 1/3 cup of honey over medium high heat. Bring it to a boil and remove from the heat until the bubbles die down, you can speed up this process by stirring. Do this 3 to 4 times then remove from the heat. Let the syrup cool a little while you take a skewer and poke holes all over the top of the cake (still in the bread pan) then carefully pour the melted honey-butter mixture over the cake and let it soak into the holes and fill the space between the bread pan and the cake. This works just as well as the reed inserted into the cake in the original recipe.

Let the cake sit until the syrup is soaked in, about 30 minutes. Carefully remove the cake from the pan and place on a platter. Dust the top and sides of the cake with ground cinnamon until it is well covered.

Boil another ¼ cup of butter and 1/3 cup honey just as before. After boiling the syrup it helps to let it

cool about 10 to15 minutes before you pour it over the top of the cake and let it drizzle over the sides.

Take a spoon and scoop up the syrup puddling around the cake and keep drizzling it over the cake until it has cooled enough where more of it stays on the cake than runs off. Let cool before eating or store in a covered container.

This cake will have a slightly sour taste as if lemon was used in the batter. That taste is from the

sourdough being feed every day and not allowed to continue to a much more sour flavor. Because you

bring the honey-butter to a boil a couple of times it thickens a little bit and tastes more like

butterscotch. To make the orange version add 1/2 to 2/3 cup ground orange peel and into the last

feedings. You may need to reduce the flour just slightly, you want to end up with about 4 cups of cake

mix, adding the orange peel will cause the cake to rise higher and faster because of the extra sugar.

After the cake is made and the last coating of honey-butter is added garnish with candied orange peel.

Below are pictures of some of the cakes I have done before. They got taller as I practiced and learned

that a thicker batter makes a taller cake. I also learned that if you add sugar but not orange peel to the

batter you don't get that lemony flavor and it ends up a little bland.

1. “Artisan Breads” by Jan Hedh, 2011
originally published in Swedish as Brod by Prisma, 2004
2. http://www.exploreyeast.com/article/history-yeast
3. http:/ www.whirlwind-design.com/madbaker/breadfaq.html
4. “Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World” by Ailia Zaouali, English translation 2007 by the
Regents of California, University of California Press
5. http://medievalcookery.com/etexts.html

Lady Esther's impression of Rose Soda

Lady Esther's Impression of Rose Soda

I've added in some comments in red. These are answers to questions posed by the judges of A&S. I
learned several months ago that although people of the middle ages didn't commonly drink water
because it was often unsafe that they had other choices than alcoholic drinks. Among other listings for
non-alcoholic drinks I found Rose Soda. When I first tried to redact it I didn't realize that I had only
copied part of the information. This is what I went off of:

“Rose Soda (Water) and Lavender Drink were common among refined ladies of the
middle ages. This was usually petals of the flowers soaked in a mixture of very sweet water. While
thought to be a medicine, it found popularity at the dinner table and was thought to sooth a well fed
belly.”(1)

Thinking it needed to be redacted I guessed it would have the same amount of sugar as Kool-aid. To
make it I use 2 cups of sugar to 1 gallon of water and shake that together in a screw-top container. Then
I put ½ cup of dried rose buds I get at Kabul Market and shake that in. I started making this with dried
rose buds I got at the Herb Pantry but I found out that they were for decoration not taking internally.
Those were much stronger so I think they have something added to increase the scent/flavor. I feel
more comfortable with the ones I get from Kabul Market because they are for use in food. Because
they are not as strong I add 1 tsp of rosewater because it would take a lot more rosebuds to get enough
flavor. I leave it in a warm place for 24 to 48 hours. As long as it takes for the liquid to change from
clear to a tea color. If I had thought to take a picture at this step you would see the darker color actually

starting to fill the bottle from the top where the rose buds were floating.

I used to figure when the rosebuds had steeped in the liquid so that it turned into something like a rose
tea it was done but then I decided that in the middle ages if it wasn't used right away it would have
been stored in a container that was not air-tight. From when I learned to cultivate yeasts from organic
materials like raisins, apples and orange peels I knew that if such an item was exposed to the air even
partially for 2 to 3 days yeasts would grow in the sugar water and it would become carbonated. (2)
Some people like it more carbonated and some don't. What I have brought is the carbonated version. I
feel the results are best if you let air into it then shake it at least once a day for approximately 2 weeks
then leave it in cold storage (like the refrigerator) for up to 2 more weeks. The carbonated version is
less sweet than the fresh version because the yeasts use carbohydrates as food, in other words they

literally eat the sugar. I think it is still sweet enough and very refreshing as a carbonated beverage.

I later found the rest of the information on how to make it at that same web site:

Rose Soda / Lavender Drink

Adapted from _The 'Libre de Diversis Medicinis' in the Thornton Manuscript (MS. Lincoln Cathedral,

A.5.2)_. Edited by Margaret Sinclair Ogden. Published for the Early English Text Society by

Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press. Amen House, E.C. 4. England. 1938. Text circa early

1400 CE.

1 part rose/lavender petals

2 parts water

2 parts sugar/honey

Soak a number of petals in a pitcher of water holding twice as much water as petals for one night.

Press, but not squeeze, the water from the petals and reuse them as needed. Mix into the water enough honey or sugar as to taste, and serve cold. (3)

If I had used more rose buds instead of supplementing the taste with rose water I may have ended up

with a similar flavor but in my opinion it would have been too sweet for most of us to drink, with that

much sugar/honey it would have been a fairly thick syrup. It looks like the amounts listed are a modern

redaction and not part of the original recipe. I have mixed enough sugar for my taste and served cold.

Etienne commented that I should have mentioned how, when, and what tools should be used for

straining. I strained the sample I had out for judging because I felt it would be easier for the judges to

sample and easier for me to clean out the decorative bottle if it didn't have rose petals in it. As for if you should strain it, in the words of many of the middle eastern cook book authors, “do as you wish”. If you were to make it using more rose petals and no rose water I would recommend straining at least most of them out. If you strain the roses out that should be done just before serving and using a strainer is period.

I am remembering in a recipe that I had read which called for rose water it said that different brands

have different strengths so the amount of rose water used (if you choose to go that way) will depend on the brand used and your personal taste.

If you use this as a sourdough starter instead of just a beverage you will probably want to strain it

unless you like the look of roses in your bread but the center and stem of the rose are woody and hard

to chew.

1 & 3 http://mbhp.forgottensea.org/noalcohol.html

2. “Artisan Breads” by Jan Hedh, 2011

originally published in Swedish as Brod by Prisma, 2004

chapter “Baking with Levain” pg 31

Roman Sourdough Bread

http://www.coquinaria.nl/english/recipes/Rombread.htm

Used for the May Cooks Guild Meeting and the May Newcomers Event

Roman Sourdough Bread

The Romans knew several kinds of bread. Mostly these breads were made with sourdough. The bread
could be made of wheat, spelt, barley, millet or rice. Even ground pulses were used. In the second
century before Christ bread started to displace pottages with pulses as basic food. Bread was eaten
every day, at every meal. This explains the "bread and circuses": both were considered essential to the
well-being of the plebs.
The bread in this recipe I have composed from the description; by Faas of several Roman kinds of
bread (P.C.P. Faas, Around the table of the Romans: Food and feasting in ancient Rome (Palgrave
McMillan 2002). This is not a historical recipe, but an 'impressionistic' recipe.
Faas mentions bread shaped like a ring with a laurel wreath, a flat bread like pizza, a long breadroll, a
mushroom shape, a square bread shaped like a dice, and a bread shaped like the breast of a young
woman.

Ingredients:
500 gram (4 1/4 cup) spelt flour
1/4 litre (1 cup) white grape juice
200 gram (7 fl.oz) sourdough on room temperature
75 gram (1/3 cup) fresh goat cheese (chevre) at room temperature
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. each of aniseed and cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. salt
and also some yeast (15 gram/1/2 oz. fresh or 5 gram/1 tsp. dried)

Temper the sourdough with 1 deciliter of the grape juice, 100 gram spelt flour and honey (sponge). Let this stand for at least one to three hours on a warm spot until it has doubled in volume, then mix in the other ingredients. Knead well until you have an elastic dough. Let it rise on a warm spot under a damp cloth. If you use extra yeast, one or two hours will suffice, but when sourdough is the only rising-agent, you can also leave it an entire night. When the temperature goes down, rising will be slower. To prevent the dough from drying out, place it in a plastic box with lid, together with some glasses of hot water.
You can knead and let rise for a third time, but this is not mandatory. Now you can create your bread in any form you like. Use your fantasy, or create a simple loaf. When the bread is formed, let is again rise, this time for half an hour. Preheat the oven to 220 dg C/425 dg F. Bake the bread for 20 to 25 minutes.

I made two of these, one for the Cooks Guild May meeting and one for the May Newcomers Event
(that one I excluded the cheese and spices so that it could be used to sample any of the condiments
brought and to reduce the chance of allergy problems. Because I had left out some ingredients in that
one I needed to add some more of the other ingredients so that I would have enough bread to shape into a decorative loaf. I left out the suggested yeast because I was already using a wild yeast sourdough starter and there is no need to use both, even though some people do. I followed the recipe for each batch of bread, put them each on pizza pans and poking a hole through the center of the mound of dough formed them into rings. Then I covered them loosely with an oiled plastic wrap and left them in a warm place to rise over night.

The next morning I put them one at a time on a pizza peel and preheated the oven with a baking stone. I then snipped leaf shapes into them with kitchen scissors and stuck bay leaves into the wreaths so that they would have some bread leaves and some bay laurel leaves in the laurel rings. Then I sprinkled them with more spelt flour before sliding them onto the pizza stone, sprayed in some water water (to replicate baking in a stone oven) and baked them. When the first one was baked I could take it out of the oven then start the process on the second one.

The ingredients are almost identical to Mustachi or Must Rolls that I made the year before except each one of those small rolls are set on top of a bay leaf. Then I sprinkled more spelt flour on them and loosely covered them with plastic wrap and left them in a warm place over night to rise. The next
morning I baked the loaves one at a time. I liked the fact that these call for olive oil instead of the lard
the Must Rolls called for so they are better for you and are kosher for those who have that concern.
They are not a dry heavy bread and keep well in the freezer but because of the shape do need the
support of a pan under them when storing in the freezer. They went well at both things I served them at and this being the first time I tried to make decorative bread I will certainly be doing it again.

Loaf Kneaded with Butter (or olive oil)

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/miscellany_pdf/Misc9recipes.pdf
Loaf Kneaded with Butter (Non-dairy Version)
Andalusian p. A-24

Take three ratls of white flour and knead it with a ratl of butter and when the mixing is complete, leave it to rise and make bread from it; send it to the oven in a dish and when it has cooked, turn it on the other side in another dish and return it to the oven. When it is thoroughly cooked, take it out of the oven, then cover it a while and present it.

5 c flour unsifted (1 1/2 lb)                               1 c water
1/2 lb butter    (or olive oil)                               1 c sourdough starter

Note: we assume that “make bread from it” requires water and leavening.
Melt butter and mix into flour. Mix lukewarm water with sourdough starter and stir into flour
mixture; knead until smooth. Cover bowl with damp cloth and let rise about 15 hours, it will rise
somewhat faster in a warm place. Shape into single round loaf about 1 1/2 " thick and 8" in
diameter. Heat oven to 350°. Bake bread about 45 minutes on ungreased cookie sheet; flip onto
second cookie sheet and bake another 15 minutes. Remove from oven, put on wooden board and
cover with cloth for 10 minutes, then serve.

In honor of our Baroness and anyone else who can't have dairy I used olive oil instead of butter.
One person who I asked to taste it commented that it needed salt, I hadn't realized it didn't have any. I
will have to see how much salt works next time I make it. For the flour I used 1 cup of bread flour and
the rest was a mix of half whole wheat, half all purpose white and a little wheat germ to approximate
the flour that was used in the middle ages which had most of the bran sifted (bolted) out. I was very
surprised that this bread didn't have the strong sour flavor that many of my sourdough breads do. I
think it was the fat content of the olive oil (when you make yogurt the more fat content of the milk the sweeter the yogurt turns out.) It may have also helped that it was a newly made sourdough so it may not have turned as sour as if it had been older.

Medieval and more modern (but could pass) Beverages

This is a list of web-sites with recipes for non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages.

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1934603095201939769#editor/src=dashboard

Under the section for Beverages:

Almond Milk Barley Water Buttered Beere 
Claret Z
Hazelnut Beverage G
Hypocras (spiced wine)

A list of recipes for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages:

http://www.godecookery.com/allrec/allrec01.htm

Non-alcoholic beverages and syrups (drink concentrates)

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/drinks.html

Non Alcoholic Beverages of the Middle Ages  :

http://mbhp.forgottensea.org/noalcohol.html

To drink or not to drink – on Non-Alcoholic Beverages,  Presented at Ides of March Collegia 20/3/2010 by Kara of Kirriemuir : (an essay and recipes)

http://lochac.sca.org/bacchus_wood/A&S/Cordials%20-%20Alcoholic%20or%20Non-Alcoholic.pdf 

Stewed Beef Sandwich

Subject_July, Cold dishes

Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens Page 151

A Recipe for wast (filled sandwich) made by Ibn Dihqana:

Choose a round and thick bread made with fine, bran-free flour (raghif samik huwwara). Using a knife, cut it crosswise in half and set it aside.

     Take meat of cooled sikbaj (beef stew soured with vinegar) and shred it. Finely chop leaf vegetables (baql).

Cover the [cut side of] one piece of the bread with the [chopped] vegetables followed by another layer of the prepared meat. Sprinkle the surface with pleasant tasting salt followed by chopped cheese, chopped olives, and [chopped] walnuts, almonds, pistachios, and pine nuts. Put another layer of chopped vegetables and cover the [the filling] with the other half of the bread [cut side down]. Keep the prepared sandwich pressed [using a weight] for about an hour. Make as many as you wish of these sandwiches following the same rule.    

     Cut the filled sandwiches into squares and then cut them into triangles (shawabir). Arrange the pieces on a platter (jam) and serve them, God willing.

Esther's Redaction:

Bread:

I made a Gluten Free bread so that certain people would be able to try it. Below is the recipe I used. I made the dough a day or two ahead. I followed this recipe because I wanted a yeast bread with a slight sourdough flavor and a firmness that could hold up to the hour pressing of the sandwich. I halved the recipe to make enough for 2 loaves, and I used half the dough for my first one. Unfortunately I made the dough too wet and it wouldn't hold it's shape and it turned into a flat, hard pancake.

http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/2010/01/05/gluten-free-crusty-boule

This is a loaf I made in a previous batch and the one I just did.

Then instead of trying to add more of the dry ingredients from this bread I decided to add the ingredients from this recipe but making some alterations to save time or to make the 2 recipes compatible.

http://adventuresomekitchen.com/2010/06/16/the-conquering-hero-meets-everyman-a-feast-fit-for-bloomsday-gluten-free-irish-soda-bread-and-pan-seared-chipotle-corned-beef/

The dough was still too wet to hold up free form so I decided to just give up on that and bake it in something.

I coated an oven safe bowl with olive oil and put some batter in it to about half full then I put the rest in my cast aluminum dutch oven (coated with foil, then olive oil...I remember how hard it was to get the bread out the last time when I only oiled it.) I put the ceramic bowl in the cold oven and turned it on to 400 degrees F. After 10 minutes I put in the pot. After about 10 more minutes I turned the heat down to 350 degrees F. I cooked them both together until the small one tested done and I moved it to a cooling rack, I took out the other one when it tested done.

With all of the maneuvering these are the ingredient amounts I ended up using:

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/4 cup + 2 TBSP sorghum flour

1 cup millet flour (I can't find millet flour here so I grind my own)

2 3/4 cup tapioca flour

1/4 TBSP yeast (can use 1 TBSP if you don't want to take 2-3 days to make bread)

2 tsp kosher salt (or to taste)

3 1/2 tsp guar gum

2-2 1/2 cup warm water

2 large egg

1/2 cup olive oil

2 1/2 TBSP sugar

2 TBSP lemon juice

I can't be sure how much water I actually used because when I put the ingredients in the food processor to blend them till smooth a bunch of the water overflowed and went all over the counter. What's listed is a guess. Next time I'll use my stick blender. The ingredient mix must have been good because I still ended up with a firm crust and somewhat firm bread. Cooking the bread in the ceramic oven safe bowl was perfect. I ended up with a bun shape.

For the non-gluten-free sandwiches I used store bought Torta Sandwich Rolls which are almost square and then cut the sandwiches in half diagonally.

The Meat:

I read through several recipes on how to make sikbaj (beef stew soured with vinegar) and decided to use those as inspiration rather than following one exactly. I took a 3.9 lb. beef chuck pot roast, rinsed it and put it in a slow cooker. To this I added 2 TBSP chopped garlic, 1/2 cup chopped onion (I had a mix of red and yellow onions), 1 cup finely diced or grated carrot, 1/2 tsp dried thyme, 2 tsp kosher salt. Coarsely grind together 1/2 tsp whole black pepper corns, 1 tsp whole coriander seed, 1/4 tsp whole celery seed and add it to the pot. Add 1 cup balsamic vinegar and 1 cup water. Cook on low over night or up to 18 hrs. Add 1.3 oz chopped parsley and 1/3 cup more balsamic vinegar cook 1-6 hours more. Then remove the meat and shred it. Mix in the chopped vegetables and enough of the broth to make the meat moist. Use right away or refrigerate.

Nut Mixture:

Toast together 1/2 cup pine nuts and 3/4 cup slivered almonds (whole almonds would work but I didn't have them). Put them in the food processor along with 1/2 cup walnut halves and 1 cup pistachios. Grind coarsely (makes 3 cups.) Remove the nuts from the food processor and add two 6 oz cans of black olives (drained) and .42 lbs Manchego cheese and 5.7 oz Formaggio Piave (aged over 14 months) Both cut into cubes. (You can use any aged cheese, these are just what I chose. I would've liked to have gotten Halloumi which is an actual middle eastern cheese but it was much more expensive.) Instead of adding salt right before this layer I added 1 tsp of kosher salt into it and ran the food processor on low until it was blended but with chunks. I stored this mixture in a sealed container in the refrigerator until ready to use.

​The mix of chopped nuts, olives and cheese

Vegetable Mixture:

1.9 oz of roughly chopped parsley

4.5 oz arugula

.1 oz mint

.5 oz spinach

Added 1 oz sweet basil finely chopped

Finely chop together.

Because I made this a couple of days ahead I mixed the greens with 1/2 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil to keep it fresh.

To make the sandwiches I followed the recipe and cut the cold bread crosswise like a hamburger bun. I spread a layer of the chopped greens on each cut side, followed by a nice thick layer of shredded beef on one piece of bread. Then I put a layer of the nut/cheese/olive mixture on the other half of the bun and sprinkled coarse salt on both sides.  Then I put the top on and pressed it down with my hand for a minute till it seemed to hold together. I sliced it crosswise into triangular pieces as directed and when it was time to serve arranged the sandwiches on a platter.

Counterfeit (Vegetarian) Isfî riyâ of Garbanzos

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Recipes_Done.html

Counterfeit (Vegetarian) Isfî riyâ of Garbanzos

Andalusian p. A-1
Pound some garbanzos, take out the skins and grind them into flour. And take some of
the flour and put into a bowl with a bit of sourdough and some egg, and beat with spices
until it's all mixed. Fry it as before in thin cakes, and make a sauce for them.
chickpea flour: 1 c
sourdough: 1/2 c
eggs: 4
spices:
2 t pepper
2 t coriander
16 threads saffron
2 t cumin
4t cinnamon
1/4 c Cilantro, chopped
Garlic Sauce:
3 cloves garlic
2 T oil
2T vinegar
Chickpea flour can be made in a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder (a food processor
would probably work too). Pound or process until the dried chickpeas are broken, then
remove the loose skins and reduce what is left to a powder. An easier approach is to buy
the flour in a health food store; a middle eastern grocery store might also have it. Use
untoasted chickpea flour if you can get it.
Crush the garlic in a garlic press, combine with vinegar and oil, beat together.
Combine the flour, sourdough, eggs, spices and beat with a fork to a uniform batter. Fry
in about 1/4 c oil in a 9" frying pan at medium high temperature until brown on both
sides, turning once. Add more oil as necessary. Drain on a paper towel.
note: The ingredients for the sauce are from "A Type of Ahrash [Isfî riyâ ]". What is
done with them is pure conjecture.

These were very good but I and the children thought they tasted better with pancake syrup then the

recommended sauce.