Saḥlab

[lethargic_man]

Many years ago, whilst somewhere in the Middle East (I forget where), I was introduced to a gloopy white concoction called saḥlab (سحلب), containing sugar and spice (cinnamon) and all things nice (coconut powder, raisins and pistachios). It was absolutely delicious, and I thought to myself, I must find out where to get, or how to make this back home. Of course, by the time I got back to Blighty, I'd completely forgotten about it, and it was years before I had it again and was reminded—and once again forgot by the time I came home.

Last week, for some reason, I remembered; and this evening I set out to try this recipe. The result was certainly very nice, though it wasn't quite the same as my memory of how saḥlab tastes. This may have had something to do with evidently putting in too much cornflour, or a slight aliquoting accident with the cinnamon, or the fact I left out the pistachios (due to not having any, and it being 9:30 at night); all of which can be rectified should I wish to try again.

Encouraged by the result, I went on to have a second helping. Don't try this at home, kids; it's just too rich: I now feel slightly sick. :-S

Comments

[dhole.livejournal.com]

The problem I can see with that recipe is that it seems to be missing the actual sahlab -- though I'll admit, it's rather hard to get the actual orchid root powder outside of the middle east.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Yes, I looked at Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahlab) and was surprised to see it was based on orchid tuber flour. But it went on to say "The popularity of salep [the Turkish name] in Turkey has led to a decline in the populations of wild orchids. As a result it is illegal to export true salep out of the country. Thus, many instant salep mixes are made with artificial flavoring." A quick (only not very quick for me!) scan of the Hebrew Wikipedia article (http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A1%D7%97%D7%9C%D7%91_%28%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%A7%D7%94%29) without recourse to dictionaries suggested that may be the case in Israel too. So I thought maybe I've never had the genuine article. But after making my own, I'm now wondering whether that is indeed the case.

[dhole.livejournal.com]

I actually came upon that fact the other way around -- I discovered that the word for the beverage is the word for orchid in Hebrew, so I was a bit surprised that they made a beverage out of orchids, rather than the other way around.

"Legal" is one of those words that doesn't exactly mean what it's supposed to in this part of the world. Most of the instant sahlav mixes don't contain much orchid flower, if any, but there are some that do, and there are street vendors who sell the real stuff. It's possible they're getting it from places other than Turkey, but I wouldn't be too surprised if they're made from Turkish orchids.

The real stuff is a bit different in texture, and somewhat is somewhat better in terms of flavor and aroma.