Meat Pies ~ Syria & Lebanon

[Twitchin Kitten]

I make these often. These are the original 'sliders' - not hamburgers! My grandmother used to make these along with the Spinach Pies and we'd devour them like they were going out of style!
In fact, I made a batch this weekend and I think [as of this writing] I have about 6 left out of about 50 pies!
Don't like meat filling? Give these Spinach Pies a go!


Meat Pies
Fatayar bi-Laham

Makes 20 - 25 pies

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 pound or so of ground lamb or beef
6 medium onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
salt and pepper to taste
1 heaping teaspoon allspice
pinch cayenne pepper
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter
1 batch of basic dough for pies

Make your dough ahead of starting the meat.

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the meat, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, allspice, and cayenne then stir and saute until the meat is well cooked and all signs of pink are gone. DO NOT BROWN! Just cook it.

Add the tomatoes,pine nuts, lemon juice and butter and mix thoroughly, then taste and add more seasoning or lemon juice if needed. Put this aside.

When the dough is ready to use, separate the dough into as many small balls (golf ball size) and place them on a floured surface and cover with a wet cloth.

Using one ball at a time, roll out each dough ball to a 4 or 5 inch round, very thin and put a heaping tablespoon of the meat mixture in the center.
Shape into little triangles (see image below) - this takes a little getting used to for doing this. They can be hard to shape without tearing the dough. Just take your time!

Repeat this until you fill your tray for baking. Place each pie on a well greased baking sheet. I use olive oil to grease the sheet. Then brush each pie lightly with olive oil.

Bake in a 400°F oven for 20 minutes or unitl golden brown.

Note: Usually you can make one batch, put it in the oven to bake and by the time you are done with forming the next batch one is ready to take out when the next is ready to go in. It sort of times itself perfectly!

MY meat pies!