Ramadan is the month of sweets. Wherever you go during that month and for Eid after, you will find abundant displays of sweets and, in Lebanon and Syria, these anise seed fritters will be prominently displayed, piled high on large metal trays, next to pyramids of baklava and neat lines of qatayef. The sweets serve two purposes after this month’s day-long fasts. The first is to restore energy quickly to all those who have had no food or drink pass through their lips from sunrise to sundown, while the second is to take them as presents when visiting with family and/or friends and neighbors— Ramadan is when people exchange the most visits, not to mention that each family will keep beautiful trays of sweets at home ready to be passed around with coffee and tea.
MAKES 20
INGREDIENTS:
- 1½ cups (275 g) fine semolina
- ¼ teaspoon instant (fast-acting) yeast
- 1 teaspoon ground anise seeds
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- All-purpose flour, for shaping the dough
- Sugar syrup
- Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
FOR THE SYRUP
- 1¾ cups (350 g) raw cane sugar 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons rose water
- 2 teaspoons orange blossom water
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Put the fine semolina, yeast, ground anise seeds, and cinnamon in a large bowl and mix well. Make a well in the center and add the olive oil to the well. Work it in with your fingertips until fully incorporated. Add ½ cup (125 ml) plus 2 tablespoons water and knead with your hands until you have a firm, elastic dough. Shape the dough into a ball. Place on a lightly floured work surface. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest for 45 minutes.
- To make the syrup: Put the sugar, lemon juice, and ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (150 ml) water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring every now and then, then let bubble for 3 minutes. Take off the heat. Add the rose and orange blossom water and let cool.
- Divide the dough into 20 equal portions and shape each into a fat sausage, about 2½ inches (7 cm) long. Place a dough roll against a perforated surface, like the bottom of a colander or the fine side of a box grater, and with your fingers press the dough down and roll it toward you to create a knobbly pattern and a groove as the ends meet. Place, groove side down, on a platter and continue making a pattern on the remaining dough rolls in the same way until you have shaped all 20 pieces.
- Pour 2 inches (5 cm) vegetable oil into a large deep skillet and heat over medium heat until hot (if you drop a piece of bread in the oil, the oil should immediately bubble around it). Working in batches, drop in as many dough rolls as will fit comfortably in the pan and fry until golden brown all over, 7 to 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and immediately drop into the sugar syrup. Let the fritters soak up the syrup until just before the second batch is ready, then lift them out onto a medium serving platter before dropping in the second batch of fritters. Finish doing the rest of the ma’carun in the same way.
- Serve at room temperature. These are really best soon after they have been fried as they tend to lose their crunch fairly quickly.
- Sprinkle each serving with the extra Lebanese sugar syrup before eating.
