Suddenly, the image of my grandmother cooking  carob pudding came to my mind. That  must be more than 17 years ago and I realized I haven’t eaten it since. I called my aunt for the recipe and I tried it on the spot. It was AMAZING. I think it’s going to be my new favorite treat for a while.

Carob pudding has a rich and creamy flavor and requires a few ingredients; milk, sugar, cornflour, and carob molasses which can be found in middle eastern stores or online.

Carob Molasses

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Holding this memory, I’ve always had the impression that making Maamoul requires a number of people and a long time. The impression has changed just yesterday when I’ve decided to try to make stuffed date maamoul by myself with some help of my mom. The whole process didn’t take more than two hours. And a good time was already wasted in trying to convince my mom to make it in the first place. “Only for the sake of the blog” she kept saying!

The recipe I’m sharing with you in this post is provided by the cook of the Palestinian Cultural Center in Amman. They make the best yet the healthier Maamoul in town.

Enjoy baking! and Eid Mubarak for all who are celebrating Eid in some way or another…

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Bitter orange jam is a typical Ottoman dish which is widely known in Turkey as “turunç“. It is also known in Palestine but less commonly, where it’s called “mrabba khesh-kash”, “mrabba naranj”, or “zifer” as in Nablus.

I was very lucky to learn this recipe from one of few women who still make it the original way, year after year. All the credit  goes to Mrs. Firyal Alul, thank you so much for keeping our heritage alive and for the love and patience you have shown…

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Like most of seeds, black cumin seeds (black seeds, qizha, or nigella seeds) have many health benefits. They are rich of unsaturated important fatty acids, antioxidant, powerful immune booster, and also they improve overall digestion and maintain normal blood pressure. As a result of all this, black cumin seeds are used in different cuisines especially the eastern ones as seasoning spices for salads, soups, and bread…

Aside from using black cumin seeds (as is without grinding) for seasoning, they also can be used to make black cumin (qizha) paste exactly like extracting tahini from sesame seeds. In Palestine, the best locally made qizha paste comes from Nablus. This thick paste is made from grinding both black cumin and sesame seeds and it can be found in middle-east food stores.

In spite of the bitter taste of black cumin paste (qizha paste), old Palestinians managed to create a sweet treat out of it by adding sugar, oil and roasted flour to the paste and baking them all to get at the end a tasty and original dessert pie. And here I’m posting how exactly to make this extremely healthy and delicious black cumin pie.

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A new member has joined my growing family last week. I already have two nieces and a nephew, and now with the arriving of baby Khaled they became two and two. I never get over the joy of watching newborn babies moving their tiny hands and mouths in a slow motion.  They are so wrinkly but soft and fresh, new but precious!

Early in the next day, my mother started preparing the caraway pudding, as if it’s the first thing a grandmother shall be doing right after having a new grandchild. Well, it’s a tradition! It’s not only to be served one time after delivering the baby, but it’s to be served almost every day for a couple of weeks and whenever guests show up to celebrate this occasion.

Caraway pudding (called Karawya in Palestine, Syria and Jordan, and Meghli or Moghli in Lebanon) is a well-known dessert in the Levant area, typically made and served in winter and in the occasion of having a new baby. It’s believed to enhance milk production for breast feeding and to improve health condition of nursing mother in general.

Caraway pudding, as like any other pudding, is easy and fast to prepare. The main recipe that I’m using in this post is the commonly used one nowadays. However there is an older version of Caraway dessert recipe that used to be done before. It’s not as thick as the pudding; it’s more of a hot sweet herbal drink. I tried to prepare it yesterday, and the taste was interesting. Here I’m sharing the old version of the recipe along with some photos right before the main recipe of caraway pudding.

Caraway Dessert – The Old Way:

I brought 4 cups of water to boil and added 1 tablespoon of caraway powder (caraway seeds were toasted and grinded to powder) and half a teaspoon of cinnamon powder. I left them all boiling over a reduced heat for about 10 minutes. And Then I poured them in serving cups, added 5 small cuts of toasted bread to each cup, 1 teaspoon of melted butter ghee, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and a pinch of crushed walnuts.

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