Lavashak

When I was a kid we used to have these fruit rolls called lavashak (لواشک). These were made of different kinds of pureed fruits and were dried into rolls and kids really liked them. They are made of plums, barberries, dogberries, sour cherries, apples and apricots. Of course, I never liked the sweet ones made of apples and apricots. My favorite ones were the homemade plum ones. The store bought rolls usually had a mix of apples to keep it cheap. And I remember whenever I was eating lavashak my parents would sort of get angry and tell me not to eat that junk food. Comparing to the garbage kids eat these days I was on the rather healthy side, at least I was eating fruit. Real fruit with real colors.

Good thing I grew up and can do as I please. I came to the US 4 years ago and was so excited to see fruit rolls in supermarkets. I did the mistake of buying some and being terrorized by the super sugary fruit flavor garbage I got. Being disappointed and deprived from my tart vitamins, I decided to make my own fruit rolls.

This was actually the third time I was making lavashak. I bought some plums - red and black - at the supermarket for 88 cents a pound. The plums don't have to be the freshest or have the nicest look for making lavashak but freshness doesn't hurt either. If you can get bruised or softer plums for cheaper go ahead and do so.

Lavashak

Ingredients:

• 2 lb plums
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp lime juice

Cooking Directions

1. Count your plums. Wash them and place them in a pot. Add just a bit of water to cover the bottom of the pot and prevent the plums from burning. Cover and cook on medium low until the plums disintegrate (about 2 hours). 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Fish the pits out. Count them. Make sure you have all of them out. Enjoy the heavenly tart taste of the plums. Use the immersion blender to make smooth puree.
   
   
   
3. Leave on low heat until the puree thickens. When you take it off the heat it cools off and becomes even thicker.
   
4. If you are not as fanatic as I am about tartness add some sugar. If you want more tartness add some lime juice. I added the sugar to the red plums. I wished I had added a little bit less. But I have to be considerate to other people too. The black plums were rather sweet so I added the lime juice.
5. Spread the puree on a sheet of plastic and keep it to dry. I just cut open a large ziplock bag. If you have good strong sun, leave it in the sun. If you live in Houston just wait a few days. 

This is how it will look when it has dried. And yes that beautiful red is a real color. I didn't use anything but the plums themselves.

If you add too much water at the beginning you have to keep the puree on the heat for a longer time and that will cause your beautiful fresh red color to become dark. So start with as little water as possible. You need to watch the plums every few minutes to make sure they are not burning but it is really worth it.

I will definitely experiment to find out the right ratio of red plums to black plums to get the taste I want so that I can totally avoid adding sugar or lime juice. I will let you know how it goes.