Zīrbāj (Sweet-Sour Almond Meat Stew)

History

Zīrbāj belongs to the family of Persian-derived sweet-and-sour stews that anchored Abbasid high cuisine; al-Baghdadī's 1226 Kitāb al-Ṭabīkh is a late witness to that tradition rather than its origin. It is the close cousin of sikbāj, the vinegar stew whose very name is Persian — sik, 'vinegar,' joined to the suffix bā/bāj, 'broth' or 'stew' — a dish that food historians trace to Sasanian Persia and an often-repeated tale sets at the sixth-century court of Khosrau I before Arab cooks adopted it. Where sikbāj leans tart, zīrbāj is described as its sweet, rosewater-scented sibling, thickened and enriched with pounded sweet almonds. Al-Baghdadī's version is exactly that: fatty meat simmered with cinnamon, chickpeas and salt, then finished with wine vinegar, sugar and finely ground almonds loosened in rosewater, seasoned with coriander, black pepper and mastic, tinted with saffron, and optionally thickened with starch and crowned with split almonds — chicken an allowed alternative to the meat. Almonds, vinegar, sugar, saffron, rosewater, cinnamon and chickpeas are all period-correct pantry staples; nothing here is a New-World food. Scholars identify a distinct Persian-origin stratum within al-Baghdadī's book, and the sweet-sour bā/bāj stews are widely held to sit within that Sasanian inheritance absorbed by Arab cooks after the seventh century.

Ingredients

• fatty meat
• cinnamon
• chickpeas
• salt
• raṭl wine vinegar
• raṭl sugar
• ūqiya sweet almonds
• coriander
• pepper
• mastic
• saffron
• starch
• rosewater
• chicken

Instructions

1. Cut fatty meat small, put in the pot with water to cover, pieces of cinnamon, husked chickpeas, and a little salt. Boil and skim the froth.
2. Add 1 raṭl wine vinegar, 1/4 raṭl sugar, and 1 ūqiya of sweet peeled almonds pounded fine and dissolved with rosewater and vinegar, over the meat.
3. Add ground coriander, pepper, and sieved mastic; dye with saffron. (Variant: for a thick result, add starch with the saffron.)
4. Set halved peeled almonds on top, sprinkle a little rosewater, wipe sides, leave to settle, and remove.
5. Optionally add a scalded, jointed chicken over the meat once the pot boils, to cook along with it.