Lotus roots (known as Lotus Rhizomes) are something that many Australians and Americans have never heard of, let alone come across on their dessert plate. Let’s see what we can do about that.
In the Cloud Forest manuscript, Ni San has outlined a sweet, musky dish in 36. Cooked Filled Lotus Roots.

Original:
Take really good true flour, honey and a little musk [lit. musk deer Moschus moschiferus] and pour it inside lotus roots. Pour from the big head. Wrap in oiled paper, tie, and boil until cooked. Cut into slices and eat warm.
I have taken some liberties with this recipe. The primary reason for this is the lack of whole lotus rhizomes. Because of this, I can only access frozen rhizomes that have already been sliced. I hope to redact this recipe sometime with whole rhizomes when I can access them.

Changes I have made:

1. I used a patty of filling (which necessitated it being thicker than the probable type in the recipe that would be poured down the long tubes of the rhizome).
2. After having tried to boil the cut rhizomes to interesting effects, I decided to use a shallow fry method – this is the method suggested on the packaging.
3. Use of musk: I have made this recipe without musk for several tasters who do not like musk flavour. This returned a very nice, sweet honey flavoured dessert.

 
Natal’ia’s Redaction: Fried Sliced Rhizome Version:
 
Ingredients:
• 1 pack frozen Lotus Rhizomes
• 1 cup Flour
• ½ cup Honey
• Musk Essence, to taste*
• Olive oil, as required for frying
 
Method:
1. Defrost rhizomes
2. Mix flour, honey, and musk.
3. Take a small amount of mixture (about 1 teaspoon) and flatten onto on piece of rhizome. Cover with another piece of rhizome to create a sandwich.
4. Dip sandwich into flour to thinly coat both sides. (important step to avoid spitting oil).
5. Fry in shallow oil until rhizome is developing a golden colour (approximately 10 minutes).
6. Remove rhizome to drain plate with paper towel.
7. Serve warm.
 
[recipe makes about 20 rhizome sandwiches. This is limited by the number of rhizomes in the bag]
 
Note:
*Be careful with the amount of musk being added to this recipe. A drop too much makes the finished rhizomes unpleasant.

Until next we meet, may bitterness never touch your mouth.

~Natal'ia

We survived! I think I nearly killed my kitchen staff, but we feed the horde and the outcome was… good.

Thank you to those who helped in the kitchen and those who ate the food. For those who are checking for the recipes have a look back here on the 19th of December. You will find a Yule gift just for you.
What I learned:

• This feast would not have been possible if not for the skills and very hard work of my most amazing kitchen staff. I am not one hundred percent sure if this difficulty of the feast was due to the food items or if it was the sheer volume of food going through the kitchen. But, given I have made many of the dishes in the past for up to 50 with a much smaller crew and no issues, I will say 250 is a very large number for a feast. 300 for lunch is doable, but it will tire your team.
• Of course, everything takes longer to get done that you expect or have trialed.
• Mongolian food is about the differing flavours and textures - keeping it all balanced and juxtaposed while complementing flavours and textures so that one can experience the variances. It is challenging to the average, modern palate.
• It’s better to feed the ‘scary looking stuff’ in the dark of night.
• Not surprising, the dishes that looked, smelled, and sort of tasted like familiar foods were more readily received. However, with enough planning and good plating, other foods can become favourites.
• When you say, “Mongolian Feast” many people are looking forward to Mongolian Beef and Black Bean Sauce.
• Someone asked me, “Why are there no pies? I like pies.” So, maybe I need to manage expectations better?
• Always have a Dish Pig. I am very lucky to have a wonderful Dish Pig. This is the person on the team whose job is to keep the dishes clean. They wash during the entire cook and service portions of the feast. It is always a great idea to have a cleaning crew for the end of the feast so that the poor Dish Pig can rest. They need it.

​I guess that these are the main things. I am still trying to catch up on sleep. I also learned that I am not as young as I used to be!

If you have questions about the feast, please contact me. And don’t forget to come back on or after 19 December for a small treat.

Until the next time, remember that if you want to build high, you must dig deep.
~ Natal’ia

Several people have asked me to tell them what it would have been like to attend a feast with the Khan – as an invited and privileged guest, of course. Let’s leave those servants to their own devices.
 
We do have several accounts from the period where those visiting the Mongolian lands would attend feasts with the Khan and/or his court. Below is my take on just what I would expect if I received His invitation. I hope you enjoy it:
 
 
It was an adventure to ride with one of the Khan’s household from Khanbaliq to the summer palace in Šandu. His Serene Holiness, Mongo Chinua, Master of Tea Dreams had seen to my travels throughout the great Khan’s lands and in fair honesty, I am no less nomadic than the others of my kind. But, I had never been to Šandu.
 
Like the other palaces I had walked through, this was a display of wealth in excess. A city within a city and a palace as well. The imperial city and palace were made of quarried rocks and fine marble. Amazing paintings of bright colours and gold enveloped the walls and the floors and roofs were lacquered and shiny.
 
We had spent two weeks in the Imperial City; that is, we had our rooms in one of the greater buildings and were invited to wander the large gardens there. I was amazed at the variety of flora and fauna found within. The Khan was a fair falconer and he kept many of these flighted beasts within a great mew. But it was not just the birds that took my attention. As I would stroll quietly in the forested places of this park, I would often happen upon a large white stag. Birds flushed from the late summer bushes often showed the jewel-colour of exotic animals from far distant lands.
 
Alas, my days could not be spent wholly in this wondrous place. I was sequestered many hours daily in the imperial kitchens, learning the flavours and fare of this place. With such foods I had not much experience and I studied the ways of the kumiss as they related to this food. Any imbalance in the menu could cause imbalance in the Court. The cooks and physicians explained it all to me. I was fortunate to investigate the book of medicinal foods for the Khan. To spend even a few minutes in the presence of this tome was well worth the long journey to get to Šandu.
 
I was sitting reviewing my notes from my latest venture to the kitchens when the room servants brought in the ornate scroll and handed it to Mongo Chinua. He, and thus I, had been invited to the last banquet of the season.
 
Mongo Chinua sat at the low table below the dais and I beside him. My cushion was a riot of gold and green, causing me to think it better for show than for actual function. The low table was set with gold cups and bowls with handles forged as imperial dragons. The ceramic plates were in hues of pale blues and browns; my own plate was light olive with two carp swimming along the surface.
 
A servant carrying an ornate gold pouring vessel sidled to our table and began to fill our gold goblets with the thick white liquid. I placed the cup to my lips and allowed the trickle of kumiss to run down my throat. I had long before this become accustomed to the flavour and intoxication.
 
Soon, a silver basin was brought before the Khan. He took a fair share of what was within and spoke quickly to the server. From here, the man went to several of the guests and family members and discharged the cuts required by the Khan to those he had selected. After this, all in attendance receive a small taste of the roasted lamb within. My bite was succulent and cooling.
 
The first of the food settings were then produced upon platters of artful design. Here were the delicate flavours and light dishes. I was surprised to see that both fish and fowl courses – for certainly we were far from the large waters of the seas on the coast. But these were fish of the river and lake waters and Mongo Chinua explained unto me that the Khan had servants who tended to the breeding of these fish for the occasion of want to feed those at His table.
The fowl was plentiful and lightly seasoned as to bring out the nutrition and goodness of the meat. Here too were vegetables and milk cakes and all things light and tasty.
 
Upon completion of this course, and goblets recharged, we set about our next level of food. All that was of greater or heavier flavour was served here – meats from cow, horse, wolf, bear, badger, and, of course, lamb or sheep – and all as good as the last except for the badger which was bitter. We ate until we were full. And all was washed down with kumiss, wine, and tea.
 
When all in attendance were satisfied and ready to fast, the tables were secreted away and a space in the room before the plinth the Khan sat upon was transformed for performance. Hereafter, the kumiss and wine were offered freely and those in the party did sing and dance before the Khan. There was poetry and feats of magic, offerings to the gods.

This account is from the Red Jade House’s Guide of Feasting for Their Serene Majesties. Although the manual is purely a fictitious work in so far as its narrative, it still portrays my current understanding of feasting in the Khan’s court.
 
When planning a Mongol Feast, please keep in mind the following points:
 

• It is believed that Yüan Mongolian feasts would have been elaborate events with great riches and spectacular sights; however, the subtleties found in Western feasts would not have been common because everyone at the feast ate the same food. Some of the items found in Yüan cookbooks are fairly amazing in themselves and their beauty alone make them ‘subtleties’.
• The head table was elevated above the other tables and there was a hierarchy of who sat where. The high table would seat the Khan and his favoured wife and children. Below them, his other family in order of precedence. Amongst these tables would sit special guests and envoys; each foreigner would be flanked by trusted members of the household who would see to the needs of the guest and help them through the etiquette of the evening. Those who did not hold high enough place in the court, would be seated on the floor behind the tables or outside if the feast was too large to fit in the feasting hall.
• In China, like in the Western lands, there was a well-developed and sophisticated system of the value of foods. Many cooks may be familiar with the ‘humours’ of foods and the Chinese and Mongols used a system of the cosmos and how things interrelate. A good, basic breakdown of this system is outlined in The Food of China by Anderson.
• In A Soup for the Qan, Paul Buell outlines how the manuscript, Yin-shan cheng-yao, suggests that dishes would be served together based on the system of Five Smells and Five Flavours. Certain foods would be served together and others would not. In general, lighter dishes would be served earlier in the meal moving towards more substantial dishes later in the evening.
• Palace courts from the Steppes and pastoral lands would have more meat dishes and dairy dishes provided from the herds and the wildlife in the area. Palace courts located close to the larger rivers or coastline, would serve more fish dishes and vegetable dishes. This is due to the ease of acquisition of food items. It is still important to remember that aquaculture was practiced during the Yüan period and lakes by palaces would have been stocked with fish for supplementary dining.
• ​Most, if not all, of the Yüan period travel journals suggest that once the eating was finished, the tables were cleared away and singing, dancing, feats of amazement and magic, and poetry readings were common.

Until next we meet, may the hulk sore high above you.

​~Natal'ia

Today’s blog is going to be short. I have only a few minutes to outline my process and so, I might need to readdress this next year sometime. If you want to hear more, let me know in the comments and I will plan a longer blog on the topic.
Onward to the rest of my paperwork.

The next thing that I will do is create a Budget document (for working out what it is going to cost to create my menu). This can be done a few ways, I just use an excel file.

After that I look into my Prep Order. This is the document I use to outline those things that we can pre-cook or pre-prep in some way (and those things that must be prepared beforehand). This list is then sent out to the crew and we figure out who can do what (including who can store things).

Just as important as the Prep Order paperwork, is the Run Order. This is a list of when we need to start cooking what bits on the day. Remember, it will always take longer to cook the larger amounts you are cooking than it did during your trials.

Lastly, I put together my Cookbook Sheets. These are laminated and placed in a binder so that they do not get lost. As the menu item is being cooked, the page is removed and then returned when it is finished. The Cookbook is my lifeline.

Well, there you have it. The rest of my paperwork.

On the day of the cook, I have meetings with my team. I will get into that in my next blog on this…the update on what happened on the day.

Until then, enjoy the sun in the south, the cool in the north.
​
~ Natal’ia

Late November, early December marks the beginning of summer in Australia. We are expecting the Feast to be hot and the guests to be thirsty. We will have water, tea, coffee, and cordial available to those visiting, but I wanted to look into what the Mongols likely would have had available to drink. Fortunately for me, Alec Story has just completed a set of research on the subject (check out his website: http://brewing.alecstory.org).

Working with his notes and some research I did previously, I have listed the common offerings for the court at the time. I am not sure how many of the non-alcoholic drinks I can offer. I am still researching that; but I hope to offer at least one or two.

Non-alcoholic beverages:

• Tea – Obviously, I have already said that we will be offering this, but I am unlikely to be able to supply my own made for the event as I just don’t have time in November.
• ‘Thirst-Waters’ sherbets/cordial – There are so many of these. I have several recipes already and think that I will be offering at least two. We will see how I go.
• Lemonade – This is a specific thirst water. I will definitely have this for people to use. What is better than Lemonade on a hot day?
• Dairy – The Mongols were/are big on dairy. The most common being Airag/Kumiss but they also have a milk tea. I will be avoiding dairy based drinks because of the heat.

Alcoholic beverages:

• Airag/Kumiss – this is one of the most famous of Mongolian drinks, fermented mare’s milk. The versions that I have tried are similar to the yogurt drinks found in most dairy cases in most stores around Australia. It’s not really my cup of tea and we won’t be offering it at the event.
• Wine – the Mongols had access to wines from both the East and the West.

So, there were grape and rice wines. But there were also wines made with other items like mung bean. Again, I will not be serving alcoholic drinks with the feast.
I hope to include a set of drink recipes on this blog early next year.
​
Until then, drink deeply of the cool centre of the stream.

~Natal’ia

Part one of this series can be found here.

We have fully booked the 220 places in the food board section of the event! I am writing this over a month and a half before the event, so that is surprising. The event steward is requesting that we open more spots, but I’m not sure that this is feasible given the kitchen size. We are in negotiation. I will let you know how we go.
Until then, my next worry is ‘how to not make people sick’ – AKA: Allergy and Diet Management.

There are a lot of great blogs on this subject (I suggest you try this link), so I won’t go into great detail here.

However, Allergy and Diet Management needs to be at the forefront of your mind when putting together a Mongolian Feast (as does food storage and handling). Below is my current Allergy/Diet Matrix:

This week I decided that I needed to begin with my actual redactions for yummy items from Cloud Forest Hall. I am using Alec Story's translation of the manuscript which can be found on Alec's website.

Really, I couldn’t think of a better dish than wontons. They are familiar to many. The redaction turned out well, tastes nice, and is easy to replicate.

Give it a try and enjoy your wontons. Let me know how you went in the comments below.

Until next time, may your stomach never know famine.

~Natal’ia

For those who somehow have missed that I live in Lochac, I do. Currently, Kinggiyadai Khagan and Altani Khaligu Yeke Khatun rule in Their great wisdom. At the end of November, my local group holds an event we lovingly call, “Fields of Gold”. As our Khan is a Mongolian persona, the steward and the head of the kitchen decided to run a Mongol event. Normally Fields of Gold is a horse event and it lends itself well to a Mongol reign.
 
The kitchen head contacted me and asked for my assistance in creating a Yuan Mongolian menu for the entire event (well, we will skip breakfast because I don’t do mornings and eggs and bacon sound better for breakfast anyways). I happy accepted the challenge.
 
We have decided to cut the full board numbers at 220 people (this will be a large event for Lochac because besides being a popular event, we have the Royals, and several well-deserved people receiving peerages. We are still over two months out and we have confirmed and booked over half our full board numbers). The dining area of the site will hold about this number. As it is a camping event, there is the possibility of many more people on site.
 
We will be feeding this group on Friday Night, Saturday Lunch, Saturday Night (full-feast), and Sunday Lunch.
 
We will cater for some allergies and life-style diets but will be unlikely to cater to all. I will see how I go when I have a better idea of the allergies and diets. From the get go, I am planning on the following:

• Meat Protein intolerances: Pork, Lamb, Beef, and Seafood/Shellfish
• Allergies: Nuts, Eggs, Dairy, and Grains
• Special Diets: Vegetarian/Vegan (this is particularly challenging in Mongol cooking), Kosher, and Halal.

 
Other challenges: we will have many younger children who will not easily stay up until 8pm for dinner, so there will need to be a kid-friendly 5pm dinner offering.
 
So, how am I going to satisfy everyone and remain sane at the end of this process…well, that may not be possible. We will see.
 
My first step was to look through my resources and pulled out a long list of recipes that I have redacted and know will work or look like they could work for the event. Then I redacted those that I had not redacted before (this is one reason why I was gone so long in the mid-part of the year).
 
Then I put together a list of possible options for the foods served over the weekend (I gave many more options than were needed). This list vetted those recipes that were too time consuming or fiddly for the size of the feast or ones that would otherwise be difficult in the kitchen on site. We are lucky in that this site has a small industrial kitchen and access to several covered slabs where we can put bbq’s for cooking other items. This even takes place at the beginning of summer in Australia and we are currently in a drought this means that open fires and certain bbq’s are not likely to be allowed to be used.
 
After coming up with my short-list of potential food items, I sat down with the kitchen head and her crew. I got to know a bit about their abilities and interests. Then I went over the dishes with them and came up with a working menu.
 
Fields of Gold 2018 Menu
 
Dinner – Friday

• Meat ‘sop’ – millet and beef stew [William of Rubruck]
• Veg ‘sop’ – millet and Asian vegetable stew [William of Rubruck]
• Stewed Asian Fruits [YSCY for list of fruits]

 
(sop is boiled meat/veg and then millet added to sop up the water)
 
Lunch – Saturday

• Bag Lunch:
  • Drum Qazi [cut down version of YSCY 57] - this is basically a lamb sausage that is battered and fried,
  • Vegetarian Option: vegetarian sausage,
  • fried bread [Soup for the Qan],
  • cheese wedge [period travel journals],
  • fruit [YSCY]
• Self-serve leafy greens [Secret History of the Mongols]

 
Dinner – Saturday
1st course:

• Hand cakes [Cloud Forest Hall] – a flat, soda bread
• Vinegar Bamboo Shoots [Cloud Forest Hall]
• Cooked Radish [Cloud Forest Hall]
• Rice [Perry’s essay on Mongolian Grains]
• Se-aBu Soup [YSCY] - Lamb Jam
• Water Dragonlets [Cloud Forest Hall] – pork meat balls. To avoid issues with pork, I will also make these with beef for those who do not eat pork.
• Vegetarian Option: Snow Temple Vegetable [Cloud Forest Hall]

2nd course:

• To Cook Vegetables [Cloud Forest Hall]
• To Cook Mushrooms [Cloud Forest Hall]
• Roasted Onion [William of Rubruck]
• Millet and Butter (dairy-free/vegetarian option available) [Perry’s Grain Essay]
• Muslim Beans [YSCY] - Chickpeas based on the flavours of YSCY [20.] Sundry Broth
• Sisken Mantou [Cloud Forest Hall] - Yellow Bird Buns
• Eurasian Sisken [Could Forest Hall] - chicken tenderloins wrapped around chicken stuffing and braised.
• Boiling Meat Stew (beef) [Cloud Forest Hall] - a marinaded beef that is then pressure steamed
• Vegetarian Option: vegetarian eggplant manta [YSCY] - a vegetarian adaptation of Eggplant Manta: eggplant stuffed with a mushroom and spice stuffing and steamed. There is a yogurt drizzling sauce.

 Sweet course:

• Candied Bitter Citron [Cloud Forest Hall] – citron or lemon peel that is ‘fried’ in flavoured honey.
• Cooked Stuffed Lotus Roots [Cloud Forest Hall] – Lotus rhizomes stuffed with flour, honey, musk mixture and then fried. (wagon wheels of sugary, musky death…)
• Mongolian Sweets [various] – I need to look up and figure out which would be best for us to supply…

 
Lunch – Sunday

• Leftovers from the night before
• Fried Bread [Perry’s Essay]
• Roast Pork Fat and Belly [Cloud Forest Hall] – Pork Sausage (would also like to adapt to beef for our non-pork people)
• Meat Cakes [YSCY] – lamb hamburgers (would like to adapt to beef as well, for our non-lamb eaters)
• Vegetarian Option: Fried Milk Curd [Soup for the Qan] - Fried Haloumi
• Fruit [YSCY]
• Leafy Herbs [Secret History of the Mongols]

 
So, there it is. The food for Fields of Gold.
 
Next, I need to come up with my allergy matrix, cookbook/recipe cards, and the cooking timings. I will blog about it when I have finished it.
 
Until then, keep your steel sharp and your horse’s back light.
 
~Natal’ia

Okay, we now have a recipe that works in that we have a food item that people can eat and that might be a representation of the original. All done, right Natal’ia? Sadly, no. Come on, you knew that I was going to say that. Didn’t you?
 
So, I have feed the lamb jam to my five friends and they have given me feedback. Some of it is quite useful (it could use a bit more salt to balance the flavours), and some less helpful from a redaction standpoint (I think that this would go well with crackers. It needs crackers – though this will be helpful later when I am looking at what I will be serving around this dish. I will make sure to provide a carbohydrate, like hand cakes with this dish).
 
Now is the time to re-evaluate the dish. I go back to the original, look at my variables and assumptions. Are my assumptions grounded in reasonable beliefs? Do I need to run additional experiments? Do I need to undertake additional research?
 
With the Lamb Jam recipe, I need to do two main things:
 
The first: I need to acquire a sheep head, 2 legs and a set of hooves. Then I need to cook that down in a bucket of water. After that, I need to see what happens as the broth cools. Does it truly make aspic or am I way off given the animal protein I am using? This dish is a potted meat – see the last section of the original recipe – and thus would be served cooled. Only experimentation and time will tell.
 
The second: I need to work on the fumigation section of the recipe. I haven’t worried about this until now because I needed to have a recipe of a food to put into the jars and I won’t be potting the meat like that at this point. It will be interesting to see if the burning spices used to fumigate the pot changes the flavour of the potted meat.
 
Once I have run these experiments, I will revaluate the recipe again, rewriting and changing those things that need to be and then I will cook it again. Then I will feed it to friends. And the redaction will bounce back and forth between step 6 and 7 until it is as close to the original as I can make it at this time.
 
An exciting thing can happen as time moves forward. Sometimes we get additional translations of manuscripts, get new manuscripts, or find new period techniques. Then we can bring back the relevant redactions and bounce through steps 6 and 7 again. All in the name of academic redaction of period recipes.
 
I hope that you found this set of blogs interesting and inspirational. I would love to hear how your process differs from mine and I would love to have a look at your redactions. So, don’t be shy to contact me. I’m happy to lend an ear or an eye as needed.
 
Next time, I will be talking about Yuan Mongolia Feasting.
 
Until then, I wish you calm passage through the Khan’s lands.
 
~Natal’ia

We have finally made it to the cooking trials and the poisoning of friends (well, hopefully not too much of that last part).

We have now researched our recipe and have looked at the variables and challenges of the recipe. This is the time that I go and make a redacted recipe. I will be honest here. This requires that you know a bit about cooking and baking. If you are a person who doesn’t feel overly comfortable using a cookbook (or, if you are like my family and each recipe seems to end with a blackened mess) then you might want to enlist a friend or family member who is an okay cook. Spend time with them learning the means of cooking. Then come back to this step. Or, be adventurous and just dive in. What’s the worst that could happen? Okay, you could burn down the house or seriously poison someone but those are really a very slim chance of that happening. So, what’s the worst that could feasibly happen? It could be horrible. The taste, texture, smell could all be off. It could look like a mess. That’s okay. You are experimenting. There is always the other side of that coin. You may just hit a jackpot. You never know until you try.

Let’s get back to the [49.] [41A] *Se-aBru [Pomegranate] Soup. I have now done all the steps to this point. I have trialled some of the trickier parts of the recipe and I am willing to give it a go all together. What’s better, I have an unsuspecting, new taster to try it. New friends are always fun to try things on. It’s nice to see if they will hang through the bad cooking to remain your friend.

Here’s the recipe that I trialled:

Original recipe (translated in A Soup for the Qan, Buell/Anderson):
It treats deficiency chill of the primordial storehouse, chill pain of the abdomen, and aching pain along the spinal column.
 
Mutton (two legs, the head, and a set of hooves), tsaoko cardamoms(four), cinnamon (three liang), sprouting ginger (half a jin), kasni (big as two chickpeas).
 
Boil ingredients into a soup using one *telir of water. Pour into a stone top cooking pot. Add a jin of pomegranate fruits, two liang of black pepper, and a little salt. The pomegranate fruits should be baked using one cup of vegetable oil and a lump of asafoetida the size of a garden pea. Roast [i.e., cook dry ingredients] until a fine yellow in color, slightly black. Remove debris and oil in the soup. Strain clean. Use the smoke produced from roasting jiaxiang [operculum of Turbo cornutus and related spp], Chinese spikenard [Nardostachys chinensis], kasni, and butter to fumigate a jar.77 Seal up and store [the Se-aBru Soup] as desired.
 
Natal’ia’s Redaction (designed for the general family to try):
Ingredients:
½ leg of lamb
2 tsaoko cardamoms
1 stick cinnamon, cassia
50g sprouting ginger
½ teaspoon asafoetida, divided
3 pomegranates
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon salt
Vegetable oil
Animal gelatine (or aspic if you have some made) *
4 cups water
 
Method:

1. In a pot, add lamb, tsaoko cardamons, cinnamon, ginger, ¼ teaspoon asafoetida, and water. Bring to boil and then slow boil until the lamb is falling off of the bone (5-7 hours). Do not cover and check water level throughout the cook. Add water if it is boiling out.
2. Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Celsius for fan-forced).
3. Remove the arils from the pomegranates. Discard the skin and pith. Check You-Tube for methods if you have never worked with pomegranates before.
4. Mix ¼ teaspoon asafoetida with enough vegetable oil to coat your cooking pan evenly. This will be about 2 Tablespoons. Add pomegranate arils and spread out evenly. The thinner they are spread, the more the arils will dehydrate and sweeten the dish.
5. Bake for 2 hours or until the arils begin to contract and turn pink. Stir as required to keep from burning on the edge. The edge will blacken but shouldn’t burn. Remove and let cool.
6. Remove meat from broth. Melt gelatine into broth.* Conserving the broth, strain all debris from the fluid. Discard the debris. Allow to cool. Skim all fat from the surface of the broth (this is an important step if you are going to be potting the meat).
7. Shred the lamb.
8. Add salt, pepper, pomegranate and lamb to the broth. Mix. It is important that the broth be cooled before adding the pomegranate or the arils will lose their colour.
9. Pot.

 
* This is contentious among my cooking group. Given the original recipe and the amounts and items used, I have concluded that this would be an aspic or it would be if you use pig parts (I haven't tried this with sheep). I am in the process of ordering the parts of a sheep to trial the recipe and see just what we end up with. Until then, I am running with the aspic idea. As we have not boiled items in our water to create jelly, I have added it later in the recipe.
 
I used this recipe to make a lamb jam aspic. I subjected 5 very good friends to it and they all seemed to still be friends; this indicated that it couldn’t be that bad. Here’s a picture boys and girls.