Recipe for seasoning ḥālūm cheese
SOURCE: Original is from the anonymous Kanz al-fawāʾid fī tanwīʿ al-mawāʾid, as translated by Nawal Nasrallah, in Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table: A Fourteenth Century Egyptian Cookbook
, # 522, p. 333. Modern version by Mathilde Eschenbach.
ORIGINAL:
Take ḥālūm cheese, cut it into pieces and put it in a vessel. Take garlic, skin it and pound it with a bit of olive oil and salt. Squeeze lime juice on it, or add wine vinegar. Also add pounded toasted walnuts and ginger. Pound the mix until it has the consistency of ointment.
Stir into the mix a small amount of toasted seeds of coriander and caraway, a bit of chopped mint, and a sprig of rue. Season the cheese with it, [spread it] and drizzle the top with sweet olive oil. Crumble dried rosebuds on it, sprinkle a small amount of coarsely crushed toasted hazelnuts and eat it. It is delicious.
NOTES:
I don't have a source for rue, so I left it out.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 lb Haloumi cheese
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1 T Olive oil
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- Juice of one Lime
- 1 cup Walnuts, toasted
- 2 T Ginger root
- 1/2 tsp Coriander seeds, toasted and ground
- 1/4 tsp Caraway seeds, toasted and ground
- 1/2 bunch Mint, chopped
- (Rue)
- Olive oil
- Rose petals
- Hazelnuts, toasted
DIRECTIONS:
- Cut up cheese
- Make paste out of next six ingredients
- Stir the next four ingredients into the paste
- Stir the cheese into the paste
- When ready to serve, drizzle seasoned cheese with olive oil and sprinkle with rose petals and hazelnuts
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