Pistachio Stuffed dates

                                                                              Receta en Español

Dates are typical from Saudi Arabia, they are cooked stuffed with nuts,coconut or chocolate, today I show you how to cook Pistachio Stuffed dates.

Ingredients:

• 22 Dates.
• 70 grams natural husked Pistachios.
• 2 dessert spoons of orange blossom water.

Method:

1. Grind pistachios.

2. Mix ground pistachios with blossom water.
3. Mix well until you obtain a paste.

4. Cut dates along side , get rid of the seed.
5. Put the mixture of pistachios with blossom water inside  the dates.

My comments to the Recipe:

They are very easy to make and extremely delicious, pistachios and dates make a perfect match. You should try them!.



Saudi Arabia

Makrouts

                                                                              Receta en Español

This dessert is known as macroude, makrodh o makrout , it is typical from Algeria, Morocco,Libya and Tunisia.

In Algeria there re 3 kind of Makrouts, 2 of them made of almonds and 1 of them made of dates. 
Today I present you this makrouts filled with dates. It's origin comes from Mzab Oasis, close to Sahara desert. They can be fried or cooked in oven.
I show you the recipe of Makrouts cooked in oven:

Ingredients (100 Makrouts)

For the dough:

• 1 Kg medium wheat semolina .
• 250 g fine wheat semolina.
• 400 g butter (to prepare ghee).
• 1 liter water.
• Salt.
• 2 tablespoon orange blossom water.
• 200 g honey + 3 tablespoon orange blossom water (to bathe Makrouts).
• Cling Film.

For the Filling:

• 500 g dates pasta . (Already made or you can buy pitted dates and smash them).
• 1  teaspoon cinnamon.
• 1 teaspoon ground clove.
• 1 tablespoon orange blossom water.
• 2 tablespoon honey or butter in case dates paste is too dry.

Method

1.      To prepare the filling: Mix dates pasta with orange blossom water,cinnamon and clove.

2.      Use your hands to knead the dough until it is well mixed and soft . If you press a finger on the dough the print should remain.

3.      Take a little quantity of dough and knead it into the shape of a cilinder (make more cilinders with the rest of the dough).

4.      To prepare the outer side: Mix well both semolinas and salt, use your hands.

5.      Heat butter until it is melted.

6.      Get rid of the white coat of the surface of the melted butter, this way we obtain ghee.

7.      Pour ghee over the semolinas and mix well, first with a spoon , then when the mixture is not hot use your hands to knead the dough until all the ghee is well absorbed.

8.      Let stand 1 hour.

9.      Add orange blossom water and keep on kneading.

10.   Add warm water little by little, continue kneading with your hands until the dough is this consistency,  if you press a finger on the dough the print should remain:

11.   Wrap the dough in cling film and let stand 30 minutes.

12.   Spread the dough like a rectangle 1 cm thick and make a groove in the middle:

13.   Place dates pasta into the groove.

14.   Wrap the dates pasta with the dough.

15.   Roll the dough until you obtain a cilinder:

16.   Flatten the cilinder and cut in a diamond shape.

17.   With the help of a knife make some stripes on the surface to decorate the Makrouts:

18. Place makrouts on a oven proof dish, thay must be close one to the other because dates pasta should not be exposed to the oven.

19.   Preheat oven to 180 ºC.

20.   Cook Makrouts at 180 ºC for 10 or 20 minutes, thay must get sligthy golden.

21.   We prepare honey syrup,mix honey with 3 orange blossom water then turn on the heat to warm it.

22.   Dip Makrouts into the syrup, both sides.

        23.  Let drain :

My comments to the Recipe

 

This maskrouts can be conserved into the fridge for 2 weeks. The taste is amazing , if you eat them some days after the elaboration, thay are even better!

 

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

Favourite cooking tools

Algeria

Date and banana Mix (Burundi)

                                                                               Receta en Español

Date and Banana mix is a cake made using two ingredients very common in Burundi; banana and dates.

Sweets are not commonly consumed in Burundi, but I have found references to this dessert in several web pages, this one among them:http://www.zeraction.com/2015/08/burundian-cuisine-recipes-of-beans-dishes.html , I suppose that they make it only in special occasions.

It is delicious and very easy to cook, I encourage you to try it!.

Ingredients (for a 17x25 cm recipient):

-  250 grams butter.
-  25 grams butter for the final topping.
-  200 grams powdered sugar.
-  2 eggs.
-  500 grams flour.
-  1 package baking powder.
-  Salt.
-  4 Bananas.
-  250 grams dates.
-  2 spoons powdered sugar.
-  1 spoon cinnamon.

Method:

1- If you don't have powdered sugar you can use normal sugar and grind it using a coffee grinder.

2- Put 250 grams of butter in a bowl, once the butter is at room temperature cream it together with 200 grams of powdered sugar until the mix is light and fluffy. 

3- Add eggs one after the other , beat  them and mix well.

4- Add flour, salt and baking powder; mix well until you get an homogeneous mixture.

5- Take an ovenproof mould of 17x25 cm, line it with parchment paper. Put inside the mould half of the mixture and spread it well. 

6- Cut bananas into slices , bananas should be in an optimal state of maturation, nor green nor brown.

Spread the banana slices all over the mixture.

7- Remove pits from dates then cut the meat into little pieces, spread the pieces of dates all over the bananas.

8- Cover with the other half of the mixture, spread it well using a spatule. Leave the Surface of the cake flat.

9- Preheat the oven at  180 ºC, cook the cake for 30 minutes at the same temperature over/under heating.

10- Rigth after taking the cake out of the oven we pour over the surface 25 grams of melted butter. We do it with the help of a cooking brush.

11- Mix the remaining powdered sugar with the cinnamon, spread it over the surface of the cake using a little strainer.

 That's the result:

My comments to the Recipe

Dates mixed with bananas are a delicious combination, this cake has a marvellous taste. It is pretty easy to make! , you should try and taste it.

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

Favourite cooking tools

Burundi