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

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enter it, put the frying pan on the fire with a lot
of oil, so that it is drenched with what you fry it
with. Then wet your hand in water and cut off a
piece of the dough. Bury inside it the same
amount of rubbed cheese. Squeeze it with your
hand, and whatever leaves and drains from the
hand, gather it up [? the meaning of this verb
eludes me] carefully. Put it in the frying pan
while the oil boils. When it has browned, remove it
with an iron hook prepared for it and put it in a
dipper [“iron hand”] similar to a sieve held above
the frying pan, until its oil drips out. Then put it
on a big platter and dust it with a lot of sugar
and ground cinnamon. There are those who eat it
with honey or rose syrup and it is the best you
can eat.
1 ½ c flour 4 oz feta
¼ c sourdough 2 c olive oil for frying
½ c milk 1 t cinnamon
oz ricotta 1 T sugar or honey
Mix flour, sourdough and milk; knead for
a few minutes into a smooth dough. Roll out
to about a 12" circle, making sure the board
(or marble slab) is well floured so it will not
stick when you later take it off. Let rise about
3 hours in a warm place. Mash together the
cheeses—we used ricotta and feta, but you
could try different cow’s and sheep’s
cheeses—and knead them to a smooth
consistency. Cut a piece of the dough, put
cheese filling on top, fold dough up on all
sides around it and over the cheese; squeeze
to a circular, flattened patty, using a wet hand
so that the dough will seal. At this point you
have cheese entirely surrounded by dough.
Pour the oil in a 8 ½" frying pan or dutch
oven (about ½" deep), heat to about 340°. Put
patties into the oil, cook until the bottom is
brown (about 40-60 seconds), turn over, cook
until that side is brown (about another 40
seconds), remove, drain. Eat with either
cinnamon sugar or honey.
The cut pieces of rolled dough used to
make the fritters ranged from about a
1.5"x1.5" square to a 2.5"x2.5". The former
requires about ½ t of filling, the latter about 1
t or a little more. The former ends up, before
frying, as a roughly circular patty about 1.5"
in diameter and ½" thick; the latter ends as a
circular patty about 2.5" in diameter and ½" or
a little thicker. The recipe makes about 20-30
patties. You could probably cook them faster
by using enough more oil so that the patties
were entirely covered.
Recipe for Murakkaba, a Dish which is
Made in the Region of Constantine and is
Called Kutâmiyya
Andalusian p. A-62 (Good)
Knead a well-made dough from semolina like
the “sponge” dough with yeast, and break in it as
many eggs as you can, and knead the dough with
them until it is slack. Then set up a frying pan of
clay [hantam] on a hot fire, and when it has
heated, grease it with clarified butter or oil. Put
in a thin flat loaf of the dough and when the
bread is done, turn over. Take some of the dough
in the hand and smear the surface of the bread
with it. Then turn the smeared surface to the
pan, changing the lower part with the upper, and
smear this side with dough too. Then turn it over
in the pan and smear it, and keep smearing it
with dough and turning it over in the tajine, and
pile it up and raise it until it becomes a great, tall
loaf. Then turn it by the edges a few times in the
tajine until it is done on the sides, and when it is
done, as it is desired, put it in a serving dish and
make large holes with a stick, and pour into them
melted butter and plenty of honey, so that it
covers the bread, and present it.
[From “Making of Elegant Isfunja
(“Sponge”),” Andalusian: You take clear and
clean semolina and knead it with lukewarm water
and yeast and knead again. When it has risen,
turn the dough, knead fine and moisten with
water, little by little, so that it becomes like tar
after the second kneading, until it becomes
leavened or is nearly risen. ...]
2 ¼ c semolina flour 2 eggs
½ c water 1-2 T oil for frying
½ c sourdough ⅜ c honey
¼ c more water ½ c butter
Combine flour, ½ c water, and sourdough
and knead smooth. Cover with a damp cloth
and leave overnight to rise. In the morning
knead in an additional ¼ c water, making it