Ingredients
Units
Scale
Ingredients
- 500g (1lb) Kataifi pastry
- 180g (6oz) butter, melted
Filling
- 300g (10oz) walnuts and blanched almonds, chopped coarsely
- 50g (2oz) sugar
- 1 egg white, beaten lightly
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Syrup
- 300g (10 oz) sugar
- 300ml (1/2 pint) water
- thin strip of lemon peel
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon honey
To Garnish
- 50g (2 oz) pistachio nuts, chopped coarsely
Instructions
- Pre-Heat oven to 180C, 350F, Gas 4
- Brush a large baking dish with a little of the melted butter.
- You can put the nuts in a food processor to chop up into small pieces.
- Place all the filling ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
- Spread the pastry out on a bench, pulling apart slightly so its not clumped up.
- Cover with baking paper and a clean damp towel to stop it drying out whilst working with it.
- Pull out a handful of dough at a time, spread it out into a rectangular shape.
- Brush or sprinkle the melted butter over the pastry.
- Place a tablespoon of the filling along the middle of the pastry.
- Tuck the sides and ends in and then roll it up firmly, keeping any loose strands in place.
- Roll tightly so the filling is enclosed securely. It will look like a short fat cigar. Don’t worry if its very messy looking! Place in the baking tray, seams side down.
- Repeat with the rest of the ingredients.
- Place them fairly close together in the tray, but not touching, otherwise they will not crisp up.
- Brush the melted butter over all the tops and sides of the pastry. Don’t skimp on drizzling the butterover the pastry, its what gives the strands a lovely golden color, stops them from sticking together whilst cooking and imparts a delicious melt in the mouth flavour.
- Bake in the oven for approx 30 minutes, depending on your oven, or until lightly golden brown and cooked.
- Be careful here, as they can cook very quickly if they are not too thick, especially the outer edges of the pastry.
- Whilst they are cooking, make the syrup.
- Place all the syrup ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
- Stir to dissolve the sugar, then simmer for 10 minutes, or until slightly thickened.
- When the kataifi are cooked, remove from the oven, leaving them in the baking tray.
- Pour all the syrup over the pastry rolls.
- Sprinkle with the chopped pistachio nuts.
- Leave to stand, covered for a couple of hours for the flavours to infuse and to soak up the sweet syrup.
- Keep in a covered container at room temperature, to prevent drying out.