Knafeh (Middle Eastern shredded pastry dessert)

My kitchen Holy Grail has always been kataifi pastry, those hair thin strands of filo dough used in so many Middle Eastern sweet recipes. Alas, not something easily obtainable in the UK, at least if you live outside of an area with a large Middle Eastern population. I live in the north of the country, and while I am in a multicultural city, our speciality grocery stores are Asian and Chinese. So... kataifi pastry has always been there on the horizon, taunting me with its inaccessibility! I did find an online retailer who would deliver outside of London, but delivery costs were steep...

Fast forward to a food related discussion with a work colleague a couple of months ago, his family are from Sudan and he was telling me that one of the Asian grocery stores had started stocking some Egyptian and Sudanese ingredients, namely fresh and frozen molokhiya, Egyptian rice, karkadeh etc so I decided to take a trip. And oh yes, they had the above ingredients and more... I peered into the freezer and was met with boxes of frozen kataifi pastry! Hallelulya!

So what to make with this rare kitchen delight? For my first attempt there was no question, it would be knafeh. Syrup soaked kataifi pastry encasing a warm gooey cheese middle. Traditionally it's made with nablusi cheese or sweet cheese. An unsalted cheese with the texture of mozzarella. Indeed mozzarella (soaked to remove any salt) is a fine alternative. Though here I have a confession to make... I have a bit of a mental taste block as far as sweet cheese goes. I like my melty cheese savoury, and while I do enjoy traditional knafeh, I was making this primarily for people unfamiliar with the dish (and possibly with similar sweet cheese aversion) so I used rocotta for the filling instead. If you want the stringiness, then slice mozzarella and lay it on the pastry base on top of the ricotta and you have a pretty good facsimile.
I'd love to say that there are substitutions for kataifi pastry, but nothing really gives the same results. I tried years ago making knafeh with shredded wheat. it 'looked' okay, and tasted okay, but the taste was overwhelmingly of shredded wheat. I'm wondering whether taking leaves of filo pastry allowing them to air dry and then blitzing in a food processor may give close results, as the traditional recipes for kanafeh usually involve processing the pastry until you have a fine crumb, the strands are not absolutely neccessary...

Knafeh
200g kataifi pastry
100g margarine
Splash of orange blossom water

Filling
200g ricotta
Geranium blossom water (optional)

Syrup
100ml water
100ml sugar
Lemon juice
1 tablespoon orange blossom water
 

1. Break the kataifi pastry into small pieces, some recipes call for blitzing it in a food processor until the crumb is the size of couscous, I wanted some texture so I crumbled it in my hands until the pieces were roughly the size of rice grains
2. Stir in the melted margarine until it’s well mixed, add a little of the orange blossom water to this
3. Brush the bottom of a baking tin with margarine or ghee, and decorate with halved almonds (optional, as you can see from the photo my almonds 'drifted' slightly during cooking!)

4. Take around half of the pastry and press it into a loose bottomed baking tin (these quantities are enough to fill a 20cm sandwich tin) make sure it’s pressed down quite firmly (I used a tin can covered in plastic wrap)
5. For the filling I used ricotta, traditionally knafeh is made from Nablusi cheese, an unsalted cheese that when melted has the stringiness of mozzarella, and indeed mozzarella (soaked to remove as much of the salt as possible) is a good alternative. I mixed the ricotta with a few drops of geranium oil
6. Spoon the filling onto the pastry base, keeping it clear of the edges
7. Lightly spoon the remainder of the kataifi dough over the top of the cheese until it’s covered. You don’t need to press down too hard but make sure to press down firmly at the edges (the idea being that the pastry is going to totally encase the cheese filling)
8. Cook in a preheated oven for around 20 minutes until golden brown, my oven settings aren’t too accurate so I can’t say what the temperature was
9. While the knafeh is cooking prepare a simple sugar syrup and allow it to cool
10. Once the knafeh is cooked, pour over the syrup
Leave for a few minutes, then eat! Delicious with strained yoghurt or cream if you’re wanting something more luxurious. Also nice cold