I was on a halwa making roll this weekend, and as I had some half empty bags of dates and figs I decided to make up another batch of halwa. A super easy recipe that is rather tasty, and a good way to use up those half empty random bags of dried fruit at the back of the kitchen cupboards...
Ingredients
110g chickpea flour
250g dried dates and/or figs
4 tablespoons rose water
100g margarine (melted)
200ml milk
100g sugar
50g chopped mixed nuts
Desiccated coconut (to decorate)
1.
Cut the fruit into small pieces, put into a container and pour in a little boiling water to just cover them. Leave overnight (or a few hours)
to soak and then puree
2.
Dry roast the chickpea flour for around 5 minutes in a heavy bottomed
pan until it loses its 'raw' smell, then tip into another container
3. Add the fig/date puree, chopped nuts, sugar, milk and rose water to the pan and slowly heat, adding around half of the melted margarine
4. Sift in the chickpea flour and stir well
5. Bring the mixture to the boil and then turn the heat down, stirring constantly
6. Now add the rest of the margarine
7. Keep on stirring until the mixture starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, this takes around 10-15 minutes
8. Pour into a container lined with cling film. Decorate with some desiccated coconut (optional)
9. Leave to cool and then cut into pieces
I was tidying out the kitchen cupboards over the weekend and found half a bag of chickpea flour, hmm... what to do with it?
While I did fancy making some onion bhajis the thought of cooking up something sweet with it was also mighty appealing, so I decided upon making halwa. This version is somewhere between Middle Eastern style halwa and an Indian barfi. I kind of made up the recipe as I went along and it turned out pretty tasty. Note: despite the fact that this is fruit based it probably contains a million calories, but sometimes it's best not to think about these things too deeply...
Ingredients
110g chickpea flour
250g dried apricots
Fresh orange juice
4 tablespoons rose water
100g margarine (melted)
200ml milk
50g pistachios
Rose petals (to decorate)
1. Cut the apricots into small pieces, put into a container and pour in enough orange juice to just cover them. Leave overnight (or a few hours) to soak and then puree
2. Dry roast the chickpea flour for around 5 minutes in a heavy bottomed pan until it loses its 'raw' smell, then tip into another container
3. Add the apricot puree, pistachios, milk and rose water to the pan and slowly heat, adding around half of the melted margarine
4. Sift in the chickpea flour and stir well
5. Bring the mixture to the boil and then turn the heat down, stirring constantly
6. Now add the rest of the margarine
7. Keep on stirring until the mixture starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, this takes around 10-15 minutes
8. Pour into a container lined with cling film. Decorate with some crushed pistachios and rose petals (optional)
9. Leave to cool and then cut into pieces
Muhammara (or m'hammara) is a dip found over the Middle East and and beyond (there's also an Armenian version called garmeroug), its origins are said to lie in the Syrian city of Aleppo. Primarily it consists of either fresh or dried peppers, ground walnuts and olive oil, flavoured with pomegranate molasses and sumac. It can be eaten as a dip, spread on bread or served as a sauce, typically for grilled meats or fish.
I was inspired to make this after reading the Comptoir Libanais cookbook, but I've moved away from the traditional ingredients slightly, I had a bag of ground hazelnuts in the cupboard that needed to be used up, also I had no aleppo pepper, which is the type of chilli that most versions are based on, however I did have some dried ancho chillies which I figured would give a nice earthy smokiness to the finished dish.
It's pretty easy to make, and with the exception of the time taken to roast the peppers, it's something that can be whizzed up in minutes.
Ingredients
2 red sweet peppers
2 large ancho chillies
100g ground nuts (I used hazelnuts, traditionally walnuts are used)
1 tsp sumac
1 tsp ground cumin
1 large garlic clove (crushed)
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
Olive oil
Handful of fresh coriander (optional)
Salt to taste
1. Roast the peppers until the skin is blackened, allow to cool and peel
2. While the peppers are roasting soak the ancho chillies in boiling water (for around 30 minutes)
3. Add the cooled and peeled sweet peppers, rehydrated chillies and coriander to a blender with a dash of olive oil (can add more to taste) and the pomegranate molasses and blend until smooth.
4. Stir in the nuts, crushed garlic, sumac and cumin. Add salt to taste.
5. Eat!
