Moutabal

INGREDIENTS
1 large aubergine (about 100g)
5g garlic (2-3 cloves)
60g tahini (sesame oil)
40ml water
20ml lemon juice
3g salt
40g pomegranate seeds
Chopped parsley to garnish
METHOD

How to make moutabal
1. Cook the aubergine in a hot oven or on a fork over the flame of a stove. When it is well cooked through and the skin is blackened, douse with cold water, peel and chop into small pieces.

2. Mash two or three cloves of garlic to a paste with about the same volume of salt. Add the aubergine, mash to a smooth consistency and blend with the tahini and lemon juice .

3. Serve in a bowl with little olive oil on top and garnish with chopped parsley and pomegranate seeds.

Methods for the dough

Chickpea Flour Cookies

Ingredients:
275 gr of chickpea flour
140 gr of sunflower seed oil
100 gr of water
20 gr of coconut flour
20 gr of hazelnuts
150 gr of raw sugar
1 gr of cinnamon (a stick of about 2/3 cm)
peel of 1/2 orange
Method:
Heat oven to 180°C. Place the chickpea flour in a pan and toast it over a low heat, constantly moving it; you need 10-15 min, it has to get golden (I mean, more golden, as the chickpea flour already is) and with the typical aroma of toasted flour.
Meanwhile, blend part of the sugar with hazelnuts, cinnamon and orange peel.
When the flour is done, sift and mix it thoroughly with coconut flour and the mixture of sugar, walnuts, orange and cinnamon.
Emulsify water and oil and add them to the rest of the ingredients.
Roll the dough out, about 5mm thick, and cut out the biscuits with a mold; dough shouldn’t need flouring, is oily enough, the only trick is to handle it with care.
Bake cookies for about 15 minutes, when you remove them from the oven they must be still soft, otherwise you’ll get beautiful, fragrant, very hard little bricks!

Italian pinoli cookies

Ingredients:

4 egg whites
1 ½ pounds of almond paste
1 ½ cups of sugar
1 cup of confectioner’s sugar
3 cups of pinoli nuts
Directions:

Separate the eggs and place the egg whites in a large mixing bowl.
Once the eggs have stood to the required time we can now start to add the sugars and the almond paste.
The almond paste will blend best if it is added to the mixing bowl in pieces in lieu of one large clump from the measuring cup. Spoon it into the mixing bowl or break it up with your fingers.
Pre-heat the oven to 350’.
Start the mixer out at a low speed.
Once the ingredients start to form a paste, turn the speed up to medium.
Continue to mix for 3 to 4 minutes until the paste forms dough.
Using a tablespoon, a small ice-cream scoop or even a large melon baller; scoop out some of the dough.
Place it on the counter or a piece of waxed or parchment paper.
Get your cookie sheets out and line them with parchment paper.
Take out a small but shallow bowl and pour one third of the pinoli nuts into it. When the dish becomes empty add another third until all the nuts have been rolled into the cookies.
Roll the dough gently into a ball.
Then take the cookie dough ball and roll it into the pinoli nuts.
Place the pinoli cookies onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
Separate the cookies keeping them at least two to three inches apart from each other.
Bake in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Only put one cookie sheet in the oven at a time. This will require longer time in the kitchen the end result will be confection perfection.
Remove cookie tray from oven.
Have cooling racks handy.
Remove the cookies right with the parchment paper onto the cooling racks.
Allow cookies to cool completely before gently removing them from the parchment paper and placing them in your cookie jar or serving platter.
Enjoy!

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