Sárum Syiahoran

Sárum Syiahoran is a condiment of Froturnish origins, and serves an important part in Froturnish cuisine. At one point a food of the patricians, it has since penetrated into the kitchens of the plebians as well. Two variatons exist, both having one thing in common: the inclusion of tomatoes (the base ingredient that gives the condiment its name), and the usage of a mortar and pestle.

Consumption
Sárum Syiahoran is not a dish in itself, but rather a condiment, and is thus used as an ingredient in various dishes. Since both variatons have a paste-like consistency, they can be either used as a sauce (dipping food into it), diluted with water and having meat cooked in it (at least for the sour variant), or thickened with flour. Alternatively, the sour variant can be mixed with minced meat of any kind, and then fried in fat, butter or oil. The sweet variant typically serves as an ingredient in cookies.

After the prolifiration of the Mages Guild, it became a common practice to prepare the condiment, then magically remove all the moisture so it becomes bone dry, and then pound the dried condiment into a fine powder, which could then be stored indefinitely, and then either used as a spice by itself, or reconstituted into its original form with a variable amount of hot water.

Preparation
The first step is taking all the "hard ingredients" into the mortar and pestle, and pounding them into a powder as fine as possible. For the sour variant - Sárum Zírani Syiahoran / Zíssárum Syiahoran - that would be the salt, the pepper and the mustard seeds. For the sweet variant - Sárum Meani Syiahoran / Mérárum Syiahoran - that would be either the sugar or the dried dates.

Afterwards, the "soft ingredients" are added to the very same mortar and pestle, and pound into a paste while at the same time mixed with the powdered ingredients. For both the sour and sweet variants, minced or diced tomatoes are on the list of soft ingredients. For the sour variant, the list of soft ingredients also includes the garlic and onions. For the sweet variant, the list of soft ingredients expands with apples, cooked carrots, spearmint leaves and optionally figs.

Finally, the liquid ingredient is added. For the sour variant, that would be vinegar. For the sweet variant, that would be the wine, and possibly the honey, if no sugar or dates were added. The liquid ingredients are mixed with the existing mixture thoroughly, as much as possible.

History
The dish is often considered to be a trademark of High Elven cuisine, but its history goes back somewhat longer, to the Ancient Lizardman Empire - after all, all the ingredients were cultivated in the empire, and the Proto-Elves wouldn't become familiar with tomatoes until their arrival onto Artograch.

This is further reflected by the fact, that the Classical High Elven word for tomato, "syiahorum", while may have evolved from the Proto-Elven "čü'jä'khoř" , the Proto-Elven word itself was borrowed from the Common Continental Lizardman or Plains Lizardman , which ultimately evolved from Archaic Lizardman "gut-jat-kror" , literally meaning "red water fruit".

The Ancient Lizardmen already pounded tomatoes into a paste and used tomato sauce in their various dishes to give flavor to otherwise flavorless food that still had to be eaten for its nutritional value. When the Kingdom of Froturn emerged and begin seeking to emulate the splendor of the long-gone Ancient Lizardman Empire, they made sure to try out some of the ancient dishes as well from the cookbooks. They grew a foundness for the tomato sauce, and thus began experimenting with it.

At first, it was a food for the rich, as some of the ingredients - like honey, figs, dates or black pepper - were either very expensive evne if natively produced, or had to imported from far away lands, due to not growing in Froturn itself. However, during the golden age of maritime trade between East and West, the price of spices dropped considerably, allowing even the poor to integrate this exquisite condiment into their dishes. And they did so - it became part of a good deal of Froturnish dishes, even everyday ones.

However, as that golden age of maritime trade to a close, the price of spices rose again - and thus, pink peppercorn became a widely used alternative to black pepper amongst the ingredients, figs and dates became optional, etc. Due to the economic recession and austerity measures brought about by the Vaclus-regime, it seemed like this one beloved condiment was going to fall out of use, or suffer the fate of being bastardized with cheap imitations, forever ruining its name... until the Mages Guild came to the rescue.

As one can easily guess, before the Mages Guild came along, food refrigeration and preservation was a difficult business - meat could be salted to preserve it, and food could be stored in ice houses if one was rich enough to own one, but if one wasn't rich, there was zero hope of preserving sauces, therefore, Sárum Syiahoran had to be made every time someone wanted a dish that contained it. All of that changed when the Mages Guild pioneered new ways to preserve food. They could magically freeze rooms and refrigerate food in them, though this was - and still is - a dangerous technique that often resulted in accidents. They could also magically drive the moisture out of anything, allowing the condiment to be easily dried, and then crushed into a powder, and then sold. This allowed the condiment to be produced in copious quantities and then sold.