To a medium-size bowl add semolina flour, granulated sugar, baking soda, and milk. Stir everything until corporated with a spatula.
Grease 30 cm in diameter round pan. You can use a similar size square or rectangular pans too. Make sure it is not so big. Otherwise, your dessert would be very thin.
Spread the mixture to make an even layer and let it sit for about 1 hour until semolina soaks the milk.
Meanwhile, make the syrup. ın a medium size, pan add 2 cups water and 2 cups sugar. Turn on the heat to medium-high. Stir the syrup until sugar dissolves.
Add the lemon juice and a slice of it if you like. Continue to cook for 5 minutes after it is boiled. Turn off the heat and let if cool completely.
After semolina soaked the milk it will be ready to slice. You can slice it in any shape you like. This time I wanted to slice it in star shape diamonds as we usually do it when we make baklava. More details on how you can cut it in star shape you can watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hutF_E0kmqQ
Place blanched almond to the center of each slice you got. You can easily peel the almond skin by boiling in hot water for a couple of minutes.
Bake the dessert in preheated 170C for about 40 minutes until it has golden color on top and bottom.
Before pouring the syrup you can get over the slices one more time for even soaking and pour the cooled syrup over the sambali. It is better if you can serve it the next day if you can wait 🙂 But it will be delicious after it soaked all the syrup too