Ranginak

The date and walnut sweet of the Persian Gulf coast, each stoned date given a walnut half and buried under flour browned in butter, dusted with cinnamon and pistachio

Origin: Bushehr and Fars, Iran

From the journey of Date.

Ranginak belongs to Bushehr and the hot southern coast of Iran, where the palms are, and it has travelled north to Shiraz and Tehran as a Ramadan sweet without changing at all. Stoned dates are each fitted with a walnut half and packed tight in a shallow dish; flour toasted in butter until it is the colour of a digestive biscuit is spread over them and pressed down; and the top is dusted with cinnamon and ground pistachio, often in a lattice or a diamond pattern scored through with a knife. The name comes from rang, colour, and the patterning of the top is not decoration added later but part of what the dish is. It is made for Ramadan, for the mourning months of Muharram and Safar, and for guests, and it is one of the few Persian sweets that requires no sugar whatsoever. The date and walnut pairing is a Persian signature rather than a general Middle Eastern one. Arab date cookery leans towards pistachio, almond, and sesame; the Iranian kitchen reaches for the walnut, and it does so in fesenjan, in gerdu pickles, and here, where the slight bitterness of the walnut skin is precisely what keeps a dish of pure date sugar from becoming tiring. Iran is among the three largest date producers on earth, and its varieties are unusually distinct. A southern cook would reach for a Kabkab from Bushehr or a Mazafati from Bam, the latter so wet that it is sold chilled.

Ingredients

Fruit

  • 600 g soft dates (Kabkab, Mazafati or Medjool), stoned and left whole

Nuts

  • 30 walnut halves, or 150 g walnut pieces

Toasted flour

  • 200 g plain flour
  • 180 g unsalted butter
  • 0.25 tsp ground cardamom

To finish

  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 3 tbsp shelled pistachios, finely ground
  • 2 tbsp desiccated coconut, optional

Method

  1. Toast the walnut halves in a dry pan for three minutes until they smell nutty, then rub off any loose skin and let them cool.
  2. Slit each date along one side, remove the stone, and press a walnut half into the cavity. Close the date around it.
  3. Pack the stuffed dates tightly in a single layer, slit side down, in a shallow dish or tray about 20 by 25 cm.
  4. Melt the butter in a heavy pan over a low heat, stir in the flour, and cook, stirring almost constantly, for fifteen to eighteen minutes until it is the colour of a digestive biscuit and smells strongly of toasted nuts.
  5. Stir the cardamom into the toasted flour, then pour it over the dates and spread it into an even layer, pressing it down firmly with the back of a spoon so that it settles into every gap.
  6. Leave to cool and firm up for twenty minutes, then dust the surface heavily with the cinnamon and the ground pistachio. Traditionally the two are laid in alternating diamonds, marked out first with the back of a knife.
  7. Cut into squares or diamonds and serve at room temperature with tea.

Notes

Some Bushehri cooks add a spoonful of rosewater or a pinch of saffron to the flour as it comes off the heat. Both are defensible; neither is essential. If the dates are dry, steam them for five minutes before stoning. They must be soft enough to close around the walnut. The dish is sometimes made with the toasted flour underneath as a base and the dates on top, which is the Shirazi arrangement rather than the coastal one. Walnut is not interchangeable here. Almond gives a sweeter, blander result, and the slight bitterness of the walnut is the whole balancing mechanism of the dish.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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