Mishmishiya*
| Categories: | 13th century Arabic Meat lamb |
| Original Source: | al-Baghdadi, Kitab al-Tabikh |
| Secondary Source: | Arberry's translation |
| Cook: | Igerne d'Annot |
| Meeting Date: | 0000-00-00 |
Cut fat meat small, put into the saucepan with a little salt, and cover with water. Boil and remove the scum. Cut up onions, wash, and throw in on top of the meat. Add seasonings, coriander, cumin, mastic, cinnamon, pepper and ginger, well ground. Take dry apricots, soak in hot water, then wash and put in a separate saucepan, and boil lightly: take out, wipe in the hands, and strain through a sieve. Take the juice, and add it to the saucepan to form a broth. Take sweet almonds, grind fine, moisten with a little apricot juice and throw in. Some color with a trifle of saffron. Spray the saucepan with a little rose water, wipe its sides with a clean rag, and leave to settle over the fire: then remove.
Ingredients
| 2 lb. | boned lamb leg,* in 1/2" cubes |
| salt | |
| 2 | red onions, finely chopped |
| 1 heaping tsp. | coriander |
| 1 tsp. | cumin |
| 1 tsp. | cinnamon |
| black pepper | |
| 1/2 tsp. | ground ginger |
| 1/2 lb. | dried apricots |
| 1/2 c. | sliced almonds, chopped fine |
| 1/4 tsp. | saffron |
| 1 tsp. | rose water |
Steps
- Simmer over very low heat for a couple of hours.
Note
Since my apricots were particularly bitter, I added 2 tablespoons honey, a typical Middle Eastern ingredient in sweet meat stews.
I put the apricots through a food mill, but if you simmer them about 1/2 hour before adding them to the stew without straining them, you will get the same texture (they disintegrate in the stew).
Adapted from Claudia Roden's A Book of Middle Eastern Food (New York: Vintage Books, 1974).
This is a wastefully expensive cut. Next time I'll try breast of lamb.