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Friday, March 17, 2017

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




Sunday, March 12, 2017

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.




Friday, March 03, 2017

Japanese Cheesecake




Recipe

Melt the following ingredients in a bain marie until the cheese melts and well blended with the butter and milk. Add lemon juice.

250g cream cheese
100 ml milk
50g butter
1 teaspoon lemon juice

6 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
70g sugar

Whisk all the above ingredients into a meringue.

6 egg yolks
70g sugar
60g cake flour (sifted)
20g corn flour

In another bowl whisk the egg yolks & sugar to a soft peak (5 minutes of whisking less if you're using a mixer). Then add All The sifted flour in.

Once the cheese mixture cools down,add in lemon juice and fold into the egg yolk mixture. Mix throughly.

Fold half of the meringue into the cheese mixture. Then fold the balance meringue in.

You can use 8 inch round pan or 8 x 6 rectangle pan or 7x7 square pan like I did. Grease the pan and line it with greaseproof paper. I like to have excess paper at the top of the pan for easy removal. Bake it in a water bath for 1 hour 15min give or take, in a 160 degree oven.