The richness of Palestine’s culinary heritage was brought to the fore in a flavoursome preparation by Palestinian-Canadian chef Maha Kailani at the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF 2025), on Friday.
The session titled “Taste of Palestine: An adventure with chef Maha Kailani” introduced young children and their guardians to authentic flavours from the Palestinian region.
The Ontario-based chef prepared an enjoyable yet easy dish – za’atar and Nabulsi cheese puff pastry – using frozen pastry sheets and mozzarella cheese.
The artistry and minimum difficulty involved in it as it went into the oven or air fryer made it a perfect dish that children could do alone or with limited help from adults.
Maha, who is the author of the cookbook Yalla, Let’s Eat, first set about cutting and rolling a thawed pastry sheet into small rectangular pieces dusting it with all-purpose flour to prevent it from sticking to the surface. She then transferred it into a baking sheet, lightly pricked the inside with a fork, smeared olive oil on the sides and baked it for 10 minutes.
Once the sheet was out of the oven, she filled it with mozzarella, crumbled Nabulsi cheese and zaatar, taking care to leave the sides empty.
“This is like a painting, and children can do it,” she quipped as she returned it to the oven for another 12 minutes. When the cheese melted and the edges turned golden brown, she took it out and allowed it to cool before serving the eager audience.
Chef Maha will be presenting numerous delicacies from Palestine during the course of SCRF 2025.
Taking place from April 23 to May 4 at Expo Centre Sharjah, the 16th edition of SCRF promises an immersive experience under the theme “Dive into Books”. Organised by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), this year’s agenda will feature 133 guests from 70 countries, and 122 Arab and international publishing houses from 22 nations.
For more information on this free-to-attend event, visit www.scrf.ae.
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