Redaction by Maredudd
White sals. Walnut meats, garlic, pepper, cinnamon, white mustard,
Tahini and lemon juice.
1 c. walnuts
2 (or 1 very large) cloves garlic
1/8 tsp. black pepper -- ground
½ tsp. cinnamon -- ground
1/8 tsp. ground mustard
3 Tbsp. tahini
2-3 Tbsp. lemon juice
In a food processor combine walnuts and garlic until they form a smooth
paste. Add spices and the tahini. Process until the mixture is uniform.
Add lemon juice until mixture forms a thick paste.
Maredudd's Notes: This got really thick upon resting in the fridge
for a couple of days.
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Redaction by Maredudd
Take a ratl of carrots, of which you have cleaned the interior. Cook
it in a ratl of water, some two boilings, then take it off the fire and
let it dry a little, over a sieve. Add it to three ratls of honey, cleaned
of its foam, and cook all this until it takes the form of a paste. Then
season it with ginger, galingale, cubeb and flowers [of clove?] , half
an û qiya in all for each ratl. Eat it like a nut at meals. Its benefits:
it fortifies coitus and increases desire beautifully; it is admirable.
1 lb. Carrots
½ lb. (about 3/4 c.) honey
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground cubebs
Boil the carrots until done. Drain and cool them, and then puree them
with the honey in a food processor. Transfer the puree to a non-stick skillet
and cook again to remove some of the moisture and thicken the honey. Add
the spices. Serve with pita bread. I did not use galingale, because it
was not available.
Maredudd's Notes: The original calls for three parts honey to one part
carrots, but these proportions seemed to be too much honey. You lose the
character of the carrots, so I changed the proportions to two parts carrots
to one of honey. It is likely that modern carrots are sweeter than period
ones; perhaps this accounts for the large amount of honey in the original.
I believe that "flowers" refers to flowers of cinnamon, not clove as
is indicated in the translation. Flowers of cinnamon were not available,
so I went ahead and used ground cloves. The flavor is similar to pumpkin
pie.
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By the way, I heard that the gentlemen really dived into the carrot
paste after reading the last line in the original recipe.