Sweet cheese pancakes with simple syrup (Attaif)

Both my grandmother and my mother made this dessert excellently!  It is one of the family favourites, served at Christmas and for special company.  It's a bit time consuming, but well worth it.


For pancakes

• 2 cups flour2 cups farina (not too fine; medium)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 5 1/2 cups milk (1 "bag" if you're in Ontario)

For the cheese filling

• 2 cans of ishta (found in Middle eastern stores) or you can make your own (see recipe below) 
• 1kg ricotta cheese (2 standard tubs)

For baking

• 1 cup butter

For the topping

• 1 recipe quantity of simple syrup

In a large bowl, mix all the pancake ingredients together and let sit for one hour, for the farina to rise.  Using a non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat, cook pancakes about 10cm in diameter on one side only (until the top is bubbly looking).  Set aside on a sheet lined with parchment paper.

In a separate bowl, mix the ishta and cheese together until well blended.

To assemble, scoop some of the cheese filling into the centre of a pancake taking care not to get any cheese on the edges.  Fold over and press together with your fingers to seal the pancakes; forming a half moon shape. Place on a buttered baking sheet, and put a tab of butter on the top.  Repeat until all the pancakes are done.

Put in the oven on 350°F for approximately 30 minutes or until golden.

Let cool for about 5 minutes (so that they're still hot), and then dip the hot attaif into the cooled syrup and serve immediately.

Carrot and Almond Cake

• 5 eggs
• 1 tbsp of lemon zest
• 1 ¼ cup of sugar
• 2 cups of shredded carrots
• 2 cups of crushed almonds
• ½ cup of flour

In a stand mixer, mix the eggs and sugar until well blended.  Add carrots, almonds and flour (in that order) until well mixed. Pour into a greased and floured 9"x13" baking dish, and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F. Cool before serving.

Zucchini Spice Cake

My mom makes this cake every summer, at the end of the zucchini season!

Wet ingredients
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 ½ tsp of vanilla
2 cups of shredded zucchini

Dry ingredients
2 cups of sugar
3 cups of flour
Pinch of salt
3 tsp baking powder
3 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup of crushed almonds (or walnuts if you prefer)

In an extra large bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together.  In a separate bowl, mix the dry ones. Then slowly sift the dry ingredients into the wet ones, mixing well each time until the dry ingredients are done. Pour into a greased and floured 9"x13" baking dish, and bake for 30 minutes at 350 °F.

Sandwich Bread

Tata’s uncle, Elias Amar's wife, Laurice, gave this recipe to her.  I'm not sure why our grandmother would have a recipe for white sandwich bread, but I speculate that it's because the only bread that was available at the bakery was pita bread.  If you wanted something else, you'd have to make it yourself!

Makes 2 loaves or 24 buns.

• 8 cups of flour
• A pinch of salt
• 5 tsp baking powder
• 2 ½ cups butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups of yogurt

In a dough mixer, mix flour, salt, baking powder until well blended.  Add the butter until it's well incorporated and then add in the eggs.  Continue mixing. Lastly add the yogurt and mix then add yogurt and mix for about 5 minutes.  Line your baking tray(s) with parchment paper.  Shape the dough into whatever shapes you like (loaves or buns) and bake in oven at 350°F until it's a golden colour and rises (approx 20 minutes for buns, 30-40 minutes for loaves).

Egg-crepes (3jja/A-jja)

A-jja are thin egg pancakes/crepes packed with tons of flavour. Because of the strong spices, we'd usually have these for dinner, rolled up in a pita.

• 2 eggs
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 sprig of green onion, cut into 2cm pieces
  
• a small hand full of coarsely chopped parsley
• 3-4 sprigs of fresh mint
  
• salt and pepper
  
• all spice

In a blender add all the ingredients, except the eggs, together and mix until blended well. Add the eggs and blend for a few more seconds.

On the stove top, heat your skillet and some butter or olive oil to medium-high. Pour the mixture in and let it cook, flipping only once to keep the shape. Sahtain!

Serves 1.

Tips
- You can use regular cooking onion if you don't have spring onions on hand
- You can also substitute dried mint for the fresh sprigs. Just a pinch or two!

Pressed Yogurt (Lebana)

Lebana is sometimes characterized as soft white cheese or cream cheese, but in fact, it's not really cheese at all. It's pressed yogurt that's used as spread in sandwiches or just as a dip with some pita. The word lebana stems from the word leban, which literally means yogurt.

Lebana would always be in our fridge growing up, to enjoy on Saturday mornings with the traditional spread of hummus,fool,hard boiled eggs, feta cheese, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers and of course, pita bread!

• 750g (1 tub) of Balkan yogurt, 3% works best
• pinch of salt
• cheese cloth

For serving:

• extra virgin olive oil
  
• red pepper sauce

Stir the salt into the tub of yogurt. Place the cheese cloth into a colander and empty the yogurt into it. Put a catch plate underneath it to capture all the liquid. You may have to drain the plate 3-4 times over the course of the straining cycle. Let it drain for about 2 days in the refrigerator until the consistency is thick, similar to that of peanut butter. You'll Once complete, empty the lebana into a container and store in the fridge. It should last for about 8 days.

When ready to serve, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and some spicy red pepper sauce.

Kanafa and Simple Syrup

This is such an amazing dessert -- so simple and decadent. This dessert comes from our grandfather Zaki's birthplace, Nablus, Palestine. Our mom told us that during Christmas, my grandfather would make this over hot coals on aluminum tray!! They used fresh curdled goat milk cheese they would make themselves. Nowadays, we can whip this up in about 30 minutes!

Katafi (also called kadaifi) is shredded dough, found in the freezer section of most middle eastern or Greek supermarkets. I choose to keep it mostly frozen when shredding it, and I use a food processor to cut the time in half (and it's much easier on your hands!). I also like to use salted butter, I like the contrast with the sugar, but I know my mom and tata wouldn't approve!

• 454 g (1 package) of katafi
• 2 tubs of 454g ricotta cheese
• 1 cup of room temperature unsalted butter

Simple Syrup

• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• squeeze of lemon

In a food processor cut the katafi into approximately 1/2 cm pieces. Place a metal tray on your stove top, turn the heat on low. Place the butter and all of the katafi in the tray, and with your hands blend the butter into the shredded dough thoroughly until all the butter is absorbed and it's nice and fluffy. This will take about 20 minutes, and the dough will cook a little on the low heat.

Once complete, divide the katafi and butter mixture in half. Spread half the mixture evenly on the bottom of a 9" x 13" baking tray and pat it down. Then layer the ricotta cheese evenly over the katafi mixture. Top the ricotta cheese with the remaining katafi and butter mixture. You can make this ahead and kept in the fridge up to two days or you can freeze it.

Once ready to serve, bake uncovered at 350°F for approximately 30-40 minutes or until the edges become golden. At this point you can turn the broiler on and brown the top...DO NOT LEAVE IT OR IT WILL BURN.

While the kanafa is baking, mix the sugar and water over medium heat. Once it boils, add in the lemon and leave to cool. The lemon prevents the sugar from crystallizing again.

Once the kanafa is golden on top, take it out of the oven and pour or ladle the simple syrup over top evenly. Let it sit for about 10 minutes before cutting and serving.