Anissa Helou's orange blossom jam (mrabba al-zahr)

Before moving into my own house in Sicily, I rented a small "casetta" (little house) on the farm of my friend Mary Taylor Simeti, author of the seminal work on Sicilian cuisine, Pomp and Sustenance, 25 Centuries of Sicilian Food.

I managed to be there for the orange blossom season, though I arrived just at the end. That year, my friend Amy Dencler, a chef at Chez Panisse, visited me. One of the first things we did was go down to Mary's citrus orchard to pick enough blossoms to make mrabba al-zahr.

Most of the blossoms were already gone, but there were still enough left for us to gather for the jam. The fact that the blossoms were at the end of their life made picking them easier. All we had to do was shake the branches for the petals to fall from the buds and land in our basket.

That said, making the jam is a challenging — or more precisely, time-consuming — task, and picking the blossoms was actually the easiest part.

We first had to carefully remove the petals from the buds, taking care not to mix in the pollen with the petals. Because the blossoms were past their prime, this job took less time than if we’d picked them at their freshest. Most petals dropped as soon as we touched them, which was the easiest part.

The rest of the process is detailed in the recipe below, but the final result is really worth the effort. Not only is the jam beautiful, but it's also incredibly delicious, with a delicately perfumed taste that makes it truly unique.

In Lebanon, it's mostly used to top pastries filled with cream, but I like to serve it for dessert over whipped yogurt or eat it for breakfast, whether on yogurt, sheep's-milk ricotta, or jibneh khadra, provided the cheese isn't too salty. I start by spreading the cheese of my choice on some bread before adding the jam on top.