Ingredients
Serves 12
Kataifi
375g Antoniou Kataifi Pastry
150g unsalted clarified butter
1 cup toasted almonds, chopped
Syrup
400g sugar
400g water
1 teaspoon vanilla bean extract
Juice of ½ lemon
Custard
2 ½ cups sugar
8 egg yolks
10 tbsp cornflour
½ tsp salt
2 L milk
1 teaspoon vanilla bean extract
50g unsalted butter
Topping
600ml thickened cream
1 teaspoon vanilla bean extract
2 tbsp sugar
2 cups toasted almonds, chopped roughly
Method
Before you begin this recipe, take your Kataifi Pastry out of the fridge to bring it up to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius fan forced.
Making the syrup
Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. Boil for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat. Add the lemon juice and vanilla bean extract and then set aside to cool completely.
Making the Kataifi Pastry base
Remove Kataifi from the packet and tease the threads apart until they are nice and loose. Transfer to a large bowl.
Melt the butter and pour over the Kataifi. Using your hands, mix in the butter thoroughly to ensure that all the Kataifi is well coated with butter. Spread evenly into the baking tray and bake until golden brown and crispy, approximately 40 minutes to 1 hour.
Once out of the oven, pour the cold syrup onto the hot Kataifi. Set aside to allow it to soak it all the syrup up, then once cool, sprinkle with almonds.
Making the custard
Start the custard by adding the sugar and eggs to a large heatproof bowl, whisk until creamy and white. Then add the cornflour and salt and mix through.
Pour 2 litres of milk into a saucepan and heat until bubbles form on the side. Gradually pour in 2 cups of the hot milk into the egg mixture to temper it – whisking continuously and adding it very slowly so the eggs don’t cook. Mix through the vanilla bean paste.
Add the egg and milk mixture back into the rest of the hot milk, constantly whisking until it thickens. Once it has thickened, take off the heat. Add butter and whisk in. Pour custard immediately over Kataifi Pastry.
Take a sheet of cling wrap and cover the custard to prevent a crust from forming. Allow it to set overnight in the fridge.
Assembling the Ekmek Kataifi
When ready to serve, whip the cold cream, sugar and vanilla bean extract until soft peaks form. Spread over the Kataifi and sprinkle with chopped almonds.
Recipe by Kathy Tsaples with Justine Schofield for Everyday Gourmet.