Month: February 2022

Put 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

Add chicken pieces and let brown for about 5 minutes.

Add the chopped onion and garlic.

Season with salt, pepper, ginger, turmeric and add cinnamon stick.

Let cook for about 10 minutes, stirring from time to time.

Add about 2 cups hot or boiled water.

Add chickpeas. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to medium low.

Let cook covered for about 30 minutes or until chickpeas are cooked. Note that if the chicken is cooked before the chickpeas, you can remove it and let the chickpeas cook for more time.

In meanwhile, prepare the vermicelli.

Put the vermicelli in a large bowl.

Add 1 tbsp olive oil.

Mix the oil and the vermicelli well.

Place the vermicelli in the top of a steamer.

Let steam for about 15 minutes over a pot of boiled water.

Dump the vermicelli in the large bowl.

Sprinkle with about 1 cup (or a little less) of cold water.

Gently fluff it with a fork and let it absorb the water for about 5 minutes.

Gently mix the vermicelli by hands then place it in the top of a steamer and let steam for 5 minutes (for the second time).

Dump it in a large bowl.

Take a ladle of the chicken sauce and sprinkle the vermicelli with the sauce.

Gently mix it with a folk and let absorb the sauce for 5 minutes.

Let the vermicelli steam for the third time for about 10 minutes or until fully cooked.

Dump it in a large bowl, fluff it gently then place it in a serving dish.

Garnish with chicken pieces, chickpeas and boiled eggs.

Serve it with chickpea sauce aside.

Enjoy.

Sift the flour then add vanilla powder, salt and powdered sugar. Mix well.

Add butter and mix with your hands until the butter is well incorporated.

Add orange blossom water and mix it well.

Add water, one tablespoon at the time until the dough gets together and is soft. Make sure to not knead the dough.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let rest for at least 20 minnutes on the counter.

Prepare the filling by mixing the almond flour, sugar, vanilla powder, cinnamon and butter.

Add orange blossom water, one tablespoon at the time until obtain a well gathered paste.

Form small balls, the size of walnuts and cover with plastic wrap.

Get back to the dough and form small balls, the size of small tangerines.

Cover the balls of dough with plastic wrap.

Take one ball of dough at the time and use a rolling pin to roll it out thinly into a circle or oval shape.

Roll a ball of filling paste into a thin log.

Place it in one edge of the circle or oval shaped rolled out dough.

Roll the dough over the filling to make a log.

Using your 2 hands, roll the log from the sides to make them thinner than the center.

Form a crescent shape cookie dough. 

Continue forming the crescent shape cookies or Tcharek until you deplete all the dough.

Use a special sculpting tool called Nekkache to sculpt the crescent cookie dough. You just need to pinch the crescent all over, please see video above. Make sure to dip the Nekkache tool in flour from time to time so that the dough won’t stick to it.

Cover the sculpted crescents with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.

Place in a non stick baking sheet and bake in a 350°F preheated oven for about 15 to 20 minutes or until slightly golden.

Once you can handle the cookies (let cool for few minutes), dip the crescent cookies in sugar syrup or you can just drizzle sugar syrup on top. For my light homemade sugar syrup, please check the recipe link above.

Enjoy.