Hookah Time Baklava

From the marketplaces of Cairo and tea houses of Shiraz, to the sidewalk cafes of Dubai and London, you’ll find the perfumed smoke of the hookah, (otherwise known as sheesha, water pipe, narghilla, and hubbly bubbly) resonate with young and old alike. To many Middle Easterners it is a cultural past time, to sit with friends and share the pipe with mint tea, cardamom infused coffee and sweets, over a game of backgammon. In recent years the hookah has been popularized in the West, but it will always remind me of forays in Jordan, Iraq and Cairo, and festive gatherings in my old apartment where our cups would literally overflow with tea and good conversation.

I’m bringing the hookah back now after a lengthy recess into our new home. I dig through a basket of fruity flavors: apricot, rose, coconut, strawberry, melon, grape, double apple, pistachio, coffee, and mint. We choose the latter flavor and delicately place the fiery coal on the bowl towering over the water jar. (I won’t go through the well-documented process, there are some entertaining videos online on this!). Before we know it a small but aromatic cloud of smoke escapes our mouths and out the window, but not before a smile escapes our lips.

The entire experience is not simply the act of inhaling and exhaling smoke—in fact, I keep it only occasional as it is not the healthiest thing, and besides for me it’s missing the point! The experience is heightened by a mixture of the following ingredients:

1. good company (3 parts)
2. mint tea (3 parts)
3. baklava, kinafa, or other pastry (1 part)
4. good conversation and a game (3 part)
5. background music (1 part)
6. Hookah. (3 parts)

A quintessential eastern pastry is Baklava. The recipe I used is a mélange of a low-sugar version from my home and other Arabic recipes, which have less syrup and more nuts than Greek, Turkish or Persian versions.

Hookah Time Baklava

Baklava
24 pieces

Ingredients

For syrup:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup water
½ cup honey
1 lemon, halved
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon or 2 short cinnamon sticks
A drop of rosewater (optional)

For baklava:
1 lb of phyllo dough (1 package)
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups chopped walnuts
1 cup chopped almonds
1 cup chopped pistachios
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Syrup

Combine sugar, water, honey, cinnamon and lemon juice in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce to medium heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and leave at room temperature until mixture has cooled. (You can also prepare and refrigerate the syrup a couple days prior).

Baklava

1. Thaw phyllo dough overnight or per manufacturer instructions. After thawing, roll out the dough and cut sheets in half if needed to fit pan. (Cover exposed dough with clean damp kitchen towel to avoid the sheets drying out).
2. Grease a 9×13 inch pan and preheat oven to 350°F.
3. Finely chop or process the nuts with their skins. Feel free to use your own ratio of walnuts to almonds and pistachios and generously add more walnuts. Combine the nuts with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg cardamom, and cloves.
4. Place a sheet of phyllo into the pan. Using a pastry brush generously paint the sheet with melted butter. Repeat this 8 times to create the bottom layer of phyllo.
5. On the ninth buttered sheet of phyllo spread about a cup of the nut mixture evenly over it. Cover with two more sheets of phyllo, brushing each one individually.
6. Repeat the layering until the mixture is used up (3-4 more times).
7. The top layer of phyllo dough should be 8-10 sheets. Butter the top sheet.
8. Cut into 24 equal diamond shapes using a sharp knife.
9. Bake 30-40 minutes until a crisp golden brown.
10. Immediately after the baklava is removed from the oven spoon the cool syrup over the entire pan and let stand at room temperature for about 5 hours.
11. Garnish with finely crushed pistachio morsels.

Tags: Arab, Arabic, baklava, cultural, culture, dessert, food, hookah, hubbly bubbly, kinafa, Middle East, mint tea, narghilla, pastry, recipe, Recipe Vault, sheesha, travel, water pipe

Category: Dessert, Featured Articles: Travel & Culture, Middle East, Recipe Vault, Travel & Culture