As you've been enjoying our Ramadan recipes, here's one from Nassim, a Persian cooking instructor at Free to Feed Melbourne. She shares her Bamieh recipe, a Persian sweet doughnut that she usually breaks her fast with alongside black tea.
MAKES 30 - 40 PIECES
INGREDIENTS
250ml water
125g sugar
8 cardamom pods, crushed
1 tsp rose water
Pinch of saffron threads
250ml water (extra)
40g unsalted butter
250g plain flour, sifted
3 eggs
¼ tsp vanilla paste
½ tsp baking powder
500ml vegetable/canola oil
Icing sugar (to serve)
Dried rose petals (to serve)
Crushed pistachios (to serve)
METHOD
Combine one cup of water and butter in a medium-sized pot over medium heat until the butter is melted and starts to simmer. Add sifted flour and baking powder. Use a wooden spoon to form a dough. Stir for 5 minutes to cook out the flour. Remove from heat and leave to cool slightly.
Place the dough in a bowl. Mix the eggs in the dough by hand, one at a time and add vanilla. Fill a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.
Heat oil until it reaches 160C. Squeeze the dough into the hot oil, snipping the end of the dough with scissors. Fry on medium-high heat until golden brown on both sides. Strain on a tray lined with paper towels.
To make the syrup, combine water, sugar, cardamom and saffron in a pot and simmer until the sugar is dissolved. Toss the doughnuts in the syrup. Serve with a light dusting of icing sugar, crushed pistachios and rose petals.
Image by Paul Huynh, @pablo.paulie
Free to Feed is a not-for-profit social enterprise creating empowering employment opportunities for people from refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds. Using food as a language of love, Free to Feed brings communities together through authentic and inspiring cooking experiences, abundant catering, and private and corporate events hosted in their beautiful Fitzroy North venue. To be a part of the magic, or book into a cooking experience with Nassim, you can visit their website: https://www.
