The World That Was - Elamite Leek Stew

 Hello and Welcome to The World That Was!

Today, I'll be making another Mesopotamian dish. This time, an ancient Elamite recipe, preserved in the Yale Cuneiform collection. This is actually recorded in Sumerian cuneiform, describing a "foreign dish". It is fairly similar to my pašrūtum stew from a few weeks ago, but has some regional variations, which is indicative of a cross-cultural exchange of cuisine in the Bronze Age. You can follow along with my YouTube video, above!

In any case, let's take a look at the World That Was.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

250g leeks, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 shallot, minced

1/2 cup dill, minced

1 cup water

1/2 cup sour milk

1 tablespoon cumin

Directions:

1 - Chop your Leeks

Start by heating some olive oil in a pot. Pour your oil into a pot and put it onto medium-high heat. While this is heating up, go chop your leeks.Chop your leek into bite-sized rings, about the width of one of your fingers. Try and make these all the same size, so they'll cook evenly. Toss this into the pot when the olive oil is shimmering. Cover this with a lid and let it sweat for about 5 minutes. While this is sweating, chop the rest of your ingredients. 

2 - Chop your Other Ingredients

Keep an eye on your leeks while you're chopping everything else. If they look like they're burning, quickly take them off the heat and stir them for a few minutes until they cool.

In any case, cut your onion into chunks, or rings if you prefer. Either way, try and keep these pieces roughly the same size.

Mince or chop your shallot into fine chunks. Depending on the size of your shallot, you may need two of these. 

Put your chopped onion and shallot pieces into a bowl for later, while you deal with some dill. Fresh dill is more potent than dried dill, and has a better flavour. But you could use dried dill to save time if you want. If you're mincing this herb fresh, simply roll it into a tight ball, in order to easily mince it by hand.

3 - Add your Ingredients

When your leeks are starting to turn translucent at the edges, and have softened up, toss in your other ingredients. You could also add some cumin to the pot at this stage, to add a nice earthy tone to the finished dish. Either way, fold this all together, before pouring about a cup's worth of water into pot. Bring this to a boil, but when it hits a rolling boil, turn your heat down so it is just simmering. Let this reduce for about 15 minutes.

4 - Add Sour Milk

Let your broth reduce and thicken a little, before going to add a half cup of sour milk. You can make this by leaving fresh milk out to get sour, or by adding a few drops of vinegar to fresh milk and letting it thicken slightly. I'm using cow's milk, but sheep or goat's milk would most likely have been used by the Sumerians at the time. Either way, pour your milk in, and let it simmer away for another 5-10 minutes, or until your broth thickens slightly.

(The original recipe calls for blood to be added at this point. Since blood, for cooking with, is fairly difficult to come by where I am, I omitted it from this recipe. If added, the broth would take on a metallic undertone, as well as a bit of colour. Sheep or Goat blood would most likely have been used.)

5 - Plate Up

When the broth looks thick, serve up hot! If you want to garnish it simply, add a sprig of fresh dill to the top. Or, like I did, take a ring of leek and push up the rings so it looks like a miniature ziggurat! It's unlikely what the Sumerians would have done, but by today's standards it looks nice!

This broth is, much like pašrūtum, very simple to make, but is incredibly tasty! This dish was likely eaten by some of the more affluent of Sumerian society, given the relatively "foreign" dill that may not have been readily available to your everyday Sumerian, as well as the presence of blood in the dish. This could also be a remnant of Elamite culinary tastes, which largely does not survive to modernity.