Şöbiyet

Ingredients

• 400 g sugar, for the syrup
• 300 ml water, for the syrup
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 250 ml whole milk
• 2 tbsp fine semolina
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 200 g butter
• 150 g raw pistachios
• 12 sheets thin filo pastry, about 400 g

Before you cook

• Whisk the milk with the semolina and the tablespoon of sugar in a small pan.
• Grind the pistachios coarsely.
• Unroll the filo sheets and keep them under a damp cloth.

Steps

1. Bring the 400 g of sugar, the 300 ml of water and the lemon juice to the boil in a saucepan.
2. Simmer the syrup for ten minutes, then take it off the heat and leave it to cool completely.
3. Set the pan of milk and semolina over a medium heat and stir constantly for six minutes, until it is very thick.
4. Spread the semolina cream onto a plate and chill it until cold.
5. Melt the butter in a small pan and skim off the white foam, leaving clear golden fat.
6. Heat the oven to 180°C and brush a baking tin with clarified butter.
7. Lay one sheet of filo on the work surface and brush it all over with clarified butter.
8. Stack and butter three more sheets on top, building a pile of four.
9. Cut the stack into four large squares with a sharp knife.
10. Beat the chilled semolina cream smooth and spoon a heaped teaspoon into the middle of each square.
11. Press a teaspoon of ground pistachio into the cream.
12. Fold three corners of each square into the centre over the filling and press the seams down firmly, so you have a triangular parcel.
13. Set the parcels seam side down in the buttered tin.
14. Build, cut and fill the remaining eight sheets the same way until the tin is full.
15. Brush the tops generously with the last of the clarified butter.
16. Bake for thirty-five to forty minutes, until the parcels are crisp and deep amber all the way through.
17. Take the tin out and immediately ladle the cold syrup evenly over the hot pastries, following the rule that keeps the layers crisp: cold syrup, hot pastry.
18. Leave them uncovered for at least four hours to drink the syrup.
19. Scatter the remaining pistachios over the top and serve at room temperature.