Another recipe by the Andalusian physician al-Zahrawi (d. 1013), whose name refers to his place of birth, the beautiful madinat al-Zahra’ (مدينة الزهراء), near Córdoba. This recipe is his version of a famous medieval dish, known as isfidhbāj (a word from Persian meaning ‘white stew’) because it was originally made with cheese. It was one of the dishes introduced to al-Andalus by Ziryab, and became known as tafāyā (تفايا). However, this particular variant is not so much a stew as chicken with a sauce.
The chicken is fried with olive oil — the recipe calls for so-called zayt al-unfāq (زيت الأنفاق), which is made from unripe olives –, good-quality salt, onion juice and coriander before being cooked with grape vinegar, pomegranate juice, boiled-down wine, and aromatics like cassia, cloves, spikenard, and pepper. The author included it among the dishes that are particularly useful for melancholics, but it has the added benefit of countering palpitations and tremors. Furthermore, he added that it was ‘tried and tested’. Surely, the right kind of dish for cold winter months when we can all need a boost.
