Recipe : Sfouf (जेव्हा Lebanese लोक रवयाचा केक करतात तेव्हा त्याला Sfouf म्हणतात!)

The way I hit upon this recipe is a bit weird. I was actually looking for the recipe of an extra smooth hummus (Which i have never been able to make to perfection you know!). Then once you hit upon those Mediterranean foods, you see so many things!!!
I saw "sfouf" and I thought the name was so interesting!
Then I looked up ingreients: Semolina or rava, wow!!
Then i read further, and it had no egg!!!!! (That means no beating ;) )

Then I searched more for Sfouf  and I found hundreds of recipes there. Then I remember I had preserved one Femina Cookbook issue from 2010 which my sister in law had gifted me. I vaguely remembered having seen a Lebanese dessert in that.And Viola! Sfouf it was.



Actually as per people on the Internet, this is a tea time accompaniment. I would also prefer it tea time, though nothing hurts if you serve this as dessert!

I decided to stick with the Femina recipe. But it had one catch. The chef, Manu Chandra had used weights and mililiters for measurement!

So I used some of my own conversions. I would suggest you go by weight if you do have a scale. Also, he has given measures for 400g suji/rawa/semolina. This really makes a LOT of cake. You would wish to half the measures

Ingredients

Semolina/Rawa/Suji   400g  (3 3/4 cup)
All purpose Flour/Maida   200g  ( 1 1/2 cup)
Turmeric Powder  1/2 tsp
Baking Powder  1 tsp

Butter 200 ml
Caster Sugar  250g ( 1 1/4 cup) ***
Milk   300 ml
Water  100 ml *
Rose Water  1tsp

Sesame seeds   2 tablespoon**
Slivered almonds  100g  (1cup)

* Most of the recipes that I looked up used some amount of water. Also, I remembered by mom using a little bit of water while making suji ka halwa (शिरा) even though she used milk. I think it is needed so that rawa cooks well.

** Sesame seeds is an addition I made from my readings on the internet. Chef Manu Chandra's recipe did not have this

*** The cake became less sweet for my personal taste. I would probably use 1 1/2 cup sugar the next time. Also, granulated sugar works well too.


Procedure

Ensure  that the butter is at room temperature
1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Grease a 13x9 pan. I used butter. One can use ghee also or like few websites mentioned, one can use tahini!

2. Combine the semolina, flour, turmeric and baking powder well.

3. In another bowl combine the butter, sugar, milk, water and rosewater. Stir to make a paste

4. Pour into the pan. Sprinkle sesame seeds and almonds on the top

5. Bake for 30 min. Cool and serve.