slides: Make Delicious Rose Jam for Your Rose Festival Brunch

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Saturday, May 23, 2015

Linda Dalal Sawaya, GoLocalPDX Contributor

June is on its way with our Portland Rose Festival, but the roses in my garden have been blooming for weeks now, along with early strawberries. One of the amazing delights that come from roses, including the variety double delight, which could be re-named triple delight is rose jam.

When making this ancient ambrosial concoction, it perfumes my home, my taste buds, and lifts my spirit with its heavenly fragrance. Historically, rose petals were strewn in processions, at weddings, and festivals like confetti; they were added to bath water prior to the making of soap; and eventually they were distilled to make rose water, which then became popular in Middle Eastern pastries, such as baklava (baklawe in Arabic), 'atayif bi jouz (Lebanese crepes with walnut or cheese filling), and an beloved Arabic cheese pastry called knafe bi jibn. 

The discovery of rose water was attributed to Ibn Sina (Avicenna), a Persian physician who contributed much to the Islamic Golden age. Myths, legends, folk remedies, and folklore are abundant with roses—symbolic and real. In our local City of Roses tradition, the floats for Rose Parade are adorned and covered with festive roses. The 127th Annual Spring Rose Show takes place June 4 and 5, 2015, sponsored by the Portland Rose Society, an organization dating back to 1889—a history to celebrate, indeed, and a fine way to learn more about roses.

A simple syrup called attar in Arabic, is flavored with rose water (may warid) and orange blossom water (may zahar) and then chilled to drizzle over baked pastries as they emerge hot from the oven. Recipes for making this syrup and the pastries are found in Alice's Kitchen, along with mhallabiye, a rose water pudding and riz ib haleeb, rice pudding—both childhood favorites of mine scented with rose water—that delicate, magical essence that takes me back in time.

Roses are a natural ingredient for perfumes and aromatherapy sprays to refresh and revive oneself. Therapeutic benefits of rose range from aphrodisiac to antiseptic, antidepressant, nervine and beyond! A few drops of the distilled rose water added to lemonade add a floral sweetness to this summer beverage; a few drops in a demitasse cup of hot water create "white coffee", as an alternative to Arabic coffee after a meal to help digestion. If you missed deadheading a rose in your garden, it will develop into a rose hip. Most of us know that rose hips make vitamin C rich herbal tea beneficial in the winter months to stave off colds.

For more information on how to make delicious rose Jam, see the slideshow below. 
 

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Related Slideshow: How to Make Delicious Rose Jam

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