Numerous meals are taken into consideration a distinct mark of many individuals. As an example, if you point out the “Pasta” dish, the first thing that pertains to the listener’s mind and thoughts is the country of Italy and the Italian people, while the deep origins of the recipe go back to China. Hence, there are likewise a number of dishes whose origins and initial beginnings are only known to a few individuals thinking about the history of food preparation or food preparation.
The origin of food recipes today has actually become not just a subject of historic study, but has actually also developed into a topic of tourist attraction between many nations and individuals, getting to the point of dispute prior to the specialized international organizations, as each nation looks for to register it as a pure cultural heritage; maybe the examples in this regard are numerous and the area below does not enable detailing them.
Searching for the origin of any recipe in any people or nation that inherited that human being (such as the Persian people that Iran inherited and the Pharaonic human being that Egypt inherited) needs looking first at the food of those nations today in order to stand and discover what the building contractors and creators of that human being consume with the objective of understanding whether the meal covered by the research is still existing on their tables? This is prior to looking in the resources that wanted the history of cooking amongst those individuals and people to search whether those references help in standing on that meal in between their covers, in the event that the meal has disappeared from the tables of these peoples today.
Referring back to the very first Eastern food preparation books that have actually reached us, which is guide “Food preparation, and the Adjustment of Foods, Foods, and Delicious Foods Made from What Was Removed from Books of Medication and words of Chefs and People of Knowledge” by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq (4th century AH/10th century AD), which contains more than 600 dishes, it does not consist of any kind of recipes comparable to the bastilla meal, or describe it among the six hundred recipes pointed out [1] The exact same relates to the book: “Guide of Cooking” by Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Katib al-Baghdadi (7th century AH/13th century advertisement), which was written by its writer in 1226 AD.
The book “Kanz Al-Fawa’ id fi Tanwee’ Al-Mawa’ id” regarding Egyptian cooking in the 14th century AD, created by an unidentified writer, included 22 phases that consisted of 820 dishes [3] This publication, like its precursors, did not include amongst its 800 recipes anything appearing like the bastilla dish and even near to its ingredients, due to the truth that Eastern cooking did not know stuffed meals at the time, and this was confirmed by Professor Abdelhadi Tazi, that took into consideration stuffed meals to be genuine Moroccan cuisine .
If the “Bastilla” recipe is thought about today a totally Moroccan recipe? The question is: Does this mean that its distant roots return to the Arab East or the Persian people? Or do its close roots return to Andalusia? Or is it neither this nor that?
Bastilla between the East and the West?
If we accept that the Bastilla dish in its existing form or in a type near to it and even similar to it, does not exist on the food tables of the Levant in all its nations – which is an issue that is not disputed – after that the issue needs us to browse in recipe books.
The Moroccan roots of the bastilla meal
Ibn Razin al-Tujibi says: “The poultry is cut into small items and put on the fire, and onions, seasonings (seven kinds of seasonings), eggs, coriander water, and mint water are added to it. Then, everything is placed in a fry pan with oil and delegated prepare up until it reddens and wrinkles … After that, a paste is prepared containing smashed almonds, pistachios, and sugar, which are blended with rose water. Then, the preparation is executed; this paste is put at the bottom of the pot, and the meat combined with eggs is included in it. After that, the dough is placed on it, after that the remainder of the ground meat and almonds are put on it once more, and the dough is positioned on it. After that, the rest of the meat and eggs are positioned, and the pot is sealed with the remainder of the dough. Do not neglect to water the pot with ghee or oil so that the dough does not adhere to its sides. It is reached the oven and eliminated from the fire. When it has had its fill, it is damaged delicately, then watered with ghee and honey [6] If today’s bastilla is made with what Moroccans call “warqa”, then in Ibn Razin’s summary it is made with dough instead of “warqa” or “raqaq” as it is employed the recipe books composed by Moroccans centuries back, after that the dough will certainly be changed, due to its thickness, with the warqa or raqaq, which has a thin density, which will be at a later time in history, we can not be certain of its day, especially because the warqa or raqaq was understood in Morocco and Andalusia centuries prior to that. To recognize the method by which Moroccan bastilla is currently made, one can describe the book Kinds of Pharmacy in Sorts Of Food Color Styles; Cooking in Morocco and Andalusia in the Era of the Almohads .
The bastilla meal and what it symbolizes in Morocco today is a distinct indication of the variety, originality and richness of Moroccan cuisine. Describing it as a recipe for the entire Islamic West region is not consistent with the logic of clinical research and its approaches, particularly because the majority of those that wrote about this recipe, if not every one of them, talk about it as an Andalusian recipe in absolute and decisive language without providing evidence for that, even with a passing away or quick reference. The first referrals to stuffed dishes, which we formerly discussed that the East did not know – namely the technique of packing dough with meat and then cooking it in the oven – were discussed under the name; Barmakiyya in guide “Kind of Drug store in Kind Of Food Color Styles; Food Preparation in Morocco and Andalusia in the Almohad Period” (by an unknown author from the Almohad period), where he offered exactly how to make chicken, meat or pigeons after cutting them up and preparing them after including onions, seasonings, oil and various other things. If their brew dries up, it is taken to be fried in oil once again, then stuffed in bread dough prepared with yeast and oil and place in the stove and prepared. This dish is also made with deep-fried fish – as the author of guide suggests – and this meal is the same as what is called “al-Madfouna” by the individuals of Tafilalt in southeastern Morocco, except that al-Madfouna is made with meat just, without fish, as discussed by the author of guide.
As for the first references to the Bastilla recipe, it was mentioned defining it as “packed”, and it was mentioned by Ibn Razin al-Tujibi, the writer of guide: “Fadalat al-Khawan fi Tayyibat al-Ta’am wa al-Uwan” (which is a book concerning cooking in Andalusia and Morocco throughout the 13th century AD), where the writer of guide pointed out the technique of preparing the Bastilla filling and the approach of preparation as well in such a way that does not differ from today except in a very simple detail concerning just how to prepare the dish in our contemporary context.
If the proof that the bastilla dish is not an Eastern dish has required describing Eastern food preparation publications, then the look for the Moroccan origins of the bastilla dish needs us to adopt the same strategy, which is to check out the fact of the bastilla dish in the lives of Moroccans today, as well as to search for the roots of the meal in the resources that documented food preparation in Morocco and Andalusia.
In short, we have offered the reader with a photo of the background of this totally Moroccan dish, which, in our opinion, dates back to the Almohad period at least, far from the reasoning of issuing judgments without examination and based on resources, by stating that the meal was carried with them by those eliminated from Andalusia after the autumn of its last fortresses in late 1492 ADVERTISEMENT, an event that dates back to the late 15th century advertisement. As for the problem of the name, the matter does not elevate a significant problem, especially given that several ancient recipes have actually changed their names from one historical duration to one more, just as their names change from one individuals to an additional.
