26 MasterChef
MasterChef ‘s Larissa Takchi whips up an Arabic staple that can boost any dish, from simple breakfasts to sweet snacks.
How to make a sweet Arabic staple.
HALVA OR ‘HALAWA’ is a broadly used term in many Middle Eastern countries, and comes from the Arabic word for ‘sweet’. In this recipe, dense, sweet halva is mixed with lots of pistachios and rose petals. My family always has a tub of this at home, and we all love to eat it after dinner with some Lebanese flatbread.
The flavours here are so familiar to me – I love the nuttiness of the tahini, the crunch of the pistachios and the slight hint of salt that brings all these flavours to life. When I was a kid, my grandmother would make fresh saj bread (traditional unleavened Lebanese bread) and sandwich a crumbly halva in the middle while the bread was still warm. I still remember the oozy halva dripping down my arm as the hot bread melted it. Pure bliss!
If you want to jazz up this halva even more, feel free to serve it with fresh figs or apricots on pancakes, or crumble it over your muesli for breakfast. You can even make cookies out of it!
PISTACHIO AND ROSE HALVA
SERVES 10-12 200g caster sugar
200g hulled tahini
Pinch of salt
1/ 3 cup (50g) pistachios, roughly
chopped, plus extra to scatter
11/ 2 tbs edible rose petals (from gourmet
food shops), to scatter
To make the sugar syrup, place the sugar and 75ml water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the mixture reaches 121°C on a kitchen thermometer or until the syrup looks slightly thinner than honey but thicker than water.
Meanwhile, mix the tahini and salt in a bowl until combined. Set aside.
Grease the base and sides of a 12cm x 22cm x 6cm deep (1.25L capacity) loaf pan and line with baking paper.
Remove the sugar syrup from the heat and, working quickly, stir in the tahini mixture until combined. Add pistachio and stir until combined. Be sure not to let the mixture become cold or it will crumble.
Pour mixture into the prepared pan. Smooth the top with the back of a spoon and scatter over rose petals and extra chopped pistachio. Allow to stand at room temperature for 2 hours or until cooled and set. Slice to serve. Halva can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature.