That Translator Can Cook: [Peanut Butter] Basbousa

The beloved sweet semolina cake with a twist: peanut butter flavoring, drenched with sweetened condensed milk instead of syrup.

I wanted to choose a dish from Sudan and one that’s a dessert since I haven’t done one yet, so I chose basbousa; even though it didn’t originate from Sudan, it’s very popular there. I also chose this peanut butter version because Sudan boasts 14% of the world total peanut's production and is one of the top five producers worldwide-there’s a reason why ‘peanuts’ in Arabic is ‘ful sudani’ and they’re an important component in Sudanese cuisine. My friend, who’s from Sudan, makes these delicious sweet potatoes with a spicy peanut sauce. But I digress.

This cake originated in Egypt, according to most accounts, although some say the Ottomans created it. Basbousa is actually what this cake is called in Egypt (and Sudan), except in Alexandria. This cake is called hareesa in Alexandria, Egypt and other places like Syria (I believe) ‘hareesa’ is the Modern Standard Arabic name, but I could be wrong. Nammoura is the name used in Lebanon and Syria (and Jordan and Palestine too, I think). Welcome to the wonderful world of Arabic dialect variation.

There are many variants of basbousa/hareesa/nammoura, but it’s traditionally a sweet cake made up of semolina, butter/ghee, and yogurt and drenched in syrup. Some use eggs and some add qishta (a type of clotted cream). Some flavor the cake with coconut and others use rose/orange blossom water. I like this peanut butter version because it doesn’t seem as sweet as traditional basbousa; I ate some in Palestine and I thought I was going to develop cavities and diabetes right then and there. I should also mention that I don’t like sweet sweet foods: I’m more of a sour sweet or bittersweet kind of girl.



Here is how to make this delicious cake. The pictures and recipe belong to Basem El-Amir’s mother (أم بَاسِمْ الأمير).

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups of semolina

• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

• 1/2 cup of sugar

• Almost 1 stick of butter (100 g/7 tbsp.) at room temperature

• 1 jar/can (160-170 g/5.4-5.75 fl. oz.) of qishta [clotted cream]

• 2 tablespoons of peanut butter

• 2 tablespoons of yogurt

• 1/4 cup of water

• 1 can 12-fl. oz. (354 mL) of Nestle sweetened condensed milk

For Decoration:

• 1 tablespoon of peanut butter

• 2 tablespoons of caramel

• Crushed pistachios and peanuts

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF/180ºC and mix the baking powder and semolina.

2. Mix the butter and sugar with a hand mixer until the sugar completely combines with the butter.

3. Add the peanut butter, yogurt, and qishta and mix well.

4. Add the semolina to this mixture, then add the water and mix them until mixture becomes consistent.

5. Grease a cheesecake baking pan and pour the mixture into it. Put it in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until you can see the edges are brown. Pay attention to it as it bakes in the oven.

6. Take it out of the oven and immediately after taking it out, pour the sweetened condensed milk over it. Cover it and let it sit to cool. Decorate it however you want and serve with coffee.

Translators’ Discussion

1. The measurement for the butter was originally اصبع زبده (‘finger of butter’), but after converting 100 g to tablespoons, I figured that ‘finger’ wasn’t a literal measurement. Have any of you ever come across a situation like this?

2. I put both ‘jar’ and ‘can’ for the qishta (a type of clotted cream according to most sources, some say it’s heavy cream) measurement because the source text simply says علبة, which means any sort of container: can, case, box, jar, carton, pack(et), etc… Clotted cream / qishta comes in both jars and cans. I gave approximate measurements based on average can/jar size sold. How do you deal with ambiguous measurements when you can’t ask a direct client?

3. I had both metric and US measurements for this recipe because the source text had metric measurements and I needed to convert them into US in order to understand them. Would it be helpful to all of you who have been following along if I continued this?

4. In Step 2, the source text says, “حتى ختفي السكر (until the sugar disappears).” When researching how mixing butter and sugar is written about, I found “until it’s light and fluffy,” and “until completely combined.” How do you usually express this step? Would you have chosen a different phrasing than the one I chose?