Qamardeen ~ Dried Apricot Leather Drink

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“(Musa AS) said, “No! Indeed, with me is my Lord; He will guide me.” (Surah Ash-Shura:62)

This is the statement that our dear prophet made when he was a crossroad – literally. As he ran with his followers to escape from the clutches of the Phoaroah and reach the sea, which is obviously the dead end, everybody panics and he assures everybody of the help of Allah. How many of us have such stern faith, that His help will come irrespective of whatever is happening in our life? It is not easy, yet not difficult too. Even though we may never reach the level of resolute His prophets had, we are given the choice of always keeping them as our role models to turn our lives towards complete “Tawakkul”. I myself struggle a lot, in every sense. Frustration, irritation, helplessness always seeps in – that is the way we are made. But when we tell ourselves that we have never been subjected to the difficulties our prophets have faced, Alhamdulillah, aren’t we better? That is the reason why the Qur’an has so many instances of how much difficulties they have gone through in their quest to declare the Oneness of the Lord, so that we become content, that ours is just a drop in the sea. Like I do every Ramadan, I am going to use this month to build up my stock of strength required, not that trouble will come, but if it does come, I am prepared to go through it, InShaAllah. 🙂 May Allah bless all of us with strong eemaan in Him and His Mercy… Aameen…

Since this Ramadan is really hot, I decided to do a back-to-back 3 drinks post this month. The first one in the series is one that is so frequently found over here – Qamardeen. Where this drink originated, I have no clue, but the only thing I know that this is so popular all across Middle Eastern countries. This is one drink you will find at all Arab restaurants, Iftar buffets, every Arab house and what not. Dried apricot sheets (fruit leathers) are used to make this delicious drink. During Ramadan, the sale of this dried apricot sheet goes up manifold so that explains why you can see gondolas of this item in every hypermarket before this month. It is a very thick drink, so you need just a small quantity to feel full. I was reading somewhere that some Arab households use this drink to dip long finger biscuits and eat during the month! That is really interesting! I already have a popsicle recipe made of these sheets, which was actually a pudding gone wrong! 😀 Moving on to how to make this favorite…

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5 from 2 votes

Qamardeen ~ Dried Apricot Drink

Course Drink

Cuisine Arab

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 3 hours hours

Servings 6 -8

Author Rafeeda

Ingredients

• 400 gm kamarudeen dried apricot sheet
• 3 cups warm water
• 1 tbsp orange blossom water
• Cold water as required
• Pine nuts for garnish

Instructions

• Shred the kamarudeen sheet and soak in the water for around two hours or till the sheet turns soft.
• Add the softened sheets along with the soaked water and orange blossom water into a blender and blitz.
• Chill for half an hour and serve garnished with pine nuts.

Notes

The drink is normally thick but add cold water to make it thinner as required.
You can replace the orange blossom water with rosewater as well.