Mersu: An Ancient Confection

Here's a healthy super easy recipe, no baking required and they make wonderful little energy boosters.

These little treats date back to the the Babylonian times as some of the earliest treats known to man. They were called Mersu as mentioned on the old Babylonian culinary tablets.

They are still popular today and back home my grandma taught us how to make these, she would knead the dates into a dough and then us children would gather around and follow her lead of rolling little balls out of the dates and stuffing them.

There are a few steps so it's a bit of an assembly line but it's fun. Also there are variations so you can make whatever you like but what I remember was walnuts, coconut and sesame seeds.

My favourite is the walnut date sesame seed because I love the crunch of the hidden walnut piece inside and then the toasted sesame coating just works beautifully with the sweet date paste. It's really addictive!

So we begin with date paste, or those dry pitted dates from the bulk store bin.

Chop your dates up with a knife then pour some hot water over your dates, so for every 2 cups about a 1/2 cup of warm or hot water. Let it sit for a bit then drain the water off.

Now start kneading until you get a dough.

You could add a drop or two or oil to help with the mixing.

Prepare your ingredients in advance:

- A bowl of toasted sesame seeds

- A bowl of coconut

- A bowl of chopped/ground pistachio

- Walnuts (cut into quarters or halves - small enough to fit inside)

Now take a bit of dough and roll it between your palms.

Take a piece of walnut and shove it inside then close it up and roll it again.

Now set these aside until ready to coat them. Once you've prepped a descent amount you can move to rolling them into whatever coating you like or if you have help your little ones can do this for you.

Set them aside and you're all ready to go!

It's that easy.

Enjoy with tea, arabic coffee, as a nice snack or energy boosting treat!

During the recet Iraq war there was a time when the American soldiers were doing surveillance in all the houses so they paid a visit to my grandfathers house, when they entered my grandma was sitting in the living room rolling these little treats and they were curious as to what they were so she let them taste, they loved them so much and so she offered for them to take some. They were delighted and began filling their pockets with these little sticky confections.

Yumyum!

Strawberry Pudding

When I was a child and my dad came back from travelling he would always bring us a lot of treats, mainly because we lived in a country that had really limited imports and in the south it was even worse with the world sanctions. Dad used to bring a really wide range of things, from shoes and clothing to disney movies, frozen treats, chips and even cured meats and cheese in salt water from Turkey before he crossed the border and embarked on the 10 hour driving journey to get to us in the city we lived in.

My mum had a stash of boxed whipped topping that she would make for us from time to time that he also brought from Turkey, including instant chocolate mousse and puddings, it was really impossible to find heavy cream for whipped cream there and we craved a lot of that, including good ice cream but this forced us to get creative and try out new things which is a whole other story.. haha.

I remember the strawberry boxed pudding, maybe now if I tasted it it would seem artificial and unpalatable but back then it was delicious and something I remember distinctly especially at the time when I had one of my teeth removed at the dentist and all I ate was the chilled yummy pink pudding while recovering.

With the whole lot of leftover strawberries from last week and milk that is just about to expire I figured I'd attempt a more gourmet version of that childhood favourite and see where it takes me so here it goes....

Strawberry Pudding!

2 cups strawberry fruit (stems removed and washed)

Sugar

Puree these in the blender really well then run the mixture through a sieve to strain out the seeds. You're left with a dark pink puree, very smooth and smells of fresh strawberry.

Add some sugar to this and reduce this in a pot so it's a concentrated syrup.

2 3/4 milk

1/4 cup corn starch

1/3 cup sugar

vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter

On medium heat: Mix all the above ingredients in a heavy bottomed pot including the strawberry syrup puree and begin whisking until the mixture thickens into a pudding like consistency (it may take a bit but keep whisking and it'll come together!)

Once the desired consistancy has been achieved remove the pot from the stove and blend in the 2 tablespoons of butter until it is all melted. Now pour into your bowls, jar, moulds or cups and cover with cling wrap over the surfaces of the pudding to avoid a film.

You could add an egg too and follow this recipe by Smitten Kitchen