Mutton (leg, bone and cut up), tsaoko cardamoms (five), chickpeas (half a sheng; pulverized. Remove the skins). Boil ingredients together into a soup. Strain [broth]. Cook together: two sheep’s heads (clean), two sets each of sheep stomachs and lungs, one set of white blood, paired sheep intestines. When done cut up [and add to soup]. Then use three jin of bean flour to make noodles, Stuff with half a jin of *möög [mushrooms], half a jin of apricot kernel paste, one liang of black pepper. Fry [with] mint and coriander leaves. Adjust flavors with onions, salt, and vinegar.
Rationale for modification of redaction: We needed several recipes that would be vegetarian/vegan friendly. Muslim beans (chickpeas) were known to be a popular dish during the period, so I undertook to adapt a recipe that removed the animal protein but still maintained the general flavours. The above recipe was one of three I attempted and turned out carrying the flavours well. Because this dish was going to be a main dish for our vegetarian/vegan guests and we already had a soup dish on the menu, I opted to leave the chickpeas whole (as the pulverized chickpeas without the meat chunks make for a thin soup and was not as appetising to my trial groups). Because we were not making a soup, I opted to leave the noodles out of the dish as well. This decision also decreased the cook time of the dish.
Ingredients:
(approximate serving size is 50g; this recipe serves 25)
5 Tsaoko Cardamom
2 1/2 cups (approximately 1/3 Kilo) Chickpeas – dry
200 g Mushrooms – mild flavoured (weights are for fresh)
1 Onion – brown or white (medium sized)
2 Tablespoons Oil (for frying onion and mushroom)
1 teaspoon Apricot Kernel Paste
1 teaspoon Black Pepper
1/3 cup Mint Leaves (chopped)
1/3 cup Coriander Leaves (chopped)
1 teaspoon Rice Wine Vinegar
1 good pinch Salt
Method:
- Soak chickpeas overnight in sufficient water (water should stand an inch or two over the chickpeas). Soak at least 8 hours.
- Cook chickpeas in sufficient water and Tsaoko Cardamom until the chickpeas are soft (about 3 to 4 hours at a simmer).
- When the chickpeas are cooked, drain them and set aside. Remove all Tsaoko Cardamom.
- Slice the mushrooms and chop the onion fairly finely.
- Fry the onion in oil until it begins to turn clear. Then add mushrooms and fry until both onion and mushrooms are soft and slightly caramelized.
- Turn heat to low and add apricot kernel paste, black pepper, mint leaves and coriander leaves. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes (until the leaves are wilted). Remove from heat.
- Add rice wine vinegar and salt to onion/mushroom mixture and mix thoroughly.
- Drain chickpeas thoroughly.
- In large bowl, mix onion/mushroom mixture and drained chickpeas.
- Cool and serve cold.
Assumptions:
- Being that this recipe is a highly changed adaptation of the original recipe, a majority of my assumptions were made in my ‘rationale for modification of redaction’.
- Fortunately, all of the ingredients from the original recipe easily correspond to known ingredients.
Notes:
- This recipe works well when increasing to larger yields; however, we had a lot left over but we did make the recipe for 250.
- Because many people have a preconceived idea of chickpeas, we had quite a few people who skipped this dish (interestingly including one of our vegetarians).
- This recipe is good served warm but is excellent when served cooled. Like with many Turkish recipes from the period, the flavours seem to marry better in cooler temperatures. When serving the ‘leftovers’ from my trials, I even pulled them out of the refrigerator and served them that way with good success.
- This recipe is one that does well with ‘checking in on’ while it is cooking. It does not require constant stirring or watching, so you can allocate another task to your kitchen staff who are working on this recipe.
~ Natal'ia