Need Recipe for Sauteed Dates

[Virginia Girl]

I once was served dates that had been dusted in flour and gently sauteed in butter. I've tried to duplicate it, but without success. Does anyone know of this way of cooking dates and have the real recipe? (I posted this elsewhere, but a kind soul pointed me to this site as it is more appropriate for my question. Thanks to him--I'm a new user.

[susabella]

When I was married to my first husband who was Persian, he would saute dates in butter and then break eggs over them, and serve them for breakfast with lavash, a very nice, sweet breakfast, served with hot tea.

[todao]

Question - It's a long way from Beirut to Iran. Do the Persian and Lebanese cultures use a rice flour, wheat flour, semolina or some other form of flour? Is there a middle eastern "standard" flour?

[susabella]

It's not that far away! I think they use different flours for different purposes. Rice flour is used for pastries, wheat for breads, chickpeas are also ground into a "flour" and used in making delicate small cookie pastries.

[todao]

Thanks. I've never been in that part of the world but, on a map, it looks like a long way. Your information is very helpful.
Virginia Girl - I wonder if the difference in what you experienced and what we've been working with is in the type of flour used. If chickpea flour and rice flour are used for pastries, perhaps that's what we should try. I don't have any of either at the moment and won't get to my specialty bulk sales outlet (I love buying specialty items a quarter pound at a time) for a while but I'll keep this one in mind and hope you'll continue to work on it so we can share the outcome - which I am confident will be successful.

[Virginia Girl]

I doubt the person who cooked the dates used any special flour, but am not certain. The way you cooked them, being slightly crunchy, sounded good and I'll try that--thanks!

[todao]

Nice to have you join the group.
I have a number of recipes that use sauteed dates but they call for stuffing with various other ingredients. Did your experience involve a stuffed date or simply a flour dusted date browned in butter? What you describe doesn't strike me as a complete recipe.
I do admit that I have one recipe that suggests sauteing Medjools in a quality olive oil and sprinkling them with coarse sea salt but I've never prepared that so I can't speak to it's varasity.

[Virginia Girl]

Thanks. The dates were served warm, had a sort of light crust on them, and had been sauteed in butter. They weren't stuffed--it was just a very simple recipe. I think the person who cooked them was Lebanese. Maybe I'll check if I can find some Lebanese cooking website.

[MMRuth]

I've got a Lebanese cookbook - once I find it (!), I'll check for you.

[Virginia Girl]

Thanks!

[todao]

Well, now you've peaked my curiosity. I'm about to put dinner together and I'll try it to see what results I can get. Will let you know the results -

[todao]

Dinner is history. Dessert was sauteed dates with vanilla ice cream. I rolled the dates firmly in a bed of wheat flour, pressing the flour into the surface, and shook of the excess. Then sauteed them in butter. It was a bit tricky to avoid over browning the dates and I attributed that to the fact that the sugar content of the dates combined with the flour coating was an atmosphere ripe for browning quickly. But they did brown and the "shell" created by the flour/date sugar had a bit of subtle crunch that we enjoyed. I let the butter residue brown and dropped the dates back in for a few seconds to pick up that browned butter flavor. Turned out well. I can't compare what we enjoyed with what you experienced but it was good enough to try again at some future time.
Sort of like that crunch you get in Butter Brickle ice cream.