Kulcha-e-birinji are rice-flour biscuits, short, pale and fragile, flavoured with cardamom and pressed with a whole pistachio. At Nowruz the same dough becomes kulcha-e-nowrozi, the New Year biscuits, marked with a bright green cross in the centre. Rice flour gives them a fine, sandy crumb that melts instead of snapping, and leaves them free of gluten. They are served with tea, and they are the classic partner to qymaq chai.
Zone: Silk Road Table
INGREDIENTS
- 170 g unsalted butter (softened)
- 150 g caster sugar
- 2 egg whites
- 320 g white rice flour
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- 30 g pistachios (coarsely chopped (optional))
- 24 whole shelled pistachios
METHOD
- Heat the oven to 175°C (155°C fan).
- Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy, then beat in the egg whites until smooth.
- Add the rice flour, cardamom and chopped pistachios gradually and mix well.
- Scoop tablespoons of dough onto a baking sheet about 4cm apart and flatten each with your palm.
- Press a fork across each one in a criss-cross pattern, dipping it in cold water if it sticks, and set a whole pistachio in the centre.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until set but still pale.
- Leave to cool on the tray before moving.
NOTES
UK adaptation: White rice flour from any supermarket free-from aisle or South Asian grocer; not glutinous rice flour. Unsalted butter. Unsalted shelled pistachios. Serve with qymaq chai. Everything else widely available.
US adaptation: White rice flour, not sweet or glutinous rice flour. Unsalted butter. Oven at 350°F. Everything else widely available.
Cook’s note: Bake them only until set and still pale. Rice flour colours fast at the edges, and browned kulcha taste toasted instead of buttery.
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