Al Salooq - Traditional Arab Cardamom Pastries (Deep Fried) - cooking recipe

Ingredients

4 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1/2 cup ghee (or melted butter or sunflower oil)
1/2 cup skim milk (boiled, then cooled)
sunflower oil, for deep frying
confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Preparation

Sift the flour, baking powder & ground cardamom into a fairly large mixing bowl.
Add the melted ghee / butter / oil & using a wooden spoon, mix it into the flour intil you have a crumbly mixture. Slowly add the milk & mix until you have a soft dough. Knead the dough until it is smooth.
Take walnut sized pieces of the dough & with lightly floured hands, roll them into fat sausages & then shape them into moons - you can also form them into slightly flattened rounds & then push your thumb upwards in the centre to make the moon shapes.
Heat enough of the sunflower oil for deep frying & fry the cresecent moons in batches until they are a golden brown colour.
Drain well on paper towels & toss them in confectioners sugar. Just before serving, I like to give them another light dusting of sugar (using a sieve for even coverage).