[Contents]

Pastry:

5 cups bread flour

1 1/2 cups water

2 1/2 cups samneh (or other shortening)

Filling:

2 cups lamb meat, finely chopped

1/2 cup onions, finely chopped

1 cup samneh

1/2 Cup pine nuts

3/4cup labneh

Pomegranate seeds

Salt and pepper

Prepare pastry by sifting flour with salt. Add melted and cooled samneh. Stir in the water. Knead until smooth, adding more water if necessary to make dough easy to handle. Let stand an hour covered with a damp cloth. Divide pastry into portions the size of an egg. Pat each with the hands, or roll out on a board until round and pastry-thin. Dip fingers in melted samneh and fold the pastry over upon itself, working all around the edge of the round. This will incorporate more of the short- ening into the pastry and make it flakier.

Mix filling ingredients well together. Place a spoonful of filling on each pastry. Decorate with pomegranate seeds. Bake in hot oven until meat is browned and pastry is crisp. Makes about 50 tarts. Serve hot.


(From Food from the Arab World Marie Karam Khayat and Margaret Clark Keatinge, Khayat's, Beirut 1959)