Karkade (Hibiscus) syrup

Karkade (sometimes referred to as ‘red tea’) is a drink made from hibiscus flowers (Hibiscus sabdariffa) popular in Egypt and the Middle East. Often served chilled it is also delicious hot on a winter’s day. The astringent flavour of the hibiscus flowers is counterbalanced by the addition of sugar making a delightfully refreshing brew. Drinks made from hibiscus are popular wherever the hibiscus grows, and anyone who’s been to Mexico will surely be familiar with the aguas fresca ‘agua de Jamaica’.
Anyway, I had originally intended on making my usual rose syrup to serve with mahalabiya, but decided on something slightly different. The tart cranberry-like flavour of the karkade would complement the sweetness of the mahalabiya perfectly, and the jewel-bright redness complements the green pistachios beautifully.
It’s a simple sugar syrup based on 1 part sugar to 1 part water, and it’s equally delicious over yoghurt, porridge or drizzled on some pancakes. Whatever takes your fancy!
Ingredients
1 handful of dried hibiscus flowers
150g sugar
150ml boiling water
1 tablespoon rose water
Squeeze of lemon

1. Put the hibiscus flowers in a bowl and pour over the boiling water. Allow to steep for 30 minutes or so (you want the water to be a rich deep red colour), and then strain – don’t throw away the soaked flowers, you can reuse them
2. Add the hibiscus water to a pan and stir in the sugar, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the lemon (this will stop the sugar from crystalising)
3. Take off the heat and stir in the rose water 
4. Allow to cool and then refrigerate. Delicious on desserts, yoghurt, ice cream...

Mahalabiya cheesecake with a pistachio base

It probably says something about the excitement of my life, but the other night whilst falling asleep an idea struck me -  Mahalabiya cheesecake...

Or more correctly, mahalabiya in the style of a cheesecake, with the malahabiya resting on a crunchy base. I know, sounds amazing doesn’t it?! I was sure that someone had made something like this before, but a quick search of Google didn’t seem to bring up any recipes. Had I invented something new? 

I am sure I haven’t and it’s already a ‘thing’ being made clandestinely and shared secretly... Anyway, some kitchen experimentation resulted and the initial results were rather good. I only had a large loose bottomed cake tin so had to use that. I had wondered if by using a large cake tin the mahalabiya would set, but it firmed up okay (I used a bit more cornflour that I usually would) and the finished dessert could be cut into slices, but as the tin was fairly shallow I felt that the ratio of mahalabiya to base wasn’t quite right, so after finding some mini deep cake tins I tried again. Wowsers!
The quantities below fill either one standard cake tin (with some base mixture left over for another day) or 2 10cm cake tins. 

For the base
100g pistachios
50g ground almonds
50g sugar
2 tablespoons orange blossom water
50g margarine or butter

For the mahalabiya
500ml milk
50g sugar
1 tsp ground mastic (optional)
5 tablespoons cornflour
3 tablespoons orange blossom water

1. Preheat the oven to 150C
2. Grind the pistachios and mix with the almonds and sugar.
3. Melt the margarine or butter and stir in, along with the orange blossom water and knead into a ball
4. Press the mixture into an oiled cake tin/s (for ease of removal one of the fancy ones with a removable bottom is ideal), you want it to be around 0.5cm thick.
5. Bake for around 10-15 minutes until it just starts to colour lightly, take out and allow to cool totally. It will seem quite soft when you take it out the oven, but will harden on standing
6. When the base is cool make the mahalabiya, when I made the test recipe I was impatient and added the hot mahalabiya to the hot base. Nothing bad happened, but the base stays a little crisper if you wait for it to cool
7. Pour a little milk into the cornflour and mix well until smooth, add the remainder of the milk to a pan with the sugar and bring to the boil
8. Once boiling whisk in the cornflour and milk mixture and the ground mastic (if using). At this point the milk will start to thicken, turn down the heat and keep stirring so no lumps form
9. Cook on a low heat for a few minutes and then take off the heat. Allow to cool slightly and stir in the orange blossom water. I didn’t want the mahalabiya to be too hot when I poured it onto the base, so I left it for a few minutes or so. It will thicken and start to set on standing so keep an eye on it as you want it to be pourable
10. Pour the mixture onto the base and allow to cool completely before refrigerating for a few hours
11. Serve sprinkled with chopped pistachios and rose syrup

Aubergine, halloumi and sweet pepper stacks

I’ll come right out and admit it, I have an inability to follow recipes. Whether it's down to impatience or a touch of kitchen-related ADHD I have no idea. When I cook it’s usually based on something I am familiar with, or something I have eaten and want to try to recreate, or maybe I’ve found some ingredients in the kitchen cupboard and wonder how they'll go together (as an aside, in my student days out of desperation I made a pizza topped with harissa, sweetcorn, cheese triangles and peanuts as I had nothing else in the house. It was edible but not one of my finest moments…). To me it seems an anathema to read a book and follow directions. Having said that, I do own an extensive library of cookery books, and there's no better way to spend a cold rainy afternoon than curled up on the sofa with a book pouring over the recipes. Or indeed sitting in the shade on a sunny day, book on lap. But follow a recipe? It’s not that I think I can improve on the original, more that I end up fine tuning it to my own taste. The recipe calls for walnuts? Eh… I’ll use that quarter bag of chopped hazelnuts languishing in the back of the cupboard. Everything’s fried? I wonder whether I could bake it… The end result is probably more ‘inspired’ by the original than a facsimile. For that reason I never took to conventional baking, if I’m given precise quantities to measure out then I lose interest. I function much better with vague instructions such as “half a packet of this and a few handfuls of that…”

My current cook book obsession is the Comptoir Libanais Express book that I picked up last time I was in London, an instant favourite for the food and also for the glorious photographs and graphics. And that leads me on to the aubergine stacks, I love aubergines. They are probably one of my favourite vegetables, and I love tomatoes as well, however decent flavoured large tomatoes are pretty much scarce at this time of year (at least in my local stores) and if you do find anything larger than a cherry tomato then it’ll taste of nothing and be as tough as old boots. However sweet peppers are abundant and always tasty especially when oven roasted de-skinned and tossed in a balsamic vinegar and herby marinade overnight, and so the recipe metamorphoses…

This recipe is very much a 'prepare the bits and pieces ahead' type of affair, and other than the initial grilling of the aubergines, halloumi and peppers the actual preparation takes minutes. The original recipe (which can be found here) showcases the vegetables in their natural form, I had some leftover muhammara in the fridge and decided to spread that on the aubergine slices as I stacked them up, acting as a flavoured adhesive. The quantities below make 4 stacks (with some leftover halloumi to nibble on...)

Ingredients

1 large aubergine

2 red sweet peppers

1 block of halloumi

3 tablespoons of muhammara (optional)

1 bunch of coriander

A few sprigs of tarragon (optional, but gives a nice aniseedy twang to the sauce)

1 tablespoon of zaatar

Olive oil

Lemon juice 

Salt to taste

1. Cut the aubergines into rounds, brush with olive oil and gril until soft. 

2. Cut the sweet peppers into large wedges and roast in the oven until the skin starts to blacken, allow to cool and then remove the skins. Ideally this should be done the day before, I tossed the skinned peppers in a bag with some dried mixed herbs, olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar

3. Slice three quarters of the halloumi and grill until golden brown. Grate the remaining halloumi, the Comptoir Libanais recipe suggests rinsing to remove some of the salt, however I tasted the cheese I had and it wasn't particulary salty. As I wasn't adding any seasoning to the aubergines I decided to omit the rinsing step

4. Preheat the oven to 200C, while the oven is heating prepare the aubergine stacks using 3 aubergine slices per stack. Place an aubergine slice on a baking tray, top with some of the muhammara (if using) then a piece of red pepper. Add another aubergine slice, some more muhammara and then top with the grilled halloumi. Finally place the remaining aubergine slice on top and sprinkle over a little of the grated halloumi

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes until sizzling

6. While the aubergine stacks are baking prepare the zaatar sauce. In a blender add the coriander, tarragon, zaatar, lemon juice and a glug of olive oil. Blend and adjust seasoning to your taste 

6. Drizzle some of the sauce on top of the stacks and eat!