INGREDIENTS:
1 cup all purpose flower
1 cup fine semolina (Sameed Naem)
1 cup pancake powder mixture
1 tbl. dry yeast dissolved in 1 cup warm water and 1 tsp. sugar
1/8 tsp Baking Powder
2-3 cups warm water
1 tbl. orange blossom and rose water
1 amount of sugar syrup
1 tbs chopped raw pistachio
1/4 unsalted melted butter

In a large bowl, place flour, salt, pancake, baking powder and dissolved yeast (dissolved with 1 cup warm water). Mix with a mixer and add little by little, fine semolina together with warm water and mix well using a mixer. Add orange and blossom water and mix well until it turns into a melted thick dough. (Sometimes, the dough becomes thick in which case, you can add warm water until it melts). Cover and place in warm place for about 2 hours.

Prepare the filling and set aside.

Pour 4" circle of the dough on a medium heated pancake iron or a frying pan. Cook until tops are bubbly. Do NOT turn over (this isn't like pancakes). Place one heaping teaspoon of filling on top of each pancake, fold in half and press edges closed. Arrange in a well-greased baking tray and brush tops generously with melted butter. Broil in the oven for a few seconds or until lightly golden and turn over for another few seconds. Pour 2 spoons of syrup over each pancake depending on desired sweetness. Serve it hot. This quantity would yield 2-3 dozens.

SUGAR SYRUP

INGREDIENTS:

1 tbl orange blossom water
1 1/2 cup of sugar
3/4 cup water
1 tbl lemon juice
1 tbl honey

METHOD:
In a saucepan dissolve sugar in water then put it on high heat for 1 minute. Then add the lemon and lower the heat to medium, let it simmer for 2 minutes. Add the honey, stir it for 20 seconds then remove from heat. Add the orange blossom water, let it cool before using it.

2) Namoura

INGREDIENTS:
1 3/4 cups semolina or cream of wheat
1 1/4 cup warm milk
1/2 cup coconuts
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 tbl unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup cold sugar syrup
1 tsp orange blossom water
1 tsp rose water
Silver almond or pine nuts
1 tbl. sesame tahini

METHOD:
Mix all the first five ingredients in a bowl and keep it over night or for 5 hours before baking it. Grease a medium Pyrex 8"x11" with sesame Tahini. Spread the dough and cut it with a knife into small squares and place on each square one silver almond or a pine nut. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees about 20 minutes and broil a few seconds until golden. Remove from oven and immediately pour the cold syrup on the hot dough. Serve cold or warm.

3) Rice Pudding (Ruz Bilhaleeb)

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup white rice
2 cups water
3 cups milk
1 cup sugar (adjust to desired sweetness)
1 tbl orange blossom water

METHOD:
Rinse rice and place in a saucepan with water. Cover and simmer over medium fire for 15-20 minutes. Add milk, stirring constantly. When it begins to thick, add sugar and orange blossom water. Continue stirring constantly until rice is soft or well done. Remove from fire and pour into platter spreading it thinly or in individual bowls. Cool and serve.

4) Eish Al-Saraya

INGREDIENTS:
15 slices of bread or 1 loaf of Hawaiian bread
2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 cup of water
2 tbl of orange blossom and rose water

Cream
2 small packages of whipping cream
2 tbl. corn starch
1 tbl orange blossom water
1 cup chopped raw pistachio
1 tbl orange blossom jam

METHOD:
Place slices of bread in an oven tray and broil until both sides are lightly golden and place them in a big bowl. Put, in a medium saucepan, 3 tablespoons of sugar on high heat and stir constantly until it turns brown, then pour water and the remaining sugar. Stir to boil and dissolve, remove the sugar from the heat and add orange blossom and rose water. Stir then pour the syrup on the roasted bread and with a big spoon, mix the bread with syrup until it combines. Spread the bread in a big serving platter some 13"x13" and set it aside.

Place whipping cream and corn starch in a saucepan on medium heat and stir constantly to boil and thicken, then remove from heat and add blossom water. Stir well and pour cream on the brown bread, and sprinkle all the face with chopped pistachio and garnish with red orange blossom jam (in the middle and 4 places around the edges with 1/2 tsp on each place or 1/2 a cherry). Refrigerate before serving for at least 4 hours.

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