Fresh baklava has to be one of the most famous sweets across the globe. Throughout the Middle East and across Mediterranean lands it is king.

Boy, do those people have good taste.

Nutty, chewy and ultimately calorific, baklava sticks to your teeth and your thighs. My philosophy is to enjoy devilishly sweet treats in moderation and occasionally in excess.*

This take on one of my favourite sweets was inspired by baklava I ate at an odd little Turkish cafe I visited in London not so long ago. It was very dark and very greasy. The cafe, not the baklava.

In fact, the baklava was amazing. It had all of the super flavours of traditional baklava with a wonderfully textured twist. I love me some twists.

Sweet rice and the traditional spiced nuts were enveloped in thin, crisp filo pastry layers, then drenched in sugar syrup and left to absorb until chewy and divine. Pouring the hot sugar syrup on when the baklava is fresh from the oven makes it easier for it to absorb into the thirsty sheets of filo and down the diamond-cut grooves.

As for that twist… Rice in baklava is amazing just in case you’re wondering.

I flavoured my rice with rose and pistachio but essentially you could use anything. Don’t go too crazy though; try to stick to traditional Middle Eastern and Mediterranean flavours like orange blossom water, honey or saffron. You could even keep it simple and use plain rice, or rice flavoured with a lemon zest.

I used jasmine rice for these bakalava as I wanted it to be firm enough to keep its shape, but not so hard you could use a lump of it as a tennis ball at Wimbledon. This cannot be whetting your appetite.

Sifting through pages and pages of information in books and on the internet just leaves me more and more curious about where the origins of this dessert lie. The lands in which it was created and the etymology of the name remains unclear as the facts are perched upon blurred lines and borders. It feels rather like a family tree in which each little segment must be traced in order to view the bigger picture.

Links, lines and roots connecting people, countries and history can all be represented in a simple pastry. Amazing. I think I long, long book could be written about the cultural histories of legendary and delicious desserts such as baklava.

I can imagine kings and queens of the East, and Greek gods and goddesses gorging themselves on fresh baklava every night before bed. Hundreds of servants wheeling out golden trolleys stacked tall with sweeties. Do you think they’re hiring for servants? If they are, email me the details at: sanju(dot)modha(at)hotmail(dot)co(dot)uk

A diamond wedge of fresh baklava warm from the oven and a strong espresso may not be the ideal everyday breakfast* but to be honest, it should only really be reserved for special occasions anyway.

*Huge and delicious pieces of baklava should be devoured at the diners peril and in some cases may cause diabetes, ‘chunky butt’ syndrome and severe sweet toothism. KO Rasoi and Sanjana do not take any responsibility for occurrences of these symptoms and/or any other greed-related illnesses.

Rose & Pistachio Baklava

Ingredients
250g pistachios, ground coarsely
400ml single cream
200ml ghee (clarified butter), melted
270g frozen filo pastry, defrosted (cut it to the size of your baking dish)
120g jasmine rice
1 tbsp sugar
½ tsp cardamom powder
2 tbsp rose syrup
1 tbsp rose water

For the syrup
225g granulated white sugar
½ cup hot water
2 tbsp lemon juice (this stops the syrup from crystallising)

Method

1. Gently boil the rice in the single cream and 1 tbsp sugar until creamy. Keep stirring it as it simmers because it will stick. When thick and luscious, add the rose water, rose syrup and cardamom powder and stir well. Set aside to cool.

2. Brush a deep baking dish with a generous amount of ghee.

3. Begin by placing a sheet of filo in the pan, butter it and cover with ground pistachios.

4. Repeat step two until you have used half of the filo and pistachios. This is a bit like layering up a lasagne. Always remember to be generous with the ghee- this is what makes the baklava crisp.

5. Halfway through the pastry layering, spread the cooled rice mixture on top of the filo. Now you can carry on layering the sheets and nuts up (always brushing with ghee) until everything is used up. Brush the top layer with lots of ghee to create a beautiful golden top.

6. Cut the baklava into diamond shapes or squares. I went for diamonds because they look very elegant this way.

7. Bake at 160 degrees Celsius for around an hour until crisp and golden.

8. Meanwhile, heat the ingredients for the sugar syrup until it is of a one string consistency (this is called the ‘soft ball’ stage on a sugar thermometer). Set aside.

9. Remove the baklava from the oven. By now it should be super crisp and smelling divine. Carefully pour over the sugar syrup and allow it to stand and absorb for at least 8 hours. I left mine for 24 hours and it was just perfect.

Tip: For super chewy baklava, return the baking tray to the warm (but turned off) oven as the sugar syrup is absorbing and leave it for 8+ hours,  or up to 24 hours.

Store in an airtight container in a very cool place for up to three days. Not that it will last that long.

Serve with espresso for breakfast.

Or dessert.

Or both.

The post Rose & Pistachio Baklava appeared first on Sanjana.Feasts.

Woah, what a week; I’ve been as busy as a bumblebee at a flower festival. I can’t help but feel that I should be creating more, posting more and spending less time doing other, time-consuming yet necessary things. Has anybody got a pause button I could borrow for a little while?

Well, I haven’t been a total blog slacker this week. Honest.

A couple of weeks ago one of KO Rasoi’s Facebook fans requested some vegetarian Greek recipes. Can I tell you a scandalous yet unsurprising secret?

I know nothing about Greek food. Shock, horror. You can start throwing rotten olives at me now.

By nothing I mean everything apart from the obvious yummies the Greeks have introduced to us through their simple, flavourful cooking like moussaka, dolmades and baklava. Due to my culinary roots being embedded in the soil of Gujarat, I can’t help but feel a kinship towards cultures that embrace simple spicing and maximum flavour. The Greek culinary culture is definitely one of these.

I’ve seen numerous recipes similar to this one in books and online, and they always have slight variations on one another. By using protein-packed soya beans and delicate flavouring, I would like to offer my own take on this gorgeously Greek classic.

Greek-Style Soya Beans with Dill & Honey
(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients

2 cups soya beans, cooked
2 large onions, chopped (around 2 cups)
4 large cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp olive oil
3 cups tinned chopped tomatoes
1 tsp chilli powder
3 tbsp concentrated tomato puree
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp dill (I used dried)
1 cup water
2 tbsp honey
Salt to taste

Method

1. In a heavy based pan, heat the olive oil and add the onions and garlic. Sauté on a medium-low heat until softened and slightly golden. This will mellow out the flavours so they are not too strong.

2. Add the tomato puree and cook for a further few minutes to remove some acidity, then add the tinned tomatoes, chilli powder, smoked paprika, 1 tsp dill and the soya beans. Cook this on a low heat for 30 minutes with the lid off.

3. Add one cup of water, season with salt and add another tsp of dill and the honey. Simmer for a couple of minutes and remove from the heat.

Serve with lush, thick Greek yogurt, lots of griddled pitta bread and crumbled feta cheese. Also, forgive me for my sluggishness of late.

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Kataifi (also known as konafi, kanafeh, kunafah and a whole range of other names in various languages) is a Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean shredded filo pastry. It is a little fiddly to work with but worth every second of the time it makes to create luxurious pastries, whether they are sweet or savoury. With this one, patience is most certainly a virtue.

Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean pastries are famously known for their use of nuts, spices and syrups, but the varieties of these ingredients differ from country to country, and region to region. Some of these ingredients include almonds, pistachios, rose, cinnamon, honey, fruits and sugar syrups. The list of possible combinations for pastries is endless, and they can be every bit as indulgent as your imagination dares to allow.

The fine threads of kataifi are massively delicate and resemble angel hair pasta which, when drizzled with golden streams of butter crisp up divinely in the heat of your oven. Syrup is poured on once the kataifi has finished baking and is still warm and able to glug up all of its sweetness and moisture.

Indeed, kataifi is very versatile and provides an amazing crunch to lots of dishes. It can also be filled with savoury ingredients such as cheeses like sharp fetas or also fruits like spiced mashed avocado. It can be baked and deep fried, although when you bake it, you must agree to add lots of butter. It’s wholly necessary.

You’ll have never tasted anything crispier. That’s a promise. And I always keep my promises.

Fun Fact: Palestinians made the largest kanafeh [kataifi] in an attempt to get into the book of Guinness World Records. The plate of the Palestinian delicacy measured 75 meters in length and two meters in width with a weight of 1,350 kilograms.*

Sadly, they never saved a piece for me.

*Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanafeh

Cinnamon & Orange Blossom Kataifi Rolls
(Yields 35-45 pieces depending on their size)

Ingredients

500g kataifi pastry (I used a Syrian brand of frozen pastry, defrosted)
250g salted butter, melted

For the filling

240g ground nuts (I used a combination of equal amounts of pistachios, almonds and walnuts)
2 tsp cinnamon powder
60g granulated sugar

For the syrup

400g sugar
360ml water
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp orange blossom water

Method

1. Combine all of the ingredients for the filling and set aside.

2. On a large, clean surface separate the kataifi pastry carefully until it is as thin as it will go without having large gaps in it. Make sure the strands are left whole.

3. Cut the pastry into 6X10inch rectangles and working quickly on the longest edge, butter the pastry all over with a pastry brush. Then place 2-3 tbsp of the filling in a horizontal line across the pastry an inch from the bottom.

4. Carefully and tightly roll the long edge of the pastry from the bottom, making sure the filling doesn’t fall out. Place in a buttered baking tray and brush the top all over with more butter. (Note: Next time I roll the kataifi I will be using a sushi mat to get a perfect roll as the method of rolling kataifi is very similar to rolling sushi maki).

5. Repeat the above process for the rest of the pastry. Tightly pack each roll into the baking tray, one next to the other.

6. Bake the kataifi at 140 degress Celsius for around an hour. If you find it is burning then brush on more butter and bake at a lower temperature for longer.

8. Once the kataifi is golden brown all over, remove from the heat and gently ladle on the warm sugar syrup. Cover the tray with a piece of foil and allow to rest and absorb for a minimum of 8-12 hours, although 24 hours would be ideal.

9. When rested and cooled, cut the pastry logs into 1 inch pieces and place on greaseproof paper. Serve with Arabic coffee (qawah) or espresso.

The post Cinnamon & Orange Blossom Kataifi Rolls appeared first on Sanjana.Feasts.

This is vegan. Just had to mention that shocking fact as this is by far one of the creamiest, richest, most delicious dishes I have ever tasted.

Having recently posted the Gujarati-inspired African dish Hot and Sour Tamarind Cassava, I have decided to share a little more of these rare combinations with you. Note: I’m currently considering coining this sort of food under the term ‘Gujafrican’ cuisine- pretty accurate if you ask me. These recipes have been simmering in the karahis my family of cooks for year upon years, and now everyone loves a little cassava, sour mango, coconut milk and other delicious East African ingredients. Gujafrican cuisine is light, moreish and perfect for long summer evenings. Let me warn you, once you start cooking these dishes they will leave an everlasting impression upon your tastebuds, which you will never forget.

This recipe uses no onions or garlic, and so the dish is flavoured using alternative aromatic spices. Sweetcorn and cumin are like bride and groom; they hold hands, dance, and totally love each other, so in this recipe we are never shy with the cumin. The subtle, heady aroma of coriander seed is another spice which pairs well with the gentle warmth brought by the cumin seeds, and the sweet freshness of the corn. Other than that, very little of other spices are used to make Kasodi (the Ugandan word for sweetcorn). However, don’t underestimate the deliciousness of this dish, no- that would be a serious mistake.

You don’t have to just stick to sweetcorn either- you can add anything you like. A few suggestions would be potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, butternut squash, tofu, or anything else you happen to have in the fridge. You can serve Kasodi with naan, chapattis, paratha, rice, or my favourite way- with a spoon and a glass of salted lassi. This is not to say that you won’t need to use your hands. The pieces of corn on the cob ensure your mitts will certainly get messy. Although, when food tastes this good… Who cares?

Ingerdients
(serves 6)

1 cup redskin peanuts, roasted, skins removed and coarsely ground
600g corn on the cob, cooked and cut into 1 inch pieces
5 medium hot green chillies, minced (or to taste)
1 ½ tbsp ginger
1 ½ cups sweetcorn off the cob (I used tinned)
1 ¼ cups passata
1 ½ cups coconut milk
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp asafoetida (optional)
2 tsp coriander seed powder
¼ tsp turmeric
2 tsp salt (or to taste)
¼ cup fresh coriander, chopped

Method

1. Heat the oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds, asafoetida, chillies, ginger, passata and ground peanuts. Cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

2. Add the coconut milk, turmeric and coriander seed powder and allow to simmer for around 10 minutes. Keep stirring to ensure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

3. Add the corn on the cob, tinned sweetcorn and salt. Simmer for another 10 minutes (keep stirring) and then finally stir in the fresh coriander. Garnish with extra chilli and toasted cumin if you wish.

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