There's a basic understanding about food in many Mediterranean families that's ingrained but unspoken.
Signature dishes are sacred, and recipes are passed down from grandmother to mother to child.
With strong and proud Greek lineage on my paternal side, the nutty, syrupy realm of my Grandma Claire's baklava has long provoked awe and delight. Despite now being in her 90s, her cheese and spinach pie, spanakopita, still graces the table on family occasions, remaining unparalleled to any other I've ever tasted.
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The recipe for the rich, unctuous Greek baked-custard dessert, known as galaktoboureko, is the domain of my Auntie Vivian. Although it's a departure from the Greek cuisine usually shared at our paternal table, my Auntie Irene's crème caramel is another family essential.
Whether we're celebrating a birthday, Easter or Christmas, no lengthy discussion is needed about what food to bring. The signature dish of each of the female elders simply arrives at the table, greatly anticipated by the entire family and received with an explosion of rock star applause and appreciation.
On my maternal side, my Egyptian-born grandmother, known by all of us as Nannie, was famous for a rosewater and semolina dessert she called harissa. This is not to be confused with the chilli-laden paste thought to originate in Tunisia.
This humble dessert, soaked in sweet sugar syrup, is similar to what is also known as basbousa in Egypt, revani in Greece and Turkey, and nammoura in Lebanon.
Born in Alexandria, my grandmother lived in Egypt at a time when many diverse cultures lived side by side until the 1950s. They swapped, shared and delighted in each other's fare as friends and neighbours do.
My grandmother captured her most treasured recipes, such as harissa, in her diary. Source: Nicole Azzopardi
After my grandmother passed, we found her precious legacy written down in beautiful handwriting in her diary. In French and English, she chronicled her family recipes and the new ones she would come to try after arriving to Australia.
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The changing demographics of the nation are recorded within a plain, hard-covered book with descriptions for how to make everything from pavlova, fruit cake and hedgehog slice, to chow mein, paella and satay sauce.
Among recipes for Middle Eastern meatballs, known as kobeba, and the delicious sesame-seed dip tehina, there's a scrambled-language recipe she calls Cake avec bacon. There's another for Grecque flaky pastry and even the recipe for her best friend of 60 years' pizza, simply called Olga's Pitsa.
Signature dishes are sacred, and recipes are passed down from grandmother to mother to child.
It's a cherished document - one filled with memories of ancestral lands left behind, of friends and neighbours and family.
As her eldest granddaughter, I now find myself picking up the phone to my mother, to piece together the recipe of harissa for serving at family occasions.
Together, with the help of my own two daughters, we think we have it just about right – although I know it can never quite be the same.
Nevertheless, the long, sticky, almond-studded tray is greeted by my family with delight and relief that Nannie's signature dish can live on in all of us, through my hands.
Photographs by Nicole Azzopardi
Harissa
This Egyptian recipe from Alexandria is simple to make and uses only a few ingredients.
- 250 g butter
- 3 cups semolina
- 220 g white sugar
- 90 g desiccated coconut
- 250 ml of milk
- 25 g blanched almonds
- Sultanas optional
Syrup
- 220 g sugar
- 250 ml water
- 1 tsp rosewater (optional)
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Melt 250 grams of butter in a heavy-bottomed stainless steel saucepan
3. To the melted butter, add the semolina, sugar, desiccated coconut, and milk. Add sultanas if you wish. Mix with a wooden spoon until it all comes together
4. Grease a 30 cm x 25 cm x 5 cm baking tray with butter, or use a sheet of baking paper. Pour mixture into the tray. Smooth it with a damp spatula.
5. With a sharp knife cut the raw mixture into diamonds and stud with whole blanched almonds.
6. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown
7. Allow to cool completely before adding the syrup.
Syrup
1. Place sugar and water in a stainless steel pot
2. Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves
3. heat and allow to simmer for approximately five minutes
4. Stir in the rosewater (optional) and remove from the heat
5. Pour the hot syrup over the cooled cake. This is very important to avoid your harissa becoming the wrong consistency
6. Serve at room temperature.
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