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Bourak Cook Book! Share yours!

Discussion in 'Haqqislam' started by theGricks, Nov 1, 2018.

  1. echelon

    echelon Member

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    Tried that yesterday for dinner: Very tasty! Thank you for posting!
     
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  2. Golem2God

    Golem2God Just a Kooky Kumotail serving others.

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    @Errhile I've also been eating lentil soup recently. Twice in the last two weeks to be exact.
     
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  3. Stiopa

    Stiopa Trust The Fuckhead

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    Made the lentil soup as well, it's awesome, I can recommend it to all. Also, my ras el hanout mix works great :D

    Another thing I can share is a type of sweet bread called "Turkish Bread" in Poland, though I couldn't find an actual Turkish source for it yet. It's tasty, though, so you might want to give it a try.

    • 500g of wheat flour
    • 7g of instant yeast
    • 1 tsp of brown sugar
    • 1/3l of milk
    • 50g of butter
    • 1/3-1/2 cup of treacle
    • 1 tsp of salt
    • 4 tsp of grain coffee
    • 100 g of raisins
    • 1 egg + 1 sp of milk for the crust.

    Mix flour, yeast and sugar. warm up milk, add butter and treacle, stir for a while until everything dissolves. It should reach the temp of 45C. Add it to the flour together with salt, coffee and raisins, and knead until everything mixes well. You might need to add some more flour if it's too sticky (not too much, though). Leave it in a warm place for the yeast to work. It should increase its volume about twice.

    Warm up the oven to 190C. Divide the dough either for 2 loaves or 12 buns. Stir together egg with a spoon of milk, and smear the dough with it. Bake for about 30 min (loaves) or 20 min (buns).
     
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  4. Errhile

    Errhile A traveller on the Silk Road

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    Time to bring the topic up again :)


    Moros y Christianos

    The dish is originally from Cuban cuisine, as far as I am told (and rather the cuisine of the poor people) - it would be better suited to a Nomad cuisine thread, based on geographical origin… assuming there was such a thread.

    Still, the name of the dish - literally “the Moors and the Christians” can as well represent the cultural and racial diversity of Bouraq society.

    While the original recipe calls for bacon or ham - which would make it haram for Muslims and tref for Jews, it can easily be prepared in a way accommodating appropriate restrictions (and making the whole dish acceptable for vegetarians, too!), making it fit for everyone around the table.

    Essentially, it is a Cuban take on the “rice & beans” type of dishes.

    So, let’s go:


    Beans

    500 g black beans, soaked in water overnight*

    2 onions (chopped)

    2 clovers

    2 bay leaves

    1 copious teaspoon of dried oregano

    5 peppercorns

    Salt as preferred (in my experience, the beans need quite some salt!)


    Use a mortar & pestle to grind the spices (without the onions, naturally) to pieces (you might want to tear bay leaves with your fingers, I find them difficult to work in a mortar when they’re whole).


    Drain the water from the beans that’ve been soaking overnight. Fill your pot with fresh water, up to about 4 fingers above your beans. Have it boiling for 10 minutes, then drain the water. Fill with fresh water again, this time about 1cm above the beans, add all the spices (inc. onions) save for salt. Heat to the boiling point, then keep it boiling on a tiny burner, under a lid, till the beans soften (yet they should retain their shape). Once that happens, add salt and boil for 15 more minutes.


    * you probably could use canned beans, thus skipping the soaking part. Still, the beans need to be slowly cooked with spices to get the flavour, so actual preparation time wouldn’t be advanced much. Also, canned black beans haven’t been seen on a shelf where I live…


    Rice

    1 tablespoon of oil (preferably olive oil)
    1 large onion, sliced & diced into cubes
    2 cloves of garlic, chopped or pressed
    1 teaspoon of ground cumin
    ½ teaspoon of oregano
    2 clovers, powdered in a mortar
    A pinch of cayenne
    1 bay leaf
    320g of hot water
    180g of long-grain rice (dry)
    Salt & freshly ground pepper as preferred

    Heat up the oil and fry your onion (and garlic) till it becomes transparent / glassy. Add rice and spices, mix it. Add salt & pepper.

    Add hot water, stir it all one time, heat to the boiling point, then keep boiling over small fire (note: a heat-dispersing plate comes handy here!) for 20 minutes.


    Your beans and rice are then ready - drain them and serve, or put them into an adequately large vessel (I use a baking glass) and keep in an oven till you’re ready to serve (just keep the lid on, so it won’t dry!).


    Dressing:

    2 large bell peppers (for visual effect - take one green and one red. Or even throw a yellow one in!)
    1 orange
    A pinch of salt

    Stripes of bacon or ham. Not really a lot of that, as it is primarily for the flavour.


    Cut your peppers and orange into small chunks and mix them. Add salt.

    Fry the meat (you may want to throw in a spoonful of lard). If you have people who can’t eat that coming for dinner, keep it in a separate vessel.


    If you’ve prepared the rice and beans in advance, and they’re cold by now, heat up some fat on a pan (bacon / ham & optional lard if everyone sharing the meal find it acceptable, vegetable oil otherwise), and fry up your beans & rice together.

    Bell pepper & orange mix to be added once in bowl.

    For a mixed company - serve the fried bacon & fat in a separate vessel (so it can be added to the dish by those who want it).


    If the rice & beans are still hot, just put them on the table (separately or in a shared vessel) and let everybody fill their bowls as they see fit.


    Leftover beans & rice can be easily frozen, the dish takes freezing well.
     
  5. Stiopa

    Stiopa Trust The Fuckhead

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    I'll throw in one I've made recently, too:

    Ful medames - Egyptian fava bean paste

    1/2 kg fava beans
    1 red onion
    2 tomatoes
    1/2 chili pepper
    2 cloves of garlic
    1 teaspoon of cumin
    a bit of coriander
    salt and pepper
    1/2 lemon
    1 - 1 1/2 glass of water
    olive oil

    Cut onion, tomatoes, chili pepper, garlic and coriander.

    Heat up some olive oil in a pot. add onion, fry for 2-3 minutes, add chili, garlic, and cumin, fry for another minute, add tomatoes with coriander and some salt, mix it well and stew under cover for a few minutes.

    Add fava beans and water. Mix and stew until the beans will get soft. (around 10-15 minutes).

    Add juice from the lemon, and more water if necessary. Blend everything into fine paste, adding salt and pepper to taste.

    Cool the paste down.

    Can be dressed with cut red onion, tomatoes, coriander and olive oil. Serve with bread.
     
  6. b1ackheart

    b1ackheart Well-Known Member

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    Just makes me think what crops and livestock do you think the dustball of Bourak actually has? considering the amount of industry given over to silk manufacture and the pharmaceutical industry. I just have this mental image that at some point there was a spaceship, travelling halfway across our galaxy, through a wormhole, that's sole job was to carry goats, thousands and thousands of goats... but more likely they just carried genetic information and cloned animal and plant species when they got there
     
    #26 b1ackheart, Aug 1, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2019
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  7. Errhile

    Errhile A traveller on the Silk Road

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    Not necessarily "cloned". Let's follow this off-topic for a while, shall we?

    Actual seeds for the plants should be easily transportable.
    Also, animal embryos / inseminated ovary cells. Heck, we do this today, in the early XXI century. You just need an uterus that will carry it to term (splendid if there were artificial ones by the time Haqq had to settle Bouraq, but if not, a few of these transported animals would do fine in that role).

    I believe that in the initial phase of colonization, a lot of food production might have been carried out in closed habitats. Hydroponics and the like, working in a closed cycle, as to not waste water. The real issue came much later, when there was an inhabitable (i.e. terraformed enough) Bouraq. Haqq environmental engineers had to carefully fill the niches in ecosystem with human-compatible lifeforms - while keeping it all in tune with the ecosystem already existant.
    And yes, I'm positive that there was an existing ecosystem, because the plant we make Silk from couldn't be an imported one, otherwise we wouldn't have the monopoly for Silk.

    Crops and livestock you ask... on the dustball of Bouraq?
    I say, look at the "dustball" regions traditionally associated with Arabic culture. And you'll be surprised how many varied things are cultivated and bred there over the last six thousand years or more...
     
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  8. b1ackheart

    b1ackheart Well-Known Member

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    You are right there are a great many things reared or cultivated in the equatorial regions of our planet and having a look at the RPG book last night, Bourak is a lot more ocean than I had been imagining it (I had in my mind that it was a Mad Max style desert for 90% of the planet and I was very mistaken)

    Untitled.jpg

    In doing some reading last night I discovered Bourak is actually named for a type of Assyrian egg roll, making this thread all the more relevant.

    Here's a bit of a modernized recipe for them I will be trying out this weekend:

    Ingredients
    • 1 lb. ground beef 15% fat
    • 1 small white onion minced
    • 1 tsp. salt
    • 3/4 tsp. black pepper
    • 1 1/4 tsp. curry powder
    • 1 1/2 tsp. allspice
    • 1/4 cup parsley chopped
    • 1 package eggroll wrappers
    • oil for frying
    Instructions
    1. Brown ground beef in a skillet, breaking up any clumps that you find.
    2. Add minced onion to the pan, cook until soft.
    3. Mix in the salt, pepper, and remaining spices. Add parsley and cook for an additional minute. Set aside to cool.
    4. When the filling is ready, place one egg roll wrappers in front of you. Add approximately two tablespoons of filling close to the bottom edge of the egg roll wrapper.
    5. Lift the bottom edge of the egg roll wrapper over the filling.
    6. Next, fold sides of the wrappers over the filling, one at a time.
    7. Roll up into the tight "cigar." Seal the corner with a dab of water, and repeat.
    8. When you are done rolling up the bourak, heat oil in a large frying pan to 375 degrees. Carefully place a few bourak in the pan. Fry until golden brown, and repeat.
    9. Drain fried bourak on a papertowel-lined plate. Serve while hot, accompanied by a salad.
     
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  9. Stiopa

    Stiopa Trust The Fuckhead

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    Tunisian orange/almond cake

    Cake

    50g of stale breadcrumbs
    200g of sugar
    100g of powdered almonds (I've bought almond flakes and crushed them in a mortar)
    200ml of sunflower oil
    4 eggs
    zest grated from one orange
    zest grated from one lemon
    1.5tsp of baking powder

    Syrup
    juice from our orange and lemon
    90g of sugar
    2tsp of cinnamon
    3-4 crushed cloves

    Preparation
    Mix bread, sugar, almonds and baking powder together.

    Mix the oil and eggs together until they're nice and fluffy.

    Add egg mass to loose ingredients, add orange and lemon zest, mix thoroughly.

    Pour the dough into a baking form (I used a round one, 25cm) and put it into a cold oven. Set it to 180 degrees C and bake for 45-50 minutes.

    Prepare syrup: add sugar and spices to the juice. Bring it slowly to a boil, stirring it so the sugar will melt nicely, and then stir on the fire for another 2-3 minutes. Set it aside to cool down.

    When the cake is baked let it cool for a few minutes in the oven, then remove, pierce in multiple places with a stick, and gradually pour the syrup on it until it gets completely absorbed. Set aside to cool.

    ----------------------------------------

    Tastes best with some greek-style yoghurt on top and bitter tea to drink. Shahiat tayiba! ;)
     
  10. KwarkyMats

    KwarkyMats Well-Known Member

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    I baked this cake for my birthday a few weeks back. It was a huge success with my friends and family! The other cake I bought from the store didn't even get touched haha.
    The yoghurt on top really elevates it.
     
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  11. Golem2God

    Golem2God Just a Kooky Kumotail serving others.

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    Thank you for the review. Sounds like this recipe won't disappoint and most likely exceed people's expectations.
     
  12. Sergej Faehrlich

    Sergej Faehrlich Well-Known Member
    Warcor

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    Why did I only find this thread today?
     
  13. Errhile

    Errhile A traveller on the Silk Road

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    Since @Golem2God asked for a new recipe (sorry man, chudu will have to wait), here's my lunch today:

    Spaghetti all' aglio, olio e peperoncino (spaghetti with garlic, oil and pepper)

    Ingredients:
    • pasta (the original recipe calls for spaghetti, we used trofie, I guess other small noodle-types could do as well. Tested it today with whole-grain fusili - went fine). The base recipe was asking for 500g of it, but this would make quite a serving...
    • olive oil. Keep in mind that quality olive oil is very important here.
    • 3-4 cloves of garlic (again, intended for 500g of pasta)
    • salt
    • a small hot pepper, fresh or dried (if not available, a pinch of powdered hot pepper could do). The peperoncino variety is preferable. Note: be very careful with the amount of pepper, it is easy to overdo it with too much peperonicno.
    • parmesan cheese
    Directions:
    • boil your pasta in salted water till it gets al dente. Drain your pasta.
    • warm up your oil in a frying pan, add your pepper (finely chopped) and garlic
      • the original recipe asks for the cloves to be sliced in half, I had it finely chopped like the pepper.
    • fry until the garlic gets golden color, then remove the garlic
      • that's what the original recipe calls for, I liked my garlic in my dish!
    • throw your boiled, drained pasta onto your frying pan and fry for a while - stirring constantly
      • again, what the oriignal recipe calls for, mine got thrown back into the pot and had the oil added in there, then mixed.
    Good to go!
    • Don't make the mistake of dumping the pasta into a bowl and simply dousing it with oil. Doesn't work that way.
    • Serve with parmesan cheese, to be seasoned with as everyone likes.
    • Salt to taste.

    Now, obviously this is a dish of Italian cuisine, and considered an emergency one: just grab some basic things you always have in your kitchen and whip up a simple, tasty, filling dish.

    Would it work for a Bouraqi cook? Well, I guess it has a chance. Noodles, oil, garlic and hot pepper aren't strangers in the Middle East cookbooks. The parmesan cheese could be a problem, but then again, Bouraq is more culturally (and therefore, I guess, culinary) diverse than one would give it credit for. So, hard, aromatic cheese ground for use as seasoning is not out of question :)

    Also, again, this dish would not upset any of the major denominations, being effectively vegetarian.
     
    #33 Errhile, Jul 4, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2020
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  14. Errhile

    Errhile A traveller on the Silk Road

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    OK, let's bring it back again. As I promised @Golem2God , time for chudu.

    Preparation - dough:
    • 0,25l kefir (if you don't have kefir, buttermilk will do),
    • 1 flat teaspoon of baking soda
    • 1 flat teaspoon of salt
    • 0,5kg wheat flour (basically, whatever you have, as long as it is made out of "soft" wheat, i.e not durum-type. If you have a choice, use low-protein flour, US type 00 flour for example - in my case it was Polish type 450 Tortowa).
    Mix kefir and soda (it'll start bubbling). Add flour and salt. Knead the dough into an uniform mass - it should be as thick as a dumpling dough (therefore, add a bit more kefir or flour as needed). Leave the dough for at least 15 minutes (in a covered vessel, so it won't dry, in room temperature), though supposedly it is far better off if left overnight.
    In hermetically-closed container it can be kept in a fridge for days (the topmost layer will go noticeably darker - this has no effect on the taste).

    The filling:


    Basically, anything goes. Original chudu use vegetarian filling, but I had them with minced meat as well, and they still work fine:
    • the most classic original choice is the green stuff: chopped spinach. Or parsley. Or corriander. Or sorrel. You get the idea. You may add some grated cheese (choose something that melts well, and if possible, have a strong taste - mild cheeses don't really work well there).
    • pumpkin mashed with boiled potatoes.
    • cottage cheese mashed with boiled potatoes (and some onion). Though this works so-so.
    • buckweheat with mint and cottage cheese
    Whatever you're putting inside chudu, make sure it is well seasoned. Maybe even a bit over-the-top when tasted on its own.

    Preparation:

    Divide the dough into portions - the 0,5kg flour portion in the example should be 8-10 portions.

    Take a portion of dough, flatten it, and apply your rolling pin:
    • Roll it to about 5mm (or 1/5") thick. Add the filling (better too little than too much!), pick up the edges and stick them together (make the dough into a sack with filling inside). Stick them well. Flatten the sack with your hand a bit, pin-roll into a pancake to fit into your frying pan. Be careful with pin-rolling: you don't want the filling to spill out of the sack. If you managed to pin-roll it so thin you can see sunlight through the pancake, congratulations: perfect job. If it is thicker, don't worry: it'll do.
    • alternatively, roll it thin from the start, put the filling on a half of your pancake, fold the other half over it, stick edges together well (leave enough space along the edge without the filling) - you may want to press it flat with a fork against your working surface (way easier than doing it by hand!).
    Put into your hot pan.
    Now, important bit: chudu are baked in a pan, not fried. Meaning you're to not use oil, butter, or any other form of shortening on the pan. It may result in the chudu getting a bit burned if you got the temperature too high, or kept chudu in the pan a bit too long. Smell of burned food is a common byproduct of this dish. It doesn't harm the dish itself.

    Bake on each side. Again, if it is a bit burned (typically, in some spots), that's normal. If you manage to bake it wothout burning it, congratulations: perfect job!

    ...probably you could bake them in an oven, I guess.

    Serving

    Smear the chudu on the topside with a bit of butter - alredy in the plate :) . Let it melt over it. While I eat my chudu with knife and fork, they are likely a grab-and-eat type of food.

    Chudu
    are fine served cold, but far better served hot.
    Reheated do fine, too.

    It could be an interesting idea for a barbecue food - prepare them in advance, and reheat on the grill.


    Origin:
    The recipe I use (and present here) came to me from Dagestan. I assume they're known (under one name or another) all over the Caucasus region. As mentioned, they are originally made with vegetarian filling - and very simple, locally-available one to that: chopped green vegetables and / or herbs. The dough is ultra-simple as well, just some fermented milk, flour and a bit of salt.

    I assume they can be baked over a live fire on a basic sheet of metal - or even on a hot stone by a campfire. This makes it a very simple dish, one you can prepare with minimal facilities. Minimal ingredients. Something you can grab and eat on the go.

    All in all, simple food of simple people. Perhaps even of poor people. I can absolutely see something like that turning up on Bouraq, for example in the regions where the Daylami come from (though it may also turn up as street ood in the more affluent regions of Bouraq!).
     
    #34 Errhile, Aug 28, 2022
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2022
  15. Golem2God

    Golem2God Just a Kooky Kumotail serving others.

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    @Errhile Thank you for the recipe. It was so long ago but you still did it. I appreciate it alot.
     
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