The Woman's Kitchen

Sultan Ibrahim à la Parisienne, with Butter

Method: Choose a generous number of Sultan Ibrahim, equal to the number of guests, and take care that no fish weighs less than 220 grams. Clean the fish well, salt it, and season it with allspice. Drench the fish with pure olive oil and grill it. For every four fish choose two or three truffles of the finest kind, cut them up finely, and season them. Arrange the fish in a pot after putting into it half a tablespoon of butter and about a few tablespoonfuls of meat broth. Cover the pot and keep it near a low fire, provided it does not boil. When the fish is done, arrange it on a warmed china platter that has been rubbed with a small quantity of garlic. Cover the fish with a generous quantity of maître d'hôtel butter, and put a little ground allspice with it. Spread the pieces of truffle over the butter — cover the platter and serve it.

Maître d'hôtel butter: Whip a quantity of butter and mix with it chopped parsley, salt, allspice, and the juice of a sour lemon.

A second method for Sultan Ibrahim: it is this — fry the fish, and serve with it, separately, melted butter with lemon juice in it.

Sultan Ibrahim with Tomato Sauce

Quantities:
1200 grams of large Sultan Ibrahim fish
100 grams of onions (slivered)
75 grams of butter
10 grams of flour
One pod of hot pepper
50 grams of water
25 grams of salt
200 grams of tomato sauce without salt
300 grams of red tomatoes
250 grams of oil for frying the fish
2 grams of white pepper

Method:
After cleaning and salting the fish, fry it in the oil, and brown the onions lightly in the butter. Then add to them the flour, the tomatoes, the sauce, the salt, and the pepper. Boil all of these together over a low fire until done. Then strain the sauce through a fine strainer and return it to the fire. Arrange the fried fish on a platter, pour the sauce over it, and serve; the sauce may also be served by itself.

Note: This dish can be prepared by baking the fish with butter in the oven, the sauce being served by itself.

Fish Kibbeh

Quantities:
1000 grams of the flesh of lakkiz, free of bones
500 grams of fine bulgur
150 grams of onions for the kibbeh
40 grams of salt
3 grams of white pepper
30 grams of orange peel, after washing it — this item may be dispensed with
4 bunches of fresh coriander

Method:
Remove the fish's bone, spines, and skin after cleaning it. Then pound it in a mortar, pounding continuously until it is smooth. The bulgur is moistened half an hour beforehand, squeezed, and rubbed by hand with a little salt. Lift the smooth fish flesh out of the mortar, and pound the onions with the salt and the pepper. As soon as the onion is smooth, add the coriander and the peel and pound until smooth. Then return the fish to the mortar on top of the items just named and work it well with the bulgur; at that point begin pounding the bulgur and the fish continuously for about half an hour. If a tray kibbeh baked in the oven is wanted, chop half a kilo of onions into fine slivers and rub them with five grams of salt, one gram of allspice, and a little saffron. Put all this in the bottom of the tray after greasing it with oil; then spread the prepared kibbeh in a single layer of the thickness of meat kibbeh, cut it in the same fashion, drench it with oil, and bake it in a very hot oven. When it is done, take it out of the oven and leave it until it cools; then cut it and serve. It is essential that the kibbeh, before spreading, be sticky (soft), so that it spreads easily. With this kibbeh a fish sauce must be served.

It is also possible to make patties of this kibbeh and fry them in oil in a deep-bottomed frying pan, provided each patty is put in by itself. Afterward the fried patties are placed in a pot and covered, so that each patty stays puffed. Round disks may also be made from this kibbeh, cut to the size of the mouth of a drinking glass (tumbler), and fried in oil, to be served as mezze or together with the tray kibbeh.

Method:

Put the shrimp, after washing them, into a pot, adding a quantity of vinegar, cut-up onion, lemon juice, cut-up carrots, and salt. Then cover with cold water and set over a strong fire to boil for about 25 minutes. Then take off the fire and drain of the water to cool; then peel. When it is served, serve with it a dressing of vinegar or lemon, salt, and oil.

Method:

Whip 100 grams of butter in a casserole until it becomes like an ointment, and add to it 100 grams of powdered sugar and the same amount of fine sifted flour, and blend them with three deciliters of almond milk; boil all the foregoing on the fire, stirring it with a wooden spoon, then dry it over a strong fire.

Take the casserole off the fire and mix into its contents five egg yolks; then blend into the foregoing, very gently, five egg whites beaten well until stiff. Pour the whole into a mold greased inside with a generous quantity of butter and sprinkled with chopped, toasted almonds. Put the mold into a bain-marie until it is done, then take it out and turn out its contents onto the serving platter (with this dish is served a sabayon sauce mixed with white wine).

Method:

Crumble into a casserole 250 grams of biscuits, and pour over them 6 deciliters of boiling milk to which 150 grams of sugar have been added. Set the casserole on the fire and stir its contents with a wooden spoon. Add to it 150 grams of dried fruits cut into small squares, and ishlamish raisins soaked in kirsch. Then add to the foregoing 5 egg yolks and one hundred grams of melted butter. Take the casserole off the fire and add to its contents the whites of 3 eggs, beaten very well. Pour the contents of the casserole into molds greased with butter, with finely crushed biscuits sprinkled over their bottoms. Set the molds in a bain-marie. A short while after the water boils, the molds are taken out, arranged on the serving platter, and served.

With them, apricot or chocolate sauce is served separately.

Method:

Beat three hundred grams of sugar with ten egg yolks, beating well, in a casserole, until when you lift the mixture into the air with a spoon it falls like a thread. Pour over this mixture a liter of boiling milk, little by little, and keep on beating. Set the casserole on the fire and keep stirring until some of the mixture clings to the wooden stirring spoon. Beware of letting the contents of the casserole boil, lest the parts of the cream separate. Strain the contents of the casserole into an earthenware pot and stir it from time to time with a wooden spoon until it cools completely. Put the contents of the pot into the ice-cream can and complete the freezing process.

Method:

Strain through a fine sieve half a kilo of strawberries, after pressing them. Mix with them 250 or 300 grams of powdered sugar and half a liter of fresh cream. Put the resulting mixture into the ice-cream can and complete the freezing process.

Method:

Squeeze the fruit and mix its juice with powdered sugar in the proportion of 300 grams of sugar to each half kilo of fruit. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve, and add to the essence the necessary quantity of water so that it stands at 19 or 20 degrees on the syrup gauge. Put all the foregoing into the ice-cream can and prepare it.