652. Qamr Al Deen Apricot Drink

Qamr Aldeen (قمر الدين) is a tangy-sweet apricot fruit leather that was my absolute favorite candy as a child.
During Ramadan, it is quite popular to make a juice from this thick apricot leather.
One summer when Syria had seen better days, I observed women sitting in their front porch boiling huge pots of fresh apricots picked from their own garden destined to be qamr aldeen.
Indeed, the best qamr aldeen I have tasted comes from Syria.
So to make the drink, the fruit leather is cut up into smallish pieces and soaked in water for a couple of hours or overnight in the fridge.
You then blend the mixture, with a bit of sugar and orange blossom, and there you have it.
Due to its natural sugar content, it restores the vitality of a fasting person very fast.

Ingredients:

400g qamr aldeen apricot fruit leather
4 cups boiling water
4 Tbsp sugar
4 tsp orange blossom water

Method:

Cut up the qamr aldeen into smallish pieces and put in a bowl.
Add the sugar and boiling water to the qamr aldeen, cover and set aside for a couple of hours (4 hours is good enough, or overnight in the fridge).
Add the orange blossom water to the mixture, and blend the lot until smooth.
If the drink is too thin for your linking, dilute it in some water.
Chill it before serving.

صحة و عافية