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

Bahrani Prawn Balls (Chebeh Rubyan)

                                                                               Receta en Español

This dish is widely eaten in Bahrain when celebrating, usually accompanied by Muhammar (sweet rice Bahrain) it is a dish where we can notice the influence of Middle Eastern and Indian cuisines in the gastronomy of Bahrein .

Ingredients:

For the Balls:

•   650 grams raw or frozen shrimps .
•   4 tablespoons fresh coriander leaves.
•   1/2 teaspoon turmeric.
•   1/2 teaspoon grounded black lemon (loomi).
•   90 grams rice flour.
•   Salt.

For the filling:

• 1 large onion cut into small pieces.
• 25 grams of butter or  ghee.
• 1 teaspoon of Baharat (Bahreini blend of spices).
• 1/2 teaspoon grounded black lemon (loomi).

For the tamarind sauce:

• 1 teaspoon of tamarind concentrate.
• 1 small onion finely chopped.
• 470 ml of water.
• 1 tablespoon ghee  or 40 grams butter.
• 1 large tomato.
• 1 teaspoon of Baharat (Bahreini blend of spices)
• 1/4 teaspoon hot chili pepper.
• Salt.
• 2 teaspoon sugar.

Method:

1-   Peel and wash raw shrimps. I used raw prawns, peeled and frozen, this way I just had to thaw them.

2-   Mix shrimps and coriander leaves in a bowl , use a blender to obtain a paste.

 3-   Add turmeric, black lemon, rice flour and salt , mix well and cover with transparent film. Put it in the fridge. While it cools we prepare the rest of the ingredients.

4-   Pour ghee or butter into a frying pan.
It is easier to use butter , in case you want to use ghee, you can read how to prepare ghee in this post ,section number 3: ghee.
Heat butter or ghee and add the large onion cut into pieces,Baharat and grounded black lemon (loomi), stir well and fry at medium heat until onion gets golden.

5-   Dilute tamarind concéntrate in a cup of wáter, let stand 10 minutes and stir well so that it is well diluted.

6-   Put butter in a large saucepan, heat and fry small onion cut into small pieces.

7-   Peel the tomato, the easiest way to do that is to put the tomate during five minutes in boiling water.

After peeled ,cut the tomato into small pieces.

8-   Add to the saucepan diluted tamarind, water , tomato, Baharat, pepper salt and sugar. Cover and boil during 15 minutes.

9 - While preparing the sauce we can start making the balls. Wet your hands to prevent the dough sticking in your hands, take a spoonful of dough , flatten it in your palm.
Put in the center a Little quantity of the fried onion with spices and wrap the dough until you get a ball.
Repeat until you finish all the dough.

10 - Put the balls into the saucepan where we have the sauce, cover and cook at médium-low heat during 40 minutes.

This is the result:

 Serve with Muhammar (sweet rice Bahrain).

My comments to the Recipe

These are tasty balls with a great taste to shrimps, when cooked, they increase considerably its size. It was amazing!!.
The tamarind sauce was the best of the dish, you cannot miss it!

Where to by the ingredients in Madrid

Rice flour can be bought at a lot of asian products stores.
I particularly bought it in Madrid in a supermarket at José María Fernández Lanseros 1 (Super Ventas) , they sell a great variety  of asian and latino products.

In the next links you can see where to by the rest of ingredients.

 black lemon (loomi)
 Tamarind

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

Favourite cooking tools



Bahréin