Middle Eastern

The brilliant white milk ice cream with a chewy texture of my childhood was made with sahlab (also known as salep; see page 46), the ground root tuber of a member of the orchid family, and mastic, a hard resin exuded from the lentisk tree. It has become something of a mythical ice cream, as it can no longer be found in Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt, countries that used to make it. Sahlab is very expensive, and what you buy is often adulterated. Be careful not to use too much mastic, as the taste would become unpleasant.

This is a modern version of dondurma kaymakli without sahlab. Mastic and rose water give it an exotic allure. The mastic, a resin exuded from the lentisk tree, is sold in small, hard, translucent lumps, like crystals. It must be pounded or ground to a fine powder with a pestle and mortar, together with a pinch of sugar.

This too is modern.

Fine-grained sweet couscous, called seffa in Morocco and mesfouf in Tunisia, is served hot, accompanied by cold milk or buttermilk. I like to eat it for breakfast. There are many versions. Dried fruit such as dates and raisins, and nuts such as almonds, walnuts, and pistachios, can be added, and the grain can be flavored with orange-blossom water or with cinnamon, honey, or sugar. A particularly wonderful version is with fresh grapes. The most common, seffa be zbib, is with large black or golden raisins. Seffa be tamr is with dates and walnut halves. There is also one with pomegranate seeds. Here is a basic seffa/mesfouf followed by possible garnishes. Serve it in bowls and pass round a jug of hot milk to pour over.

This is Syrian and beautiful, like white blossoms and brown leaves floating in a pure scented stream, but it is not to everybody’s taste.

It looks like white opaline encrusted with little stones. When it is served, it trembles like a jelly. It is customary for an admiring audience to compliment a belly dancer by comparing her tummy to a balouza.

Mastic, the resin from the lentisk tree, a native of the Greek island of Chios, gives this homely pudding an intriguing and, to me, very delicious flavor. (Lebanese pronounce it miskeh, and some restaurants wrongly call it “musk.”) It is bought in small translucent grains or crystals. You have to pound or grind them to a powder with a pinch of sugar.

This Turkish cream with ground almonds is one of my favorite milk puddings.

A much-loved Turkish dessert. You can find the large orange-fleshed pumpkins sold in slices in Middle Eastern and Indian stores.

This intriguing rice pudding made with water—not milk—called zerde in Turkey and sholezard in Iran, has a delicate flavor and pretty, jellylike appearance.

This is the most common and popular Arab dessert. It is a milky cream thickened by cornstarch or rice flour (in the old days the rice was pulverized with a pestle and mortar). In Lebanese restaurants it is usually made with cornstarch; at home rice flour is used, or a mixture of both. In Turkey they call the cream sutlage.

Yogurt with honey is eaten for breakfast and as a dessert. Choose a scented honey. Adding ginger is unusual but delicious.

This is something we used to make in Egypt. Use a moist variety of dried dates.

I love this simple Turkish sweet, which is also made with apricots (see variation). I use a brioche-type bread for the base.

You will find quinces in Middle Eastern grocers from October until February and longer. Large ones can weigh as much as 1 pound. Try the variation too. I love it.

We used to soak the prunes overnight in tea to make pitting easier. Now pitted ones are available, but stuffing them still takes time. I watch television or listen to music while I do this. I prefer the dessert without the cream topping. Either way, it keeps very well for days.

Three recipes for “ka’ak” are given in the medieval Kitab al Wusla il al Habib (see appendix). Here is my mother’s. It makes rather a large quantity, but they keep for a long time in a box. My mother kept a biscuit tin permanently full of them. She said she used margarine rather than butter because it did not become rancid if you kept the kahk a long time.

The special appeal here is the contrast between the tartness of the apricots and the sweetness of the almond paste.

This delicately fragrant sweet is an old Syrian specialty of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, when it is eaten to break the daily fast. It keeps very well for days, even weeks, covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator.

The orange zest and the orange-blossom water give a delicate fragrance to the syrup.