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 Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 1:08 pm
Steefa is a Lebanese meat pie, but to make things easier I substitute say ahjeen il fatayer (don't be afraid, it's a basic pie dough) with Pillsbury flaky biscuit dough. Something that you can easily find in a grocery store and don't have to make yourself. I learned this recipe from my mother who learned it from her grandmother who was an immigrant from Damascus.
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Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 1:22 pm
Steefa
Ingredients
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 Tbsp butter
1 pound ground lamb
1 white onion finely chopped
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp pepper
1 pkg Pillsbury original grand flaky biscuits
Directions
Saute pine nuts in butter over a low-medium heat until they turn a light brown. Transfer to a paper towel covered plate to drain excess butter.
Put lamb, onions and cream cheese in a large bowl.
In a smaller bowl combine cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and pepper. Pour over lamb trying your best to spread it out. If all the spices end up in one place, some bites are extremely bland while others have too much spice.
Add cooled pine nuts, and use your hands to mix the meat like you would for meat loaf. Be careful not to handle the meat too much.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees as per the instructions on your biscuit packaging.
Peel your flaky biscuits in half to form two less thick circles (not two semi-circles). Stretch the biscuit half into an oval and drop 1 Tbsp of the meat mixture in the middle. Fold the biscuit over and pinch the edges to make a dumpling shape.
Arrange your little meat pies on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes (as per your biscuit package instructions). They are done when the biscuits have turned golden brown.
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Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 1:28 pm
Americanized Leban
leban is a yogurt sauce for dipping the steefa. Real leban can be quite complicated involving curdling milk and letting it hang for days under your sink in a cheese cloth. This is a quick easy way to get a similar taste.
Ingredients
1 Tbsp chopped garlic
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups plain yogurt
1/2 chopped cucumber (optional)
Directions
You need to melt the garlic, meaning you put it in a bowl with the salt and use the back of a spoon to mash it into a paste. Or mortar and pestle does this job quite nicely as well.
Add the melted garlic to the yogurt and stir. If you want you can add cucumbers.
Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. The longer it sits, the more the yogurt will absorb the taste of the garlic.
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Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 1:31 pm
If you do not like the crunch of onions but still want the flavor, you can use a cheese grater to grate the onion into mush. I have tricked people who hate onions into eating and loving the taste with this method.
If you do not want to spend the money on freshly ground lamb (the prepackaged stuff can be kind of gross), ground beef works just as well.
The buttered Pillsbury flaky biscuits are a tasty substitute for the original flavored biscuits.
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