Arabic Coffee – Turkish Coffee

scroll down for the recipe…

Why is it that for me to talk about today, I invariably have to explain something about yesterday? Anyway, yesterday, Naomi came down with a mild flu. We were planning to go visit friends in the afternoon, but we had to cancel that. The kids were going to play together, while my friend and I were going to knit. She needs some help with purling and I was going to take along the sweater I have been knitting for almost a year. I admit, I don’t work on it too often – but I do work on it, so one day I will finish it. I hope we’ll be able to go there on Friday. Actually, what I hope is that no one else in the family gets sick.

Thinking back, I’ve realized that ever since we started eating healthy, whole, real foods, neither the children nor Jeff nor I have gotten really sick. We do get sick, yes. But everything is really mild for us. In our fallen world, will we ever not get sick? I don’t know that. But I do know that we get sick less often and each sickness is much more mild. We hardly ever visit the doctor. In the past three years of healthy eating, not even once have any of the children gotten an ear or sinus infection. Both Jeff and I are really thankful for this.

Now, today’s agenda. I am needing to get off the computer and get going in the kitchen. I am going to be in the kitchen alot today. I need to bake bread today. I have gotten off my schedule of baking bread on Fridays because I ran out of wheat berries. So I hope to make today’s batch of six loaves of bread last until next Friday so I can get on schedule again. I also will be baking muffins. In addition to this, I have four huge organic pineapples sitting on the counter, from my Azure Standard co-op order. I have to chop them all up and freeze them for green smoothies. I did this last month, too, and it worked out so well.

The cezve and demitasse cups (for making Turkish coffee) that I ordered for our friends was just delivered. I can’t wait to give them this gift! Here is my mom’s recipe for making Turkish Coffee. This coffee is like an extremely sweet espresso. We don’t drink coffee generally, because of caffeine, but this is fun to make every once in awhile for a treat.

Arabic Coffee – Turkish Coffee

• 3 heaping tablespoons dark roast coffee, finely ground (Turkish grind)
• 3 tablespoons agave
• 2 cups filtered water
• 2 or 3 pinches of cardamom

Put water and coffee grounds in Turkish coffee pot (cezve or ibrik). Place on stove’s burner and bring to a boil, under close supervision. When it starts to foam, move the pot off the burner until the foam goes down. Repeat until the coffee stops foaming. Remove from heat. Add agave and pinches of cardamom and mix well. Cover the pot with a flat plate to keep hot. Let sit undisturbed for about five minutes while the grinds settle to the bottom. Serve in little cups (demitasse cups), pouring a little at a time, so as not to stir up the grinds settled at the bottom of the pot.

Optional: Add a thin sliver of orange rind. Thanks, Sylvia, for this suggestion.