Chef and scholar Hélène Jawhara Piñer making Brik pastry rolls with almonds and honey (pp. 132 – 133); Image courtesy of the author
Muhallabiyye (almond rice pudding)
This is a version of a recipe prepared today in the Middle East by both Jewish and Muslim people. It has many different names and variations (sutlage, mḥalbiya, malabi, ksab, mhallabiyye), but what they all have in common is the use of rice or rice flour as a base. The dish is found in many cookbooks since the tenth century, often with the addition of sugar, saffron, and even chicken.
Serves 6
Time: 30 minutes
– 1 cup (150g) rice flour + 3/4 cup (170ml) whole milk
– 2 cups (500ml) almond milk
– 2 cups (500ml) whole milk
– ½ cup (120g) sugar
– 2 tsp orange blossom water
– 2 tbsp pomegranate syrup
Prepare the small jars or cups in which the preparation will be served.
In a bowl, mix the rice flour and milk with a fork.
In a saucepan, pour the almond milk and whole milk. Add the sugar and bring to a boil.
When it is boiling, lower the heat and add the rice flour and milk mixture.
Stir constantly for 3 minutes, to obtain a smooth consistency. It will thicken.
Add the orange blossom water.
Pour into the serving containers and let stand for 15 minutes.
Then, pour a dash of pomegranate syrup over it. Serve cold or at room temperature.
Here is the perfect dessert for this summer. Light and refreshing, muhallabiyye is a dessert from the Middle Ages that is nowadays widely consumed by Jews in the Middle East. It will delight your tables and your guests. Image courtesy of the author.
Hélène Jawhara Piñer holds a doctoral degree in Medieval History and the History of Food. In 2018, she was awarded the Broome & Allen Fellowship of the American Sephardi Federation (asf), dedicated to recognizing outstanding academic accomplishments and services to the Sephardic community, as well as encouraging continued excellence in the field of Sephardi studies. As a research associate of the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Renaissance(CESR) and of the Cooking of Recipes of the Middle Ages (CoReMa) research program in Tours, Dr. Jawhara-Piñer’s main research interest is the medieval culinary history of Spain through inter- and multiculturalism, with a special focus on the Jewish culinary heritage in Arabic. Her recipes have appeared in Sephardi World Weekly, Tablet Magazine, The Forward, and S&P Central’s Newsletter. She attended The Great Big Jewish Food Fest (May 2020) as a presenter for an historical-cooking demonstration. With the collaboration of the ASF, she gives live historical cooking classes for the show “Sephardic Culinary History with Chef Hélène Jawhara Piñer,” available on Chaiflix.