Reshteh Khoshkar

Rice batter is poured through a cup with holes in it onto a hot plate, making a lace sheet that is then filled and folded.

Vegan.

Ingredients

for the lace sheets

• 200 g rice flour
• 100 g plain flour
• 500 ml water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

for the filling

• 200 g walnuts, or hazelnuts, ground
• 120 g sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

to finish

• oil for deep frying

Method

1. RICE BATTER IS POURED THROUGH A CUP WITH HOLES IN IT ONTO A HOT PLATE, MAKING A LACE SHEET THAT IS THEN FILLED AND FOLDED. Its article describes the method in detail and there is nothing else like it in this country's pages. A thin rice-flour batter goes into a small container pierced with multiple holes, so that it runs out in several streams at once like a fountain; the container is moved over a hot skillet so the streams draw a pattern; and the heat sets the batter into a thin, patterned, open sheet of rice pastry. The filling goes in the middle of that sheet, it is folded securely round it, and the parcel is fried. So the pastry is not rolled or cut at any point -- it is drawn.
2. AT HOME THE HOLED CUP IS A PLASTIC BOTTLE OR A PIPING BAG. Four or five holes punched in a bottle cap with a skewer, two millimetres across, works exactly as described. A piping bag with a fine nozzle gives one stream rather than several and you have to move faster to build up the lattice.
3. THE BATTER MUST BE THIN ENOUGH TO RUN AND THICK ENOUGH TO HOLD A LINE. Five hundred millilitres of water to three hundred grams of flour is about the consistency of single cream. Too thick and it will not pour through the holes; too thin and the lines spread into a solid pancake and you lose the lace.
4. THE PLAIN FLOUR IS THERE FOR STRENGTH AND THE ARTICLE SANCTIONS IT. Its article lists both rice flour and wheat flour among the ingredients. Rice flour alone gives a sheet so brittle it cracks when you fold it.
5. THE SKILLET IS HOT AND DRY, AND THE SHEET IS LIFTED WHILE PLIABLE. Medium-high, no oil. Thirty to forty seconds until the sheet is set and dry on top but still flexible. Left to crisp on the pan it cannot be folded.
6. THE FILLING IS GROUND NUTS AND WARM SPICE, AND IT IS DRY. Its article names sugar, ground walnuts or hazelnuts, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and spice, and in a second pass almonds, walnuts and cinnamon. No butter, no syrup -- a wet filling would soften the sheet before it reached the oil.
7. IT IS FRIED SLOWLY, NOT FAST. Its article says slowly fried in oil. 160C for three or four minutes, turned once, until pale gold. At chip-shop heat the lattice browns and burns before the inside is warm.
8. IT IS A RAMADAN PASTRY FROM THE CASPIAN. Its article places it in Gilan and associates it especially with Ramadan.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Iran · All recipes