by Lady Emily
Upon the sunny southern Masallan isle of Adiera, you’ll find a host of foods that celebrate the heat of peppers, the brightness of citrus juices, and the savory richness of fermented sauces. Adiera gives us a wide variety of foods, and in the better restaurants of the lands, you’ll find, more often than not, a ‘Southern Masallan’ offering, inspired by the festive isle.
One of the most popular exports are payas, or ‘quarter moons’ – a food that begins its story with religious ties.
During the Adieran festival of Kahlaan, God of Luck, payas are made and eaten to symbolize the power of the waxing quarter moon, when magic is growing and the ‘cup’ of the moon is gathering abundance.
Today, of course, you can get them at stands found in the streets of all the major cities – payas are a favorite, and different fillings make for interesting regional variations.
Here is how to make them yourself, if you want to taste them at home. I’ll give ingredients in Caradorian, but I’ll throw in equivalents that you can come by in your markets.
Enjoy!
First you need to mix the filling. In Adiera there are three variations – one with lamb, another with fish, and the last with pork. Pork seems to be the most pleasing to the widest assortment of palates, so I’ll use it in my example.
Finely chop three heads of garlic, and add it to a half-head of chopped cabbage, one medium chopped carrot, and three chopped scallions. Then add a half stone of finely chopped or ground pork, as well as a good shaking of roasted taff oil (dark sesame oil would be a good equivalent for you) and a good bit of Itumbra. (This is a specially crafted sauce made by a single family in Adiera. They have the secret of its creation, and its taste is quite impossible to duplicate. It’s best described as dark and fragrant, with a salty flavour. You can substitute tamari soy sauce without sacrificing too much.)
Now add red pepper flakes, but only as many as you desire. Some folks skip this step, preferring a milder paya, but in Adiera they’ll put enough pepper in there to make you pant for water.
Mix it together with your hands, and add additional sauce or oil so that you get a mildly fragrant mixture.
Now you’re ready for your dough. Put a few handfuls of flour into a bowl and add enough water to make a pliable dough. Knead for ten or twelve strokes, just enough to make it uniform, and then pinch off a small section.
Roll this out with plenty of flour on your rolling surface and rolling pin. The dough should still be wet enough to need this, and you’ll want a very thin pastry that is just solid enough to support the filling.
Now add the filling, setting it along the middle of your pastry with some space at each end. Remember not to over-fill, as you’ll need to bring the edges up in the next step.
Wet the edges with water and fold them up, starting at one side. There are various methods of folding in order to get pleasing ridges or waves, but the simple fold variation, which only requires you to pinch the dough together, will suffice.
Now you have your raw payas! Set them in a row on a lightly floured surface.
Cooking is tricky, and more than a little messy. It can take some time to get the feel for it, and you’ll doubtless experience a bit of pain, but they’re worth it. Start with a cast iron pan and heat a smooth coating of oil on the bottom. The right amount is to put enough in that it doesn’t seem pooled on the bottom, but if you tip the pan, the oil will pool to one side. Add a sprinkling of red pepper flakes to the oil (if you like things hot) and heat it up. Then take a raw paya or two and carefully fold them into quarter-moon shapes. Place them in the oil, where they will begin to sizzle.
At this point you will need a glass of water and a good cover for your pan. Right away pour a bit of water into the pan (it will sizzle and pop and make a terrible noise) and then cover.
How long to wait is not too easy to describe. Your payas are steaming and frying at the same time. The best advice is to wait until the sizzling starts to disappear – this means the water has boiled off and the steaming is largely done with. At that point you can remove the cover and lift your payas to see how fried they are. They should be a deep golden brown and crispy.
Remove from the pan and let cool (they retain their heat well).
All you’ll need now is the dipping sauce.
To make this, the Adierans use fermented satta, but you can begin with a base of cider vinegar. Add some Itumbra (or tamari) and taff oil (sesame oil). There are not correct proportions, but you’ll probably find the concoction you prefer. Then add finely ground or roughly broken dried red pepper flakes to float on the top, if you like. You’re ready to eat! Dip the end of your paya into the sauce and bite, and then use the opening to collect a bit of sauce to have with each new nibble.
Once you have the cooking method down, you can experiment with new fillings – in Aranor, you can get an entire variety of payas, filled with everything from crab to squash to sausage. Remember that the sauce is one of the key aspects of paya eating, though, and that if you create a filling that is too solid, it won’t be able to collect any sauce.
Happy eating!