It sounds like muhallabiyeh which is partly true, except we use in this recipe sugar syrup instead of sugar. It is light and the taste of rose and orange blossom water gives it that bit of extra freshness which feels agreeable after the main course. Serves: 4 – 6

Ingredients

• 1 quantity of atar sugar syrup (see recipe)

For ashtaliyyeh:

• 1 litre / 1¾  pints milk
• 75 grms / 3oz cornflour
• 1 tbsp of each rose water & orange blossom water
• 75 grms / 3oz  pistachio nuts coarsely ground

Method.

• Dilute the cornflour with some of the milk before stirring it into the saucepan containing the remaining milk.

• Using a medium to high heat setting, bring everything to the boil stirring constantly until the mixture has thickened. Reduce the heat to its lowest and let it simmer for 3 – 4 minutes while continuing stirring.

• Just before the finishing time add the rose and orange blossom water. Give it a final stir and switch off the heat.

• Pour into individual bowls and let it cool then transfer to the fridge and chill for a couple of hours.

• When you are ready to serve, drizzle sugar syrup on top of each bowl, just enough to sweeten the taste then sprinkle a generous quantity of pistachio nuts. Pass round the sugar syrup so people can add more if they want.

Variations.

• You can substitute pistachio nuts for blanched almonds or pine nuts. If you are allergic to nuts then you can omit them completely.

• In summertime, my mother used to crush iced cubes really finely and sprinkle these on top. What would happen is that as you tuck the spoon in, the ice will mix with the ashtaliyyeh and syrup thus giving a melting cooling taste which is quite refreshing. In this instance, you can omit the nuts.