In 1492 the Jews were expelled from Spain for the sake of the most radical Christian orthodoxy. It was a cruel and stupid decision.
Cruel because the Jews were as Spanish as their Christian neighbors and had a continued presence on the Peninsula for more than 1,500 years.
Stupid because those expelled occupied key positions in the country's economy and throwing them out was the equivalent of throwing stones against one's own roof.
The also very orthodox-but intelligent-Muslim sultan of the Ottoman Empire received them with open arms knowing what they were capable of contributing to his kingdom. Taking advantage of this invitation, they settled in various parts of the eastern Mediterranean, mainly in Constantinople, Egypt, the Balkans and Greece. Despite the expulsion, they never gave up their language, medieval Castilian, which they still speak today, although increasingly in a minority. For this reason the word "pepitada" is nothing more than a variant of others such as "orangeade", "lemonade", that is, seed juice.
The pepitada was typical of the Sephardic communities of Rhodes, Crete and Thessaloniki. It used to be taken to break the summer fast, both for its refreshing character and for its energetic value.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups (400 ml) with fresh melon seeds
- 1 liter of water (5 cups)
- half a cup of sugar
- Essence of orange blossom or rose water (optional)
I guess during the summer you eat melon. You usually cut it into slices and discard the seeds. Well, this time instead of throwing them away you keep them. Any type of melon is served, although in Greece the cantaloup type is used above all. In Spain the most common is the so-called toad skin, which is also valid.
Wash the seeds and dry them, either in the sun or simply by leaving them on absorbent paper and in a dry place.
Next it's time to toast them. There are two ways to do it. The first is to use the oven. It is preheated to 180 degrees (356 F) and the seeds are introduced until golden brown.
Another way is to place them in a pan without any type of oil or fat and toast them over medium heat until they are well browned on all sides. In this case, the slightly brown color of the seeds is decisive for stopping the roasting, but it also tends to coincide with the fact that some seeds explode as if they were popcorn.
Then we crush them in the mortar or grind them in a coffee grinder.
Next, we place them in the center of a clean, finely woven cotton cloth. We make a kind of package or bundle that we close with a string and submerge it in a jug with a liter of water, preferably cold, placing it in the fridge. You will need to stay there for 48 hours.
During that time we will squeeze the package three or four times so that the seeds leave their "juice", so that the liquid will gradually turn whitish. After two days we remove the seeds while adding half a glass of sugar and a couple of tablespoons of essence, shake well until they dissolve, serving it the colder the better.
It is an exotic drink that you will surely not forget.
By the way, it is rare in Greece that this drink is served in restaurants or outside of Sephardic settings.