Spinach Turnovers
FATAYIR BI SABAANIKH
Here is another good dish for meatless days. Lebanese
cooks often put these pastries on large round tin trays and
carry the trays to the bakery to be cooked. The steady, intense
heat bf the commercial oven produces a light and crisp pastry.
Pastry:
- 7 cups bread flour
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp. dry yeast
- 1 1/2 tsp. salt
- Cold water
Dissolve yeast in a tablespoon of tepid water. Stir in olive
oil and the flour mixed with salt. Add enough cold water to
make a stiff dough. Cover and let stand 30 minutes. Roll out
on floured board to quarter inch thickness. Cut in circles with
biscuit cutter. Put a tablespoon of filling on each pastry. Fold
over in a triangular shape and press edges together firmly.
Place on well oiled baking sheet and bake in hot oven until
very lightly browned. Pinch each pastry open slightly and
sprinkle the exposed filling with a few drops of lemon juice.
Serve with lemon wedges.
Filling:
- 2 Ibs. fresh spinach
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 1 cup chopped onions
- 1 cup pine nuts or walnuts
- 1/2 cup currants or chopped raisins (optional)
- Lemon juice
- Powdered ground sammak (sumac)
- Salt and pepper
- Cinnamon
Wash spinach. Shake to dry. Chop finely. Mix with other
ingredients, adding enough lemon juice and sammak to give a
pleasantly sharp tang. Fills about 50 turnovers.
(From Food from the Arab World Marie
Karam Khayat and Margaret Clark Keatinge, Khayat's, Beirut 1959)
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