Shish barak

Ingredients

• Flour400 g
• Water180 ml
• Lamb — minced400 g
• Onion1
• Pine nuts50 g
• Baharat1 tsp
• Thick yoghurt1 l
• Cornflour2 tbsp
• Egg1
• Garlic6 clove
• Dried mint2 tbsp
• Ghee50 g
• Rice — to serve300 g
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Knead a stiff dough from the flour, water and salt and rest it forty minutes.

   50 min

2. 2

   Fry the onion with the mince, baharat, salt and pepper, add the pine nuts and let it cool.

   15 min

3. 3

   Roll the dough thin and cut four-centimetre rounds.

   20 min

4. 4

   Shape half-moons around the filling and join the ends into a ring, like tortellini.

   40 min

5. 5

   Bake the dumplings at 200 °C for twelve minutes, until golden.

   15 min

6. 6

   Whisk the yoghurt with the starch, egg and salt and bring it to the boil, stirring without stopping in one direction.

   15 min

7. 7

   Lower the dumplings into the sauce, cook ten minutes and pour over ghee with garlic and mint.

   15 min

About the dish

The dumplings are first baked golden and only then cooked in the sauce. Unbaked, the dough softens in the yoghurt and turns to mush.

The yoghurt is stabilised with starch and egg and brought to the boil with constant stirring in one direction. You cannot stop for a second or it splits.

Once it boils the sauce is no longer stirred, only held at a bare simmer. As soon as it has thickened, extra movement breaks the bond.

Worth knowing

• — Use full-fat yoghurt at room temperature. Straight from the fridge it splits almost every time, however much starch goes in.
• — Stir with a wooden spoon and in one direction. Changing direction breaks the bond as reliably as stopping does.
• — Make the dumplings in quantity and freeze them baked. From the freezer they go straight into the sauce with five minutes added.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

680 kcal

Protein

38 g

Fat

30 g

Carbs

64 g

More from Syria

• Fattoush — A salad of vegetables and herbs with fried pieces of flatbread and sumac.
• Kibbeh bil sanieh — Two layers of bulgur and meat with a filling of mince and pine nuts between them, baked in a tray.
• Muhammara — A paste of roasted red pepper, walnuts and pomegranate molasses, from Aleppo.