Pistachio Savory and Sweet Recipes

Chicken Biryiani Recipe

About.com Chicken From Maryland to Kiev by Clare Ferguson (Ryland Peters & Small)

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 65 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 (3-pound) chicken, quartered
• 2-1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1 green serrano (medium-hot) chile, seeded and chopped
• 3 inches fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
• 2 cinnamon sticks, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon sea-salt flakes
• 2 onions
• 6 Tablespoons ghee (clarified butter)
• 1-1/4 cups basmati rice
• 20 green cardamom pods
• 6 whole cloves
• 1/4 cup blanched almonds
• 1/4 cup shelled pistachios, blanched and skinned
• 1/2 cup dried mango pieces, raisins or sultanas
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, crushed
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 teaspoon saffron powder or 2 pinches saffron threads, crushed
• Fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

Preparation:
Place chicken, stock, chile, ginger, cinnamon, and salt in a large, heavy saucepan or flameproof casserole. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes or until fairly tender. Remove chicken to a plate and set aside.  Pour cooking liquid into a measuring cup and add water if necessary to make 2-1/2 cups.

Quarter onions, then separate into petal-like layers. Add ghee to saucepan and heat until melted. Add onion and fry until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside on a small plate.  Add rice, cardamom pods, and cloves to pan;  stir-fry 2 minutes or until rice is browned slightly.

Return chicken to pan; add almonds, pistachios, mango, coriander, cumin, and garlic. Sprinkle saffron into mixture and cook 2 minutes.  Return stock and onions to pan, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook, undisturbed, 12 to 15 minutes. Rice should be tender and the liquid completely absorbed. Sprinkle cilantro on top.

Almond Pistachio Saffron Curry Sauce Recipe

About.com Peggy Trowbridge Filippone

Use this sauce on grilled meat or chicken or simmer your favorite meatballs in it.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup raw unblanched almonds
• 1/2 cup shelled, unsalted raw pistachio nuts
• 2 Tbsp butter or mild vegetable oil
• 1 large sweet onion, peeled and grated
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp mace
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground white pepper
• 2 green cardamom pods, husked, and ground
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp saffron threads, soaked in 2 tablespoons hot water
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 3/4 tsp salt, or to taste

Preparation:

Heat a heavy 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Add almonds and pistachios and cook 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often. Let cool 5 minutes. Place in a food processor or heavy-duty blender and process until nuts are powdered. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, heat butter over medium-high heat. Saute sweet onion until lightly browned. Add coriander, mace, white pepper, cardamom, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg. Cook about 1 minute, until fragrant. Continuing to stir, add saffron, cream, salt, and powdered nuts and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 12 to 15 minutes.

Makes enough sauce for about 1-1/2 pounds of grilled meat or chicken breasts. Or simmer your favorite meatball recipe in the sauce for 15 minutes.

Yield: 2-1/2 cups sauce

Pistachio and Almond Cake with Orange Salad

Epicurious | January 2009

by Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren

• 1 1/3 cups unsalted shelled pistachio nuts
• 1 1/3 cups blanched whole almonds
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 lemons
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour or all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

ORANGE SALAD
• 3 blood oranges
• 2 Valencia, navel, or blood oranges
• 1/4 cup orange marmalade
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
• Unsalted shelled pistachio nuts

Preparation
To make the cake, preheat the oven to 300°F. Butter a 4-by-8-inch loaf pan. Then, using a sifter or a fine-mesh strainer, dust it with flour, tapping out the excess.

In a food process, combine the pistachios and almonds and pulse until finely ground. Set aside. Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Grate the zest from the lemons directly into the bowl. Fit the mixer with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes, or until smooth and creamy. Mix in the vanilla just until incorporated. On low speed, gradually add the nuts and mix just until incorporated. Then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition just until incorporated. Stir in the flour and salt and mix just until incorporated.

Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Then, run a paring knife around the inside of the pan to loosen the cake sides, invert the cake onto a plate, and lift off the pan. At this point, the cake can be served warm or allowed to cool completely before being sliced and reheated.

To make the orange salad, cut a slice off the top and bottom of 1 orange, stand the orange upright, and cut downward to remove the rind and pith in thick strips. Cut the orange crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices, capturing any juice. Repeat with all of the remaining oranges. Set the oranges slices aside until needed.

Gently heat the marmalade in a pot over low heat for about 3 minutes, or until syrupy. Add any captured orange juice along with the lemon juice to the marmalade. Remove the pot from the heat and add 1 to 2 tablespoons water to think the marmalade to the consistency of a vinaigrette. Let cool.

To serve, preheat the oven to 400°F. Cut the cake into generous slices and place on a baking sheet. Bake the slices, turning them over once, for about 5 minutes, or until warm and slightly toasted on both sides.  Place 4 or 5 orange slices on each plate and drizzle generously with the marmalade syrup. Place the warm pieces of cake next to the orange slices and top with a dollop of yogurt and a few pistachios. Serve immediately.