3 kg (6 lb 8 oz) very ripe red mulberries
4–6 cups of sugar
2 tbs lemon juice
Wash the mulberries and leave them to drain in a colander for a few minutes. Transfer them to a glass bowl and add one cup of sugar. Mix well and let them sit for three to four hours or until they become soft. Squeeze them through a cheesecloth bag into a large cooking pan. Depending on the ripeness of the mulberries you should obtain two to three cups of juice.
For the syrup, add two cups of sugar to every cup of mulberry juice while stirring. Cook over a medium heat while stirring until it boils, then cook for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool before you transfer to sterilised glass jars. Keep in a cool dark cabinet.
When I was a little child, during the long hot summer afternoons, my mother used to call on friends of hers, originally Jerusalemites who had moved to Bethlehem after the Nakba, the displacement following the 1948 war. Tradition requires that we address close friends of one’s parents as aunt and uncle, the same as with family. Tante Yvonne and Tante Virginie, the two ladies of the house, served the most appetising assortment of home-made biscuits and cakes that I have ever seen. They were reason enough for me to put up with long afternoons with no other children to play with. That and the swing in their back yard.
Daintily arranged on white lace on an old-fashioned silver tray, they were served in summer with different home-made lemonades, which regularly initiated a tedious exchange of recipes and the inevitable comparisons with so-and-so’s baking or art of entertainment. The ritual of diafeh, the code of conduct for both host and guests, prescribed a polite acceptance of the things that were offered. There was one thing I most particularly dreaded in this ceremony that announced itself by the tinkling of ice cubes against fine glasses, followed by the appearance of a reddish-brown lemonade. However much I disliked sharab tamerhindi, feigning a tummy-ache would have deprived me of the biscuits occupying a large part of the silver tray.
The exotic flavour of tamarind syrup has since become a favourite of mine!
1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) package of tamarind
4 ltrs (7 pt) of water
3 kg (6 lb 8 oz) sugar
2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
Wash the tamarind then soak it in the water for at least 7 hours. Work the water with the fruit so as to obtain an almost uniform thick texture and pass it through a juice extractor. It is the best and most efficient way to obtain juice with the least effort. Then strain the liquid through a cheesecloth. Add the sugar and cook over a medium heat stirring constantly until all the sugar is dissolved. Leave it to boil, skimming any foam that forms on the surface with a slotted spoon. Once it starts thickening remove it from the heat and let it cool. Fill sterilised glass bottles and close with a cork.
This recipe makes about 6 one litre (1¾ pt) bottles. Each bottle makes about 15 servings.
Nothing more delectable than this drink on a cool summer afternoon!
She offered me a chair by the kitchen table and disappeared through the service door that led to the garden patch and came back with six lemons and a small bunch of mint leaves. As she squeezed them and stirred the juice with sugar and water in a pitcher, I found myself trying to recollect when last I had had fresh lemonade. She carefully washed a few mint leaves and put them in the pitcher, and from a small bottle that was sitting on a shelf she added two drops of a sweet transparent liquid. She then sat across from me and remained silent. Before she finally took a sip from her drink she pointed to mine as a form of invitation, and I had a spurt of the essential quality of what the earth can offer. It was the two drops of essence of orange blossom that made all the difference.
Christiane Dabdoub Nasser, Leyla
The juice of 3 lemons (200 ml/7 fl oz)
45 g (2 oz) sugar
700 ml (24.5 fl oz) water
1 tsp essence of orange blossom
A few sprigs of tender fresh mint leaves
Thin slices of lemon
Squeeze the lemons and stir in the sugar. Add the water and keep on stirring, making sure that all the sugar has dissolved. Add the mint leaves, essence and a few slices of lemon and refrigerate for an hour or so before serving.
