Greek Recipes

Greek and Cypriot recipes

Traditional Kataifi with Walnuts – Paradosiako Kataifi me karidia

Ingredients:

  • 1250gr of kataifi pastry
  • 2 teacups of walnuts hearts (or even almond mixed)
  • 2 teacups of melted unsalted butter
  • 1-2 tbsp of powder cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp of sugar
  • 1 egg
  • Crushed Pistachio nuts for garnishing (optional)

Syrup ingredients:

  • 1250gr of sugar
  • 6 cups of water
  • 1 thin strip of lemon rind
  • 4-5 cloves
  • One cinnamon stick
  • 3 tsp of lemon juice
Traditional Kataifi with Walnuts - Paradosiako Kataifi me karidia

Traditional Kataifi with Walnuts – Paradosiako Kataifi me karidia

Method:

  • Crush coarsely the walnuts or almonds or even a combination of the two and put them in a bowl.
  • Add the sugar, the egg and cinnamon.
  • Knead all ingredients so that they become a mass.
  • Butter your hands with the melted butter (be careful not to be too hot) and with buttered hands gently hackle the kataifi pastry to separate the strands.
  • Take some quantity of kataifi pastry, as much as it needs for one kataifi and open it up (always with buttered hands).
  • Place at the end some of the walnut or almond mixture and roll in a cylindrical form tight enough and being careful to also roll in the ends, so that it does not unfolded.
  • Repeat the above procedure, taking some kataifi filo pastry; open it up again, place some filling mixture and roll it into a cylinder.
  • Place all the finished kataifi rolls in a line the one next to the other in a buttered baking pan.
  • With a spoon pour over them the remaining melted butter.
  • Bake in a preheated oven for about half hour roughly, perhaps and little more, at 180 degrees Celsius (see conversions), being careful they do not burn.
  • If we see that “they start browning too much” cover the baking pan with aluminum foil.
  • Prepare the syrup by boiling all the syrup ingredients for a few minutes.
  • Pour over the hot kataifi when it comes out of the oven with the hot syrup.
  • If you want it to be crispy, leave it aside uncovered to cool down.
  • It is better to cover the baking pan with foil in order that with the steam that will be created it will soften the syrup and it is irrigated better.
  • Doing it the second way (the way I do it), it becomes soft and more juicy.
  • Sprinkle some crushed pistachio on top of each piece, let it cool down and serve. (Optional)
  • Goon luck and enjoy.

Variation:

  • If you make a thick custard for Galaktoboyreko you can fill with this the kataifi pastry instead of the walnut-almond mixture.
  • The rest of the procedure remains the same.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*