İncir

ou figos frescos com nozes e arroz doce

(a while ago I collected sweet rice dishes from around the world - to conclude most countries have some sort of a sweet rice desert. I had left this one out: Turkish sweet rice that is, like most Turkish dishes, more elaborate than their counterparts in other countries of the world: this sweet rice is enriched with fresh figs, or plums, raisins, dried apricots, walnuts, honey, pistachio or hazelnut. a lush, rich plate, the flavour of Turkey's streets and back alleys, with vines growing along walls and the shade of ancient plane trees)

[voltar, voltava agora mesmo]

lavar e escorrer uma chávena de chá e meia de arroz. cozer num litro de água até estar bem cozido. adicione um litro de leite e deixe ferver. juntar um pouco de mel (umas gotas de mastic) e uma chávena e meia de açúcar e deixar ferver meia hora. deixar arrefecer e colocar nas taças com nozes e os figos frescos cortados em quartos. mais ou menos isso, daqui. e parecido aqui.

"If you compare it with the Western version (I first got to know rice pudding when living in Denmark and then got snacking on it all the time in Norway) Turkish rice pudding is thicker, has less rice and often time flavored – with rose water or mastic. " daqui.

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interessante daqui:
Mastic is a very unique product. It's sap that's harvested off the mastic tree - the harvest is amazing to see: the trees grow around the Mediterranean, but mastic is only harvested on the Greek island of Chios. Women (almost always) make small cuts in the bark and the sap weeps out and forms "tears" of resin. After they dry and harden, the tears are then removed from the trees.

It has antibacterial properties and is also used in some specialty cosmetics.

In cooking, I have had a hard time finding a perfect substitute. I usually go without it if I don't have any. If you do get your hands on some - it keeps forever, so buy a stash and keep it on hand for future uses.

It may taste piney, but it's actually in the same family as pistachio nut trees.

Retsina is a different beast - the wine is flavored with a pine resin. It's a vestige of an ancient solution to the problem of leaky barrels - wine barrels were sealed with pitch or resin in order to make them airtight. It also made the wine super piney. I will say, that it's not something that a lot of Greeks like to drink, it's more the link to tradition that keeps it around.