Hawawshi

The raw meat goes inside the bread and they bake together, so the bread crisps in the meat's own fat.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef.

Ingredients

• 4 round Egyptian flatbreads
• 500 g minced beef, not too lean
• 2 onions, very finely chopped
• 1 green pepper, very finely chopped
• 2 green chillies, finely chopped
• a large handful of parsley, chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons ghee, melted

to serve

• tahini sauce
• pickles
• lemon wedges

Method

1. THE RAW MEAT GOES INSIDE THE BREAD AND THEY BAKE TOGETHER, so the bread crisps in the meat's own fat. Nothing is cooked first. A round flatbread is split around its edge into a pocket, the raw seasoned mince is spread inside in a thin even layer, the bread is closed and brushed with ghee, and the whole thing goes into a hot oven for twenty-five minutes. The fat renders out of the mince, soaks into the inner surface of the bread and fries it from the inside, while the outside bakes to a crisp shell. Cook the meat first and spoon it into a warm pita and you have a perfectly good sandwich with none of that -- the bread stays dry and the fat is in the frying pan.
2. THE MEAT MUST NOT BE TOO LEAN. Around twenty per cent fat. The fat is the cooking medium for the bread; very lean mince gives a dry sandwich and a pale bread, and there is nothing to add instead because the fat has to come from inside.
3. IT IS SPREAD THIN -- UNDER A CENTIMETRE. Pressed out evenly right to the edges of the pocket. A thick wedge of mince in the middle is still raw when the bread has burnt, and the edges of the bread have nothing in them.
4. THE ONION IS CHOPPED VERY FINE AND NOT GRATED. Fine enough to spread, but not grated -- grated onion is mostly juice, and that juice steams the bread soggy instead of frying it. Chopped, it cooks down and stays put.
5. THE BREAD IS SPLIT BUT NOT OPENED OUT FLAT. A slit around two-thirds of the circumference, so it opens like a book and closes again. Cut all the way round into two discs, there is nothing holding the fat in and it runs out onto the tray.
6. IT IS BAKED ON A RACK OVER A TRAY, HOT. 230°C, twenty-five minutes, turned once. A rack lets the underside crisp instead of sitting in the fat that escapes; the tray beneath catches it.
7. The mince, onions, pepper, chillies, parsley, allspice, coriander, salt and black pepper mixed RAW.
8. Each flatbread SLIT around about two-thirds of its edge so it opens like a book.
9. A quarter of the RAW mixture spread inside each in a THIN EVEN layer, under 1 cm, right to the edges.
10. Closed and brushed on both sides with melted ghee.
11. Set on a RACK over a tray and baked at 230°C for 25 MINUTES, TURNED ONCE.
12. TESTED: the bread should be crisp and darkened and the meat cooked through. A pale soft bread means the meat was too lean or spread too thick.
13. Cut in halves and eaten hot with tahini sauce and lemon.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Egypt · All recipes