Kataifi (Greece)
Kanafah, also spelled kunafeh or kunafah is a Middle Eastern cheese pastry soaked in sweet, sugar-based syrup, typical of the regions belonging to the former Ottoman Empire. It is a specialty of the Levant and adjoining areas of Egypt and Turkey.
Ingredients:
450g kataifi dough (16 oz.) 250g walnuts, roughly chopped (9 oz.) 1 tsp ground cinammon a pinch ground clove 250g butter from cow’s milk (9 oz.)
For the syrup: 450g sugar (16 0z.) 330g water (12 oz.) peel of 1 lemon 1 cinnamon stick
Instructions:
1. Start by preparing the syrup.
Add all the ingredients for the syrup into a small pot and bring to the boil. As soon as the sugar has dissolved, the syrup is ready. Leave the syrup aside to cool completely.
2. Preheat the oven to 170-180C.
3. Prepare the filling.
In a blender add the walnuts, ground clove and cinnamon; pulse until the walnuts are roughly chopped (not powdered). You can also substitute pistachios or almonds.
4. Prepare the pan.
Melt the butter and with brush the butter onto the bottom and sides of a baking pan. (approx. 26-28cm diameter)
5. Prepare the dough.
Unroll the Kataifi dough from the plastic sleeve. Work the kataifi dough with your hands, tearing apart the shreds and gently spreading the strands out a bit if they clump together, in order to get fluffy. Cover with a slightly damp towel.
Take one piece of the kataifi dough, and spread it on a working surface or your palm. Drizzle with melted butter and place 1 teaspoon of the filling at one end. Roll it up tightly, folding inwards the sides, to form a small cylinder.
Place the kataifi roll in the pan and brush with melted butter, using the cooking brush to shape it a little bit. Repeat with the rest of the kataifi dough and filling.
Place the kataifi rolls the one next to the other, leaving no gaps between them and drizzle with a little bit more butter.
6. Bake.
Bake in the oven at 170-180C for about 1 hour (on the middle rack), until nicely colored and crispy.
Immediately after removing from the oven, ladle 3/4 of the cold syrup over the for kataifi. Let each ladle of the syrup absorb. Cover the pan with a towel and set aside for 10 minutes. Ladle the rest of the syrup over the kataifi and wait until absorbed.
7. Serve!
