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

Kar Assaly (Egyptian pumpkin pie)

I've been woefully neglectful of my blog of late (but not of cooking and if anyone is interested in following my cooking experimentation I can be found here on Instagram). I've a ton of recipes that I've been meaning to upload, but I have been without a laptop, and unable to upload using my mobile phone, so they have had to languish a bit. Hopefully I'll be a bit more regular in my updates now! 

It’s winter and the grocery stores are filled with pumpkins and squashes, I normally prefer my pumpkins savoury, but had been intended on experimenting with sweet. I’d recently acquired a copy of an Egyptian cookbook, and one dessert recipe in particular caught my eye, Kar Assaly. It’s pie-like dessert with a sweet pumpkin base smothered in a creamy béchamel sauce and baked in the oven. The original recipe is quite heavy, and has a lot of added sugar, now… while I do like my desserts sweet, I decided to try and use as little sugar as possible, so to the base I added some grated sweet potato and carrot to add natural sweetness. I also went down the non-dairy route, mainly because my local supermarket was selling off some hazelnut milk, and I thought that would make a lovely addition to the béchamel. If you prefer to go with the original, then add sugar to taste to the pumpkin mixture, and substitute regular milk for the hazelnut milk.

Ingredients
1 small sweet potato (grated)
2 carrots (grated)
500g pumpkin (ideally butternut squash)
6 cardamom pods
1 stick of cinnamon
2 tablespoons orange blossom water
100g desiccated coconut
50g chopped nuts
Squeeze of honey (optional)
Handful of raisins (optional)

For the béchamel
50g margarine or ghee
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk (adjust according to thickness)

1. Add the grated carrots and sweet potato to a pan with the cardamom pods and cinnamon stick and enough water to cover and simmer until they start to disintegrate. While these are cooking, boil the pumpkin until tender and drain (if you want to go for the original recipe, boil the pumpkin in sugar water)
2. Remove the cardamom pods and cinnamon from the carrot and sweet potato mixture, mash the pumpkin and add to the pan. Stir in the coconut and orange blossom water. The pumpkin filling should have the consistency of thick mashed potato, if it’s too runny add more coconut, if too thick then add a little of the pumpkin cooking liquid
3. Spread a layer of the pumpkin in the bottom of an oven proof dish. Top with some of the nuts and raisins and then add the remainder and the rest of the nuts
4. To make the béchamel sauce, fry the flour in margarine or ghee until it loses the raw smell
5. Whisk in the milk, adding a small amount at first
Cook for around 10 minutes until thickened, if the sauce is too thick then just add more milk until it’s the desired thickness
6. Pour over the top of the pumpkin mixture (I sprinkled some flaked almonds on for a bit of extra texture) and bake until golden brown and bubbling (around 20-30 minutes) eat hot, warm or room temperature!

Date maamouls

It's always fun to play with new kitchen toys, and my beautiful hand carved maamoul mould is my newest. I already posted a recipe for the pistachio filled maamouls a couple of weeks ago, this time I'm going for the other main traditional filling - dates. Nature's chocolate... the desert's candy... simply divine... 

I used medjool dates to make the filling here, lucious plump beauties. If you can't get a hold of them and are using standard dried dates, soak them for a bit longer in the rose water, overnight if possible so they soak up all that goodness. If all you can find in your supermarket is the so-called 'ready to eat' dates then frankly I wouldn't bother! I am not sure what they do to them, but whatever it is seems to render them useless for cooking.

Ingredients
300g semolina
100g white flour
150g margarine / ghee
50g caster sugar
1/4 tsp ground mastic (optional)
1/4 tsp mahleb (optional)
1/4 tsp yeast
100ml orange blossom or rose water 

For the date filling
8 medjool dates
Pinch of cinnamon
Orange blossom water

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, melt the margarine or ghee and pour in, along with the orange blossom or rose water. Mix together until it comes together in a large dough ball. Cover with plastic wrap and leave for around 4 hours. I should point out, in that time nothing particularly magical happens, it doesn't transform in size, the waiting period is more to allow the semolina to absorb the fat
2. While the dough is resting, blitz the dates in a blender, with the cinnamon and orange blossom water. You want a fairly thick textured paste
3. Pinch golf ball sized (or walnut, depending on your frame of reference) pieces of the dough and roll into balls. With this quantity you should have enough to make around 20 (ish) maamouls
4. Take a ball into one hand and flatten out with the heel of your other hand. Pinch off a teaspoonful of the date paste and roll into a ball. Place this in the middle of the flattened dough circle and close the dough around it to encase fully
5. At this point squish it in your maamoul mould, traditionally the oval ones are used for nut fillings, and the round for date. If you don't have a mould then you can decorate a pattern on the top with a fork
6. Arrange the maamouls on a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper and bake in an oven preheated to ~190C for 15-20minutes. You want the bottom golden, but the top to be lightly coloured
7. Cool, and dust with icing sugar to serve

Pistachio maamouls

I don't need much of an excuse to cook up a batch of maamouls as they are probably one of my favourite cookies to make. However, if I did need an excuse I found the perfect one in London last weekend - a maamoul mould. My granny used to have a few but along with her kitchen axe and massive cauldron they went AWOL after she died. This maamoul mould I bought from the rather fabulous Persepolis in Peckham. Well worth a detour to if you are hankering after all things Iranian (and generally Middle Eastern and scrumptious). 
A small note on a couple of the optional ingredients: mastic is a resin from the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus), it's used in quite a lot of Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean sweets and desserts and lends a pine-y flavour to the finished dish. Mahlab is a spice made from the seeds of a particular species of cherry (Prunus mahaleb) and gives an almondy/cherry flavour to the dish. 

Ingredients
300g semolina
100g white flour
150g margarine / ghee
50g caster sugar
1/4 tsp ground mastic (optional)
1/4 tsp mahleb (optional)
1/4 tsp yeast
100ml orange blossom or rose water 

For the pistachio filling
100g pistachios
Sugar (to taste)
Orange blossom water

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, melt the margarine or ghee and pour in, along with the orange blossom or rose water. Mix together until it comes together in a large dough ball. Cover with plastic wrap and leave for around 4 hours. I should point out, in that time nothing particularly magical happens, it doesn't transform in size, the waiting period is more to allow the semolina to absorb the fat
2. While the dough is resting, blitz the pistachios in a blender and add sugar to taste and then the flower water until you have a fairly tough marzipan-ish paste
3. Pinch golf ball sized (or walnut, depending on your frame of reference) pieces of the dough and roll into balls. With this quantity you should have enough to make around 20 (ish) maamouls
4. Take a ball into one hand and flatten out with the heel of your other hand. Pinch off a teaspoonful of the pistachio paste and roll into a sausage. Place this in the middle of the flattened dough circle and close the dough around it to encase fully
5. At this point squish it in your maamoul mould, traditionally the oval ones are used for nut fillings, and the round for date. If you don't have a mould then you can decorate a pattern on the top with a fork
6. Arrange the maamouls on a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper and bake in an oven preheated to ~190C for 15-20minutes. You want the bottom golden, but the top to be lightly coloured
7. Cool, and dust with icing sugar to serve (or alternatively leave for 5 minutes and eat while hot... Mmmm)

Mlabes (North African iced cookies)

Despite recent posts to the contrary I'm not big on sweets, preferring savoury any day. However, I've currently got a bit of an obsession with making North African sweets and cakes, partly prompted by the gorgeous patisseries I was window shopping in when I visited Paris last November, and partly due to boredom. I hate the winter, I hate the cold and I hate the rain. For the past few weekends the weather has been dire and the incentive to go out and 'do' something has been sadly lacking. Add to the mix a Winter lurg and you’ve got a recipe for staying at home.

Mlabes are a Tunisian and Algerian delicacy, beautifully iced almond biscuits that melt in the mouth. I searched high and low for a fool proof recipe, but the majority I found online seemed to be based on the same original recipe, one that had at some point been translated from Arabic, in itself not a problem, but no one seemed to know what one of the mystery ingredients was (kthira*) so omitted it. All the recipes did contain egg whites, and as I'm not overly fond of using eggs if I can get away with it I decided to play around with the ingredients a bit. Using margarine as a binding agent seemed to work acceptably, admittedly my cookies are probably a bit 'heavier' than they should be, but I like the texture. I also substituted half ground pistachios for the almonds.
I should point out that any weights listed below are an approximation only; I didn't weigh anything out while I was making the cookies, and adjusted the ingredients depending on the texture. You want the dough to hold together and be quite malleable, so adjust the ground almonds / margarine accordingly.
For the icing, I used an all-in-one royal icing mix (icing sugar and powdered egg white), and added a little more water than the directions on the packet stated so I could dip the cookies in.

Ingredients
200g ground almonds (or 2/3 almonds 1/3 ground pistachios)
50g sugar
2 tablespoons rose water (or orange flower water)
50g margarine (melted)

1. Mix the ground almonds and sugar in a large bowl. Stir in the rose water.
2. Add the melted margarine slowly, you should have a slightly oily malleable dough. If it's too crumbly add more margarine, too loose then add some more almonds.
3. Pinch off small pieces of the dough and roll into balls slightly smaller than golf ball size
4. Arrange on an oiled baking tray and bake at 175C for 20 minutes
5. Allow the cookies to cool completely before icing them
 
Icing
1. Prepare the icing according to the packet (or Google a recipe for royal icing if you want to make your own with egg whites!) you may need to add a little more water, the icing should be thick enough to coat the cookies without slipping off, but not so think that you’ve got to trowel it on! You can either leave the icing plain, or flavour it. I made half with plain icing, and added some violet essence and mauve food colouring to the other half
2. Dip the cookies fully into icing and place on a rack to dry
3. Traditionally they are topped with a diamond of gold or silver leaf, I used a combination of edible gold glitter, bronze sprinkles, and gold stars. To go with the violet ones ideally I would have topped them with a crystallised violet petal…
4. Step back and admire your finished work. Sure they are a little wonky and the icing may not be great, but for a first attempt they are not bad at all

 *Best guess for kthira is that it is a gum or a resin similar to mastic or gum arabic...

Makrouth (North African date and semolina cookies)

Despite appearances to the contrary, I don't actually have a sweet tooth. I do however have a weakness for Middle Eastern and North African sweets and pastries... Concentrated sweetness that goes perfectly with a cup of strong black coffee, maybe at the end of a meal, or maybe during a lazy afternoon. The sort of sweetness that caresses the throat and excites the taste buds. I was preparing a batch of maamouls at the weekend, and decided as I had an awful lot of semolina left, I'd try my hand at making makrouth (or makrout, makroud, makgrood depending on how the name's transliterated) a North African semolina pastry filled with dates. Traditionally fried and then soaked in a hot honey mixture, they are beyond delicious. I have to say, I went down a non-traditional route as far as the cooking process goes and baked them, but the end result seemed to be quite acceptible. 

Ingredients
380g semolina
200g margarine (melted)
150ml orange flower water
1 pinch of salt 

For the filling:
250g dates
1 tsp cinnamon
Orange flower water

1. Chop the dates roughly and add around 50-100ml of boiling water to them (the amount of water will depend on how soft your dates are. I love the really dense fudge-like dates but in the UK they are getting harder and harder to find in supermarkets as the pre-soaked ready-to-eat ones seem more in favour. Nice but they don't work as well in cooking. Leave the dates to soak for at least an hour (ideally overnight)
2. Put the semolina and a pinch of salt in a large bowl and pour in the melted margarine and the orange flower water. Mix the margarine into the dry semolina with your fingers until you have what resembles a bowl of damp sand. You don't want to overwork the dough, so there's no need to knead it, but slowly work it together until you have a firm ball. Wrap in cling film and leave for around 30 minutes (while you make the date filling)
3. Pour any excess water from the dates and blend until they become a smooth paste. Stir in the cinnamon and orange flower water. I haven't given quantities for the orange flower water because it all depends on how moist your date paste is. Ideally, you want something that you can form into a sausage shape.
4. Dividing the date mixture into four, roll into 'sausages'
5. Now divide the semolina dough into four pieces and roll out into a log, flattening slightly. It should be the same length as the date sausages
6. Make an indentation in the dough and add the date filling (hot dog in a bun analogy...)
7. Carefully pinch the sides together so the filling is completely encased in the dough, then roll it backwards and forwards to make sure it's all sealed in
8. Usually at this stage special moulds are used, however if you don't have a mould (I don't) just cut the log diagonally into 2cm wide pieces. If you're feeling adventurous you can decorate the top with a pattern
9. Bake the cookies in an oven preheated to 250C for around 20 minutes,or until they just start to brown
10. Once cooked, you can eat 'as is' or go for the dipped in honey option. I made a simple sugar syrup and added a good squeeze of honey and some orange flower water. I then poured the mixture over the cookies and let them soak for around 30 minutes. Serve with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

Purim Cookies: Oznei Haman (Haman's Ears)

Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the time when the Jews living in Persia were saved from destruction, and is retold in the Book of Esther.  Unlike the majority of Jewish holidays which are solemn occasions, Purim (the name means 'lots', as in 'casting lots') is a particularly joyous occasion with a party-like atmosphere where people dress up in costume and alcohol consumption (often to excess) is encouraged. I used to live in an Orthodox neighbourhood, and it was always great fun watching the usually serious rabbinical students from the Talmudic college staggering along the street much to the amusement of everyone.  

As with other religious holidays, Purim has its associated foods, particularly the triangle shaped cookies known as Hamantaschen (Haman's bags) by Eastern European Jews, or Oznei Haman (Haman's Ears - Haman being the prime minister who was behind the plot to kill all of the Jews living in the Persian Empire) in Israel. Purim this year starts on the evening of the 23rd February and ends sunset 24th February, so Hag Purim Sameach!

I don't really do religion, but I do do food, so here's a recipe for oznei haman...

For the pastry:

250g self raising flour
150g semolina
1 tsp baking powder
100g margarine
1 tablespoon rose water
100ml milk (or water)

For the filling:

250g dried figs or dates

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tablespoon chopped crystalised ginger (optional)

1 tablespoon of orange flower water

2 tablespoons of boiling water

Preheat the oven to 150C 

1. The night before you plan to make the cookies, chop the figs or dates and put them in a container with the ginger, orange flower water and boiling water. Leave overnight to soak and then roughly puree the mixture
2. In a large bowl mix the flour, semolina and baking powder, and then rub in the margarine until you get a breadcrumb consistency
3. Add the rosewater and slowly pour in the milk, you may not need the whole 100ml
4. Mix until you get a firm dough
5. Flour your work surface and roll out the dough until it is around 5mm thick and cut out circles (I used 68mm diameter circle cutters - I only know this because the size is printed on the side!)
6. Add 1 teaspoon of the filling to the centre of each pastry circle, folding the sides in to make a triangle shape

7. Pinch the edges together tightly to ensure that the filling doesn't spill out

8. Bake the oznei haman at 150 C for around 30 minutes, or until they are golden brown
8. Allow to cool and give a light dusting with icing sugar

Maamouls stuffed with Turkish delight

Maamouls are delicious Middle Eastern shortbread pastries usually filled with dates, pistachios or walnuts. After seeing a box of Turkish delight stuffed maamouls in my local Asian grocery store,  I was inspired to try and recreate the recipe at home as a change from the date or apricot versions I usually bake.
The traditional way to make maamouls is to form a ball of pastry, make an indentation for the filling and then seal them up. I did try that way initially, unfortunately because the pastry is quite flaky it didn't have enough structural integrity to hold in the molten Turkish delight and the result was an explosion. Not one to be beaten, I thought I'd try again, this time making the pastry a little moister than usual and cut it into circles to fill empanada style. 

Ingredients (makes 25-30 maamoul)

250g self raising flour
150g semolina
1 tsp baking powder
100g margarine
1 tablespoon rose water
100ml milk (or water)
200g Turkish delight (around 8 cubes, each cube cut into smaller pieces) 

Preheat the oven to 150C

1. In a large bowl mix the flour, semolina and baking powder, and then rub in the margarine until you get a breadcrumb consistency
2. Add the rosewater and slowly pour in the milk, you may not need the whole 100ml
3. Mix until you get a firm dough
4. Flour your work surface and roll out the dough until it is around 5mm thick and cut out circles (I used 68mm diameter circle cutters - I only know this because the size is printed on the side!)
5. Add 2 small cubes of Turkish delight to the centre of each pastry circle, folding the sides to make a neat little parcel

6. Pinch the edges together tightly to ensure that the filling doesn't spill out

7. Bake the maamouls at 150 C for around 30 minutes, or until they are golden brown
8. Allow to cool and give a light dusting with icing sugar or cinnamon

Eat!!