‘Delectable Foods’: this 13th-century cookbook reveals a world of delicious recipes
In the middle of a busy restaurant kitchen in London, Sam and Samantha Clark stand contemplating a saucepan filled with cooked, sprouting broad beans. The Clarks, owner-chefs of Moro, have been cooking with dried beans for decades, but it took reading an ancient recipe before they thought to try sprouting them first.
“What’s insane,” says Sam, pausing to taste a bean he has marinated in olive oil, cumin and coriander, “is how much we recognise, how much we don’t and how sophisticated the recipes are.”
He is talking about a newly discovered copy of a 13th-century manuscript titled Faḍālat al-khiwān fī ayyibāt al-ṭaʿām wa-al-alwān (Best of Delectable Foods and Dishes from al-Andalus and al-Maghrib) and written by Ibn Razīn al-Tujībī. Since they opened Moro in 1997, the Clarks have championed the food of the Arabic-Iberian world, but al-Tujībī’s tome is a revelation. “It will affect the way we
My husband comes from an Italian household, so he grew up eating authentic Italian food. Cook’s Tip: Cooking occasions are for recent or thoroughly thawed floor beef. Ground beef must be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F. Color just isn’t a dependable indicator of floor beef doneness. Vegan Afritada is without doubt one of the few non-vegan recipes that I attempted to veganize and it actually turned out very good. Even my husband who would fairly select uncooked foods than any cooked food likes this one, among the others.