You could try Arab heavy areas near you if you have any, jacktrash. Where I live is just kind of...filled with the various Arab cultures in a certain part. Which is the only reason I've managed to have as much of the foods as I have. Lots of Arab people who I've managed to run into and befriend because Arabic class.
i am not aware of any arab areas in the twin cities, sadly. lots of international fare, but not from that particular region afaik. mostly southeast asian, east african, and mexican.
Google shows some potential candidates? alas I am not even amateurishly acquainted with Arabic fare so all I'm goin' by are the reviews. No knafeh listed. :( (also that's all Twin Cities, which looks like a bit of a drive for the Northfield folk)
i just spent an hour look at recipes for knafeh because ooooooooh myyy that looks so goooooood. a lot of the recipes on google suggest mozzarella, soaked to take some of the salt out. to anyone who's had knafeh: do you think that would be a decent substitute? there's not really anywhere i could get better cheese here, sadly
I don't think it would be for me, but if you've never had knafeh you probably wouldn't know the difference. I'm not sure how cheese behaves when you soak it though, will it soften enough? Worth a try, if you can afford the cheese!
i'm pretty sure nothing actually happens to the cheese when it's soaked, it just gets less salty, but that is my very poor cooking knowledge at work. so, i'm gonna make some! i will def post how it goes once it's done
thank you for taking the time to do that :3 i do have the occasional specialist appointment up in the tc, and a couple of those aren't too far from where i go. maybe sometime if i'm not wiped out after an appointment i can try and track one down.
You can get a kind of mozzerella thats like... Shredded mozzerella soaked in cream? It looks like a bigger boccacini but its not solid inside. I cant remember what its called but it bought it once by accident. That might work? Also yeah mozzerella def changes textures when soaked in milk products vs water.
Hmm that's a possibility. Soaking it in milk might be better than water. I think you're on to something there.
okay i made it and the only reaction i have is :D followed by endless exclamation marks! knafeh is so good! if my homemade version is any indication, at least. i used fresh mozzarella soaked in it's own milk, which is a thing that i never knew existed until monday. weird things can be found in grocery stores sometimes :p. it was soft & stretchy, and once i rinsed it it was not salty at all. mattias thank you for introducing me to this food i never knew i needed!
You're most welcome, I'm so glad that you succeeded in making it and that you liked it <3 Khafeh is great stuff, everybody needs some I think.
I have never heard of blintzes before but I looked it up and the recipes I can find are using ricotta and cream cheese. They're soft, but they don't stretch, and the stretchy part is important. Knafeh cheese stretches like hot melted mozzarella cheese on pizzas even when it's cold. So idk, it wouldn't be right for me but it might be fine for you if you've never had knafeh. A thick layer of ricotta cheese covered in noodles and syrup doesn't sound appetizing to me, but that's a matter of personal taste. Mozzarella cheese is much closer than cream/ricotta cheese though, and the texture is different. It's more rubbery. You could just make blintzes, they look really tasty and the ingredients are widely available. EDIT: Yes, stretchy, you said that *facepalm* Sorry, insomnia makes me dumb sometimes.
Huh. That looks hella tasty and if any thing could conceivably be found in this town it should be middle eastern cuisine. Turkish more than arabic though. Is it a turkish dish too, by chance? Eh I might just google around some. I really want totry this!! (Also if the cheese has more than like 48% fat then that's why it doesn't react badly for us lactose intolerant folks, by the by. It's a known thing that the fattier cheeses don't cause trouble)
hmm. thinking either fresh curd or maybe brie? brie is softer and does well when soaked - i've had it in desserts before, like baked brie (and fresh curd is mozz soaked in its own...cream? cheese water? whatever. restaurants use it for something) (used to work at cheese factory, used to live in wisconsin, is in fact walking stereotype)
It's originally Palestinian, but it's spread to the Arab countries around Palestine (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon) and to Turkey. I would guess the Ottoman Empire had something to do with that.
