Desserts

Moroccan Sweet Cheese & Almond Cigars with Date & Rosewater Syrup

Serves 6

Ingredients

Filling
200g Ricotta Cheese
50g Grated Feta Cheese
50g Almond Meal
70g Crushed Toasted Almonds
Zest of 1 Lemon finely chopped
50g Castor Sugar
2 Teaspoons Rosewater

Syrup
½ Cup Sugar
3/4 Cup Water
100g Diced Fresh Dates
1 Teaspoon Rosewater

Filo
6 Sheets Filo
150g Melted Unsalted Butter
Icing Sugar

Method

Syrup
Bring sugar & water to boil & simmer on low heat until the mixture begins to thicken. Do not stir. Cool & add rosewater and chopped dates. Leave to stand.

Filling
Mix all ingredients together until well incorporated into a soft “doughy” texture.

Assembling the Cigars 
Take 1 sheet of filo and cut in half down the middle of the longest side. Brush melted butter onto the first half and dust with icing sugar. Make a roll of the filling about 1.5cm in thickness and place on upper part of filo. Brush with melted butter and dust with icing sugar as you roll up. Repeat for the second half and all sheets of filo making 12 rolls.

Bake on a tray lined with baking paper in a moderate oven 1800C until golden brown. Check after 20 min.

Serve on a scoop of Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, dust with icing sugar and drizzle with date syrup.  

 

Malabi Trifle

Serves 6

Malabi Cream
50g Cornflour
300Mls milk
300Mls pure cream
20Mls Orange blossom
90g white sugar

Melt the cornflour with a bit of cold milk in pan. Add the rest of the milk, the cream, the orange blossom and the sugar. Stir to dissolve then bring slowly to the boil stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Allow to boil for 20 seconds whilst stirring and then remove from heat. Whilst still warm pour into a squeeze bottle and cool in refrigerator.

Berry Syrup
100g frozen berries (Raspberries, Blueberries or Mixed Berries)
50g castor sugar
1/2 table spoon lemon juice
1 table spoon orange liquor  

Place berries and sugar in pan over medium heat. Stir till sugar melts. Add the lemon juice and orange liquor. Cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Cool and store in refrigerator

Garnish
The garnish for the trifle can be anything you want that is sweet and middle eastern. At Taboon we use a type of Baklava and crushed pistachios but  small cubes of Turkish Delight or simply chopped fresh dates would also be delicious.

To Assemble
Use a glass for best presentation (Martini glass, Tulip glass, cocktail glass etc) the idea being is to see the layers and colours of the dessert. Place a piece of chosen garnish in bottom of glass. Squeeze Malabi Cream into glass in a criss-cross motion until glass is just under half full. Spoon a few spoons of berry syrup over Malabi and then squeeze more Malabi into glass in same criss-cross motion filling glass until ¾ full. Place garnish on top and sprinkle with crushed pistachios.