The Endive Chronicles

Some of you may remember a few months back that I posted a recipe for the Egyptian snack dukkah. At that time I also had plans for a sweet version to be posted at a later date. Well dear readers that date is today.

I wanted to base the recipe (loosely) on the flavors of Turkish Delight, but had a few obstacles in bringing my idea to fruition. First off, it was winter on Long Island, so fresh organic rose petals were nowhere to be found. Second, sugared rose petals were either insanely expensive or unavailable. I ended up finding them online at Market Hall Foods out of Oakland for a fraction of the price of most places. With the rose petal hurdle out of the way all I had to do was find a way to make honey into crystals.

I played around with different ideas and used methods similar to making sea foam or hokey pokey, but seemed to either burn or under cook the honey each time. For the first time neither Larousse Gastronomique nor The New Professional Chef had the answers I needed. After a while I grew frustrated and shelved the idea for a while with the hopes that I would come back to it with fresh perspective.

Fresh perspective was what I got while poking through the aisles of Uwajimaya last Saturday with Phil and my father; perspective in the form of all natural crystallized honey. Elated, I popped the container into my basket and began dreaming of the recipe that would finally be brought to life. Then I went to the airport.

Before I get into it I should fill you in; crystallized honey is not the funky goop left in the bottle of old honey you should have used up long ago. It has in fact been blended with cane sugar and is most likely heated and cooled (just a guess), eventually forming granules. In other words, there is no longer anything remotely liquid or gelatinous about it.

I want to preface the incident further by saying that I have a lot of respect for the TSA. They have a difficult, thankless job in which I would not last five minutes. The agent we encountered Tuesday morning was a singularly unpleasant person whom I believe was either having a very bad day or just a bully and should not to be confused with the rest of the TSA. We were accused of smuggling liquids in our carry-on luggage. While the agent searched through our things we were subject to his abusive remarks and chastised for holding up the line. When his search did not turn up anything liquids he decided to take my crystallized honey. As I put my shoes on I overheard my husband fruitlessly arguing the states of matter with him, ultimately coming away empty handed. Well, almost empty handed. The agent had found a totally empty tube of lip balm in one of the pockets and decided we could keep it.

Moving on. . .

The crystallized honey-less sweet dukkah I have created for you today can be prepared/eaten in several different ways and as is usual with dukkah can be personalized to suit your taste. Below I offer a variety ways you can serve it from using it for a topping, dip or even as a small dessert bite.

Sweet Dukkah

2 oz. sugared rose petals, broken up

1 cup chopped pistachios

1/4 cup sugared fennel

1/4 cup fennel seed, toasted

1/2 cup unsweetened flaked coconut, lightly toasted

1/3 cup crystallized honey (or sub warm* honey for dipping purposes)

Place prepared ingredients in a bowl and toss together.

Variations: chocolate or white chocolate shavings, dried crumbled mint, toasted chopped almonds, chopped macadamia nuts, fresh rose petals, dried crushed rose petals with stems removed.

To serve: For serving the version with crystallized honey, slice fruit for dipping, serve over ice cream or add it to your ice cream maker for something a little different than your Rocky Road. Skip the sugared rose petals and crystallized honey, wrap the mixture with fresh, organic rose petals or add a small amount to Barbara’s sugared rose petals** topping each with a bit of liquid honey. For serving with bread, warm some liquid honey and bread such as brioche, challah, sopapillas or whatever bread you find suitable for dipping. This recipe is incredibly versatile and can be made more or less sweet according to your taste.

*Don’t heat the honey up too much, it becomes like napalm and can severely burn you if you’re not careful. I speak from experience.

**Scroll down on her page, they’re there, I couldn’t get the permalink. While you are at it, check out the rest of her site. Barbara has taste, style and a unique view on the world which is why she is one of my favorite bloggers.

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