Middle Eastern

Although this is not a pickle, I am including the recipe because it is a very useful sauce to have at hand when required, and it can be prepared in advance and stored in jars. It keeps for months if the surface remains covered with a film of oil.

This pickle turns a deep purple with the juice from the red cabbage. You can also use white cabbage and color the pickle with a few slices of raw or cooked beet.

This easy pickle makes a ready delicious mezze.

The most popular pickle of the Arab world is turnips turned pink with cherry-colored beet juices. Huge jars of these pickles adorn the streets and decorate the windows and counters of cafés and restaurants. In Egypt the turnips are pickled in brine alone, or with just a little added vinegar. They are ready to eat within 4–6 days and should be eaten within 6 weeks.

Use a natural, tart variety of dried apricots, not the sweetened or honeyed ones; they must also be soft. These keep well for weeks and are good to serve with coffee.

In North Africa the almond stuffing is colored green to give the semblance of pistachios, which are considered grander. You can of course use real pistachios.

A recipe is given in al-Baghdadi’s medieval cookery manual for these crisp little golden balls soaked in scented syrup or honey, bearing the same name, luqmat el qadi, which means “judge’s mouthfuls.” In Egypt they are known as zalabia, in Lebanon they are known as aweimat. The Greeks have a similar sweet called loukoumades. They are street food. Vendors deep-fry them and throw them into a syrup. During festivals they are sometimes colored bright yellow or red for joy and happiness and sold sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. For parties they are served piled in a pyramid on a platter, held together by a sticky syrup.

When I was a girl I could die for this. I hardly ever make it now, but I was very happy to find it again in Istanbul. This is a sweet of Turkish origin which was very popular in Egypt. Some bakeries and cafés always had a large tray full of the rich, translucent, golden-ocher bread soaked in honey and syrup. Numerous recipes exist, and of course the texture and taste depend on the bread and the honey used. Use a fragrant honey like Hymettus or acacia.

Taratir-at-turkman means “bonnets of the Turks.” There are very old recipes for these little pastries. The quantities make a large number, but they keep very well in a tin.

These glorious pastries have a melt-in-the-mouth shell and a variety of fillings of dates or nuts—walnuts, pistachios, or almonds. See the variations for these. My mother always had a biscuit tin full of them to offer with coffee. In Syria and Lebanon they make them with semolina instead of flour. An uncle told us of a baking competition organized by a dignitary in Aleppo many years ago. The maker of the best ma’amoul would get a prize, the equivalent of about two pounds, to be paid by the dignitary. Hundreds of ma’amoul poured into his house, certainly more than two pounds’ worth, and enough to keep him eating happily for months.

These are delightful meltingly soft cookies. You must also try the variation with ground hazelnuts.

A specialty of Aleppo in Syria, karabij consists of small round ma’amoul (see preceding recipe) filled with pistachios or walnuts, bathed in a brilliant white cream called naatiffe. The cream, which has a unique flavor and texture, is made with what we called “bois de Panama” and affectionately in Arabic erh el halawa or “soul of the sweet.” It is the wood of a South American tree belonging to a species called saponaria, which produces a thick white foam when it is boiled in water. The root of a plant commonly known as soapwort, which produces the same kind of foam (they are both used as a shampoo to wash carpets and textiles), can also be used.

Called knafe by Syrians and Lebanese and kadaif by Greeks and Turks, the dough for this pastry that looks like soft white uncooked shredded wheat or vermicelli can be bought in Middle Eastern stores. There are several traditional fillings. The one with nuts is what you find in Arab pastry shops. The one with cream is my favorite. The one with the cheese is the easiest. The last two are meant to be served hot. They make a marvelous after-dinner dessert and teatime pastry. The quantities given below for the syrup are the usual large amount. You can pour only half over the pastry and serve the rest separately for those who want more.

The finest-quality sheets of fillo are best to use for baklawa.

A traditional and constant feature of Middle Eastern sweets and pastries is the sugar syrup which is used both in making them and to bathe, soak, or sprinkle on many of them. It is either thin and liquid, or thick and treacly, and scented with rose water or orange-blossom water or both. It can be made in advance and stored for many weeks, even months, in a glass jar, ready to be used. The following quantities give the most common thickness.