Home-made Kataifi is a traditional Lebanese recipe for a classic thin thread pastry made by cooking a flour and cornflour batter on a dry frying pan. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Lebanese version of: Home-made Kataifi.
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Kadaif, kadayif, kadayıf, kataifi, kadaifi, katayef or kataïf (Arabic: قطايف) represents a family of Middle Eastern pastry products. In modern Turkish usage, kadayıf often refers specifically to fine shredded pastry dough used in desserts such as knafeh and tel kadayıf. Depending on context, the term may refer either to the dough itself or to finished desserts made from it.
Modern tel kadayıf consists of very fine strands resembling vermicelli. It is produced from a thin batter made with special-purpose kadayıf flour, poured through fine openings onto a heated rotating griddle, where it cooks into hair-like strands. These strands may be sold fresh, refrigerated, or frozen as an intermediate product, or used in finished desserts. In Türkiye, tel kadayıf is covered by standard 10344/T3 as a semi-processed flour-and-water product. It is equivalent to Lebanese kataifi.
Ingredients:
120g plain (all-purpose) flour
2 tbsp cornflour
300ml water (plus more if needed)
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp neutral-flavoured oil (optional)
Method:
Sift together the flour and cornflour into a bowl. Form a well in the centre then pour in the water, lemon juice and oil. Whisk the ingredients together until the batter is smooth and completely lump free.
Cover the bowl then set the batter aside to rest for 15 minutes. If you want to ensure the smoothness of the batter you can pass through a fine-meshed sieve.
Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat.
After resting, transfer the batter to a squeeze bottle or use a piping bag fitted with a small, round, tip.
Quickly drizzle the batter in fine lines across the surface of the heated pan to form thin strands.
Cook for a few seconds until dry, then lift off gently with a spatula.
Repeat this process until all the batter has been used up.
Let the kataifi cool before shaping into rolls, nests, or wraps.
