Nishallo

Ingredients

The root extract

• 40 gdried soapwort root
• or liquorice root
• 1 litrewater

The foam

• 4egg whites
• pasteurised, or dried albumen
• 400 gsugar
• 150 mlwater
• 1 teaspoonlemon juice

To serve

• with fresh non bread
• at Navruz
• through Ramadan

Directions

1. Use pasteurised white if any will eat it. Plain egg white foam collapses within hours. Rinse the dried root thoroughly. Cover it with cold water in a bowl.
2. Leave it to soak there overnight. The root is hard and very dry. Put the root and its water in a pot. Bring the pot up to a full boil. Give it about forty full minutes. Stir the liquid vigorously in the pot. It should foam up quite readily. Reduce it further if it does not. Stop once it does foam readily.
3. Strain the liquid through a fine cloth. Press the root against the cloth. Discard all of the boiled root. Strain it twice if it is cloudy. Let the extract cool completely. Refrigerate it if you have time. Warm extract foams only loosely. Put the sugar and water in a pan. Warm it until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon juice once it boils. Acid stops the sugar crystallising.
4. Let it boil without stirring it. Bring it up to a thread stage. Never touch it or taste it while hot. Keep children well away from the pan. Put the egg whites in a clean dry bowl. Whip them until they hold stiff peaks. Any grease stops whites whipping properly.
5. Use a glass or metal bowl rather than plastic. Whip the cooled root extract into the whites. Add it gradually rather than all at once. The extract is a very thin liquid.
6. Add it slowly with the whisk running. The foam takes it up as you go. Keep the whisk running throughout. Pour the hot syrup in a thin stream. Pour it down the side of the bowl. A thin steady stream is essential. Take a full minute over the pour.
7. Keep whipping after the syrup is in. Give it a good ten full minutes. Whip it for longer if it does. It should be marshmallow-like. Spoon it out into a shallow bowl. Serve fresh warm non alongside it. It keeps several days covered. Whip it briefly to bring it back.

Technique

• The atlas also carries nishalda from Uzbekistan, which is the same preparation under another name — the two are one dish across a border, and the differences are orthographic rather than real. The atlas lists dishes by country and each country names its own foods, so it appears twice; saying so is more honest than merging silently.
• This is a raw egg preparation: the foam is never cooked after whipping and, although the syrup is hot, the whites never reach a cooking temperature. That carries a small but genuine salmonella risk which the hot syrup does not remove — pasteurised egg white or dried albumen does, and should be used if anyone pregnant, very young or with low immunity will eat it. The atlas’s Syrian natef, by contrast, contains no egg at all and foams on the saponins alone.
• The soapwort saponins are what make the foam hold for days where a plain egg white foam collapses within hours. Saponins in quantity irritate the gut, and the failure mode is an over-strong extract rather than the dish as normally made — so stop reducing once it foams readily, and treat bitterness as the warning sign.

Substitutions

• Liquorice root is used as well as soapwort root, and both give a foaming extract.
• Dried albumen powder stands in for egg white and removes the raw egg question.

Variations

• Non, the round Central Asian bread baked against a clay oven wall, is torn rather than cut and the foam spread on the pieces.
• It is eaten to break the fast through Ramadan and appears on the Navruz table at the spring equinox.
• Add the thin root extract to the whipped whites gradually with the whisk running, since adding it fast collapses the foam.

History

White whipped paste of egg white, sugar and soapwort root, eaten at Navruz and during Ramadan.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nishallo?

Nishallo is a dessert from Tajikistan: whipped marshmallow-like sugar cream made for Ramadan. White whipped paste of egg white, sugar and soapwort root, eaten at Navruz and during Ramadan.

How long does Nishallo take to make?

Nishallo takes 40 minutes plus soaking of preparation and 40 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes about 600 ml. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Nishallo?

Yes, within limits. Liquorice root is used as well as soapwort root, and both give a foaming extract. Dried albumen powder stands in for egg white and removes the raw egg question.

What is the most important thing to get right in Nishallo?

Let it boil without stirring it. Bring it up to a thread stage. Never touch it or taste it while hot. Keep children well away from the pan. Put the egg whites in a clean dry bowl. Whip them until they hold stiff peaks. Any grease stops whites whipping properly.