Qatayef ( Arabic Pancakes)

Qatayef or Atayef is an Arabic pancake filled with cheese and nuts. Usually served during ramadhan. The authentic recipe calls for Akkawi cheese which is non existent here so I used Belcube cheese (that was in my fridge this morning) :-)

1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup warm water

Mix the above ingredients set aside until frothy for 5 min. Then add the flour and the rest of the ingredients, mix well, cover and let it rise for 30 min.

1 cup All purpose flour
1/4 cup sugi (semolina)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Pour batter onto ungreased nonstick pan just like how you would make a pancake.

So not cook the other side of the pancake. Remove from pan once the TOP part is dry with no wet mixture

For the filling I used Belcube cheese, sugar and cashew nibs. You can always use any other nuts , cream cheese, feta or even ricotta.

Pinch the edges.

Deep fry until golden. Pour sugar syrup on both sides.

Orange Blossom Syrup

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp orange blossom water

Simmer sugar and water until thickened and all sugar is melted.
Add orange blossom water. Alternatively u can use rose water

Jalebis (deep fried squiggly fritters)

Jalebis, Jalebis, Zulabia, Zalabiya is an Indian / Middle Eastern dessert or snack made from Gram flour and soaked lightly in saffron infused syrup.

Firstly, you need a squirt bottle to make squiggles of batter.

Make the sugar syrup.

160g sugar
125ml water
A few saffron threads

Simmer the sugar & water for 5 minutes until the mixture becomes thicker. Add the saffron or alternatively a drop of rose water or rose Essence. Set aside

For the batter you need gram flour or lentil flour. You can buy ready packaged gram flour but I just grind chana dhal into a fine powder.

1/4 cup gram flour
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cups water
1/8 tsp baking soda
A pinch of baking powder
1/8 tsp tumeric powder
A few drops of yellow food colouring

Mix all the ingredients and whisk for a min so aerate the batter. Pour into the squirt bottle and deep fry around 2 inches of batter in spiral design. Or you can just make squiggles.

I used Ghee to deep fry the batter for an authentic taste but Ghee is really expensive so I fry in small batches. Or you can just use vegetable cooking oil.

The batter makes about 2 dozen Jalebis. Fry until golden brown, place on kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil and dip into the sugar syrup. I usually dip and remove so that the Jalebis don't get too cloyingly sweet.