Alkatayef (Arabic Stuffed Pancakes)

Ingredients

Pancake

¾ cup of sugar
½ cup warm milk
1 teaspoon of yeast
2 teaspoon of baking powder
1¼ cup flour
1 cup water

The nut stuffing

24 pieces of the pancakes
1 cup ground hazelnuts
1 cup ground almonds
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon rose water and or orange blossom water
1½ cup sugar syrup
oil for frying

The cream filling

24 pieces of pancakes
1½ cup fresh cream
½ cup peeled and ground pistachios

Method

Pancake 
Mix the sugar and the milk together. Then add the yeast to the mixture. Let stand for 5 minutes, until the yeast rises.

Mix the baking powder with the flour then add to the yeast mixture.
 
Add the water to the mixture then mix very well. Let rise for a while.
 
Heat a pan, preferably a thick bottom pan. Then add one large tablespoon of the dough in the hot pan. 

Leave it until the bottom of the pancake gets brown.
 
When the pancake begins to have little air pockets on the top this means that it is done.
 
If you find that it is burnt on the bottom half, you may reduce the heat and let it cook at a lower rate.

The nut stuffing
Mix the hazelnuts, almonds, sugar together, and then add the rose or orange blossom water with one tbsp of the syrup.
 
Place one tbsp inside the pancake leaving the dark piece on the outside. Place the mixture in the centre and then fold the pancake making a semi-circle. Close the edges tightly with your fingers. Heat up the frying oil, when hot, place your stuffed pancake into the oil and fry until golden brown.
 
Take them out of the oil and dip the directly into the cool syrup.
 
Take them out of the syrup and place them onto a serving tray.

The cream filling
Fill the centre of the pancake with the cream filling.
 
Close it only half way, leaving an opening in the at one end.
 
Then dip the pancake that has been filled with the cream into the pistachio nuts.
 
The opening of the pancake should now be covered with the ground pistachio nuts.
 
Serve these on a platter with the syrup drizzled on top or on the side.

Umm Ali. 

Preparation time :     15 minutes
Cooking time :     20 minutes
Serves: 10 persons 

Ingredients

8 pieces croissant or 600 g, medium size, cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons raisins
3 tablespoons desiccated coconut
3 tablespoons flaked almonds, toasted
3 tablespoons pistachio nuts, cracked
1 tin NESTLÉ® Sweetened Condensed Milk or 397 g
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
4 cups water or 1 liter
1 cup liquid cream or 250 ml, whipped

Preparation

Combine croissant pieces, raisins, coconut, almonds and pistachio in a baking dish.

Place Nestle Sweetened Condensed Milk , vanilla and water in a large saucepan and bring to boil then remove from heat and pour immediately over the croissant mixture in the baking dish and set them aside for 5 minutes or until croissants absorb the maximum of the liquid.

Place whipped cream in a piping bag and pipe the cream over the prepared mixture in the baking dish.

Place the baking dish in a preheated oven at 200°C using the grill part of the oven and grill for 5 minutes or until the cream topping is golden color. Serve it immediately.

UMM ALI : Traditional Egyption dessert

Ingredients

1 (17.5 ounce) package frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed 
1/2 cup chopped walnuts 
1 cup chopped pecans 
1 cup chopped hazelnuts 
1 cup raisins 
1 cup flaked coconut 
1 1/4 cups white sugar, divided 
4 cups milk 
1/2 cup heavy cream 

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. 

Place the pastry sheets in the baking dish and place the dish in the oven. Watch it closely. When the top layer turns crunchy and golden, remove it from the oven. Continue until all the sheets are cooked. 

Preheat the oven broiler. 

In a bowl, combine walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, raisins, coconut and 1/4 cup sugar. Break cooked pastry into pieces and stir into nut mixture. Spread mixture evenly in 9x13 inch dish. 

Bring milk and 1/2 cup sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Pour over nut mixture. 

Beat the heavy cream with the remaining 1/2 cup sugar until stiff peaks form. Spread evenly over nut mixture in dish. 

Place dessert under oven broiler until top is golden brown, about 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Pink Diamonds - Agar Agar

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp Agar-Agar flakes/powder
• 4 cups milk
• Few drops of any food coloring. I used pink
• Sugar to taste
• 1/2-1tsp Rose essence (optional)

Method

Stir the agar-agar flakes into the milk and stir. Bring the milk to a boil. Keep stirring to avoid the agar from sticking to the bottom.Once it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the agar has completely dissolved. Then add sugar and dissolve.

Cool and then add the essence, if using along with the coloring.

Pour it into either molds or into a flat dish.

Refrigerate about 2-3 hrs or until set.

Before serving cut it into shapes of your liking or unmould if using molds.

Credit & Thanks to DK

Rava Kesari (Semolina Pudding)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Semolina (Rava, sooji)
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1-2 tbsp broken cashews
• 2-3 tbsp Ghee (clarified butter)
• 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
• Pinch of saffron
• Few drops of food coloring (optional)
• Few drops of flavor essence like pineapple, mango, rose etc (optional)

Method

In a skillet heat the ghee. Roast the cashews until brown.

Remove the cashews and set aside.

In the same pan, roast the semolina for 2-3 mins in low flame. It will start being aromatic. The purpose for doing this slow roasting is dual. One for avoiding lumps while adding water later and also to get rid of the rawness of the semolina. Alternatively bring the water to a boil.

Now slowly add the water to the semolina, making sure to keep stirring the pan so that the semolina does not form into lumps. The semolina should be completely cooked and you can find it out by touching it. It will be  soft, will not stick to the sides and will come together as one mass. 

At this point add the sugar. Make sure to add sugar only after the semolina is well cooked. Sprinkle it over evenly on the surface. Keep stirring while the sugar melts and comes together into a thick pudding like consistency. 

At this point add the saffron, cashews and food coloring if using (I added 1 drop of food coloring this time. I usually don't.) You can also dissolve the saffron in few drops of hot milk and add it.

Tips:

For different tastes/variety you can add few drops of essence at this stage like pineapple, mango, rose, vanilla etc. 

Remove from pan and Serve it hot garnished with cashews if desired.

Shibu's Cookings and rantings

Food & Recipes........

This is only for storing my recipes of what I make or what and my family like. Everything goes. Western, Continental, Thai, Chinese, Indian, Mexican......

Deep dish Pizza Hut style Pizza

For a pizza dough recipe with a crisp exterior and a soft and tender crumb, I included a liberal amount of oil, sugar, and milk instead of water. 
A warm oven was the perfect place for the dough to rise quickly, but I made sure not to let it get so hot that it would compromise the yeast. To prevent the pepperoni from leaching grease over the top of the Pepperoni Pan Pizza, I briefly micro waved it sandwiched between sheets of paper towel for about 45 seconds to 1 min.

Ingredients

Dough 

2 tablespoons of oil 

3/4 cup skim milk plus 2 additional tablespoons, warmed to 110 degrees 

1 teaspoons sugar 

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 package instant yeast or 2 1/4 teaspoons of rapid rise yeast

1/2 teaspoon table salt 

Assemble all ingredients place in bread machine or mixer to form dough remove and divide in half for two 8 in deep dish pizzas or one 16 in pizza

place in preheated oven of 175 degrees once at this temperature turn oven off place pizzas in the oven for a short rise about 10 -15 min layer peperoni on paper towels and microwave approximately 1 min 10 seconds to help remove excess grease add sauce and cheese and any toppings you want then place pizzas in oven and heat oven to 400 degrees as the temperature rises this will give the pizza dough oven spring and allow the dough to rise creating the deep dish pizza like pizza hut, cook pizza at 400 degrees for approximately 20 to 30 minuets or until done then slice and eat. have fun and enjoy.