Cheese Dessert with Pistachio Farkha

Ingredients

• Half a kilo of mozzarella cheese or sweetened Akkawi cheese
• 1 cup fine semolina (fine farina) or the equivalent of 200 grams
• Half a cup of syrup
• 3 tablespoons rose water
• 3 tablespoons orange blossom water
• Ground mastic
• Half a cup of water
• The syrup:
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• Rose petal jam or crushed pistachios for garnish
• How to make the syrup:
• How to prepare the cheese dessert:
• In a pot over a double boiler, place the cheese over medium heat. Using a wooden spoon, stir the cheese until the water separates from it and the mixture becomes very soft. Add the water and semolina and keep stirring until the cheese absorbs the semolina and a soft dough forms.
• Ingredients for the semolina and pistachio dough:
• 2 cups pistachios
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 and 1/4 cups fine semolina
• 3/4 cup regular sugar (for the syrup)
• 1/3 cup water (for the syrup)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice (for the syrup)
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons rose water
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons orange blossom water
• How to prepare the pistachio dough:
• Clotted cream:
• Ingredients:
• Liquid milk or 10 tablespoons powdered milk dissolved in 1 liter of water -
• Sour lemon juice - half a lemon
• Vinegar - 1 tablespoon
• How to prepare the clotted cream:
• Nada Hadraj
• Click on Nada’s name to visit her profile page on our website

Method

1. Place the sugar, water, and lemon juice in a pot over the heat and let it boil for 10 minutes. Then add the rose water and orange blossom water and let it boil for 2 more minutes, then turn off the heat and set it aside to cool.
   Timers: 10 min
2. Add half a cup of syrup, rose water, and mastic to the dough and stir until the syrup is absorbed by the cheese and semolina and a pliable, soft dough forms.
3. You can add more syrup if the dough is too thick. On a smooth surface, sprinkle a little syrup and begin stretching the dough until it becomes thin.
4. Divide the dough into two parts.
5. Fill it with clotted cream as the first layer, then place the pistachio mixture on top and roll it into a cylinder shape (like a sandwich). Place it in the refrigerator for about an hour, then cut and decorate as desired.
6. Place the pistachios in a blender with the powdered sugar and grind until fine...
7. Now move on to making the semolina dough... First, prepare the sugar syrup...
8. In a small pot, place the sugar, water, and lemon juice...
9. Place the pot over low heat and stir until the sugar dissolves, then let it simmer gently for about 5 minutes...
   Timers: 5 min
10. Melt the butter in a deep pan and add the semolina...
11. Stir the semolina over low heat until it turns slightly golden, for about 10 minutes, then add the syrup, remove from the heat, and continue stirring quickly until it comes together and you get a soft dough...
    Timers: 10 min
12. Add the semolina dough to the ground pistachios in the blender...
13. Mix the ingredients until you get a soft but firm dough. Finally, add the rose water and orange blossom water, and optionally add a few drops of green coloring to give the dough a deep color...
14. Pour the milk into a pot and place it over medium heat until it boils.
15. Add the vinegar and sour lemon juice and let the ingredients boil for about 5 more minutes until the milk separates from the water.
16. Strain the milk well, then place it in the refrigerator (the fridge, not the freezer) until completely cool.