Beginner
Turkish
Menemen (Turkish Scrambled Eggs)
Source: Home cook
20 min2260 kcal
VegetarianGluten-freeHalal🌶️
Photo coming soon
Intermediate
Luqaimat
Small balls of yeasted batter dropped into hot oil, fried until they rattle, then dunked in date syrup and eaten by the handful the minute the fast breaks.
Source
Recipe by Saudi home kitchens · 🏺 Traditional · One big platter set on the floor for everyone to eat from — rice, a whole joint of lamb, and a cuisine built around feeding whoever arrives.
Arabian · iftar sweet — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. `Luqaimat` redirects to `Lokma`, which is written mainly from the Turkish and Greek side and confirms the leavened deep-fried dough balls soaked in syrup that the whole family of names shares. It is not a Saudi-specific article and that is stated rather than glossed over. Quantities, the cornflour and the date-syrup finish are this book's own.
Watch it being made · 3 videos
⏱ 100 min🍽 6 servings🔥 320 kcal🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
HalalVeganVegetarianDairy-freeNut-free
Steps
Stir the yeast and batter sugar into the warm water and leave 10 minutes until foaming.
Whisk in both flours, the cardamom, saffron water and salt to a thick, sticky batter — looser than a dough, thicker than a pancake mix.
Cover and prove 1 hour until the surface is domed and bubbling.
Heat the oil to 170°C. Squeeze the batter up through your fist and scrape off walnut-sized balls with a wet spoon.
💡 Wet the spoon in water between every ball. Dry, the batter clings and you get shapeless lumps instead of spheres.
Fry in batches for 5 minutes, moving them constantly, until deep amber all over and hollow-sounding.
💡 Keep them moving. Luqaimat brown on whichever side sits still, and an evenly dark ball is the whole visual.
Lift straight from the oil into the date syrup, turn to coat, and scatter with sesame. Eat while hot.
💡 Tips
- Luqaimat means little mouthfuls in Arabic. They appear on every iftar table in the Gulf during Ramadan and almost nowhere else in the year.
- Date syrup is the Gulf way; sugar syrup with cardamom and lemon is the other. Both are correct and dibs is darker and less sweet.
- They are best within ten minutes and merely good after an hour. Fry them as the table is being laid.
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