Hello Foodies, we are entering the second phase of this journey of event. Today we have a blogger from India guest posting for us. Darshna from Cooking with Darshu.
Welcome aboard Darshana. Thanks for being a part of this celebration.
Thank you Humi for giving me the opportunity to be a guest writer on your blog. I am not sure from where I stumbled on your blog. I love the way you write your blog along with photos of each and every step. The first recipe that I tried was of “Yolk Fudge / Zardi Ki Katliya” and really loved it. After that I tried a lot of recipes and all were excellent. From that time I started following your blog and was happy when I got your mail to be a guest writer. After lot of thinking I decided to make “Pistachio-Stuffed Dates” which has dates as the main ingredient and a very important part of Ramadan.
Dates is a Ramadan tradition, as most of its benefits are unique to this particular fast. Breaking one’s fast with dates, as well as praying before Iftar, are both mentioned in the Hadith. There are a lot physical benefits of breaking the fast with dates is that our body benefits from the date’s high level of natural sugars. Dates also have a special place in Islam. In fact, they were one of the Prophet’s (SAW) most frequently consumed foods.
Dates are super rich in Vitamin C and together with milk dates make an excellent diet for Ramadan. Dates are added to salads, couscous dishes and curries, but they are also added in baked desserts and confections. Dates are great on their own, but for an extra-special treat, try stuffing them with whole almonds or chopped pieces of walnuts or pecans. Dates are nuggets of nutrition that satisfy a sweet tooth, making them ideal snacks to stave off hunger.
Duration: 20 min
Serves: 15 stuffed dates
Ingredients:
100 shelled unsalted pistachios
15 Medjool or Deglet Nour dates
2 tsp ghee
½ or 1 tbsp of unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tbsp honey
2-3 tsp rose water
Pinch of Safforn
Direction:
1. Carefully slit the dates and remove the stones.
2. In a food processor, blend pistachios to a coarse powder
3. Put ghee, pistachios, rose water, unsweetened shredded coconut, saffron in a saucepan and cook briefly, until the pistachios have absorbed most of the moisture.
4. Remove the mixture from a saucepan and place it on a bowl. Now add honey into it and mix well.
5. Stuff the dates with the pistachio mixture.
6. Top with toasted unsweetened shredded coconut and serve.
Variations
You could swap out the pistachios for almonds, and use orange flower water instead of rose water.
To know more about Dharshana visit her @ Cooking with Darshu.