Snack

You can make this with store-bought popcorn (you will need about 4 1/2 quarts), but it is much more fun to pop the corn and season it yourself. If you have your own method of popping corn, do use it. My method is given below.

Almonds are considered brain food in India. They were always given to us in the morning, especially before exams, after they had been soaked overnight and then peeled. Each one of us got seven almonds—don’t ask me why. So here is a delicious, lightly perfumed morning dose for two people. The soaking makes them taste a bit like green almonds. The perfume is an added bonus. You may serve them with drinks. I often offer dinner guests a few of these almonds just before I serve dessert and coffee.

When I was growing up in Delhi, my mother regularly deep-fried cashews for us in a karhai (wok). She would scoop the nuts up from the hot oil with a slotted spoon and leave them to drain on a crisp sheet of brown paper—the same kind she used to cover our schoolbooks. My father ate them with his evening whisky-and-soda and the rest of us nibbled on them with our soft drinks. I have now taken to roasting the cashews instead. Nothing could be easier.

Black pepper is native to India. Long before India had red chilies to make foods hot, it relied on black pepper. This recipe harks back to a period that is still part of India’s present.

Known by different names in the north and south of India, these crisp wafers are an essential part of Indian cuisine, as “something with a crunch” completes a meal in many parts of India. Known as pappadoms in the south and papar/papad in the north, they are generally made out of a split-pea dough that is rolled out into paper-thin round discs and dried in the sun (the desert areas of India are ideal for this). The ones I like best are made of urad dal (page 284) and flavored with peppercorns. You buy them from Indian grocers, but they still need cooking. The traditional way was to fry them in very hot oil for a few seconds, which made them expand into marvelous Frank Gehry shapes. Now I just cook them in the microwave oven. They do not expand as much, but they still take on Zaha Hadid shapes and are wonderfully crunchy without being oily. Make as many pappadoms as you wish, and serve them with drinks or as part of a meal.

I love these radishes and cannot stop eating them. I like to serve them with drinks, but you may serve them with grilled meats or as a relish with a meal.

A street vendor in Cairo used to sell these wrapped in newspaper, to be eaten on the spot or carried home. Other small or medium-sized fish can be used in the same way.

This popular Lebanese pickle is served as a mezze. Make sure the walnuts have a fresh taste.

This is one of the most popular and exquisite preserves. As the peels keep well in the refrigerator, you can collect them gradually. Choose thin-skinned oranges, preferably the bitter Seville type. Rub very lightly with a fine grater to remove their shine and some of their bitterness, being careful not to grate too deeply. Then, with a sharp-pointed knife, cut 6 deep lines in the peel from end to end and pull off the peel in 6 strips.

Use a natural, tart variety of dried apricots, not the sweetened or honeyed ones; they must also be soft. These keep well for weeks and are good to serve with coffee.

These glorious pastries have a melt-in-the-mouth shell and a variety of fillings of dates or nuts—walnuts, pistachios, or almonds. See the variations for these. My mother always had a biscuit tin full of them to offer with coffee. In Syria and Lebanon they make them with semolina instead of flour. An uncle told us of a baking competition organized by a dignitary in Aleppo many years ago. The maker of the best ma’amoul would get a prize, the equivalent of about two pounds, to be paid by the dignitary. Hundreds of ma’amoul poured into his house, certainly more than two pounds’ worth, and enough to keep him eating happily for months.

These are delightful meltingly soft cookies. You must also try the variation with ground hazelnuts.