Ms Chef in Seattle

There’s a few new pistachio cookies coming down the pike starting with this one.

Bormah is my favorite Lebanese and Syrian and Turkish dessert. It is whole, peeled and roasted pistachios rolled inside of a shredded wheat pastry soaked in a honey-like syrup flavored with orange and rosewater. I sometimes went to the Seattle Center in the summers for the annual Arab Center of Washington festival specifically to buy some of these (from a bakery which used to be in Everett but is closed) and then browse, listen, chat and walk about.

There was none last year and none this year and I was disappointed, which turned out to be a blessing. I’ve had ideas for pistachio cookies on the brain for some months. There’s an event soon for which cookies are needed and the bag of raw, shelled pistachios from JD’s Market in Lynnwood were in a bag on the table. It was a cool morning and 350 degrees in the oven to roast the nuts and bake the first of the new cookies seemed a good idea. I like them, too, these petite cookies with pistachios and a secret ingredient for the discriminating palate.

The dough for the second new pistachio cookie is in the fridge for baking tomorrow and will have a post here, too. Both of these will be in the mail soon thereafter. (The third doesn’t do well in the mail unless frozen and commerce is involved.)

I will enjoy both this weekend with a cup of tea and the Formula 1 race in Singapore, one of the prettiest settings and some serious competition in the top 10.