Good Farareer recipe (Arabic bird's nest dessert)

[Sebastian]

My wife was with a Jordanian friend, and they visited a typical Jordanian dessert shop.. She brought back a number of pastry desserts, one of which I thought was perhaps the best thing I've ever eaten..it's called Farareer (or bird's next), and appears to be a pistacio filled filo type dessert... i'd love to make this at home - anyone have a good recipe for it?

[chefpeon]

Here's a link to a recipe. I must admit though, the instructions on how to make the nest are sort of confusing. It's like I need a visual.

[Sebastian]

It's funny - that's exactly the same recipe I ran across when I did my search 8-) I know i've seen some of the more culturally exotic (from a western perspective) desserts posted here from time to time - I was hoping someone here had some experience with this type of dessert and had actually made it. Always like trying new recipies, but it's always nice to get one that comes with an endorsement too 8-)

[pastrymama]

I used to make a pastry similar to this and the way I shaped them seems to be much easier than the directions in the recipe. I would take a sheet of phillo and roll it loosely on a dowel about 1/2" diameter, I would stop rolling when there was about 2" of phillo left unrolled. Then I would gently push the phillo to one end of the dowel, crinkling it up as much as possible, remove the dowel and form the phillo into a circle with the unrolled phillo in the center for the bottom. brush it with butter, fill and bake as the recipe instructs. It is quite easy once you have made a few. Hope this will help.

Edited October 20, 2006 by pastrymama (log)

[gfron1]

interesting because I've been trying to figure out how to do something that may be similar...but no picture so I don't know. I was thinking of finely shredded phyllo balls. I was going to take a roll of phyllo, cut it 1/8" and work it into a ball, then somehow bake or fry it - I want to use this as a decoration on top of a dessert. Is this idea anything like this nest? Any thoughts on how I might pull this off?

[maher]

you need shredded filo, which is mixed with clarified butter to make it easier to form into the nests. typically this is deep dried, but you can also bake it. if you bake it you can take it out before its done to tidy up the nest shape before the pastry crisps up, you can also brush the parts that arent getting as much color with more clarified butter, or even a it of sugar glaze. this will give you the most uniform color possible.

the pistachio filling can either be added a bit before they are done to give it some color or it can be added after the nests are cooled. its best to use a mixture of crushed and whole (my preference is for some whole pistachios) you need to add a very thick sugar syrup, and i find that mixing the pistachios in it first then filling the nests gives the best results.

good luck

[dystopiandreamgirl]

the recipe which was linked to above is from the middle eastern volume of the time-life series and can probably be found in most libraries. It includes pictures to aid in assembling. I used to make them for easter as they did resemble nests, (though I never use sugar syrup for phyllo pastries, but straight mild honey flavored with rose or orange blossom water - usually rose for walnuts, orange blossom for pistachios).

When I discovered shredded phyllo I thought it made a more attractive nest - here's 2 links to pics:

kadaifi nests

&

easter nests

(you'll have to scroll down on the second)

The pistachios were added after baking to retain the bright green.

[Sebastian]

none of the images want to load for me on your two links dystopiandreamgirl...

[dystopiandreamgirl]

hmm, they load for me...here are the urls:http://www.mirabellecatering.com/pastry11.htmhttp://www.mirabellecatering.com/spring02.htmdon't know if they'll link, you might have to cut/paste, sorry.

[Liron,C.]

in israel, the bird's nest is usually not made of phillo dough, but from kadaif noodles. these are made of only flour and water, going thrue a sift into a hot circled pan going in rounds and frying these noodles. these are not made at home at all. for making the nest, the noodles are mixed with melted butter, and then baked for a short time in some bowl or rolled up like a stuffed roulade . if u use the bowl method you can fill it with walnuts and pistachios, and then pour on top of it the syrup made of water, sugar, lemon juice, and rose water.

Edited October 22, 2006 by Liron,C. (log)