Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Cardamom Cream with Pistachio and Almonds

An Afghan version of Mhalabiya - the same creamy texture but the flavours are deliciously different. Perfect for Ramadhan when m7alabiya is a staple on every Su7ur table, and the dessert and snack of choice as well:

Cream (cheat's option: use a ready m7alabiya mix and add extra cornflour)
1/2 a cup cornflour
3 cups milk
1/4 cup water
3/4 cups sugar
a pinch of salt
Make a smooth paste with the cornflour+ 1/2 a cup of milk + the waterPut the rest of the milk in a heavy bottomed pan, add sugar and salt and place over low heatWhen the sugar is dissolved and the milk is wam add the cornflour paste, and whisk

Crunch
1/2 a cup chopped almonds
1/2 a cup chopped pistachio nuts
Add the nuts and continue stirring with the whisk until you have a thick custard like consistency

Spice
1 tsp ground cardamum
pinch of saffron powder (this really is gourmet m7alabiya)
Add the spices and simmer gently for another 5 minutes, stirring occaisonally

Present
Pour into individual m7alabiya bowls, even out the surface with a spatula and decorate with lightly roasted chopped nuts and some ground cardamum

3 comments:

ontripoli said...

Nice recipe
Where are you from?

duniazad said...

Salam ontripoli, sorry missed your earlier comment

I'm from misurata. Welcome to my blog, and (an early) eid mubarak!

ontripoli said...

The calm city of Libya, I was there yesterday. Do you live in Misurata?