from The Palestinian Table
by Reem Kassis
“
I can still remember walking through Jerusalem’s old city as a child with my mother, going from vendor to vendor and buying different whole spices in bulk. My mother would roast the spices when we got home and the house would be drunken on the fresh, earthy aromas. For years after I left home, she continued doing this, always sending me a jar of freshly roasted and ground spices. Today I roast my own, but when I do, the smell always transports me back to that time.
”
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Makes about 3.5oz/100g
6 tbsp allspice berries
6 cassia bark or cinnamon sticks
3 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 tsp cardamom seeds
10 cloves
2 blades mace
0.5 nutmeg, crushed
Place all ingredients in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Stir with a wooden spoon periodically to ensure the spices do not burn, until you begin to smell the aroma of the spices, about 10 minutes.
Remove the pan from heat and set aside to cool completely, about 1 hour. This step is crucial because if the spices are not cooled properly, they will form a paste when ground rather than a powder.
Place all the roasted spices into a heavy-duty spice grinder and grind until you achieve a fine powder consistency. Store the spice mix in an airtight container. It will keep for several months although the aroma will fade with time.
This spice mix is featured in many Palestinian dishes. Substitute with store-bought baharat or Lebanese seven spice mix for an equally tasty, albeit slightly different, flavor profile.
In the card, a boy passes one of six cups full of white flowers to a smaller girl. She looks up to the boy with love, respect, and adoration. Happy reunion, harmony and co-operation manifest in this exchange. They give and receive with no further expectation. The young children can represent childhood memories.
An adult man walks away in the distance, as if to forget adult issues to let us just bask in the nostalgia for a moment. The children stand in the courtyard of a large home, symbolizing comfort, safety and security.
The card invites building bonds through childlike authenticity and suggests that it’s time to start over, to turn over a new page. It can also represent a return to a familiar place—your hometown, or any other place that holds a lot of meaning for you. There is a desire to reconnect with your community, and old memories that remind us of our childhood and our roots, a time when things were simpler.
Coming in the suit directly after the Five of Cups, the Six of Cups also suggest that there has been a great loss, tragedy, or heartbreak. The journey home requires a careful, loving recollection of the past to build an answer to the crisis that’s been left to be solved. The comfort and the warmth of unconditional love from community is a source of strength to face the trials ahead.
from the July 2024 issue