Sambousek with three fillings
Middle Eats · ♥ 778 likes · 25.6K views · 12 min video
Read about ground beef in the BrightCulinary Book
Timestamp
Ingredients
Method
Techniques
- 3½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp salt
- 250 g akawi or halloumi cheese
- 100 g shredded mozzarella
- 50 g cream cheese
- 2 tsp dried mint
- 1 tsp nigella seeds
- 250 g spinach
- ½ whole onion
- 2 tsp sumac
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp paprika
- cayenne pepper
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
- 250 g minced beef
- ½ whole onion
- 1 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- nutmeg
Mix the flour and salt in the mixer, then add the oil and mix until the flour is slightly moist like wet sand — a handful should clump in the shape of your hand and crumble when squished.
Add all the water at once and mix on high until the flour is incorporated, about five minutes; by hand, add it gradually and knead.
The dough is ready when it stops sticking to the bowl or the work surface and feels slightly oily.
Gather into a ball, cover and rest one hour.
Slice half the onion as thinly as possible for the spinach filling and dice the other half small for the meat filling.
Mix the sliced onion with the teaspoon of salt to draw out the liquid and cure it so it does not taste raw.
Toast the pine nuts in a small pan over medium heat one to two minutes, shaking every 30 seconds, until evenly browned and nutty.
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Mince the garlic into a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a pan on high heat, add the diced onion and cook a few minutes until translucent, then add salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Push to one side, press the minced beef into the empty half of the pan for maximum contact, brown, flip, then break it up and mix in the onion.
Cook three to five minutes more, stir in half the toasted pine nuts and set aside in a bowl to cool.
Wilt the washed spinach in a pan over high heat, drain in a strainer and squeeze out the liquid.
Squeeze the cured onions dry in a sieve, then mix with the sumac, paprika, pepper, cayenne, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses and olive oil until coated.
Fold the drained spinach into the onions with all the liquid, then mix in the remaining pine nuts.
Seasoning the spinach filling
Shred the soaked and dried cheese, mix with the grated mozzarella, dried mint, nigella seeds and cream cheese to a rough spreadable paste.
Cut the rested dough into quarters; on a lightly floured surface roll one quarter from the middle outwards into a rectangle 2 to 3 mm thick, as thin as you can without seeing through it.
Rolling and cutting the dough
Put a heaped teaspoon of filling on half of each circle, compressed against the side of the bowl first, leaving about half a centimetre clear at the edge and keeping the edge dry.
Lift the back half over the filling, stretch it to the other side and press the middle first, then the rest of the rim, hard, until the two layers merge.
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 tbsp water
If it will not stick, brush the lower rim with a glue of a tablespoon each of flour and water.
Crimp: fold the edge inwards onto the dough, move along, pull the underside of the rim slightly and fold it over the top, working round to the other end, then tuck it round the back. This gives a braided edge and a second seal.
Crimping a braided edge
- frying oil
Heat frying oil deep enough for the pastries to float to a high heat, add one pastry, and once it bubbles drop to medium high.
Fry 6 to 8 at a time for about 30 seconds, turn as soon as the underside turns translucent and hardens, then cook a few minutes, flipping every minute or so, until an even golden brown. Turning them stops large air bubbles forming and bursting.