[Sca-cooks] Abbasid Qataif (spiced nut filled pastries)

[Ana Valdés]

Wonderful! I was in Palestine andJordan last week and bought two kilo
of "small cut", cakes and pastries. From Zalatimo Brothers, the best
baker in the Middle East. They export to the US and to Europe.
I ate in their place knaf, my favorite pastry, filled with
sheepcheese. They told me it was almost impossible to make knaf
outside the Middle East since the special sheepcheese is not made in
other parts of the world. I know people tried with mozarella and
mascarpone.
Have any of you tried to make knaf?
Ana, missing the flavours and the smells of the Middle East!

On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 8:44 PM, Lilinah <lilinah at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Abbasid Qataif
>
> Original Recipe
> (13th C. anonymous Andalusian cookbook)
>
> It is made from the pierced musahhada that has already been mentioned. Take
> peeled almonds, pound them and let them dry until they are like semolina.
> Add as much again of sugar, spikenard, cloves, and Chinese cinnamon. Then
> take a flat bread (raghif) of the aforementioned musahhada, free of burns,
> and sprinkle it with those almonds and ground sugar aplenty. Sprinkle it
> with rosewater in which some camphor is dissolved, and fold it until it is a
> half circle. Glue the edges with dough wetted in rosewater, and put it in a
> frying-pan full of fresh oil. Boil it, and then take it out immediately and
> remove it so it drains of the oil. Let it float in a syrup of roses or julep
> or skimmed honey. You might make raghifs on raghifs, filled inside, and glue
> the margins together, and they will turn out circles and halves. [note]
>
> [note] Huici Miranda's derivation of qataif from a verb meaning to sift
> flour is wrong. "Qataif" is simply the plural of the noun meaning "plush,
> velvet"; the texture is more fabric-like than bread. This basic recipe -
> crepes (the crepes themselves were called "mushahhada" in al-Andalus) folded
> over around a filling and deep fried - is what the word "qataif" still means
> in Lebanon and Syria. The "qataif" can be removed from the cooking oil
> immediately, because the crepe ("flat bread") is already cooked. The last
> sentence suggests instead of folding over one mushahhada you could glue two
> together and make a fully round, rather than a half-round, version, so that
> you can serve both circles and half-circles. (Charles Perry)
>
> ---
>
> My Version
> Made about 55 - that were how many wonton wrapper were in my package
>
> Filling:
> 1 cup Blanched Almonds
> 1 cup Granulated White Sugar
> 1/4 to 1/3 tsp. Powdered Cloves
> 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. Powdered Cinnamon
> 1 tsp. Rosewater (Lebanese)
>
> 1 pkg. circular Wonton Wrappers
> Mild Vegetable Oil for frying
> --- i mixed safflower and sunflower oils
>
> Syrup:
> 1/4 c. Honey
> 1/2 c. Water
> 1 tsp. Lemon juice
>
> Prepare Filling:
> Grind almonds with sugar in the food processor to a somewhat rough stage
> Then mix in cloves, cinnamon, and rosewater by hand.
> I skipped the spikenard, since people seem to find its flavor odd.
> I skipped the camphor because it is a potential health hazard.
>
> Assemble:
> Fill a small bowl with plain water and set it next to the work space.
> On a baking sheet with low sides, lay out several wonton wrappers.
> Put a small amount of spiced ground nuts on one half.
> With a finger dipped in the bowl of water, moisten half the edge of the
> wonton, then fold it over the filling, pressing the edges firmly together to
> seal.
> Repeat until all the filling is used up.
>
> I did this early in the day.
>
> Fry:
> Heat about 1 inch of oil in a cast iron skillet or wok.
> Fry as many half-moon as will comfortably fit - i did 6 to 8 at a time -
> until golden, transferring on a baking sheet with low sides covered with
> paper towels as soon as they are done.
> Let cool.
>
> I did this late in the day
>
> Syrup:
> Mix honey, water, and lemon juice in a small saucepan.
> Bring just to a boil
> Turn off the heat and let the syrup cool.
> When cool, put in a container.
>
> Pour syrup over the fried pastries shortly before serving them.
>
> I think these would have been quite good with a little rose petal jam
> diluted with a little water...
> Watch out for modern rose syrups as many are colored red, which is just
> horrible! It should be clear and colorless, and is quite easy to make
> oneself.
>
> Anyway, i fried them on Friday night and served them on Saturday afternoon,
> and they were nice and crispy - of course, it has been quite dry here. If
> you live in a humid climate, they need to be well-sealed as soon as they are
> fried to keep the humidity out. However, given the instructions to soak in
> syrup, perhaps they are not meant to be crisp. What do i know? My time
> machine is malfunctioning :-)
> --
> Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
> the persona formerly known as Anahita
>
> My LibraryThing
> http://www.librarything.com/catalog/lilinah
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