Konafa

For the Ottoman desert, see Kadayıf. For konafa folded pancake, see Qatayef. In Arabic, the name may refer to the string pastry itself, or to the entire dessert dish.

One of the most well-known preparations of the dessert is knafeh Nabulsiyeh, which originated in the city of Nablus, and is the most representative Palestinian dessert. It appears in 1501 in a Turkish-Persian dictionary. A common story is that the dish was created, and prescribed by doctors, to satisfy the hunger of caliphs during Ramadan. In the later Middle Ages, a new technique was created, with thin batter being dripped onto the metal sheet from a perforated container, creating hair-like strings.

It is fried together with butter and fillings or toppings such as nuts, sweetened cheese, or clotted cream, and mixed with rosewater and sugar. The pastry is heated in butter, margarine, palm oil, or traditionally semneh and then spread with soft white cheese, such as Nabulsi cheese, and topped with more pastry. In khishnah kanafeh the cheese is rolled in the pastry. Kanafeh Nabulsieh originated in the Palestinian city of Nablus, hence the name Nabulsieh. In the Hatay region of Turkey, which was formerly part of Syria and has a large Arab population, the pastry is called künefe and the wiry shreds are called tel kadayıf. This South Azerbaijani variant is prepared in Tabriz, Iran.

Riştə xətayi is typically cooked in Ramadan in the world’s biggest covered Bazaar of Tabriz. Greek, the threads are used to make various forms of pastries, such as tubes or birds’ nests, often with a filling of chopped nuts as in baklava. These very thin threads are also known as “kadaif noodles” and are used to make the outer shell of the Greek dessert kataifi. These vermicelli-like threads become very crispy when fried or baked, which is why the kataifi provides a nice crunch when you bite into it.