Saturday, March 08, 2008

Spanish inspired cookies that ring Iran

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Tonight we're having a potluck, a themeless one because of technical difficulties that prevented us from contacting our family soon enough to insist upon a theme. But Dad's making paella, so I decided to make the bizcocho de naranja that I made a year or so ago when Dad made paella.
To go along with it as well, I figured I should make something else, just in case. So I flipped through The New Spanish Table by Anya von Bremzen and the very last recipe is for Chocolate-Dipped Almond-Stuffed Figs. That definitely caught my eye and I added it to the grocery list. But the dried figs were too expensive and too small at the first store and had too many preservatives in them at the second store. After I made my cake, I remembered having seen a recipe for a pistachio shortbread that I had all the ingredients for, so I measured out my pistachios just to make sure, and then decided to make it. The smell was familiar - like Iranian treats, so the cookies work perfectly for tonight whether I pretend I'm going with the Spanish theme or appealing to my family's preferences.

The scent of saffron and the presence of pistachios placed into something Scottish. It's a multi-ethnic cookie!
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But you can find the recipe on page 451 of The New Spanish Table, here or here. The latter also has the recipe for chocolate-dipped almond-stuffed figs that I was going to make until I couldn't find figs and had everything to make the shortbread.

1 comment:

Patricia Scarpin said...

The cookies look so beautiful!