The Recipe of Ibn-e-Al Mehdi's Maghmoom

Take a plump hen, dismember it and put it in a pot, and add coriander of one dirham's weight, half a dirham of pepper and the same of cinnamon, and of ginger, galingale, lavender and cloves a quarter dirham each, three û qiyas of vinegar, two ûqiyas of pressed onion juice, an ûqiya of cilantro juice, an ûqiya of murri naqî', and four ûqiyas of fresh oil. Mix all this in a pot with some rosewater, cover it with a flatbread and put a carefully made lid over the mouth of the pot. Place this in the oven over a moderate fire and leave it until it is cooked. Then take it out and leave it a little. Let it cool and invert it onto a clean dish and present it; it is remarkable.

1 chicken (2-3 lb)
1 T (4 g) coriander
1 t (2 g) pepper
1 1/2 t (2 g) cinnamon
1/2 t (1 g) ginger
1/2 t (1 g) galingale
~1 T (1 g) dried lavender blossoms ground in a mortar
1/2 t (1 g) cloves
3/8 c (3 oz) vinegar
2 T (1 oz) coriander juice = 2 T water +~1 oz green coriander
1/4 c (2 oz) onion juice
2 T (1 oz) murri
1/2 c (4 oz) olive oil
2 t rosewater
2 medium pita breads

120 dirhem = 16 oz = 1 pt; 7.5 dirhem = 1 oz; 1 dirham = approx 3-4 grams.

Chop coriander, then grind in electric spice grinder with 2 T water and strain juice through a cloth to make 2 T+ of coriander juice. Mix everything in pot, put in chicken. Put two medium pita on top, put on lid, bake at 350deg. about 1 hour, let settle about 15 minutes, invert into a bowl, and serve. Would be good over rice or bread. Note: The spices are all ground.

Cooked Fried Chicken

Cut up the chicken, making two pieces from each limb; fry it with plenty of fresh oil; then take a pot and throw in four spoonfuls of vinegar and two of murri naqî' and the same amount of oil, pepper, cilantro, cumin, a little garlic and saffron. Put the pot on the fire and when it has boiled, put in the fried chicken spoken of before, and when it is done, then empty it out and present it.

1 medium chicken, 2 1/2 lb, cut up
1/4 c oil
1/4 c vinegar
2 T murri
2 T oil
1 t pepper
4 sprigs cilantro = ~1/16 oz
1/4 t cumin
1/4 t crushed garlic
3 threads saffron

Browned chicken in 1/4 c olive oil, over medium low heat, for 10 minutes. Set chicken aside. Add to a large pot vinegar, murri, 2 T oil, pepper, cilantro, saffron, crushed garlic, cumin, and heat the pot on medium for 3 minutes. Add chicken, simmer on low for 25 minutes with the lid on, stirring often, baste with the liquid five minutes before it is done.

Chopped Liver

For the chopped liver: he who has the charge of the chopped liver should take kids' livers-and if there are not enough of those of kids use those of veal-and clean and wash them very well, then put them to cook well and properly; and, being cooked, let him take them out onto fair and clean boards and, being drained, chop them very fine and, being well chopped, let him arrange that he has fair lard well and properly melted in fair and clean pans, then put in to fry the said chopped liver and sauté it well and properly. And then arrange that he has a great deal of eggs and break them into fair dishes and beat them all together; and put in spices, that is white ginger, grains of paradise, saffron, and salt in good proportion, then put all of this gently into the said pans with the said liver which is being fried while continually stirring and mixing with a good spoon in the pans until it is well cooked and dried out and beginning to brown. And then when this comes to the sideboard arrange the aforesaid heads [reference to preceding recipe in the original] on fair serving dishes, and on each dish next to the heads put and arrange the aforesaid chopped liver.

1/2 lb calf liver
2 T lard
3 eggs
1/4 t ginger
1/4 t grains of paradise
8 threads saffron, ground
1/4 t salt

Simmer liver for about 5 minutes, drain, then chop very fine. Beat the eggs, add spices. Melt the lard, add liver and eggs, stir constantly until cooked.

Boiled Meats Ordinary

You shall take a racke of mutton cut into peeces, or a leg of mutton cut in peeces: for this meat and these joints, are the best, Although any other joint, or any fresh beefe will likewise make good pottage: and having washt your meat well, put it into a cleane pot with faire water, and set it on the fire: then take violet leaves, endive, succory (chiccory?), strawberie leaves, spinage, langdebeefe, marygold flowers, Scallions, and a little persly, and chop them very small together, then take halfe so much oatmeale well beaten as there is herbes, and mix it with the herbes, and chop all very wel together: then when the pot is ready to boile, skumme it very wel and then put in your herbes: And so let it boil with a quicke fire, stirring the meat oft in the pot, till the meat be boild enough, and that the hearbes and water mixt together without any separation, which will be after the consumption of more then a third part: then season them with salt, and serve them up with the meat either with sippets or without.

2 lb boned lamb
5 c water
3 c oatmeal
1 1/2 t salt

1 1/4 lb mixed greens = 6 c chopped and pressed down (scallions, endive lettuce, Belgian endive, parsley, spinach, and mustard greens)

Cut up lamb into bite-sized pieces. Put in a pot with water, bring to a boil. Chop greens fine, mix with oatmeal and add. Simmer about 1 hour.

Variants:

If you want the pottage green but without visible herbs, beat the oatmeal and herbs in a stone mortar with a wooden pestle. Strain it, using some warm water from the pot. If you want it without herbs, use lots of onions and more oatmeal than before.

Chicken with Mustard

Cut up the chicken and place in a pan with salt and chopped onion, green coriander, oil, dried coriander, pepper and caraway; carry to the fire until it boils, and when it has boiled gently, add liquid distilled from green coriander, vinegar, and almori, and let the vinegar be more than the almori; when it has cooked, smoothly grind peeled almond and stir with egg and some pepper, green and dried ground coriander and a tablespoon of prepared mustard; pour all this into the pan and add three cracked eggs and take from the embers to rest for a while, and serve, if God so wills.

2 1/2 lb chicken
1 t salt
1 3/8 lb onion, chopped
1/4 c green coriander leaves
2 T olive oil
2 t coriander seed
3/4 t pepper
2 t caraway
3 T coriander juice (from 1/4 c coriander + 7 t water)
3 T vinegar
2 T murri
1/4 lb blanched almonds
1 egg
1/4 t more pepper
2 T more green coriander
1/4 t more coriander seed
4 t mustard powder
3 more eggs

Total green coriander used = about 1/10 lb

Cut up chicken into separate joints; chop onion and green coriander (measure coriander packed). To make coriander juice, chop green coriander including stems, put in mortar with 1 or 2 teaspoons of water, grind to a pulp, and drain off resulting juice; you may want to wrap the pulp in cheesecloth and squeeze out the juice. Add another teaspoon of water, grind some more, and repeat until you have as much juice as you want or the pulp is used up. Cook the chicken, etc. in oil over medium high heat 10-15 minutes. Add murri, vinegar, and coriander juice, reduce heat to medium and cook 20 minutes. Grind almonds in food processor almost to flour. Mix in a bowl ground almonds, egg, and rest of spices. Stir into the pot, mixing well, and turn heat to low; crack eggs on top of sauce, cover, and let sit until eggs are poached (about 10-15 minutes).

Andalusian chicken

al-Andalusi p. C-4

Get a fat hen, cut off the head, clean it and cut it into small pieces; the legs in two, the breast in two and the same the wings. Put in a pot with salt, oil, almori, pepper, dried coriander, and oregano; fry it without water until it is gilded. Meanwhile, get onions and green cilantro and squeeze out their water into the pot, in a quantity sufficient to cover the meat, leaving it to bubble one hour. After get a little grated bread crumbs, beat them with two or three eggs, with pepper and saffron, and embellish with it the pot; leave it on the embers that the grease comes out and eat it.

1 chicken, 3 1/2 lb
1 t salt
1 T oil
2 t murri
1/2 t pepper
1 t coriander
2 t fresh chopped oregano (1/12 oz) or 1 t dried oregano
1 c green coriander packed = 3 oz + 1/4 c water = almost 1/2 c juice
1/4 c onion juice
1/2 c bread crumbs
3 eggs
1/4 t more pepper
12 threads saffron

Heat oil with salt, murri, etc. in large pot and fry cut-up chicken for 10 minutes over medium high heat, stirring occasionally. Make coriander juice by grinding the coriander (stems and all) in a blender or with a mortar and pestle, adding the water a little at a time, putting it in a ricer and squeezing out the juice. Add onion and coriander juice and cover; simmer 40 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally; be careful or it will stick. Beat eggs, crush saffron with a little of the egg and add, add bread crumbs and pepper; stir into the meat; cook about 5 minutes on low and remove from heat.

The dish is a little spicy; if you are serving it for people with conservative tastes you might want to reduce the amount of pepper.

Pie Crust Recipe

3/4 c white flour
1/4 c whole wheat flour
1/3 c salted butter
2 1/2 T water

Mix flours, cut butter finely into flour with two knives or a food processor, then mix the water into the flour-butter mixture without crushing the flour and butter together. Makes a single 9" crust.

An alternative, for recipes that specify a crust but do not say what sort, is to simply knead a dough of flour and water with a little salt. The result is much tougher than a pastry crust, which has both advantages and disadvantages. The quantities for one 9" pie are:

3 c flour
about 1 1/4 c water
1/4 t salt