3 delicious traditional recipes you’ll enjoy making.
Eid Al Adha is just around the corner, and we couldn’t help thinking about all the delicious food that we get to feast on. The region’s most loved cooking channel, Fatafeat, shared three exciting recipes: a main course and two desserts, that our readers can try this month.
Chocolate Basbousa
Ingredients
950 gms semolina
13 gms baking powder
270 gms coconut flaxes
665 ml corn oil
600 gms sugar
400 gms yogurt
13 eggs
60 gms cacao powder
120 gms chocolate chips
Tahini for tray
Flour for tray
Syrup
1 kg sugar
2 liters water
10 ml lemon juice
5 ml water rose
5 ml blossom water
Garnish
Almond whole peeled
Sugar powder
For the Basbousa dough
Mix the semolina, coconut flaxes, cocoa powder and baking powder together.
In a separate bowl, mix the oil with the yoghurt, sugar and eggs.
Combine the two mixtures together, then add chocolate chips and pour into the tray after coating it with tahina and flour.
Arrange the whole almonds on top of the mixture, then chill the tray for two hours before baking at 190C till done.
For the syrup
In a small casserole add all the syrup ingredients and boil for 20 minutes. Keep the mixture warm.
To serve
Cut the Basbousa into small squares or diamonds.
Drizzle warm syrup on top of the Basbousa and allow it to cool before serving.
Dust powdered sugar on top.
Delicious Baklava Fingers
Ingredients:
1 package phyllo sheets
¾ cup roasted unsalted pistachios
1 cup roasted cashews
1 cup ghee, clarified butter
Powdered pistachio, to garnish
For the orange blossom syrup:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp orange blossom water
1 cinnamon stick
Method:
- Preheat oven to 325F. Line a 13X9 inch baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, add all sugar syrup ingredients except orange blossom, mix together until sugar has dissolved and let it cook for 10 minutes. Once off heat, add the orange blossom. Set aside to cool.
- Unfold the phyllo sheets on a large cutting board, cut them half into two equal portions.
- Stack one portion over the other, and cover it using a damp kitchen towel, to prevent them from drying. Set aside.
- Take one phyllo sheet piece and place it on the working surface with the longer side facing you. Remember to keep the rest of the phyllo sheets covered.
- Gently brush the phyllo sheet with ghee, then place another phyllo sheet over it and apply ghee on top.
- Spread about 1 – 1½ Tablespoons of the filling over the sheet.
- Now roll both sheets together on the rolling pin quite loosely and roll all the way through.
- Push the rolled phyllo sheets from both sides towards the center of the rolling pin. Then slide it into the prepared baking pan by pushing from one side.
- Now gently stretch it to fit the baking pan. Repeat the process for rest of the phyllo sheets.
- Cut the rolled phyllo according to your desired size.
- Brush ghee over the finished rolls and bake until crisp and golden in color for about 40-50 minutes at 150C.
- Pour the completely cooled sugar syrup over the baklava pieces and keep it aside for 4-12 hours.
- Garnish with ground pistachios, serve and enjoy!
Kofta Tahina
Ingredients
500 gms beef, minced
120 gms onion, chopped
200 gms parsley, chopped
150 gms tomato, chopped
40 gms olive oil
10 gms salt
10 gms all spice
5 gms cardamom
800 gms potato, peeled
400 gms tahina
300 gms lemon juice
10 gms salt
800 ml water
100 gms toasted, sliced almond
50 gms mint leaves
150 gms cauliflower/brocolli
Method
- Grind the meat, parsley and onions in the meat grinder/food processor using the finest disk. Alternatively, very finely dice parsley and onion and add them to the minced meat if you bought your meat pre-minced.
- Add the tomato, olive oil, salt and spices and knead them into the meat mix. Roll into event balls.
- Bake the kofta in the oven for 20 minutes
- Fry the sliced potatoes, boil or bake them until they are cooked halfway.
- Mix the tahina and lemon juice together, the tahini will become lighter in consistency at first, but it will thicken as you keep on mixing and become lighter in colour.
- Bake in the oven on the lowest rack at 220C for 20 minutes then remove the foil and cook until the sauce thickens (this requires an additional 15- 20 minutes).
- Grill the cauliflower with butter and bake with the mix for garnish.
