Muhallabia

So last time we had Crapaud, and today it's Muhallabia. Stop giggling in the back there children! When you can compose yourselves, we'll carry on...

Ok, so like I've mentioned before I don't really like dessert, and I don't drink cow's milk, um... and I'm not that jazzed about nuts. And sugar is bad for you. So will this big gelatinous boob convince me to change my ways?

Initially all signs point to no. What the hell is Orange Blossom Water? In the back of the book there is a note to say that it can be found in major supermarkets, Middle Eastern and Turkish shops blah blah blah, yeah, maybe in Lebanon. I must have gone to five different stores and it was nowhere to be found, so I kind of put this dish on the back burner, it wasn't meant to be, I made my peace with the infuriating situation. Then a couple of days ago I finally saw a bottle in Planet Organic. They charged me a terrifying, tear-inducing amount for it, but if it's so expensive, it must really be worth it, right?

Maybe, lets see.

The smell of warm milk is really comforting and takes me back to my childhood when I was given some to drink at bedtime if I couldn't sleep. Years later I decided that milk is probably poisonous because of the lactose and stopped drinking it, but now I think it's time to stop the tantrum and get with the program!

I had a little swig of the Orange Blossom Water to see what all the fuss is about, there is almost no taste except maybe a slight bitterness, great, worth the effort.

Result: The bastard didn't set! I left it in the fridge for 24 hours and still didn't dare to try and turn it out. I followed the recipe to the letter, but the problem must be that '1 leaf of gelatine' is pretty vague.

To be fair, I've seen other recipes for this online that call for arrowroot as a thickener and it's served in little bowls and not rolling around on a plate, so I'm not too depressed about what is ultimately my failure!

The taste - I think the best description is that it smells and tastes like perfume. I once heard a story that one time my grandad was so hard up for booze that he drank a bottle of my grandmother's perfume, I don't know if that's true, but after trying this pudding it seems a lot more plausible. The smell of orange blossom and rose is almost overpowering, but if you manage to ignore it, the taste is quite pleasant. I was trying to put my finger on what it could be compared to, and it's just like custard. If it was warm and you had a thing against eggs, this could be your bag, baby. However, it must be said, that my brother, who's been known to have 4 spoons of sugar in his coffee, found this too sweet. Proceed with caution.