Fatayer arabic savouries

A couple of fatayer recipes I picked up while working out here, its important to note that many cultures make and prepare fatayer, they all do them right, mine maybe could be interpreted as having a little Iraqi influences, I'm sure many will find them traditionally incorrect but they taste great.
All three fatayer are made using the same dough.

• 1cup milk
• 1/3cup vegetable oil
• 3 cups flour
• 1½tsp dry yeast
• 1tsp salt
• 1tbs sugar

Mix half a cup of warm milk with the sugar and yeast.
Once the yeast has foamed and doubles in size add salt and half of the flour. add into a mixing bowl on low speed, slowly add in the vegetable oil the rest of the milk and flour. increase the mixer speed and knead until the dough forms.
Knead into a ball and yeast for one hour.

Fatayer sabanegh - spinach

• Spinach
• 1 medium sized onion, chopped
• 1 tomato, peeled and deseeded, chopped
• 2tbs olive oil
• 1 lemon, juice
• 2tbs sumac
• 1tbs pomegranate molasses
• 1tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground black pepper

Form the dough into portion sizes 18-24 pieces. Yeast further 30 minutes.
Chop the fresh spinach, sprinkle with salt, let stand for 10 minutes, squeeze and dry, add the onion, tomato olive oil, pepper, and sumac. Add the lemon juice add the end, season, and taste.

Roll out the dough into desired size, fill with the filling, close the fatayer in the traditional 3-pointed shape.

Bake at 200° until golden brown. After baking, brush the oven hot fatayer with olive oil.

• 600g beef or mutton mince medium ground
• 300g onion, diced
• 200g tomato, peeled & diced
• 1tbs salt
• 2tbs Baharat
• 1tbs pomegranate molasse
• 20g pinenuts

Preheat oven to 250C,
In a bowl add all the meat filling ingredients and mix well. Allow excess moisture to run off, use a conical sieve, “if the meat mixture is wet the dough in the finished product will be soggy”.

Make portion size dough balls, roll out into desired shape oval in the picture. Add 2-3 tbs of the meat mixture and press down to cover most of the dough. “Pressing the meat into the dough ensures that the filling doesn’t fall off during the baking, serving processes”

For the best results bake in a stone pizza oven, bake for about 14 minutes until golden brown underneath, after baking cover the hot fatayer with a kitchen cloth for 5 minutes or so this will prevent the mince from cooling into a hard surface.
Garnish with chopped parsley, squeeze of lemon, and crushed red pepper

Fatayer muhammara – muhammara mix

• 3 medium red bell peppers, peeled & chopped
• ½ cup breadcrumbs
• ½ cup walnuts, finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• 2tsp lemon juice
• 1½ tbs pomegranate molasses
• 1tbs chopped sun dried tomatoes
• 1tsp sea salt
• ½ tbs sun dried Aleppo pepper, chopped or red chilli flakes
• 1tsp ground cumin
• 20g pine nuts
• 1tsp of mixed black, white and raw sesame seeds
• 3 tbs olive oil, plus more for drizzling

Garnish

• 2tbs chopped walnuts
• ground black pepper
• chopped parsley

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200°
2. To the peppers add the breadcrumbs, chopped walnuts, garlic, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, sun dried tomato, salt, red chilli flakes, cumin, pine nuts, sesame seeds and olive oil.
3. Taste and adjust the seasonings to your liking.
   - This Muhammara recipe is for a roughly chopped mix, which I find more interesting on the fatayer than the more traditional smooth puree served often as a mezze or dip.
4. Make portion size dough balls, roll out into desired shape round in the picture.
5. Add 2-3 tbs of the muhammara mixture and spread out to cover most the dough For the best results bake in a stone pizza oven,
6. Bake for about 14 minutes until golden brown underneath.

Drizzle with some extra olive oil on top if needed. Garnish with additional chopped walnuts, black pepper, and chopped parsley if you like.