Yemeni & the Gulf · Dessert
Luqaimat
- Intermediate
- 30 min
- roughly 4 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with acid holding everything up to the light, warm spice humming through the middle, closing toasted and warm.
Ingredients
- 250 g plain flour
- 60 g cornflour
- 7 g instant yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
- half tsp salt
- half tsp ground cardamom
- large pinch saffron, crumbled into 2 tbsp warm water
- 100 g plain yogurt
- about 300 ml warm water
- 1 litre neutral oil, for frying
- 200 g date syrup
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
The skills inside
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · sesame
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Whisk the flour, cornflour, yeast, sugar, salt and cardamom together, then beat in the yogurt, saffron water and enough warm water to give a thick, sticky batter that falls from the spoon in a ribbon and slowly levels itself.
- Cover and leave until domed, full of bubbles and faintly beery, about 1 hour. 60 min
- Heat the oil to 170C (340F), squeeze the batter up through your fist and scrape each ball off with a wet spoon straight into the oil, frying in batches so the temperature does not crash.
- Fry, stirring so they roll and colour evenly, until they are deep mahogany and rattle hard against the spoon, 4 to 5 minutes, then drain briefly. 5 min
- Toss them in the date syrup while still hot, scatter with sesame and eat within the hour.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Deep frying 96 recipes
- The oil was at temperature before anything went in, measured rather than guessed, and the vessel is no more than two-thirds full.
- Everything went in dry. Surfaces are patted down and any coating is not dripping, because water hitting hot oil erupts and is the one accident this technique actually has.
- The oil recovers between batches. It is back at temperature before the next load goes in rather than falling further with each one.
- A steady vigorous bubbling that slows as it finishes: the bubbles are the food’s own water leaving, so a piece that has gone quiet has stopped drying out and is done.
- Seasoned or finished in the first seconds out of the oil, while the surface is still hot and will hold what lands on it. Anything applied to a cooled crust sits on top and falls off.
Where it goes wrong Too much went in at once and the oil temperature collapsed. The crust forms slowly while the food sits in warm fat absorbing it rather than shedding steam, and it comes out heavy and greasy instead of crisp, which no amount of draining afterwards will fix.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Sauternes
- Also Right
- Demi-sec Champagne
- From the Taps
- Belgian tripel
- Zero-Proof
- Jasmine tea
The sweetness rule is absolute: the pour must be sweeter than the plate, and acid keeps it from cloying.
Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.