Assidat Zgougou

What we know so far

Assidat zgougou is the dessert Tunisia makes for the Mouled, the Prophet's birthday, and for nothing else quite so much: a grey-brown cream made from the tiny black seeds of the Aleppo pine (zgougou), which are toasted, ground, soaked and strained again and again to draw out their milky, faintly resinous juice, then cooked with flour into a thick custard, sweetened, and set in bowls under a layer of white vanilla crème pâtissière and a decoration of chopped pistachios, almonds, pine nuts and sugar pearls. The filtering is the work; a fine "malti" sieve or a muslin cloth, and never more than three or four passes, or the shells make it bitter. You will not find it anywhere else in the world.

The draft was written from 3 published sources and holds 13 ingredients and 7 steps. It has never been cooked by anybody at AFN, which is why it is waiting.

What claiming it means

1. Cook it the way you actually make it. Change anything in our draft that is wrong, and most of it probably is.
2. Photograph your own, so the page carries a real picture instead of somebody else's.
3. Send it in. An editor reads it, and it publishes with your name on it and a link to your profile.

See every dish waiting