These lovely slender crisps of filo filled with sweetened nuts are as heavenly as baklava, much easier to prepare and to eat, and lower in calories and fat. Nuts provide protein and healthy quantities of fiber, as well as containing traces of many important elements necessary to good health.
Ingredients
Sweet Syrup: (See recipe below)
1/2 package (16 oz.) frozen filo dough, completely defrosted
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
(optional)
Filling
1/2 cup almonds or pistachios, pulverized in food processor with
1/3 cup sugar
Glaze
1 egg, beaten
sugar
Directions
1. Prepare the syrup in advance and chill in the refrigerator.
2. Combine the filling ingredients.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 1 or 2 baking sheets.
4. Cut the filo in half crosswise and again in half, stacking the covering with a slightly dampened towel to prevent drying. Lay 2 rectangles on your work surface with the shorter sides facing you, and brush lightly with melted butter.
5. Place a rounded tablespoon of the filling in a line across the shorter side of filo that faces you. Fold the longer edges of the pastry inward, sealing in the sides of the filling, and roll the pastry up from the short side, forming a fat cigar shape. Place on the baking sheet with the cut edge down. Repeat with remaining dough.
6. Brush the tops of the pastries lightly with a bit of beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.
7. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.
8. Dip the warm fingers into cool Sweet Syrup and arrange on a serving tray. Serve at room temperature.
Syrup
The general rule for syrup is to pour hot syrup over cold (or room temperature) pastries and to serve cold syrup over hot pastries.
In some areas, eating syrup and honey is superstitiously believed to ward off the djinn (evil spirits) and to make life sweeter.
3 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups water
1 lemon
1 tbsp. orange-blossom water or rosewater
1. Boil the sugar with the water until dissolved and viscous, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir in the remaining ingredients and remove from the heat.
Baklava
Ingredients
Fillo dough
1/2 pound Unsalted butter
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1 tsp. Cardamon
Almonds
1 tsp. Lemon Juice
1 1/2 cups Water
Crushed Pistachios
First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Next, melt
the butter over very low heat. Combine freshly ground cardamon cinnamon in a small bowl.
Lay two layers of fillo dough on a baking sheet, and pour two tablespoons
of melted butter over the dough. Use a pastry brush to spread the butter.
Next, sprinkle a thin layer of fresh almond nuts, and a small amount of
the cinnamon/cardamon mixture. Repeat this until you have several layers.
On the top layer, only spread melted butter. Bake the baklava at 375 degrees,
until the fillo dough is golden brown. At this point, remove the baklava
from the oven and prepare the syrup.
For the syrup... Combine one and one-half cups of water
with one and one-half cups of sugar, and one teaspoon of fresh lemon juice.
Bring the mix to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. While
the baklava is still warm, cut it into small triangle shapes and drizzle
the syrup over the baklava. To finish, sprinkle with crushed pistachio
nuts.
Khatai Cookies
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups White Flour
1 cup Sugar
3/4 cupCorn Oil
1 tablespoon crushed Cardamon
Pistachios
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the white flour with the sugar, and crushed
cardamon. Next, add the corn oil and mix well. Make
the dough into two inch round balls and put them on a cookie sheet and
bake for 15min, or until lightly browned. Sprinkle finely ground pistachios
on top of the cookies while they are still hot.
I just got an email warning me that these should be eaten when cooled
Firnee
Ingredients
2 cups Whole Milk
1 cup Sugar
4 tablespoons Corn Starch
1 tsp. Cardamom
Pistachios
1 capful Rose water
Directions
Mix whole milk with cornstarch and cardamon and rose water in a sauce pan. Bring it
to a boil. PLEASE NOTE: You must stir constantly, if you do not, the dessert
will NOT turn out properly!!! When the mix comes to a boil, remove from
the stove, and put into a shallow serving dish. Refrigerate and serve with
finely chopped pistachios sprinkled on top.
Sheer Payra Fudge
Ingredients
2 c. sugar
2/3 c. milk
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. light corn syrup
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1/4 c. pistachio nuts, chopped
1/4 c. walnuts, chopped
Directions
In a saucepan, cook milk, sugar, corn syrup and salt over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar
dissolves. Cook to 240ř on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat. Add butter. Cool mixture to 120ř
without stirring. Add cardamom, beating vigorously until candy is thick and no longer glossy. Quickly stir
in nuts. Spread mixture into a buttered pan. Let stand until firm. Cut into squares.
Gosh Feel (Elephant Ear Pastries)
40 servings
Ingredients
2 Eggs
2 ts Caster sugar
1/4 ts Salt
1/2 c Milk
4 ts Oil
2 1/2 c Plain flour
1/4 c Plain flour for kneading
1/2 ts Ground cardamom
Oil for deep-frying
1 c Icing (confectioners') sugar
1/2 ts Ground cardamom (optional)
1/2 c Finely chopped pistachios
*Note: Pistachio nuts should be blanched. Optionally, same amount of
finely chopped walnuts may be used intead of pistachios.
Directions
Beat eggs until frothy, beat in sugar and salt. Stir in milk and oil.
Sift flour, add half to egg mixture and blend in with wooden spoon.
Gradually stir in remainder of flour, holding back about 1/2 cup.
Turn onto floured board and dust with some of reserved flour. Knead
for 10 minutes until smooth and glossy, using more flour as required.
Dough will still be slightly sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and
rest for 2 hours.
Take a piece of dough about the size of a large hazelnut and roll out
on a floured board to a circle about 8-10 cm (3-4 inches) in
diameter. Gather up dough on one side and pinch, forming a shape
resembling an elephant ear. Place on a cloth and cover. Repeat with
remaining dough.
Deep fry one at a time in oil, heated to 190 C (375 F) turning to cook
evenly. Fry until golden, do not over-brown. As dough is rather
elastic, the pastry tends to contract with handling, so just before
dropping pastry into hot oil, pull out lightly with fingers to
enlarge.
Drain pastries on paper towels. Sift icing sugar with cardamom if
used and dust pastries with mixture. Sprinkle with nuts and serve
warm or cold. Store in a sealed container.
Alternative topping: Make a syrup with 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water.
Bring to the boil when sugar is dissolved and boil for 5 minutes.
Dribble syrup onto warm pastries and sprinkle with cardamom and nuts.
Peel the pumpkin and cut into 2-3" cubes; set aside. Heat oil in a large frying pan that has a lid. Fry the pumpkins on both sides fora couple of minutes until lightly browned.
Mix together ingredients for Sweet Tomato Sauce in a bowl then add to pumpkin mixture in fry pan. Cover and cook 20-25 minutes over low heat until the pumpkin is cooked and most of the liquid has evaporated. (I don't know how it's going to evaporate if the pan is covered....-B.) Mix together the ingredients for the yogurt sauce.
To serve: Spread half the yogurt sauce on a plate and lay the pumpkin on top. Top with remaining yogurt and any cooking juices left over. Sprinkle with dry mint. May be served with chalow (basmati rice) and naan or pita bread.
Halwaua-e-Aurd-e-Sujee
Serves 1
Ingredients
1 cup of Sugar
2 cup of Water
3/4 cup of Ghee
1 cup of Coarse semolina (farina)
1/4 cup of Pistachio nuts - blanched
1/4 up of Almonds - blanched & Slivered
1/2 tablespoons of Ground cardamom or to taste
1 tablespoons of Rosewater - See note Additional nuts to decorate
Directions
Combine sugar & water in saucepan & stir occasionally until dissolved, over medium heat. Bring to a boil, & boil briskly for 5 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat & leave aside in pan. In a deep heavy pan heat ghee & add semolina. Stir over medium heat for 5 minutes. Semolina should not color.
Pour hot syrup into semolina, stirring constantly. When smoothly blended, reduce heat & leave to cook, uncovered, until liquid is absorbed. Mixture should be thick but still moist at this stage. Stir in nuts, cardamon & rosewater to taste.
Cover rim of pan with a cloth or 2 paper towels, put lid on tightly & leave on low heat for 5 minutes. Turn off heat & leave pan undisturbed for 10 minutes.
Spread halwau on a flat, lightly oiled platter & decorate with nuts. Serve warm or cold, cutting pieces into diamond shapes or squares.
Sabse Borani
Ingredients
4 cups fresh spinach leaves, chopped
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 cup lightly drained plain yogurt (drain about 1 hr - easiest method is to place the yogurt in a coffee filter and let stand)
Directions
Place damp spinach in a saucepan, cover and cook until wilted. Drain and squeeze to remove excess water. Heat oil in a large skillet, sauté onion at low heat until golden, add garlic and sauté briefly, then add spinach, and cook for a minute or two more. Let cool. In a bowl, smooth yogurt and add spinach mixture. Season with salt and pepper.
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