Eish al saraya from Qatar (palace's bread)

 Eish al saraya is a dessert from the Middle East , made from bread and syrup with orange blossom water and rose water.

Eish al Saraya means Palace's bread, the name describes the freshness, softness and spectacular taste of this dessert. This is extra easy to prepare and there is no room for errors.

This is a typical dessert from Egypt, Lebanon or Qatar. I have seen several versions of the dessert, some of them use whipped cream for the white layer but the good version uses a unique custard cream.   

Eish al saraya from Qatar (palace's bread)

Ingredients:

- 3 Slices of bread.

- 115 g sugar.

- 90 g corn startch.

- 6oo ml milk.

- 250 ml cream.

- 1 teaspoon rosewater.

- 1 teaspoon orange blossom water.

- 100 g de pistachios.

Ingredientes Syrup:

- 200 ml water.

- 200 g sugar.

- 1 teaspoon rosewater.

- 1 teaspoon orange blossom water.

- A squeeze of lemon.

Method:

1- Roast the bread slices in a pan without oil.

2- Take a casserole and put all the ingredients for the syrup inside, heat until the sugar is dissolved, then add the squeeze of lemon and let cool.

3- Put the slices of bread on the base of a cakes mould, fill also the gaps with bread pieces.

4- Pour the syrop over the bread.

5- Take othe casserole , put inside the milk, cream and sugar, heat until the sugar is well dissolved.

6 - Take a bowl and mix the corn startch with some milk, once it is well dissolved add it to the mixture of milk and sugar.

7- Add rosewater and orange blossom water.

8- Put on a low heat and stirr until you see that the mixture thickens as you see in the picture.

9- Pour the cream over the bread and add some ground pistachio on top. Let get cool in the fridge at least for 2 hours. You should eat it cold.

Receta en Español

You can also watch the recipe at my Youtube Channel:

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  Favourite cooking tools

Qatar

Pistachio Stuffed dates

                                                                              Receta en Español

Dates are typical from Saudi Arabia, they are cooked stuffed with nuts,coconut or chocolate, today I show you how to cook Pistachio Stuffed dates.

Ingredients:

• 22 Dates.
• 70 grams natural husked Pistachios.
• 2 dessert spoons of orange blossom water.

Method:

1. Grind pistachios.

2. Mix ground pistachios with blossom water.
3. Mix well until you obtain a paste.

4. Cut dates along side , get rid of the seed.
5. Put the mixture of pistachios with blossom water inside  the dates.

My comments to the Recipe:

They are very easy to make and extremely delicious, pistachios and dates make a perfect match. You should try them!.



Saudi Arabia

Makrouts

                                                                              Receta en Español

This dessert is known as macroude, makrodh o makrout , it is typical from Algeria, Morocco,Libya and Tunisia.

In Algeria there re 3 kind of Makrouts, 2 of them made of almonds and 1 of them made of dates. 
Today I present you this makrouts filled with dates. It's origin comes from Mzab Oasis, close to Sahara desert. They can be fried or cooked in oven.
I show you the recipe of Makrouts cooked in oven:

Ingredients (100 Makrouts)

For the dough:

• 1 Kg medium wheat semolina .
• 250 g fine wheat semolina.
• 400 g butter (to prepare ghee).
• 1 liter water.
• Salt.
• 2 tablespoon orange blossom water.
• 200 g honey + 3 tablespoon orange blossom water (to bathe Makrouts).
• Cling Film.

For the Filling:

• 500 g dates pasta . (Already made or you can buy pitted dates and smash them).
• 1  teaspoon cinnamon.
• 1 teaspoon ground clove.
• 1 tablespoon orange blossom water.
• 2 tablespoon honey or butter in case dates paste is too dry.

Method

1.      To prepare the filling: Mix dates pasta with orange blossom water,cinnamon and clove.

2.      Use your hands to knead the dough until it is well mixed and soft . If you press a finger on the dough the print should remain.

3.      Take a little quantity of dough and knead it into the shape of a cilinder (make more cilinders with the rest of the dough).

4.      To prepare the outer side: Mix well both semolinas and salt, use your hands.

5.      Heat butter until it is melted.

6.      Get rid of the white coat of the surface of the melted butter, this way we obtain ghee.

7.      Pour ghee over the semolinas and mix well, first with a spoon , then when the mixture is not hot use your hands to knead the dough until all the ghee is well absorbed.

8.      Let stand 1 hour.

9.      Add orange blossom water and keep on kneading.

10.   Add warm water little by little, continue kneading with your hands until the dough is this consistency,  if you press a finger on the dough the print should remain:

11.   Wrap the dough in cling film and let stand 30 minutes.

12.   Spread the dough like a rectangle 1 cm thick and make a groove in the middle:

13.   Place dates pasta into the groove.

14.   Wrap the dates pasta with the dough.

15.   Roll the dough until you obtain a cilinder:

16.   Flatten the cilinder and cut in a diamond shape.

17.   With the help of a knife make some stripes on the surface to decorate the Makrouts:

18. Place makrouts on a oven proof dish, thay must be close one to the other because dates pasta should not be exposed to the oven.

19.   Preheat oven to 180 ºC.

20.   Cook Makrouts at 180 ºC for 10 or 20 minutes, thay must get sligthy golden.

21.   We prepare honey syrup,mix honey with 3 orange blossom water then turn on the heat to warm it.

22.   Dip Makrouts into the syrup, both sides.

        23.  Let drain :

My comments to the Recipe

 

This maskrouts can be conserved into the fridge for 2 weeks. The taste is amazing , if you eat them some days after the elaboration, thay are even better!

 

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Algeria