Sounds fabulous! What to substitute for the rose water?

No substitute for rosewater! Or, maybe just a teensy bit of rose hip syrup (check out the baby section of your supermarket). But it should be easily available in the baking section of your supermarket - amongst the food colourings etc. It's used quite a lot Middle Eastern cooking, and is well worth getting some. It's easy to make your own rosewater. Best to use the darkest, most heavily perfumed red roses:

Rosewater
Boil 1 cup red rose petals with 1 cup water for about 10 minutes. Cover and leave overnight. Strain, discarding petals. Will keep for about 2 weeks in the fridge. It may be sweetened with a little honey before boiling if desired.

Daisy, thank you for the information. I don't have any roses and rosewater isn't in the supermarkets where I live. I could order some, but ir would probably be expensive and I wouldn't use it for anything else so it wouldn't be worth it.

These sound good, Ruthanna-minus those currents though.
Beverly, rosewater here isn't very expensive and it is really good in lemonade too. I use it a lot in the summertime.

Where do you find yours Roselin?

I would probably sub raisins for the currants.

We have a Mediterranean Restaurant here that has a little store attached and they sell it. Some of the larger grocery stores sell it too.

They have it at the Wegman's grocery store in our area - $1.99 for a bottle that's about 6 to 8 oz.

We have neither Wegman's or a Mediterranean place in this town. I'll look for it though.

Beverly, no roses here either, no rosewater and no Wegman's and no Mediterranean place. Because I don't know what it tastes like, I guess I wouldn't miss it. Maybe we could just substitute vanilla, it's only 1 1/2 tsp...

Annie

With the way they taste, I wouldn't use vanilla. Orange juice might be a better substitute.

Rosewater has a subtle, sweet, perfumy flavour that is very pleasant to the palate. Vanilla has too strong a flavour to substitute for it.

Orange juice might be OK, but better still would be Orange Blossom Water, made in the same way as Rosewater.

Yeah, yeah, I know - no orange blossoms either!

Seriously, if the worst comes to the worst, just add the same amount of plain water - or some cold water/sugar syrup. You won't miss the flavour of the rosewater - until you've tried it.

Thank you, Ruthanna, that would probably be a viable solution. In my town of 800 residents, I'll probably never see rosewater, and like Beverly, wouldn't use enough of it to bother to drive 100 miles to buy some.

Annie

Okay, sugar water or orange juice it is. Thanks girls!

I spotted bottles of Rosewater Essence in my supermarket this morning. Small bottles, about 5cm tall (2") similar to food colouring bottles - 96 cents. (That's Australian money, of course!)

It's a pity we can't email each any more, or I'd get your address and send you some.

Ruthanna, I have the ingredients for this except for pistashios. I might try and make this over the weekend, depends on my schedule. I've been looking for a good winter dessert to go with all the Eastern dishes I like to make. In the summer I just serve melon.

Buying rosewater was fun, I got to peruse the exotic foreign foods aisles at Wegman's. I had to work hard to restrain myself, but got away with just the rosewater and some korma curry sauce. The rosewater came in a huge bottle but was very inexpensive. It's probably not top of the line, as per my memory of my last year's rosewater post. Never did get a chance to try those recipes, since I ended up getting sick at that time. I figure if the rosewater isn't any good I can always bathe in it, LOL.

Annie,
Re: Because I don't know what it tastes like, I guess I wouldn't miss it. Maybe we could just substitute vanilla, it's only 1 1/2 tsp...

Rosewater from Lebanon is a clear but has a very pungent and strong flavor of roses. 1 1/2 tsp is a good quantity of rosewater, as is the same amount of vanilla. Using vanilla or orange juice (minimal if any taste) would give you a dish without a really characteristic flavor.
On the downside, rose and orange waters do not keep very long and should be used quickly and are best stored in the refrigerator. 1 1/2 tsp out an 8 ounce bottle ($1.99 here in a small market)would barely make a dent in the total contents.
However, with all that left, just think of all the different recipes from north Africa you could try.
Hope Santa was good to you. Hope you aren't working too hard. Don't even know that you will ever see this post.
Jim in So Calif