Arabesque: Turkish Delight

Night #2 of the Claudia Roden/Arabesque experience.

Prepared the Turkish roast chicken with pine nut and raisin pilaf. The chicken was, as always, chicken. But the pilaf was kind of exciting -- spicy, buttery, fluffy, profoundly delicious. I also made a lemony Moroccan pear-and-leaf salad (cute name) and tried to distract myself from pilaf by eating lots of salad. Didn't entirely work.

Dessert: milk-and-almond pudding which you make by gently simmering milk with sugar, ground almonds, and rice flour until it thickens into a delicate, ivory-colored porridge. Pour into pretty dishes and chill. Garnish with pistachios.

I am aware that many people do not share my ardor for this type of sweet, which tastes like a divine perfumed Junket. If you're a lover of molten chocolate cake, tiramisu, or brownies, you might want to skip the milk puddings. But if you like dainty, aromatic desserts, you will taste Roden's milk pudding and wish you'd been raised in Istanbul.

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