Rose and Pistacchio Agar Agar Lokum

Rose and Pistacchio Agar Agar Lokum

Hub called to say that there would be a Charity Football Match (Partita del Cuore) tomorrow evening in Modena involving Ferrari drivers Alonso, Massa and Fisichella as well as Italian musicians and singers like Gianni Morandi, Enrico Ruggeri, Luca Barbarossa, Gigi D'Alessio...Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali, Italian footballer Antonio Cassano and actor Raul Bova will also be playing. The funds that will be raised from this event will go to the Telethon and the Parco della Mistica Onlus Foundations. And the match will be aired live on RAI Uno at 9pm.

He wondered if we should attend the match. Well, I asked him if 1. he loves football; 2. he is into those F1 drivers and Italian musicians; 3. he wants or needs to rub shoulders with the rich and famous; 4. if he wants or needs to be "seen".

Since his answer to all 4 questions was "no", we figured that we should stick to our original plan to dine at Old Wild West and watch Fantastic Mr Fox at the cinema with the kids.

Finally talked to mum this morning. With the time difference it has not been easy getting her before she goes to bed so I've not talked to her for a few weeks. It's always nice catching up on news from home.

I sometimes think of the parallel universe in which we live, so many lives, so many things going on at the same time, so many things we couldn't see, control or make sense of, not even if we were to put millions of TV screens side by side with cameras pointing everywhere at the same time. You hear about your relatives, your siblings, your nieces, your father, her sunglasses, swimming lessons - and all that time you were trying to get your cleaning lady to clear the spider webs above you and work out the next thing that you're going to cook and blog about.

And that next thing is Rose and Pistacchio Agar Agar Lokum aka Diet Lokum. Well "diet" is a relative term since there is still alot of sugar and rose syrup in it, only that you replace the corn starch with agar agar which is after all just seaweed. :-) You got it, I had almost expired agar agar sheets to get rid of. I think I sometimes do it on purpose. I let food almost expire so that I had to think of what to do with them.

Rose and Pistacchio Agar Agar Lokum :

500ml Water

5g Agar Agar sheets

120ml Rose syrup

100g Sugar

unsalted Pistacchio nuts (shells removed and crushed)

Icing Sugar

Corn starch

In a pot, soak the agar agar sheets in the water for a few minutes.

Bring the water to a boil and stir to dissolve the agar agar.

Stir in the sugar and rose syrup.

Pour the agar agar mixture into a lightly-oiled mould. I used a small rectangular pyrex container that didn't require oiling.

Sprinkle the pistacchios over the agar agar.

Let it cool before chilling it in the fridge. Agar agar sets quickly so it wouldn't require much time.

Mix some icing sugar and corn starch together. I would use 2:1 in proportions.

Cut the agar agar into cubes and roll them in the icing sugar-corn starch mixture.

Actually that was just for the photo, it's sweet enough, I would eat it as it is.