[Sca-cooks] Middle-Eastern 'Nibbles'?
lilinah at earthlink.net
lilinah at earthlink.net
Fri Oct 14 13:24:29 PDT 2005
Because the list doesn't allow messages over 40 KB, here's Part Two
----- Part Two - Beverages and Sweets -----
Laimun Safarjali - Lemon-Quince-Rosewater Syrup Beverage
When I was shopping for ingredients for the
feast, I went to a Persian food store. I searched
the shelves in hopes of finding a (synthetic)
musk flavored extract or syrup called for in a
couple recipes. Much to my surprise, I found a
bottle of Lemon-Quince syrup from an American
Persian food supplier. I bought it to taste test.
It was delicious. My homemade syrup was even more
delicious.
Original:
One part quince juice and three parts filtered
syrup, in both of which you have boiled pieces of
quince until nearly done. They are taken up, and
the syrup takes it consistency. To every pound of
the whole you add two ounces of lemon juice. Then
return the pieces of quince; they improve the
consistency. It is scented with musk, saffron and
rose-water and taken up and used.
(Book of the Description of Familiar Foods, p.
442-443, "Medieval Arab Cookery")
My Recipe:
2 dozen quinces
5 - 8 pounds granulated white sugar
juice of 12 lemons
several capsful rosewater, Cortas brand
1. Cut quinces in quarters. Core and remove
flower and stem ends. Cut further into eighths
(that is, each quince is ultimately cut in eight
pieces).
2. Put quinces in deep kettle, cover with water and turn fire to high.
3. Pour in 5 lb. sugar. Stir well.
4. When liquid begins to boil, reduce fire to
medium and continue to simmer, stirring
frequently so bottom of pan doesn't burn.
5. Do NOT mash quinces. I did and it was a BIG
mistake. I did not get enough syrup, although the
mashed quinces were delicious.
6. When liquid has thickened and has become a
lovely amber-rose color - many hours later -
remove from heat and allow to cool.
7. When cool enough to manage, put a strainer
over a deep bowl, and begin scooping out quinces
and liquid. Allow to strain without mashing or
pressing fruit. Remove resulting liquid to
another large container.
8. After you've drained the quinces well, and
syrup has cooled, check the consistency and
flavor. It should be somewhat syrupy and have a
tart-sweet flavor. It doesn't need to be clear.
In fact, the original recommends having some
fruity bits in it, so you can add some mashed
quince at this point. If syrup isn't sweet
enough, put in kettle on high fire, add more
sugar, stir well, bring to boil, then reduce to
high simmer, and cook down a little more.
9. When syrup is thoroughly cooled, add lemon juice and rose water.
10. To drink, fill a pitched about 2/3 full of
water and add a bit of syrup. Taste. Add more
syrup until you are satisfied (the commercial
syrup, much denser than mine, is diluted 1 to 5).
It should have a sweet-tart flavor, redolent of
quinces and roses.
---------------------
Syrup of Pomegranates
Original
Take a ratl of sour pomegranates and another of
sweet pomegranates, and add their juice to two
ratls of sugar, cook all this until it takes the
consistency of syrup, and keep until needed. Its
benefits: it is useful for fevers, and cuts the
thirst, it benefits bilious fevers and lightens
the body gently.
13th Century Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook, trans. Charles Perry
My Version
2 quarts unsweetened pomegranate juice
2 cups granulated white sugar
Put pomegranate juice in a sauce pan.
Turn heat on medium-high. Stir in sugar - it
probably won't all dissolve at once.
Keep stirring until it comes to a boil.
Reduce heat to a simmer.
Stir occasionally until reduced by half.
To Serve: Pour a little syrup in a glass and add water to taste. Stir.
---------------------
Syrup of Mint: Way of Making It
Original
Take mint and basil, citron and cloves, a handful
of each, and cook all this in water to cover,
until its substance comes out, and add the clear
part of it to a ratl of sugar. The bag: an uqiya
of flower of cloves, and cook all this until a
syrup is made. Its benefits: it frees bodies that
suffer from phlegm, and cuts phlegmatic urine,
fortifies the liver and the stomach and cheers it
a great deal; in this it is admirable.
Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook, trans. Charles Perry
My Recipe:
I have simplified this a bit
a large handful of fresh mint
a large handful of fresh basil
a large handful of citrus leaves
a small handful of cloves
1 lb. granulated sugar
Put ingredients in a 2-quart saucepan.
Add water to cover, about 1-1/2 quarts.
Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes.
Strain to remove leaves and cloves, saving liquid back in saucepan.
Add sugar to liquid.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer,
stirring to make sure sugar dissolves.
Cook until a syrupy, about 15 or 20 minutes.
Serve syrup in clear pitcher. Add a small amount
of syrup to drinking vessel, add water to taste
and stir.
NOTE: I live in California, so i can get fresh
citrus leaves fairly easily. Citrus leaves are
also used in Southeast Asian cooking, so you
could look for dried citrus leaves in an Asian
specialty market.
---------------------
Rutab Mu'assal - Honeyed Dates - stuffed with almonds, scented with rosewater
Although I find even dates NOT cooked in honey to
be cloyingly sweet, these were a big hit. People
came from the dining room to pick them off the
trays after my course had been removed.
Original Recipe:
Take fresh-gathered dates, and lay in the shade
and air for a day: then remove the stones, and
stuff with peeled almonds. For every ten ratls of
dates, take two ratls of honey: boil over the
fire with two uqiya of rose-water and half a
dirham of saffron, then throw in the dates,
stirring for an hour. Remove, and allow to cool.
When cold, sprinkle with fine-ground sugar
scented with musk,camphor and hyacinth. Put into
glass preserving-jars, sprinkling on top with
some of the scented ground-sugar. Cover, until
the weather is cold and chafing dishes are
brought in.
(al-Baghdadi - p. 88, "Medieval Arab Cookery",
and p. 39, "In a Caliph's Kitchen")
My Recipe:
100 pitted Deglett-Noor dates
200 blanched peeled whole almonds
1-1/2 cups honey
1 Tb. rose water, Cortas brand
1. Put almonds into dates, one at a time - some
dates won't hold 2 almonds. Also, check for pits
- dates are mechanically pitted and the machine
could miss something and you don't want to break
any of your diner's teeth.
2. When all dates are filled, warm up honey in a
saucepan on medium heat. You just want it to be
smoothly flowing.
3. When honey is warm, stir rosewater into it.
4. Then put dates into pan of honey on the stove.
There should be just barely enough to cover the
dates. DO NOT STIR.
5. When honey just gets bubbly around the edges,
remove from heat and let cool. DO NOT STIR. I
assume the type of dates they were using were
somewhat hard. Most of our dates are pretty soft
and stirring them after they've cooked in the
honey will break them up or even dissolve them.
6. When cool, carefully remove dates one at a
time to decorate serving dishes as desired.
---------------------
al-Mauz - Batter-fried Bananas
Bananas travelled from South and South East Asia
to Persia and to the Arab world, although they
would remain a rarity in the Western world until
the advent of refrigeration.
In the original, the bananas are batter-fried,
then layered with bread and cooked under a
roasting chicken. I just served the bananas.
Original Recipe:
Jawadhib al-Mauz - Banana Jawadhib (a sort of
parallel to Yorkshire Pudding) (Jawadhib are
Persian in origin)
Take bananas that are fully ripe. Peel them and
immerse them in a fine samid [semolina]
sourdough, kneaded as for pancakes (Anahita sez:
see my note below - using the word "pancake" is
misleading). Then take them up and leave on
something woven [a basketry tray?]. Boil sesame
oil, fry the bananas, take them out and throw
them in syrup. Take them up and throw them in
pounded sugar, then arrange them in a tray with
thin flat bread above and below. Hang fat chicken
above it [in the tannour [oven]].
(Familiar Foods, p. 411, "Medieval Arab Cookery")
My Recipe:
33 bananas cut into thirds
semolina flour
unbleached white wheat flour
2 eggs, beaten
water as needed
sesame oil for frying
crushed almonds
cinnamon powder
1. Peel bananas and cut into thirds - they were
easily handled on a clean dry baking sheet - I
think this was better than dumping them all in a
bowl.
2. Mix together semolina and white flour in a large bowl.
3. Beat eggs in a smaller bowl and beat in a cup of water.
4. With a whisk, beat eggs into flour, adding
water as needed to achieve a batter thicker than
pancake patter. Keep some water handy, as over
the course of the frying process, you will likely
need to add more water.
5. Put banana pieces into batter - I could fit
about five whole bananas into my bowl and into my
pan...
6. Put enough sesame oil to cover the bottom of a
large skillet and put on a high fire. When pan
begins to warm, turn fire down to medium.
7. Put batter covered bananas into hot oil - I
allowed them to drain a bit over the batter bowl
before putting them on to cook. Make sure that
there is only one layer of bananas in the pan so
they will cook evenly.
8. Cook on one side until golden - turn to brown
whole surface - I found my bananas ended up with
three sides.
9. While bananas are cooking, put another bunch of pieces into the batter.
10. When medium golden brown on all sides, remove
to tray or serving dishes to cool slightly. Keep
them in one layer, don't pile them on top of each
other. When cooling/draining tray gets full, move
banana pieces to serving dishes.
11. Keep repeating process, adding more oil to
pan as necessary (I added about every three or
four pansful I cooked); add more water to batter
if it gets thick and make more batter if you run
out.
12. When all banana pieces are cooked and on
serving dishes, sprinkle with crushed almonds and
powdered cinnamon. This was a last minute idea -
if you think of another way to garnish them, feel
free. They are certainly sweet enough that they
don't need honey or syrup in my opinion.
NOTE: These were surprisingly well received. I
figured that once the initial surprise was over,
no one would be terribly interested in fried
bananas. There were very few pieces left after
the course was cleared and some folks came back
to nibble or take them home.
The original was made of some sort of semolina
sourdough batter. Although it is described as
being for "pancakes", there really aren't any
pancakes like our modern ones that I can think of
in the Near Eastern corpus. Rather there are some
very flat, almost translucent, stretched-out,
stove-top cooked pan breads. I haven't eaten any
Near Eastern sourdough breads that I know of...
so this would be something to test and experiment
with... I did use semolina flour, which give the
batter a golden color, more flavor, and a
chewy-crunchy texture that many folks commented
on positively. I added a couple eggs to my batter
to help hold it together and give it some lift,
since I wasn't working with a kneaded sourdough.
---------------------
Lauzinaj - Phyllo-wrapped rose-scented marzipan
This is a originally a Persian dish. References
to it can be found in pre-Muslim Persian
literature. It was the only dish in the
pre-Muslim legendary history "King Khusraw and
His Page" recommended as being suitable for both
summer and winter.
Isa ibn Hisham said, "Bring us some throat-easing
Lauzinaj, for it slips into the veins. Let it
be... [fresh], the crust paper thin, generously
filled, pearled with almond oil, starry in color,
melting before it meets the teeth..."
Another writer said, "lauzinaj... in a wrapper as
gossamer as grasshopper wings."
Original Recipe:
Lauzinaj: One part almonds, pounded coarsely. Put
a like quantity of finely pounded sugar on it
with a third as much rosewater, and melt it with
it. When it thickens, throw one part sugar on it
and take it from the fire. It is dry lauzinaj.
As For The Moist: It is that you take a pound of
finely milled sugar, and you take a third of a
pound of finely milled blanched almonds, and
knead it with rose-water. Take thin bread such as
sanbusak bread - it is better if even thinner;
the best and most suitable is kunafa - and spread
out a sheet of that bread and put the kneaded
sugar and almonds on it, then roll it up and cut
it in small pieces. Arrange them in a vessel and
refine as much fresh sesame oil as needed and put
it on them. Then cover them with syrup dissolved
with rose-water and sprinkle them with sugar and
finely pounded pistachios, and serve.
Another Variety: It is that you take starch [sc.
flour?] and knead it hard, and as much as it
stiffens, thin it carefully so that it becomes
like fresh milk. Take the carved mirror and heat
it and pour in it with the "emptier" and take it
up. Then roll up pistachios, sugar, musk, and
rosewater in it. Pack them snugly, cut them, and
put hot sesame oil and syrup on them, and
sprinkle them with sugar. This can be eaten right
away.
(ALL from the Book of the Description of Familiar
Foods - which has over 1/2 dozen Lauzinaj recipes
- pp. 456-457; also in al-Baghdadi, p. 84; both
in "Medieval Arab Cookery")
My Recipe:
1 package phyllo / filo dough sheets
5 pounds almond paste (almonds, sugar, bitter almonds)
----- less sweet and more almondly than marzipan
----- but you can use marzipan if you can't get almond paste
----- some bakeries may be willing to order this
for you if your food market won't
several caps of rose water, i use Cortas brand
1 cup light sesame oil or clarified unsalted butter (NO margarine)
1 cup honey
6 ounces shelled natural (i.e., uncolored) pistachio nuts
The directions look complicated, but this was
actually a rather simple and easy procedure.
1. Thaw and prepare phyllo according to
package directions - thaw for several hours then
place on a clean plate, cover with waxed paper
and then with a clean damp towel. Do not let the
towel touch the phyllo.
2. Put marzipan in a large bowl and with the hands work rose water into it.
3. Prepare a clean dry surface large enough to
hold 10 marzipan snakes about 1/2 inch in
diameter as as long as the largest dimension of
your phyllo sheets. Cover with waxed paper.
4. Then with the hands, roll the marzipan into
"snakes" no more than 1/2" in diameter and as
long as the longest dimension of your phyllo
sheets, then place them on the waxed papered
surface. Make ten "snakes".
5. Prepare a clean dry baking sheet about the
size of a phyllo sheet - cover with baker's
"parchment" - this is a type of paper available
in baking and gourmet shops. It will keep the
pastry from sticking to the pan.
6. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
7. Cover another clean dry surface the size of
a phyllo sheet with waxed paper. Fold back the
damp towel and the waxed paper, very carefully
and gently remove one phyllo sheet, and place on
prepared waxed paper surface. Recover remaining
phyllo sheets.
8. With a pastry brush, gently brush phyllo
sheet with sesame oil, being sure to get the
edges very well.
9. Again, gently take a phyllo sheet from the
pile, lay it on top of the first prepared sheet,
and brush well with sesame oil.
10. Then place one marzipan "snake" about 1"
from the long edge of the phyllo sheets.
Carefully draw up the one inch margin over the
"snake", then roll "snake" in the dough.
11. Gently remove phyllo-wrapped "snake" to
parchment covered baking sheet and brush well
with sesame oil.
12. Continue process of brushing phyllo sheets
with oil, layering them, and rolling marzipan
"snakes" in them, then transferring them to
baking sheet and brushing outer surface with oil.
Repeat until you have make ten "snakes".
13. Although my directions look long, this
whole process went rapidly with me and one
assistant.
14. With a sharp knife mark the top "snake"
into ten equal pieces. Then with the knife, cut
through all ten "snakes" so that you have one
hundred pieces. Size will vary depending on size
of phyllo sheets. Mine were 18 inches in the
largest dimension, so each cut piece was
approximately 1-3/4 inches long.
15. Put baking sheet in center of oven and bake
for about 5 minutes. Check to see if pastries are
browning evenly. If not, turn pan so paler pieces
are in the warmer part of the oven.
16. Bake for several more minutes and check
again. The phyllo will brown fairly quickly and
you don't want to over cook them. Most ovens
don't heat exactly accurately, some being hotter
and some cooler, which is why it is important to
check frequently.
17. When pastries are a medium golden-brown,
remove from oven and let cool on heat-proof
surface.
18. If you decide they aren't brown enough, you
can reheat them before serving.
19. Just before serving, gently and carefully
remove pastries from baking sheet onto serving
plates, drizzle with warm honey and sprinkle with
crushed pistachio nuts.
NOTE 1: I used three large baking sheets as work
surfaces - one covered with waxed paper for the
marzipan "snakes", a second covered with waxed
paper to hold unfolded phyllo sheets and on which
"snakes" were rolled in phyllo, and a third on
which to actually bake the phyllo-wrapped
marzipan. All the sheets were approximately 18
inches long and 12 inches wide.
NOTE 2: For the event, the marzipan snakes were a
bit larger in diameter and only wrapped in one
sheet of phyllo. The directions above will make
what I think is a better pastry.
NOTE 3: While i suspect that phyllo was not used
in period, it is clear from descriptions of this
dish that the pastry wrapper was rather thin and
light. SInce i didn't have the manpower, space,
or experience to make wrappers myself, i bought
phyllo.
---------------------
K'ak - Butter Cookie Rings
This is a modern recipe but very similar to a 14th c. recipe
which at the moment i'm not finding...
makes 24 or more cookies
8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter
----- or good quality light sesame oil
1-1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 c. white flour, sifted
at least 24 almond halves
* Prepare Cookie Dough:
1. Soften butter to room temp. and cream with an
electric mixer in a large bowl.
2. Beat powdered sugar into butter (or sesame
oil), a little at a time. When all is added, beat
until smooth.
3. Sift flour into sugar-butter, a little at a time.
4. When all is added, beat until dough become stiff.
5. Chill dough in refrigerator until quite firm.
* Shape Cookies:
1. Make walnut-sized lumps of dough.
2. Roll into a "thin sausage" by hand and join ends to form a ring.
3. Place circles on ungreased baking sheets about 1" apart.
4. Press 1/2 almond onto each joint.
5. Chill the dough rings before baking them.
* Bake Cookies:
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Bake for about 15 min. until almonds are very
pale gold, but cookies are still white.
3. Let stand on baking sheet for about 1 min. to cool slightly.
4. Then carefully transfer to wire cooling rack and leave until cold.
Some 14th c. recipes add chopped nuts -
pistachios would be excellent - and a little
rosewater to the dough.
To make more cookies for a feast, make several separate batches.
---------------------
Irnin - Sweet-filled Buns
Folks have been wondering if there was a period
recipe for mamoul. Well, there is. But it's not
called Mamoul. It's called Irnin (macron over
second "i" so it's pronounced something like:
err-NEEN).
The following three recipes are from The Book of
the Description of Familiar Food, translated by
Charles Perry and published in "Medieval Arab
Cookery"
Irnin (One)
Take as much flour as necessary and knead it like
khubz al-abazir dough. When it has risen, take a
round wooden mould and make the dough into thin
cakes the size of the mould. Roll them out and
put them in the mold and fill them with sugar and
almonds in thirds [Perry notes: perhaps one part
almonds to three parts sugar] pounded and kneaded
with rosewater. Bring their heads together and
seal them tight, then bake them in the bread
oven. When they are slightly browned, remove
them. Some people take as much dry dates as
needed and remove the pits and knead them with
sesame oil and put some al-afwah al-tayyiba in
them, and they make it a stuffing for those buns
instead of sugar and bake them.
Irnin (Two)
Take excellent flour, and on every pound put four
ounces of sesame oil, an ounce of sesame seeds,
and a handful of pistachios and almonds. When it
rises, make cakes from it and bake them until
they are brown. It is khubz al-abazir [spice
bread].
If you want to make irnin from it, when it is
risen take a round mold and make the dough into
thin cakes the size of the mold, and fill them
with pounded sugar and pistachios or almonds in
thirds; that is, two parts sugar and one part
pistachios or almonds, which you will have
flavored with rosewater, musk, and camphor.
Thoroughly seal their heads, then put them in the
bread oven, and remove them when they are lightly
browned.
Some people knead dry dates with sesame oil and
remove their pits and put some of the afawih
[spices, here perhaps rosewater, musk, and
camphor] in it and make it the stuffing for those
cakes.
Khubz al-Abazir
Take good flour, and put a third of a pound of
sesame oil on every pound, and an ounce of sesame
seeds, and a handful of pistachios and almonds
and knead it. And when it has risen, bake it in
the bread oven in round buns; the thickness of
the buns is two fingers. When they brown and are
done, take them and eat them with halwa.
[MY NOTE: musk and camphor are not safe to eat - so don't use them]
My simplified Recipe:
Makes 30 to 36 squares
FILLINGS
One:
1/2 lb. dates, pitted and chopped (about 1-1/3 cups)
2 Tb. good sesame oil (NOT dark roasted Chinese)
spices:
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
1 Tb. Cortas rosewater (less if using
concentrated rosewater from alcoholic beverage
store)
Two:
1/2 lb. pistachios or almonds
1 lb white extra-fine granulated sugar
2 tsp. rosewater (see note above)
DOUGH
3-1/4 cups medium or fine semolina
a pinch of salt
1-1/2 sticks salted butter, melted
2 TB. orange flower water
1/2 cup water
* Prepare Filling:
One:
1. Put dates in a saucepan with cinnamon and
cloves and a few tablespoons of water.
2. Cook on low heat, stirring and mashing with a wooden spoon until puree-like.
3. Remove from pan and let cool, shaping into a ball.
Two:
1. Chop nuts medium-fine.
2. In a large bowl toss nuts together with sugar.
3. Sprinkle evenly with rosewater, stir.
* Prepare Dough:
1. Put semolina in a large bowl and mix in salt.
2. Make a well in the middle of the semolina.
3. Pour in the melted butter, rubbing with your
fingertips until all the grains are coated with
butter.
4. Add orange flower water and just enough water to bind the mixture.
5. Knead until smooth.
* Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
* Make Cookies:
1. Butter a baking sheet or jelly roll pan.
2. Divide dough into 2 equal parts.
3. Take one half. Place it on greased baking
sheet or jelly roll pan. Flatten somewhat.
4. Place ball of dates on top and flatten
somewhat. (oiling your hand helps keep you from
sticking)
5. Flatten second half of dough somewhat, and
place it on top of the date or nut filling. Then
flatten the whole thing evenly until you have a
big, flat "cake" about 1/2 inch thick.
6. Cut/mark 1 inch squares or lozenges (lozenges
look nicer but may be more difficult, so squares
will be fine).
7. Bake in preheated oven about 15 minutes or
until done (could be shorter, could be longer),
checking often. Cookies should NOT change darken.
8. Remove pan from oven.
9. Cut through bars and cool on wire racks.
To make more for a feast, make several separate batches.
If you like, you can mix date and nut fillings,
although this doesn't appear to be "period".
---------------------
Carrot Paste
ORIGINAL
Take a ratl of carrots, of which you have cleaned
the interior. Cook it in a ratl of water, some
two boilings, then take it off the fire and let
it dry a little, over a sieve. Add it to three
ratls of honey, cleaned of its foam, and cook all
this until it takes the form of a paste. Then
season it with ginger, galingale, cubeb and
flowers [of clove?], half an ûqiya in all for
each ratl. Eat it like a nut at meals. Its
benefits: it fortifies coitus and increases
desire beautifully; it is admirable.
the 13th c. Anonymous Andalusian cookbook, trans. by Charles Perry
My Recipe:
5 lb. carrots, cleaned and peeled
5 c. water
2-1/2 lb. honey
2 cups sugar
1 Tb. + 1-1/2 tsp. ginger
1 Tb. + 1-1/2 tsp. galingale
1 Tb. + 1-1/2 tsp. cubeb
1 Tb. + 1-1/2 tsp. clove
1. Cook carrots in water until soft.
2. Add honey to carrots.
3. Cook until very tender, mashing a bit.
4. Add sugar and a bit more water.
5. Cook and continue mashing until it forms a
paste. If you mash by hand, there will be some
lumps, which is what i did. For a smoother paste,
you could puree the pulp in a blender.
6. Remove from heat, then season it with ginger, galingale, cubeb and clove.
NOTES:
* I added sugar instead of more honey because i
think the flavor of the honey would be
overpowering, whereas sugar adds sweetness with a
less assertive flavor.
* This reminded me incredibly of a Pharsi
Gujarati sweet i've eaten which is made with
grated carrots cooked with sugar, cardamom, and
other spices.
* There were many favorable comments on this
recipe. I thought it was delicious.
---------------------
Moroccan Cinnamon Dusted Orange Slices
A number of modern writers have mentioned this as a historical dish,
although i haven't yet found the original
reference, so this *may* be "period"...
10 lb. sweet oranges
1 cup sugar
2 Tb. cinnamon
2 Tb. orange flower water
2 Tb. rose water
1. Cut off the ends of each orange and peel off orange skin - leave white pith.
2. Slice oranges crosswise, that is, across the
sections, removing seeds as necessary.
3. Put orange slices into large shallow bowl.
4. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon, then with flower waters.
5. Toss to distribute seasonings evenly.
6. Keep cold until serving.
---------------------
Koshaf - Egyptian Dried Fruit Compote
This is a modern recipe
Makes over 3 gallons
10 lb. dried apricots
5 lb. prunes
2-1/2 lb. raisins
3 lb. halved almonds
1-1/2 lb. pistachio nuts or pine nuts (we used pine nuts)
water as needed
2 cups granulated white sugar, or to taste
3/4 cup rose water
3/4 cup orange blossom water
1. Put dried fruits in a large container.
2. Mix in nuts.
3. Cover with water.
4. Stir in sugar.
5. Add rose water and orange blossom water and stir.
6. Let the fruits soak for at least 48 hours.
7. Check every so often and stir, adding more
water as needed, during the first 36 hours.
---------------------
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
--
"The truth must be taken wherever it is to be found,
whether it be in the past or among strange peoples."
-- al-Kindi, Baghdad (801-873)
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