Sfiha

The dough is pinched up at four corners into a small open square, so the meat sits in a boat rather than on a disc.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

the dough

• 500 g plain flour
• 280 ml warm milk
• 7 g fast-action dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 10 g salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

the topping

• 500 g minced lamb
• 2 onions, very finely chopped
• 3 tomatoes, deseeded and finely chopped
• 150 g thick yoghurt
• 2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
• 1 tablespoon tomato purée
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 60 g pine nuts

Method

1. THE DOUGH IS PINCHED UP AT FOUR CORNERS INTO A SMALL OPEN SQUARE, so the meat sits in a boat rather than on a disc. A round of dough about eight centimetres across, the topping spooned into the middle, and then the edge gathered and pinched at four points so the sides stand up and the round becomes a shallow square tray with a lip. That lip matters: the topping here is wet with yoghurt and tomato, and on a flat round it runs off onto the oven floor. The pinched corners hold it, and they also brown and crisp into four little handles.
2. THE YOGHURT IN THE TOPPING IS WHAT MAKES IT THIS DISH. A hundred and fifty grams, mixed into the raw meat. It tenderises the lamb over the resting hour and gives a faint tang and a creamy slackness that sets rather than dries in the oven. Without it the topping is a dry crumble of mince.
3. THE TOPPING RESTS AN HOUR BEFORE IT IS USED. Mixed and refrigerated. The yoghurt and pomegranate molasses need time to work on the meat, and the mixture firms up enough to be spooned rather than poured.
4. THE TOMATOES ARE DESEEDED AND THE ONIONS CHOPPED, NOT GRATED. The topping is already deliberately wet from the yoghurt; seeds and grated onion juice push it past what the dough can hold, and the bases go soggy.
5. THEY ARE SMALL AND THERE ARE MANY. Eight centimetres, two or three to a person. Scaled up to a large round the ratio of crisp edge to soft centre collapses and the middle never cooks through.
6. THEY GO INTO A VERY HOT OVEN ON A PREHEATED TRAY. 240°C, twelve to fifteen minutes. The base has to set before the wet topping soaks into it, which only a hot surface from below will do.
7. The flour, yeast, sugar and salt mixed with the warm milk and oil, kneaded 10 MINUTES and risen 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES.
8. The lamb, chopped onions, DESEEDED chopped tomatoes, yoghurt, pomegranate molasses, purée, allspice, salt and pepper mixed RAW.
9. Covered and RESTED in the fridge 1 HOUR.
10. The oven heated to 240°C with a heavy tray inside.
11. The dough divided into 24 and each rolled to a round about 8 cm.
12. A spoonful of topping in the middle of each, then the edge GATHERED AND PINCHED AT FOUR POINTS so the sides stand up into a shallow square.
13. A few pine nuts pressed into each.
14. Slid onto the preheated tray and baked 12 to 15 MINUTES.
15. TESTED: the four corners should be browned and crisp and the base dry. A flooded tray means the topping was too wet or the corners not pinched up.
16. Served hot with 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 Lebanon · All recipes