SmallAegeanKitchen Archives - I THINK THEREFORE I JAM

“Tarhana” – the art of culinary resurrection

Possibly the world’s most ancient convenience food, this is preserving genius, relying on fermentation, patience, sunshine and nothing else. Take the bounty of summer (tomatoes, peppers, onions and herbs), ferment with yoghurt, flour and herbs and dry it in the sun. Smash it into granules and store in a dry place until you want to bring it back to life.

Come winter all you need to do is rehydrate your tarhana and all those cultures spring back to life dessert flower like. Add some tomato/pepper concentrated puree (“salcası”), a bit of garlic and some stock and you have a pretty instant, extremely nutritious and very satisfying “tarhana soup“.

Fig, pear, walnut, pine nut, sesame preserve with mastic and aniseed

Inspired by the Lebanese, “M’rabbah al teen” dried fig jam, Aegean ingredients and leanings this is what I think my Nana would have called a “sweetmeat”; something so delectably fine it deserved to be eaten just by itself (Although I have eaten it with creamy thick sheep’s “Suzme” yoghurt and salty crystalline “Tulum” goat cheese).

It melds the tahini-like taste of sesame seeds, the crunch of nuts, the stickiness of the figs, the indescribable taste of mastic (sakız) and the zing of the aniseed, into a stellar confection.