Zarda Pulao (Sweet Rice)

                                                                                Receta en Español

This is a popular dessert in Bangladesh, eaten at big parties such as weddings.

It is sweet rice cooked in fruit juice, decorated with dried fruits, it has butter and a taste that reminds the gastronomy of Middle East.
This dessert can also be found in India.

Ingredients (8 people):


-  2 cups basmati rice.
-  1 cup sugar.
-  1/2 cup ghee or butter.
-  2 tablespoons ground cinnamon.
-  4 green cardamon seeds..
-  3 cloves.

-  2 cups and a half orange juice.

-  2 cups of water

-  Some saffron threads.

-  Some ground pistachios.
-  Some dried peaches.

Method:

1- Heat one cup of water (you can use microwave), once it reaches the boiling point, put some saffron threads inside. Let infuse at least 15 minutes.

2- Put 2 cups of orange juice in a casserole, add 1 cup of water and the cup of water with the saffron.
Put it on a high heat until it reaches the boiling point. Then add the rice.

Cook at low heat for 10 minutes.

3- Take other casserole , put 1/2 cup of orange juice, add the sugar, cinnamon, cardamon seeds, cloves and butter or ghee, stir until sugar is dissolved.
To see how you can make ghee, you can read the step number 3 at Cheese Kadaif.

4- Add the mixture to the casserole where you have the rice, cook at low heat until there is no liquid left.

5- You should serve it warm, sprinkle some ground pistachio and some dried peaches over the rice. 
This dessert can also be made using pineapple and pineapple juice, adding raisins and almonds.

My Comments to the Recipe

This is a tasty sweet, the following day tastes even better. Orange Juice provides a sweet and sour taste.

Bangladesh

Baclava from Azerbaijan

                                                               Receta en Español


Baclava is a typical treat at middle East countries, it is called baklava, baklawa, baclava or pakhlava, depending on the countrie.

In Azerbaijan there are several types of baclava, the most popular is the recipe I bring to you today.

This is called pakhlava, it is one of the most laborious due to the multiple layers you need.

It is a dessert cooked for the persian holiday Novruz, the 21  st of mars to celebrate the arriving of the spring and Persian's New Year

I took this recipe from this blog flavors of baku

where you can find a lot of recipes form Azerbaijan.

Ingredients (For 55 baclava, ovenproof recipient~ 25 X 27):

For the mixture of yeast:

• 1 teaspoon of yeast.
• 1 table spoon sugar.
• 1 table spoon flour.
• 80 ml of warm water.

For the dough:

•   1250 grams of flour.
•   1 egg room temperature.
•   1 table spoon sugar.
•   The mixture of yeast.
•   3 table spoon sour cream.
•   250 ml warm milk.
•   250 ml melted butter.
•   Salt.

   
For the Filling:
   

  450 grams nuts (without the shells).

  450 grams sugar.

  1 teaspoon ground cardamom.

  1 teaspoon ground coriander.

  1 teaspoon vanilla sugar.

  250 ml clarified butter.

 To decorate:

  2 yolks.

  1 teaspoon saffron infusion.

  1 teaspoon olive oil.

  15 nuts.

For the Syrup:

  125 ml clarified butter.

  250 grams of sugar.

  125 ml water.

  125 ml thousend flowers honey.

  1 tablespoon lemon juice.

Method:

1-  We are going to prepare first the mixture of yeast,flour and water. Let stand for half en hour.

2- Add to the bowl where you have the yeast the rest of the ingredients except the flour: egg, sour cream,milk, melted butter and mix well. Now add flour little by little passing it through a sieve.



3- Knead the dough until it is not sticky. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let it stand for 2 hours at room temperature. Yo can see in the pictures the dough before and after the 2 hours:

4- Now we prepare the filling. Crush the nuts in little pieces , mix with sugar, cardamon, coriander and vanilla sugar.

5- Now it is time to build the baclava, it has 12 layers of dough, you should divide the dough into 10 balls the same weight and other 2 balls with a little more weight , these two layers will be the upper and lower layers.

My dough weighted 1830 grams, I used 140 for each of the 10 layers and 215 grams for the upper and lower side layers.

To make the layers in a good shape I cut parchment paper with the same shape as my oven mold.

Sprinkle a little quantity of flour over the parchment paper, take one ball of dough , spread it over the parchment paper with the help of a rolling pin.

Then you should place the layer in the oven mold.

Don't forget to grease the mold with a little of clarified butter (see point 6) before putting inside all the layers.

I had a 35 x 27 mold

 6- To clarify the butter you should follow this procedure.

Heat butter in a casserole, once it is melted , turn off the heat and get rid of the white part that you see on the surface.

A little quantity of white will remain on the bottom of the casserole so be careful when you take the butter to avoid this part too.

7- After the first layer of dough (215 grams) is in the mold, paint all the surface of the layer with some clarified butter until it is brilliant (use a kitchen brush).



8- Now put some of the filling (point 4). I had 900 grams of filling 900/11 = 81 grams . So I took 81 grams of filling and spread it evenly over the first layer.

9- Now prepare the second layer using the same procedure : Layer of dough, clarified butter and filling.

Until you arrive to the last layer , here you don't have to brush with clarified butter,  no filling either.

After every layer be careful to place it evenly all over the surface of the mold.

10- To have baclavas with a rhomboid shape, cut the dough with diagonal strips:

 and now horizontal strips:

11- To decorate, brush the surface with a mixture of egg, saffran infusion and oil, this is to have a good colour after cooking in the oven. Place half a nut in the middle of every baclava.

12- Preheat oven at 180 ºC and cook baclavas in oven for 20 minutes.

13- Take out of the oven, spread 125 ml of clarified butter over the surface.Cook in oven for 15 more minutes.

14- Prepare syrup, mix water and sugar and cook for 20 minutes at low heat. Then add honey and lemon juice , stir and let cook at low heat for 10 more minutes.

15- Take out the baclavas from oven, with the help of a knife recut the baclavas in case they have stuck together.

Pour syrup over the baclavas.

16- Cook baclavas 5 more minutes in oven.

17- Let the baclavas get cool.



18- When baclavas are still a little warm separate them and place them on the serving dish. you can eat them now or wait until they are cooled . This baclavas last some days.





Kabsa (chicken rice from Saudi Arabia)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Kabsa is the national dish of Saudi Arabia, it is rice accompanied by chicken, lamb or fish. The recipe I present to you is rice accompanied by chicken.

I found this recipe at this blog where you can find other Saudi recipes:

http://www.yasalamcooking.com/chicken-kabsa/#.UoqAEHiDN0s

Ingredients:

• 1 Chicken in Pieces.
• 1 cup basmati rice.
• oil.
• 1 tomato diced.
• 2 chillis cut into strips.
• 2 bay leaves.
• Half a stock cube.
• 1 onion in pieces.
• 2 cloves of garlic.
• 6 cardamom beans.
• 5 cloves.
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
• 2 black lemons.
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin.
• 1 teaspoon coriander.
• 1 teaspoon salt.
• 1 teaspoon ground pepper.
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger.
• 200 grams tomato sauce.
• Some raisins.
• (Optional) 1 diced boiled egg and some toasted almonds.

Method:

1. put oil,onion and garlic in a casserole, put on a medium heat and sautée until gold.
2. Add bay leaves, cardamon, coriander, salt, black lemons, pepper, ginger, cumin, cloves, cinnamon. Sautée for a minute.
3. Add tomato sauce, diced tomato, stock cube and chillis.
4. Mix well and put on a low heat.
5. Add chicken and cook for some minutes stirring well to mix chicken with the spices.

6. Add water to cover the chicken totally, put on a high heat and boil, After reaching boiling point put on a low heat and cook for 35 minutes covered with a lid.

7. Once chicken is done, take 2 cups of the broth you have obtained after cooking it, we will use this broth to cook the rice.
8. Mix the broth with the rice in another casserole, put on a high heat , after reaching boiling point put on a low heat and cook covered for 10 minutes.
9. Serve chicken on the rice, add raisins, (egg and almonds if you want).

Where to buy the ingredients:

I bought black lemons in a shop at Antonio Calvo street, close to Madrid's mosque.



Saudi Arabia

Butter Cookies from afghanistan (Kulche birinjee)

                                                                               Receta en Español

As in almost every middle east country , cookies with nuts are very typical in Afghanistan.

Ingredients:

• 175 grams butter soften at room temperature.
• 175 grams sugar.
• 2  eggs.
• 500 grams white rice flour.
• ½ teaspoon ground  cardamom.
• 30 grams sliced pistachios.
• 20 grams whole pistachios without shell.

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 350 ºC.
2. whisk butter and sugar until the mixture is creamy.
3. Add egg whites and mix well.
4. Add flour step by step. Add flour until the mixture is not sticky.
5. Add cardamon and sliced pistachios.
6. Mix well.
7. Take an oven proof tray and line it with parchment paper. Take a little dough with a spoon and put it on the tray , use your hand to mold it like a cookie. Do the same with the rest of the dough.
8. With the help of a fork make marks on the dough, draw a grid on the dough. If the fork sticks to the dough dip it in cold water from time to time. 
9. Put a pistachio in the middle of the cookie.
10. Place the cookies over parchment paper , leave a distance of 3.5 cm between them.

               11. Cook in oven for 12-14 minutes.

               12. Let cool before eating.

My comments to the Recipe:

If you add enough flour to prevent dough being sticky , cookies will not crumble. These cookies are delicious due to the taste of butter mixed with pistachios.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Afghanistan

Kabuli Pulao (Afghanistan)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Pulao is one of the most typical dishes in Afghanistan; it is rice with grapes.

Kabuli Pulao is a version of Pulao adding lamb meat. This is the recipe I will present today.

Ingredients:

1 cup basmati rice.
450 g lamb.
2 cups meat broth.
1/2 sliced onion.
25 g blonde raisins.
1 carrot cut in strips.
2 teaspoon cumin.
1 ½ teaspoon cardamom.
1 teaspoon cinamon.
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper.
1 teaspoon butter.
Salt.

Method:

1- Fry carrots and grapes with butter. Put aside.

 
2- Take a big pan and sautée  onion until golden.
3- Add rice and broth, bring to a boil. Then cover and let cook on low heat during 20 minutes until rice is tender.
4- Take another pan, pour a litle oil and add spices. Cook some minutes until spices give of aroma, then add the meat and fry until done.
5- Place the meat in an oven proof dish, cover with rice, carrots and grapes. Cook in oven for 20 minutes at 250 º C.

Thie is the end:

My comments:

It is an easy recipe and very tasty due to the mixture of grapes and spices.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Afghanistan

Muhammar (Bahreini Sweet rice )

                                                                               Receta en español

In Arab countries they like rice with dates, raisins or any ingredient that sweetens rice, in Bahrain they also like it.

This sweet rice is called Muhammar, it is used as side dish of fish courses, it is a dish eaten in special days like the end of Ramadan.

In the recipe we will use sugar to sweeten the rice, they also use honey or dates.

Ingredients:

•   1/4 teaspoon of saffron threads.
•   3 cracked cardamon pods.
•   1 1/2 tablespoon rose water.
•   1 1/1 cup basmati rice.
•   5 cups water.
•   Salt.
•   1/3 cup White sugar or honey.
•   85 grams butter or ghee.

Method:

1-   Put saffron, rose water and cardamon pods in a bowl, let sometime for saffron to infuse.

2-   Wash basmati rice until water runs clear.

3-   Pour 5 cups water in a saucepan and put over medium heat, bring to a boil, when it reaches this point add salt and rice, let it boil again uncovered during 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4-  After this time throw away the remaining water from the rice and put the rice in a large colander.

5-  Melt butter in the same saucepan where we previously have cooked the rice and add the rice back into it with sugar or honey.
We also add rose water with saffron and cardamom and stir everything with a wooden spoon.

6-  We use the wooden spoon to make 3 holes in the rice.

7-  Cover the saucepan with a paper towel and put a lid on top.

8-  Cook rice over low heat during 20 minutes until it is done.

My comments to the Recipe

It is very easy to prepare and the result is good, perhaps it is too sweet to me, I prefer it when the rice is sweetened only by adding raisins or dates. Besides it is a curious mixture of spices.

This type of rice seems good, at least you will find no rice sticked at the base of the saucepan.

Where to find the ingredients

The ingredient more difficult ti find may be rose water, in Madrid I bought it at one of the Arab shops in the street Antonio Calvo, around the mosque of Madrid.

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools



Bahréin