Individual Meat Pies (Sfeeha)

These little lovers can be served as a meal or as appetizers. Versions of these can be found in many cultures, however we are going to make the Lebanese version of them. You may use pre-made dough or the kind that comes in the refrigerated tubes called dinner rolls. OR you can make your own dough. It is a bread dough if you are going to make your own. OK, OK..I will include the dough recipe.

Dough:
1 package dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp. sugar
2 tbs. olive oil
3 cups of flour

Combine yeast, water, and sugar. Let this sit for about 10 minutes. Add flour slowly, about a half cup at a time, until you have a nice dough consistency. Depending on the weather, believe it or not, you may have to add a teaspoon of water to get the consistency right.  Separate into balls a little larger than golf balls. OK, there's the dough. Set aside while you make the sfeeha.

Filling:

1 pound ground lamb (yes, you can use ground beef instead)
2 tomatoes, chopped small
1 medium onion, chopped very fine (processor works well)
1/4 cup pine nuts or sometimes called pignolia nuts
1 tsp. Lebanese pepper (if you can't find this, use ground Jamaican allspice)
1 tbsp. Salt
Olive oil spray

Combine all ingredients except olive oil spray and dough in a large bowl. Mix well with your hands until everything is blended evenly. Using a sautee pan on medium heat, cook until meat turns brown. This is the sfeeha mixture.

Roll the dough out flat on a floured cutting board. Put 2 tablespoons of sfeeha mixture in the middle of each one. Pinch in two sides to begin to make a triangle shape of dough around the meat. (Refer to the picture) Pinch edges together.

Place these on a non stick cookie sheet or grease a cookie sheet and place them on that. Spray with olive oil to make them look so pretty. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Watch them fly off the table!