shīrāz labān

Second Course – Naql

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Ingredients:

Fresh Cheese (Milk, Salt, Vegetable Rennet, Calcium Chloride, Live Active Cultures); Caperberries; Preserved Lemon (Lemons, Water, Salt); Nigella Seeds; Olive Oil; Green Onions; Olives; Semolina Flatbread

Alternate Ingredients:

Portions will be served without Semolina Flatbread

We especially wish to thank Lady Leonarda Delchiaro for offering her cheese-making expertise to prepare this dish for us, despite not being a member of the Staff.

Take the amount you want of the rennet-curdled milk, put it in a quffa woven of esparto grass and cover it. Hang the basket until al the liquid drains and then take it down and press the [thickened yogurt] through a hair sieve by hand until all of it passes into a big bowl put underneath it. Add some salt and stir it with a ladle to mix it with the shiraz. Put it in a clean earthenware pot that has not been touched by water and put it away until needed. Whenever you want to eat shiraz, take some out with a ladle and put it in a wide, shallow bowl. Level the surface with the ladle and let the shiräz fill the bowl to its rim. Garnish it with olives and [pickled] young caper berries arranged all around the rim, with a pickled lemon put in the middle. Give the dish a light sprinkle of nigella seeds and a drizzle of sweet olive oil. This kind [of dairy food] does not keep well for long, and it is most delicious eaten before it sours, so know this. Green onions are served with it. 

Fiḍālat al-khiwān fī ṭayyibāt al-ṭaʻām wa-al-alwān VI.1.2
Discussion

Documentation forthcoming

References

FKH VI.1.2

Modernized Recipe
1 gallonMilk, unhomogenized
1/4 t.Calcium Chloride
1/4 t.Liquid Vegetable Rennet
1 t.Salt
8-12 ea.Caperberries
1 T.Preserved Lemon, chopped
1 T.Olive Oil
1 t.Nigella Seeds
Olives
Green Onions
Bread
  • Warm the milk to 90°F and add Calcium Chloride
  • Dilute rennet in water as instructed on the package and add to warm Milk, stirring thoroughly
  • Cover the milk and allow to rest for at least 60 minutes, until a firm gel forms and breaks cleanly when cut with a knife. 
  • Cut the curd into pieces and spoon into a strainer lined with cheesecloth
  • Hang the bundled cheese until no more liquid escapes, 4-12 hours depending on how firm you want it.
  • Unwrap the cheese/yogurt and pass through a fine mesh strainer
  • Add Salt to taste
  • Serve in a bowl filled to the top and garnished with Caperberries, Preserved Lemon, and Olive with fresh Green Onions to dip. It is of course delicious with Bread as well
Process Photos