Kataifi Shredded Filo Rolls
A delicious Mediterranean pastry made with shredded filo pastry and filled with nuts! A treasure of a treat!
Riding in horse drawn buggies with colorful, fringed awnings in the Egyptian city of Luxor, we bumpily passed vendors out on the sidewalks in front of their shops, pouring a thin batter onto a large round griddle. Then, running a many bladed pizza-like cutter around the large crepe-like creation, thin strips of pastry like shredded wheat, piled up.
It was Ramadan as we witnessed the creation of “Kataifi” used in pastries devoured when the sun wasn’t watching. This unique shredded filo pasty is most famously used in the creation of k’nafi, a Palestinian sweet composed of a crust of kataifi shreds, well buttered and covered with buffalo chesse (to be authentic) or mozzarella (easier to come by) or a sweet cream custard (“ashta” cream) - in my opinion the best of the three. Big silver trays of “k’nafi” adorn the doorways of pastry stalls in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the Middle East, glistening with a cinnamon-spiked simple syrup, “atar’, used on most Middle Eastern pastry.
Though “kataifi” is used in Greek and Turkish cooking, historians suggest that it was created in Egypt, and was developed to help satisfy hunger during a religious festival. Word got out and this delicate pastry that lives to soak up butter, spread across the Levant and to the outcroppings of Europe. Who would not embrace it, once sampled!
As though there weren’t enough delicious pastries made with filo, here comes another, of course with a nod to Baklawa, the belle of Arab pastries. In fact, some would say if they have Baklawa, what more could they want! But there is more and this recipe like several others is worthy of note and perhaps easier to prepare. Check for Armenian Bourma on this blog as well. The common ingredients are filo, butter, nuts, cinnamon, doused with sweet syrup, just in varied forms. No horse-drawn buggies required to hunt this pastry down as most international groceries now carry it. But it is hard to beat the ambiance of a carriage ride through the streets of Luxor on a festive Ramadan evening.
Greek Kataifi Me Amigthala
l pound Kataifi pastry (available in Middle Eastern Groceries)
2 sticks melted butter, 1 cup
1 cup shelled and ground pistachios
2 cups shelled and ground almonds
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
1 egg white
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2-inch strip of lemon rind
4 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon honey
-Allow the kataifi pastry to come to room temperature, still covered in its packaging. If frozen solidly, this will take about 2 hours. Pastry should be completely thawed before working with it.
-Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Brush a 9 X 12-inch baking tray with some melted butter.
-Place the nuts in the bowl of a food processor with the cinnamon and cloves. Pulse until nuts are finely ground. Lightly beat the egg white with a fork and add to the mixture. Mix briefly to make a paste. Divide the mixture into 8 portions and form each into a sausage shape about 7 inches long. (Dampen your hands before shaping each log to keep mixture from sticking.)
-Divide the pastry into 7 portions. Take 1 portion of the pastry strands and spread them out fairly compactly with the strands running lengthwise towards you. The pastry should measure about 10 X 7 inches. Brush and dab the pastry with melted butter. Place one of the “nut” sausages along the end of the pastry nearest to you and roll up into a neat sausage shape, keeping the nut log in the center of the pastry strands. Roll as neatly and tightly as possible, tucking the loose strands in as you go. (It is impossible to get the strands to behave just as you would like but just do your best.) Repeat with the other pastry portions.
-Place the rolls close together on the baking sheet and brush them well with more melted butter. Every surface of the pastry should be coated with butter. Bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown.
-While the pastries are cooking, place the remaining sugar in a medium saucepan with 2 cups water and stir over low heat until dissolved. Add the lemon juice, rind, cloves and cinnamon stick then bring to a boil. Stop stirring once the mixture comes to a boil or it will become cloudy and may crystallize. Boil over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir in the honey, remove the lemon rind and set aside to cool completely.
-Remove pastries from the oven when cooked and allow to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes. Pour the cool syrup over the top, as evenly as possible. Leave the rolls to soak in the syrup and cool completely before cutting each roll into 5 pieces. The Kataifi should absorb most of the syrup as it cools.
-Makes 40 pieces. Serve at room temperature.
Place nuts in food processor and pulse until fine.
Add sugar, spices and egg white to the nut mixture.
Shape the nut mixture into 7 “nut” logs or sausages.
Spread out and slightly untangle strands of pastry on surface in front of you.
Dab each portion of filo well with melted butter.
Place a nut log at one end of your pastry rectangle.
Roll nut log up in pastry strands as tightly as possible.
Snugly fit pastry rolls into bakng pan or on baking sheet.
Combine water, sugar, cinnamon and lemon in saucepan to prepare syrup.
Cut each pastry log into 5 sections. Serve at room temperature.
PERSNICKETY NOTES:
*Kataifi pastry can also be found at many International Markets. You can also order it on Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Athens-Foods-Apollo-Kataifi-Shredded/dp/B00CHTZVME/ref=sr_1_10?crid=LA0HCSOP2F41&keywords=kataifi+pastry&qid=1680741561&sprefix=Kataifi%2Caps%2C504&sr=8-10
*To store Kataifi pastries, keep at room temperature, lightly covered with foil. Do not wrap foil tightly as the pastry will lose its crispness. Do not store in airtight containers or in the fridge or freezer, as once again they will not remain crispy.
*Kataifi can be prepared up to the point of baking and placed in a baking dish and then frozen. Remove and let thaw about 30 minutes before baking then continue with recipe as described above.
