Show the Working

Kadayıf

A thin batter dribbled through a perforated plate onto a hot griddle, so it sets as separate threads rather than a sheet.

Vegan.

Ingredients

Method

  1. A THIN BATTER IS DRIBBLED THROUGH A PERFORATED PLATE ONTO A HOT GRIDDLE, SO IT SETS AS SEPARATE THREADS. This is a dough and not a dish, and it is made quite unlike any other pastry. The batter is the consistency of single cream -- pourable, nothing like a dough -- and it is run through a container with many fine holes, held and moved over a large dry hot plate. Each stream sets on contact into a hair-fine strand within a second or two, and the strands are swept off while still pale and flexible. What results is a mass of separate threads, which is the raw material for the pastries built from it. There is no way to arrive at it by cutting a sheet: the threads have to be formed as threads.
  2. THE PLATE IS HOT AND COMPLETELY DRY. No fat of any kind. A moderate-hot surface -- enough that a drop of batter sets at once but does not colour. Any oil and the strands fry, brown and become brittle, and they must stay pale and flexible to be worked with.
  3. THE STRANDS ARE LIFTED OFF WHILE STILL PALE AND SOFT. Fifteen to twenty seconds, no more -- the moment they have set and released from the plate. Left to colour, they snap instead of bending and cannot be laid in a tray or rubbed with butter without shattering.
  4. THE BATTER MUST BE THIN ENOUGH TO RUN FREELY AND IS STIRRED BETWEEN POURS. Seven hundred millilitres of water to three hundred and sixty grams of flour -- about twice the water you would expect. Thicker and it will not pass through the holes as separate streams; it blobs. And the flour settles fast, so it is stirred before each pass or the later threads come out thin and the earlier ones thick.
  5. THE CORNFLOUR IS WHAT KEEPS THE THREADS SEPARATE. Sixty grams against three hundred of wheat flour. Wheat flour alone is sticky enough that the threads weld to each other where they cross; the cornflour reduces the gluten and they stay distinct.
  6. AT HOME IT IS DONE WITH A PIPING BAG OR A PUNCTURED TIN. Several fine holes in the base of a tin, or a piping bag with a very fine plain nozzle moved quickly back and forth. It is slower than the proper plate and the threads are coarser, and it works.
  7. The flour, cornflour and salt whisked with the water to a THIN batter, the consistency of single cream.
  8. Rested 30 MINUTES, then whisked again.
  9. A large heavy griddle or flat pan heated to a moderate heat and left COMPLETELY DRY -- no fat.
  10. The batter poured into a tin punctured with several fine holes, or a piping bag with a very fine nozzle.
  11. Dribbled in fine streams over the hot plate, moving quickly back and forth.
  12. Left 15 to 20 SECONDS ONLY, until set and released -- still PALE.
  13. SWEPT OFF with a palette knife onto a tray while soft and flexible.
  14. The batter STIRRED again before each pass.
  15. TESTED: the threads should be separate and should BEND without snapping. Brittle means they were left to colour; welded means the batter was too thick.
  16. Used the same day, or dried completely and stored.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes