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

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

Hummus

                                                                               Receta en Español

Hummus is an arab word to name cheakpeas, this is a very popular dish all over Middle East.

Ingredients

• 200 grams cheakpeas.
• 2 tablespoons of tahini.
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice.
• 2 garlic cloves.
• Salt.
• A pinch of cumin.
• A pinch of ground coriander.
• A pinch of grounded black pepper.
• A pinch of sweet paprika.
• A splash of olive oil.

Method:

1. Soak cheakpeas over night, you can add a teaspoon of baking soda to make them get soft  faster.
2. Put cheakpeas in a pressure cooker with water and salt. Water should just cover cheakpeas.
3. Close the pressure cooker and set on a high heat, once steam comes out of the safety valve , put on a low heat and cook  for 1 hour.
4. Drain cheakpeas , put them in a food processor, add garlic cloves, tahini, lemon, coriander, pepper and cumin. Process until you get a puree, if it is too dick you can add some water.

6. Put the purée in a dish, pour a splash of olive oil , sprinkle cumin and paprika.
7. You can conserve hummus in the fridge for a week, you should eat it accompanied by  khubz.



Saudi Arabia

TAHINI

                                                                               Receta en Español

Tahini is a sauce made from sesame seeds , it is typical from Middle East, it is very common to accompany hummus (chickpeas pâté) ,babaganuch (eggplant pâté) or meat dishes.

It is very easy to make.

Ingredients:

• 65 grams sesame seeds.
• 1 tablespoon Olive oil.

Method:

- Take a pan and toast sesame seeds whithout oil. You should slightly toast them, this way the taste of tahini will be soft. The more you toast the seeds, the stronger tahini will be. Once sesame seeds get hot , they start to jump so you should toast them covered.


- Grind the toasted sesame seeds.

- Mix well the grinded sesame seeds with oil. 

- Boil a little quantity of water and pour it over the grinded sesame seeds, mix well. 

- Pour more water if you see that the mixture is very thick. The consistency should be like tomato sauce.

My comments to the recipe:

It is fast and easy to prepare.
You should keep also in mind that sesame is very healthy, it provides more calcium that milk. 
100 ml milk provide 150 mg calcium , the same quantity of sesame provide 700 mg calcium.

Where to find the ingredients:

Sesame seeds can be bought at every herbalist's shop.



Saudi Arabia

khubz

                                                                               Receta en Español

khubz is a kind of bread typical in Middle East. It is similar to 'pita' bread but bigger and thicker.

To make this bread you don't need yeast, it doesn't get dry soon. Because of this reason it is wide consumed by nomads families who travel along the dessert.

Once you have baken this bread ,there is a hollow in the middle where you can place some other ingredient.

This type of bread is the oldest kind of bread in the world.

Ingredients:

• 125 grams all-purpose wheat flour.
• 125 grams wholegrain wheat flour.
• Warm water.
• Salt.

Method:

1. Place both kinds of flours into a bowl, make a hole in the middle and pour inside a little quantity of warm water.

2. Stir and add more water step by step until all the flour is well mixed and the dough is uniform.
3. Add Salt.
4. The result will be a sticky dough .Now you shoul knead it, to do it you should sprinkle a little flour in your hands.
5. While kneading,the minute you see that the dough is still sticky, you sprinkle flour once again in your hands and keep on kneading until the dough remains not sticky.
6. We should knead the dough for at least 10 minutes, to get a good dough for a bread.

7. Cover the dough with a towel and let it stand for 30 or 40 minutes.
8. Knead the dough a little more.
9. Split the dough into balls the size of your hand palm and flatten them.
10. With the help of your hands try to make that flatten ball bigger, that is turn them into thick pancakes.
11. Put parchement paper on an oven tray and place the breads on it.
12. Preheat oven at 200 ºC for 10 minutes.
13. Now cook the breads in oven for 10 minutes at the same temperature.
14. Once thay are baken you should wrap them in a towel so they keep warm. You should serve them warm.

My comments to the recipe:

It is amazing how this bread can rise even when you don't use yeast. This bread is very good to accompany all kind of dishes you can imagine. 



Arabia Saudita

Argentina

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Recipes from Argentina that I cooked:

Baked Provoleta

Steaks with criolla sauce

Alfajores from Mar de Plata

Argentina

Flag: De Government of Argentina - Here, based on: http://manuelbelgrano.gov.ar/bandera/creacion-de-la-bandera-nacional/, Dominio público, Enlace

Alfajores from Mar de Plata

                                                                               Receta en Español

Alfajores are very typical in South America, this version is from Argentina, from Mar de Plata a place where inhabitants of Buenos Aires go for tourism. These alfajores became very famous thanks to these tourists that came back to Buenos Aires bringing this sweet as souvenir. You cannot miss this treat if you go to Argentina.
If you cannot travel there, here you have the recipe.



Ingredients (For 31 alfajores):

• 200 gr butter.
• 150 gr sugar.
• 1 egg.
• Salt.
• 400 gr flour.
• 20 gr cacao.
• 100 gr corn starch (maizena).
• Tangerine rind.
• 1 tablespoon honey.
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate.
• 1 teaspoon yeast.
• 500 gr Caramelized condensed milk.

Chocolate coating:

• 350 gr dark chocolate.
• 150 gr butter.
• Tangerine rind.

Method:

1. Soft butter using microwave during 10 seconds.
2. Mix well butter and sugar.
   
3. Take another bowl , mix flour, corn starch and cacao. Once well mixed add to the mixture of the point 2. Add yeast, bicarbonate, honey and tangerine rind.
4. Mix well until you have an homogeneous dough, you don't need to knead it. It has reached the right consistency when you press it with your finger and then the print remains. The dough crumbles a little, it is normal. 
5. wrap dough with cling film, let stand for half an hour in the fridge. This way the dough hardens.
   
6. Now it is time to work the dough , sprinkle cacao over the surface where we are going to stretch the dough.
7. Divide the dough into several pieces , to meke it easier to work. Take a piece and roll it out , it shoul be 1/2 cm thich.
8. Take a fluted round cookie cutter , cut the dough into circles.  
   
9. Place the dough over an oven track protected with parchment paper.
10. Preheat oven at 180 ºC for 5 minutes.
11. Cook in oven for 7- 10 minutes.
12. let get cool.
13. Take two pieces of baked dough, place some caramelized  condensed milk in between.  
    
14. Now we prepare the coating: Fill a pot with water, put over low heat, put another pot inside it.
15. Break chocolate into pieces, put it into the litle pot that we have prepared on point 14, mix with butter and grated tangerine rind.
16. Let chocolate melt , stir with a wooden spoon.
17. Dip alfajores into the chocolate.
    
18. Place alfajores coated with chocolate over a tray protected with parchment paper. Let cool in the fridge, once they are cold, it will be very easy to detach.

My comments to the Recipe:

The dough crumbles easily, because of that it is difficult to work with it, the consistency should be like that , this way the cookie will be easy to eat.
The taste is wonderful!, you shoul not miss it!.

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

Favourite cooking tools

Argentina

Flag: De Government of Argentina - Here, based on: http://manuelbelgrano.gov.ar/bandera/creacion-de-la-bandera-nacional/, Dominio público, Enlace