Red Maple Salt Lake

The best way to Cook Spicy Meat Pastries:

Packed with sweet and sour flavours, these intricate small pastries are identified as sambusak in Greece exactly where they may be usually served as element of a mixed meze. Traditionally fried, they are able to also be baked.

Components:

175 g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

two tablespoons added virgin olive oil

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

Filling:

3-4 tablespoons added virgin olive oil

1 huge onion, finely chopped

200 g lean minced lamb

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cumin

a sizable pinch of ground cinnamon

freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon

three tablespoons raisins, rinsed

150 ml hot water

three tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint leaves

two tablespoons pine nuts, toasted inside a dry frying pan

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

To create the pastry, sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Make a nicely within the centre, add the olive oil and mix together with your fingers. Add 90 ml water and knead till a soft, neat ball is formed. Cover with clingfilm and let rest for 30 minutes.

To produce the filling, heat the olive oil inside a saucepan, add the onion and saute till it turns light brown, about ten minutes. Enhance the heat and add the lamb, turning and breaking up the lumps till every one of the moisture has evaporated and it begins to sizzle. Add the allspice, cumin, cinnamon, salt and pepper and brown for 2-3 minutes. It need to be a pretty dry mixture by then. Add the mint and pine nuts and set aside.

Divide the pastry in half. Put 1 piece on a lightly-floured surface and roll out thinly to a circle about 30 cm in diameter, turning the pastry regularly. Cut out rounds using the pastry cutter. Collect the remaining pastry from about the discs and add it towards the remaining portion of pastry. Knead till soft once more, cover and set aside.

Have a modest bowl of cold water by you. Put 1 teaspoon of filling inside the middle of a round of pastry. Dip a finger inside the water and wet the edges, then fold half in the pastry more than the other half generating a half-moon shape. Press the edges firmly to seal and put it on an oiled baking sheet. Repeat till each of the rounds happen to be utilised. Roll out the remaining pastry, cut out far more rounds and repeat the approach.

Brush the tops with all the egg yolk and bake inside a preheated oven at 400 degrees F. Gas 6 for 10-12 minutes till light golden.

Tends to make about 30