In the summer, when apricots are in season, most everybody in the villages makes apricot jam (partially cooked in the sun). The apricot season is very short and the apricots are extremely fragrant during that time. A tart is made with the apricot jam called mabroucheh in which the top layer of dough is grated onto the jam. Feel free to use that technique, but I would recommend freezing the dough for 15 minutes prior to get it hard enough to grate on a box grater (big holes).
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cups of flour
- dash of salt
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- 1 tbsp of dry milk powder (optional)
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp of sugar
- rind of a lemon (2 tsp)
- 2 or 3 tbsp of whipping cream or sour cream or labneh or whole milk
- 1/2 cup of butter cut into small dice (4 ounces or 125 g.)
- 1 cup of apricot jam or more as needed
METHOD:
- Place the flour, salt and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor. Mix for a few seconds to combine and aerate the mixture; add the cut-up butter and mix a few more seconds until the dough looks sandy. Add the egg and cream and lemon rind and mix till the dough becomes compact and leaves the sides of the bowl. Transfer to a large piece of plastic wrap or wax paper and refrigerate for one hour or longer.
- Grease and flour tartlet pans; take one tablespoon of dough at a time and flatten with the palm of your hands, pressing it onto the tartlet pan to fit the bottom and the sides. Keep one third of the dough to use as bands on top of the jam. Prick the dough with a fork and refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer; spoon some jam onto the tartlets. Roll out the remaining dough and cut into long shreds, cutting the shreds to fit the tartlets sideways. Pat them onto the tartlets.
- Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 15 minutes or until the tartlets are golden and crispy. Cool and serve.
Coffee: White or black
For those of you who dread the jolt that caffeine-laden Turkish coffee inflicts, there is white coffee. White coffee is offered at get-togethers in Lebanon and it is simply boiled water with a few drops of orange blossom water (to taste) and sugar (optional).
In Lebanon there are a few major Turkish coffee providers (offered with or without cardamom) but I found only one with decaffeinated Turkish coffee. The option is to get your favorite decaf beans and grind them into a powder.
Incidentally, I discovered a great Turkish coffee sold online and in a coffee shop in California, made from organically grown beans in Ethiopia. The name if this coffee is black goat and when I asked the coffee shop owner about the origin of the name, here is what she said: “Here’s the story behind our “Black Goat”.. When we first did our research about the history of coffee, we found out that it all originated with an Ethiopian goat herder who noticed that his goats were especially alert and active after grazing on a type of cherry bush. Later on, he reported his findings to the local monastery where the monks began experimenting with the beans and made a drink out of it so they can stay alert for the evening prayers. That’s when we started putting some names down for consideration and “Black Goat” was the perfect one.”
The method for making Turkish coffee is simple. You need to get a special pot (called rakweh), measure the volume of water equal to the volume of your cup or cups. Bring the water to a boil (sweeten it if you like) and drop a heaping teaspoon of coffee (per cup) into the water; stir and watch carefully; the coffee will froth and try to boil over. Remove the pot from the heat as soon as it does, scrape a bit of froth and deposit into each cup; return to heat and bring it to a boil two more times, stirring the pot each time it does. Set the pot aside a few minutes to let the coffee settle to the bottom and pour into each cup.
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