Recettes

Baklawa

Baklawa is layered phyllo pastry filled with crushed nuts and soaked in honey syrup, and in Algeria it is festive food, made for occasions rather than everyday. It is an Ottoman inheritance, and versions of it are made from the Balkans to Egypt under closely related names. The regional differences are real. Turkish fistikli baklava is made with pistachios and a simple sugar syrup. Middle Eastern versions scent the syrup with rosewater. Greek baklava uses walnuts with a generous quantity of cinnamon. The Algerian version leans on almonds and walnuts with honey, and this recipe follows the walnut and cinnamon line, which sits closer to the Greek than to the Turkish. Three components make it, and thinking about it that way makes it manageable: the phyllo, the nut mixture, and the syrup. The rule that decides whether it works is temperature. Cooled syrup goes onto hot pastry, never hot onto hot, and you should hear it sizzle when it hits. Get that wrong and the layers go soggy instead of staying crisp. It then needs four to six hours, or overnight, for the syrup to work through, so it cannot be made and served the same afternoon.

2 hr 15 minMediumAlgeria

Recette de Blessing · Africook

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

A no-bake cheesecake with a digestive biscuit base, a cream cheese and mascarpone filling loosened with peanut butter, a layer of peanut butter fudge, and a chocolate ganache on top. No country is named and none applies: this is a modern dessert of the kind made everywhere. It sits in Worldwide Recipes for that reason. Nothing in it is regional. Digestive biscuits are British, mascarpone Italian, and the peanut butter and chocolate pairing is North American in origin. That combination is now international and belongs to no particular kitchen. Africa's own peanut desserts are quite different and worth naming, since peanuts are one of the continent's defining crops. Kuli kuli is the Nigerian fried peanut snack. Meni-meniyong is the Malian sesame and honey brittle. Nkate cake is Ghanaian peanut brittle. None of them resembles a cheesecake. Two practical notes: nothing here is baked, so the times are chilling times rather than cooking, and the source's ingredient list has section headings tangled into it, which has been reconstructed against the method. Contains peanuts.

1 hrMediumSouth Africa

Recette de Chef.donkey · Africook

Egyptian Meshabek

Meshabek is a fried batter sweet, piped into loops through a narrow nozzle, fried until it turns brittle, and dropped straight into cold syrup while still hot. The name translates as twisted, and that is precisely what it looks like: a tangle of thick threads holding syrup in every gap. It is street sweet rather than restaurant sweet, and it is cheap enough that half a kilo costs under a dollar in Egypt. Its documented origin points to Tanta and Damietta in the Nile Delta, from where it spread across the country, and it now turns up at sweet shops and street stalls nationwide. The hot into cold step is the technique and the whole reason it works. Batter fried to brittle and then plunged into cold syrup absorbs it in seconds without going soft, which is what gives meshabek its particular quality of being simultaneously crunchy and soaked. The same principle appears in fried syrup sweets across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. As with most Egyptian home sweets, the recipe moves between families rather than from books, which is why the proportions shift from one household to the next.

★★★★★Les mieux notées

MediumEgypt

Recette de Blessing · Africook

Swabaa Zainab

Swabaa Zainab means Zainab's fingers, and the name is the dish. Ridged fingers of semolina and flour dough are fried until crisp and dropped into cold sugar syrup, coming out crunchy outside and soft within. Two stories attach to the name and Egyptians tell both. In one, a clever girl invented the sweet and guests praised it by saying teslam sawabe' Zainab, may God bless Zainab's fingers. In the other, it is named for Sayyida Zainab, granddaughter of the Prophet, who is deeply venerated in Egypt and after whom one of Cairo's central districts is named. Neither account can be verified and both are held affectionately. Its occasions are Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr above all, and it appears at popular celebrations through the year. It belongs to the family of Arab syrup sweets that also produces meshabek and basbousa, and it is described as among the oldest of them, mastered by Arab cooks and carried outward from there. Egyptian households share the recipe between families rather than from books, which is why the proportions shift from one kitchen to the next. It is eaten in the morning as readily as in the evening, with tea, coffee or juice.

★★★★★Les mieux notées

45 minMediumEgypt

Recette de Blessing · Africook