How to Milk an Almond Stuff an Egg And Armor a Turnip A ...

Oven Dishes and Roasting
The making of Badî'i, the Remarkable Dish
Andalusian p. A-9
Take the meat of a very plump lamb and cut
it in small pieces and put them in a pot with a
little salt, a piece of onion, coriander, lavender,
saffron and oil, and cook it halfway. Then take
fresh cheese, not too soft in order that it will not
fall apart, cut it with a knife into sheets
approximately the size of the palm, place them in
a dish, color them with saffron, sprinkle them
with lavender and turn them until they are
colored on all sides. Place them with the cooked
meat in the pot or in a tajine and add eggs beaten
with saffron, lavender and cinnamon, as
necessary, and bury in it whole egg yolks and
cover with plenty of oil and with the fat of the
cooked meat. Place it in the oven and leave it
until the sauce is dry and the meat is completely
cooked and the upper part turns red [the
translator suggests the alternative “browns” but it
turns red in our experience]. Take it out, leave it a
while until its heat passes and it is cool, and then
use it.
1 lb lamb 6 oz cheese
½ t dried lavender ½ t lavender
4 threads saffron 3 threads saffron
¼ t salt ½ t more lavender
½ small onion (2 oz) 2 beaten eggs
½ t ground coriander ½ t cinnamon
2 T olive oil 4 whole egg yolks
6 more threads saffron 2 T olive oil
Cut lamb into ½" cubes. Grind ½ t
lavender and 4 threads saffron in a mortar.
Combine lamb, salt, onion, coriander,
lavender, saffron and oil and simmer in 1 c
water for 10 minutes. Grind the second lot of
saffron (6 threads) in a mortar, adding 1 T
water. Cut cheese—we used mozzarella—in
slices, paint them with the saffron water,
sprinkle with ½ t more lavender. Drain meat
and separate the fat from the broth. Put meat
in the pot, cover with cheese slices. Grind 3
threads saffron and ½ t lavender in a mortar,
beat with eggs and cinnamon. Pour eggs over
meat and cheese. Place whole egg yolks on
108
top, pour over everything the fat (I had about
3 T) plus the second 2 T of oil. Bake at 350°
for 45 minutes, by which time the top should
have turned reddish brown. Let cool, then
serve.
Recipe for Thûmiyya, a Garlicky Dish
Andalusian p. A-8
Take a plump hen and take out what is inside
it, clean that and leave aside. Then take four
ûqiyas of peeled garlic and pound them until they
are like brains, and mix with what comes out of
the interior of the chicken. Fry it in enough oil to
cover, until the smell of garlic comes out. Mix this
with the chicken in a clean pot with salt, pepper,
cinnamon, lavender, ginger, cloves, saffron, peeled
whole almonds, both pounded and whole, and a
little murri naqî'. Seal the pot with dough, place
it in the oven and leave it until it is done. Then
take it out and open the pot, pour its contents in
a clean dish and an aromatic scent will come
forth from it and perfume the area. This chicken
was made for the Sayyid Abu al-Hasan and
much appreciated.
5 oz garlic 1 t ginger
1 hen ¼ t cloves
6 T oil 15 threads saffron
½ t salt ½ c whole almonds
½ t pepper ⅞ c crushed almonds
1 t cinnamon ¼ c murri (see p. 5)
2 t lavender ~1 c flour + water
Crush garlic. Fry garlic and giblets from
chicken in oil on medium heat for about 15
minutes. Put all ingredients except dough in
the pot, crushing the saffron into a few T of
water to extract flavor and color. Mix flour
and water to make the dough, roll it into a
strip, put it on the edge of the dish and jam the
lid onto it to seal the lid on the pot. Bake at
350° for 1 hour.
Charles Perry, who translated this, notes
that four ûqiyas of garlic (⅓ of a pound)
works out pretty close to the 40 cloves called
for in a famous Provençal dish. “Leave out the
spices and the almonds, and you’d about have
poulet à 40 gousses d’ail.”