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Abbasid Rice Harisa (harisat al-aruzz)

The name of the dish (هريسة) is derived from the verb harasa (هرس), ‘to beat, crush, shred’, and was made with wheat or rice. The popularity of this dish, which was commonly prepared and sold at markets, was such that its ingredients were carefully monitored by the market inspector. Recipes for this dish can be found in nearly all cookery books and many dietary manuals.

This recipe from Abbasid times requires fatty meat (I used goat) which is cooked in water and salt until it falls apart, with some additional pounding in the mortar and pestle to achieve the right consistency. Milk is then cooked in the broth, after which rice is added, followed by sesame oil and rendered fat (one could also use milk or clarified butter). The important thing is to beat the mixture continually unitl you get a nougat type consistency. It is served with a bowl of murri, which, in addition to being a matter of taste, is rooted in medicine since physicians held that harisa (especially that made with wheat) was very nutritional but difficult to digest, which was remedied by the use of murri. If you don’t have this condiment in your pantry, don’t worry since it can easily be replaced with soya sauce!

Still made in many countries. the modern haris (هريس) is particularly associated with Emirate cuisine and made from wheat, meat (usually chicken or lamb), and a pinch of salt. The wheat is soaked overnight, then cooked with meat.

However, the dish recreated here bears a much closer resemblance to the modern Gulf favourite madruba (مضروبة, ‘beaten’), which is usually made with rice but can also commonly be found with wheat, or the ‘arsiyya (عرسية), a favourite in Oman and the Emirate of Fujairah. This name, which indicates that it was traditionally served at weddings (عرس, ‘urs), is already found in a 13th-century Baghdadi cookery book for the rice harisa.

The dish should not be confused with the Tunisian condiment of the same name (usually spelled harissa in English), which is a chilli pepper paste, and may have taken its name from the similarity in texture with the original harisa.

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Medieval Syrian chicken hazelnut stew

This is a recreation of a 13th-century dish from Aleppo, which was a hit in other parts as well since very popular dish since similar recipes can be found in Egyptian cookery books from the 14th and 15th centuries. It is called a bunduqiyya (بندقية), from the Arabic word bunduq (بندق), meaning ‘hazelnuts’, after the principal ingredient.

It is actually a variant of a dish made with pistachios known as fustuqiyya (فستقية , from فستق/fustuq, ‘pistachios). After boiling and frying a chicken, hazelnuts are pounded and added to thick rose-water syrup in which starch and honey are cooked to produce a thick creamy sauce. The fried chicken is then added to this and left for a little while, or, as per some recipes, simply dunked in the sauce before serving.

Hazelnuts were relatively rarely used in the medieval Arabic culinary literature, and are found mainly in Egyptian and Syrian cookery books. They are conspicuous by their absence from Abbasid cookery books and occur only once or twice in medieval Andalusi and North African recipes. They were generally toasted before use. In the same cookery book from which the recipe is taken, hazelnuts are said to be better and more beneficial for one’s health than almonds or walnuts. According to some physicians, hazelnuts increase sexual potency, while being beneficial for treating bites, especially when eaten with figs and rue, and against scorpion stings, not least because scorpions apparently fled at the sight of them.

The Arabic word for hazelnut, al-bunduqa (البندقة) came to be the word for meatballs in North African and Andalusi Arabic, in reference to their size. Later on, this became the Spanish word for meatball, albóndiga.

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Medieval Syrian ‘asida

This is a variation from 13th-century Aleppo of an ancient recipe for an ‘asida (عصيدة), which usually denoted a gruel made of cooked wheat flour and clarified butter (سمن, samn), to which dates were often added as well. The word is derived from a verb meaning ’to twist’, ‘to turn’.

This particular variation is rather unusual in that it is made with milk and rice, with semolina sprinkled in once the rice has cooked. The texture is that of a thick pudding, which is spread out on a plate and served topped with toasted pistachios, rose-water syrup and sugar.

The most surprising ingredient, perhaps, is sheep’s tail fat (ألية, alya), which is rendered before being added when serving. It really adds a depth and richness that makes this particular dish ‘the best ‘asida there is’, to use the words of the author.

Medicinally, ‘asida was considered of lower quality than regular fat (شحم, shahm) in that it is not very nutritional and is slow to digest. However, its negative effects can be remedied with spices such as ginger, black pepper or cassia, and murri.

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Andalusian medicinal kebabs

This recipe by the Cordoban physician Abu ‘l-Qasim al-Zahrawi (c. 936-1013), who has been called the Father of surgery, is for a dish of fried slices of meat, known as tabahija (طباهجة), also tabahaja and even tabahijiyya (طباهجية), which he prescribed for people suffering from dropsy (حبن, haban).

The word ultimately goes back to the Persian tabāhah (تباهه), which could denote “stewed meat; a light dish made of aubergine, sour milk and herbs; eggs, dressed with meat, vinegar, pepper, and pulse” (Steingass 1892: 278). The Persian tabahja (طباهجه) and tabahij (طباهیج), on the other hand, referred to an omelette or soft meat.

This recreation of a ‘tasty’ (طيبة, tayyiba) tabahija is very easy to make and involves thinly sliced meat being soaked in wine vinegar and some murri, after which it is fried with a sprinkling of caraway, cumin and pepper. When it is done, drizzle on a little cooked down aromatic wine, and add chopped fresh coriander, celery and rue.

The tabahija was very popular, as evidenced by its occurrence in a number of medieval Arabic culinary treatises, from Abbasid Iraq, Egypt and al-Andalus. One Abbasid culinary author traced it back to the Sasanid king Bahram whose retinue shot a deer and cut part of it in thin slices, which they proceeded to cook in fat. At first the king was shocked at what he considered the spoiling of the meat by slicing but after tasting it he greatly liked it. The same author contrasted tabāhijas with mutajjanat (مطجنات), which were cooked in a tajine (طاجن, from the Greek teganon, ‘pan’), usually made of copper; the former contain boneless and sliced meat, and the latter jointed chickens with the bones.

In the Arabic tradition, the tabahijas were considered varieties of stews (قلايا, qalaya), which contain a broth (مرق, maraq) and are cooked until they become dry. Sometimes a distinction was made between sour (حامض, hamid) and salty (مالح, malih) tabahijas.

In the medical literature, the tabahija was thought to strengthen the bowels, stimulate the appetite, and be particularly good for those who engage in physical exertion, but may cause nausea and abdominal pain, and be harmful to the joints.

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Medieval Andalusian Artichoke Dip

This is one of only very few artichoke dishes, and all but one are found only in 13th-century Andalusian and North African recipe collections.

This truly delightful recipe from ‘The Exile’s Cookbook’ for a smooth dip is made by boiling cleaned artichokes — the author refers to them as afzān (أفزان), a Berber word denoting cultivated varieties — a couple of times before mashing them up and adding them to a pot in which you have cooked onions with salt, coriander seeds, pepper, milk and butter.

The author suggests serving it warm, but it is extremely tasty cold as well. It can be eaten as a side, or as a little snack and goes very well with some crusty bread.

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Andalusian qatayif halva

This 13th-century recipe from The Exile’s Cookbook constitutes an amazing and original twist on the time-honoured favourite, the qatayif (قطائف). The earliest recipes for these crepes cooked on only one side are already found in the earliest Abbasid culinary tradition. However, they were clearly too good to be kept in one area and they travelled across the Mediterranean, all the way to the Iberian Peninsula, very early on .

After you have made some qatayif, cut them into strips and start boiling some skimmed honey with cinnamon, pepper, spikenard, saffron, and starch. When the honey starts to boil, water-dissolved starch is added and then the qatayif cut into strips. Stir continuously until you get a smooth mass and then pour on some olive oil. Once the consistency is that of a starch pudding, it can be served. If you like, you can sprinkle on coarsely chopped pistachios, or skinned almonds or walnuts.
The texture of the end result is reminiscent of marmalade, albeit with an amazingly aromatic and spicy kick.

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Ember-roasted truffles

A recreation of a 13th-century recipe from The Exile’s Cookbook for truffles, which are cooked in embers, a cooking method that goes back millennia and was also used for bread. After cleaning the washing the truffles they should be dried and then wrapped in a moistened linen cloth before being put on the embers. When they are cooked, they quartered by hand and then served after scattering on some salt, pepper and ginger.

For this recreation, I used a kanun from Meknes, but if you don’t have one of those lying around, you can just cook the truffles on the barbecue! Either way, they’re a real treat and are a wonderful side, or even a snack!

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Spotlight on: Walnuts

The walnut (Juglans regia L.) is native to Western Asia but was also found in southern Europe early on. Since ancient times its leaves, fruit husk, nut, and the oil of its kernel have been used for medicinal and culinary purposes. Walnuts were primarily eaten for dessert by the ancient Greeks and Romans, who called them ‘Persian nuts’. It was not known in ancient Egypt and only arrived there during the Ptolemaic period (from Persia). The Arabic word for ‘walnut’, جوز (jawz) is a borrowing from the Persian گوز (gawz).

In the medieval Arab culinary tradition, the leaves, shells, nut (both cooked and dried) and oil from the pit were used. Walnuts combined with a souring agent (for instance, vinegar, pomegranate juice, sumac) are often found in recipes for condiments to accompany meat or fish dishes, whereas green walnuts were favoured for pickling. Walnut oil was often used uncooked and poured on sweets before serving, as in the case of an Abbasid qatayif (قطائف). Walnuts were also used to remove the bad odour of meat that has gone off by hanging two whole ones in the pot after piercing the shells. The bad smell would allegedly be fully absorbed by the nuts. Walnuts were the base of a very popular confection, known as jawzīnaq (جوزينق) or jawzīnaj (جوزينج), which was Persian in origin and is already mentioned in a sixth-century Sasanian text, alongside a variant made with almonds (لوز, lawz) and known as lawzīnaq/j (لوزينق, لوزينج).

Muslim physicians concurred with Dioscorides that walnuts were difficult to digest (the dried ones more than the fresh green ones), harmful to the stomach and to cause pustules in the mouth. As a result, they should be mixed with honey, combined with other substances such as rue or onions. Roasted walnut shells were also used to dye the hair black. It was thought that walnuts eaten with figs and oxymel (a mixture of vinegar and honey) served as an antidote to poisons.

The illustration below of walnuts in the herbal compiled by the Andalusian scholar al-Ghafiqi (12th century) also lists their alternative name qārūdhiyā bāsilīqā (قاروذيا باسليقا), a variation of the more usual qāruwā bāsilīqā (قاروا باسليقا), from the Greek κάρυα βασιλικά, meaning ‘royal nut’.

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Mamluk Quince and Goat Stew

A wonderful sweet-and-sour dish called masusiyya (مصوصية), from a 14th-century recipe collection compiled in Mamluk Egypt, but with clear Abbasid origins. It is made made with goat meat (though the author says some people used mutton), which is first boiled and then added with chopped onions, salt, spices, fresh mint, celery, garlic, aubergine, and vinegar. Finally, a mixture of pomegranate juice with quince juice is poured on in with sugar, and then spikenard, saffron, mastic and nutmeg.

In keeping with the elite character of the dish, it is also coloured with saffron. Both the masusiyya and a related dish known as masus (مصوص), which is found in a number of cookery books and goes back to the earliest Abbasid tradition. Both dishes are vinegar based, linked to the fact that the latter word meant ‘meat steeped and cooked in vinegar’, though both are related to the verb massa (مَصَّ), ‘to suck’.

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Abbasid cough recipe

This is a rather unusual recipe for a sweet-and-sour broth (مرقة, marqa) which purports to be useful against coughs, but generally good for people suffering from the sniffles (نزلات, nazalat). It is made by cooking sweet and sour pomegranates, celery (or parsley), dill, onion, sesame oil, and murri (if you don’t have any to hand, use soya sauce).