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!

Lebanese Rolled Grape Leaves (Warak inib mishwee)

These are rolled grape leaves with ground lamb, and are very different from the Greek style of rolled grape leaves. They are served warm, not cold, although I eat them cold as well and are served with plain whole milk yogurt, (vanilla flavor is delicious with them, too). We used to pick our own grape leaves because you can only use the ones that grow in the wild.
Do not ever, ever use the ones that grapes are grown from. Those are tough bad boys and they will taste horrible! If you don't want to pick them, most supermarkets now sell them packed into jars. There are about 50 in a jar, so I buy 7 for my family. Just kidding. But they would eat them if I did.
If you buy them in jars, soak and rinse them very, very well in cold water several times to get the salt brine off of them.

50 grape leaves
1 tsp. salt
Juice of 3 lemons (save the lemon halves)
1 cup Uncle Ben's Rice...uncooked or a long grain white rice
1 pound ground lamb about 80% lean
Lebanese pepper ( as you all know by now, you can use ground Jamaican allspice)

If you are using fresh grape leaves, soak them in hot water for about 15 minutes to make them soft. If you are using jarred, follow instructions above to prep them. Rinse and drain thoroughly, then snip the stems off. Or have the kids do it.

In the bottom of a large saucepan, place 3 or 4 grape leaves to cover the bottom of the pan. My mother recently began to use sliced potatoes in the bottom of the pan to line it, so you can do either one. You can also use lamb bones. Why do this step? So the bottom layer of leaves won't burn.

Mix together the lamb, rice, salt and pepper and mix with your clean hands until everything is evenly distributed.

Lay a leaf out flat on a board. Add an oblong piece of the lamb mixture, like in the picture. Then turn the sides of the leaf in over the filling.
Turn the bottom up over the filling and tightly, but not too tightly, roll the leaf toward the top:

OK. Now, you want to leave the tip of the leaf at the bottom of the roll so it does not unwrap. That is how you place it in the pot or saucepan. With the tip of the leaf down. Don't roll them too loosely, they will unravel as they cook and you would have grape leaf and lamb stew. Line them up in the pan and alternate the direction of each layer.

Sprinkle with salt when you have all the leaves rolled and in the pan. Press an inverted dish over the top of them. Yes, make it on the heavier side. Helps keep them in place. Add water to cover dish. Add the lemon juice and the halves of lemons you squeezed. Cook these on medium-low heat for 35 minutes. Add more lemon juice, if desired. I desire this, but I absolutely love lemon juice.
Place in a serving dish, add yogurt on the side, and watch them disappear! Personally, I could live on these and tabouleh for every meal for the rest of my life. And don't try to save any leftover for lunch the next day. They won't be there.

Koosa Mehshee (stuffed squash) Warm those bones!

My mother used to let my two sisters and I  hollow out this squash. The kind of squash we used was only available through our family gardens. It is now available commercially. The squash is a greenish/yellow colored 6 - 8 inch squash. It is lovely and tender and what you scoop out from the inside can be used for a recipe for breakfast (called iszhee). The scoop is a long curved utensil...kind of "u" shaped with a pointy end. If you have one, use that, being careful not to poke through the closed end of the squash like I have done on so many occasions. If you don't have one, use a small spoon, being careful not to break through the skin of the squash.

This is a great dinner on a cold night when you just want to warm your bones.


Serves 6 - 8

1 dozen koosa squash
1 can tomato puree
2 cups water
1 clove garlic, chopped

Stuffing:

1 cup Uncle Ben's long grain rice...(yes, only Uncle Ben's)
1 1/2 lbs 80% lean ground lamb
1/4 stick melted butter
1/2 cup canned tomatoes
Salt
Lebanese or Syrian pepper (again, you can use ground Jamaican allspice)

Combine the stuffing ingredients.

Cut off the stem end of the squash, just below the stem. If the stem end is narrow, cut a little further down so you can get a utensil in there to scoop out the insides. Then gently scoop away. Try to scoop so that you leave about 1/4" of squash with skin intact.

Wash them with cold water and put aside to dry. Stuff the squash with the filling, leaving 1/2 inch opening unfilled to allow for the rice to swell. Place all of these tender little lovelies in a baking dish, preferably in a single layer.

Mix tomato puree and water. Add salt and pepper. Pour this over the squash. Cook at 350 degrees for 35 minutes and serve over rice pilaf. If your cold weather bones don't immediately warm up from this dish, have another one!

Lamb Shish Kabobs (Laham Mishwee)

When I was younger, I knew all these recipes only by their Arabic names, in this case, Laham Mishwee. As we grew older, my cousin Susan would refer to the cute rolls of thighs on a baby as "laham mishwee" legs. I always thought of that as the perfect metaphor for those edible, kissable, quick to disappear appendages. Now you know how delicious "laham mishwee" is.

You can cook these on the grill in summer, or under the broiler in winter.

Serves 8 - 10:

3 lbs. boned, lean leg of lamb (try to get the American lamb)
3 large onions, quartered
1 cup of red wine
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. dried mint
4 red peppers, cut into 1 inch squares
about 20 cherry tomatoes
salt and pepper

Cut the lamb into 1 inch squares. Make a marinade of the onions, wine, oil, salt, pepper, and mint. Using a large zip lock bag, put the marinade and lamb cubes into it (or them if they don't fit into 1 bag). Leave this in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or preferably overnight.
Using metal skewers ( yes...you can use bamboo ones, just soak them so they won't burn), skewer the lamb, onions, peppers and tomatoes, alternating them as you wish. You can use two pieces of lamb, then an onion, pepper, tomato, or whatever you think looks nice.
Cook for 10 minutes on the grill or in the broiler for medium rare, or longer for more well done. MMMMM, Baby!

Baked Kibbee (everyone's favorite!)

This is kind of a two step process. One is for the filling, one is for the layers. It'll make more sense as you follow it. This one can be difficult to understand, but if you have patience, you will do fine.

Serves 6
 
2 pounds coarsely ground lamb (make sure it is not too lean! maybe 80%)
1 cup bulghur wheat
1 large onion finely chopped
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 stick of butter
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
Lebanese pepper (ground Jamaican allspice is good)
water

Soak the wheat in 2 cups of water and let it sit for 30 minutes. This will make it swell and be softer. Do not ever, ever skip this step because if you eat it without soaking it, it will swell in your stomach and talk about feeling full! You would feel like you grew a watermelon in your belly!

Step 1:
Pour about 2 tbsp. olive oil in a saute pan. Add the chopped onions and when they are translucent, add the pine nuts and saute until both are golden brown. Add 1/2 pound of the ground lamb, salt and 1 tsp. pepper, and cook until lamb is browned.

Step 2:
Drain and press the water out of the bulghur. Put in a large bowl. Add the rest of the raw lamb, the wheat, 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. pepper. Press half of the mixture into a rectangular baking pan. Cover evenly with the cooked mixture. Place the rest of the raw lamb evenly onto the the top, covering the cooked mixture. Using a sharp knife, cut diagonally through the mixture in both directions so the cuts leave 2 inch diamond shapes. Cut the butter into small slices and place on top of the kibbee.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve with yogurt and don't eat too much!



The filling should look similar to this:

filling

The next picture shows how the filling is in the middle and you are adding the top layer, which is not complete in the picture. You can do it!

 

TAH DAH!!!!

Stuffed Eggplant (Baitinjan bil Saneeyee)

Just thinking about this makes me crave it! My mother and grandmothers could make this blindfolded and when we smelled it filling the house, we were instantly impatient for dinner!

Hint: Pick eggplants that are dark, full and not bruised. They should feel firm to the touch.
Also, try to get American raised lamb, not the Australian kind, but if Australian is all you can find, then so be it.

Serves 8:

2 Large Eggplants
1 pound coarsely ground lamb or beef
1 large can fine diced tomatoes, yes the really big can
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 large onion, chopped
salt
pepper (or better yet, ground Jamaican allspice which tastes similar to Lebanese pepper)
olive oil

Wash eggplants. Cut off stems. Cut them lengthwise in half and then lengthwise in half again. Now, put the skin side down on your cutting board and make a slit with your knife on the peak of the cut on the meat side of the lovely vegetable. The slit should go almost the length of the eggplant and should not go as deep as to cut through the skin.

Get your salt and sprinkle those babies, line them up in a foil lined pan and cook at 350 degrees for about half an hour. This gets the extra moisture out of them and gives them a little smokey flavor. They will soften and sag a bit while they are in the oven.

While they are baking, use a large saute pan and drizzle with some olive oil, maybe a couple of tablespoons. Dice the onion and saute in the oil. When they get soft and translucent, add the pine nuts. Make sure you do not leave the kitchen while doing this because the aroma will draw everyone else to come and try to sneak a taste. When the onions and pine nuts are a light golden brown, put in the lamb or beef and mix together, add salt and pepper to taste, sauteing until the lamb is cooked.

Now here comes the good part. After you take the eggplant out of the oven, let it cool enough not to burn your little fingers. Open the slits, which will be easy to do since the eggplant has softened. Put them in a deep baking dish. Take the lamb mixture and scoop it from the pan and stuff those beautiful little darlings from end to end.

Then take the tomatoes and pour them into a bowl. Add about a teaspoon of salt and about 1/4 teaspoon of pepper and a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Pour this over each one of the stuffed eggplants.

Bake these luscious marvels for 40 minutes at 350.
Serve over rice pilaf. Heaven can wait.