Sweet creation of the kitchen of Asia Minor. A dessert that goes with everything, with ice cream and chocolate, with spoon sweets and nuts, especially pistachios as I tried it in Istanbul. However we combine it, it is welcomed and in addition it is a sweet of the kitchen povera, the kitchen of the poor, as the Italians call it, because of the cheap raw materials used.
Samali
By Sotiris Laskarides, Executive pastry chef professor of Etoile pastry school
Ingredients
750 gr coarse semolina
380 gr sugar
4 gr baking powder
5 gr ammunium bicarbonate
5 gr mastiha
50 gr sugar
220 gr strained yoghurt 10%
Vanilla
400 ml water
For the syrup
600 ml water
900 gr sugar
50 ml glucose
Juice of 1 lemon
And the peel of one lemon
Cinnamon stick
How to prepare
Make the syrup by boiling in a pan all the ingredients until it thickens stirring with a wooden spoon. The syrup for the samali should be at room temperature.
In a basin put the semolina and sugar and mix by hand.
In a mortar we break the mastiha with the help of sugar.
In a bowl mix the baking powder, the ammunium bicarbonate, mastiha, sugar, yogurt and vanilla.
Pour the contents of the bowl in the basin and pour the water.
Mix well with our hands.
Butter a baking pan and sprinkle with semolina.
Pour the samali dough so that it covers halfway all the surface of the baking pan.
Place the baking pan in a warm place covered for 30’ to “rest.”
Immediately after we put the baking pan in a well preheated oven and bake at 180 °C for 30 minutes.
Remove the samali from the oven and if we want to give to it a bright color spread with the help of a spatula 50 gr melted butter on its surface.
As it is hot pour the syrup.
Allow our cake to cool and serve by cutting samali in rhomboid or rectangular pieces.
Serve on a platter making shapes with fruit juices or syrups.
It is combined perfectly with rose spoon sweet ……
Small secrets
If we want to have a softer texture we use half the amount fine semolina and a half coarse semolina.
