Cheese, Meat and Spinach Sambousek Recipe

Instructions

Dough:

1. This is best done with a mixing bowl but can be done by hand. Use a beater or dough hook.
2. Add flour and salt to the mixing bowl and stir to combine
3. Pour in all the oil and mix till the flour and oil are well combined
4. Flour should resemble wet fine sand and clump together in your hand, it should crumble when you apply pressure to it.
5. Add your water to the flour and work all of the water into the dough
6. Knead the dough for 5 minutes on high speed the dough will come together and pull away from the side of the bowl
7. Knead until the ball forms, touch the dough with a clean hand and if it comes away clean then the dough is ready.
8. Cover and leave to rest for 1 hour

Spinach filling:

1. Slice half of an onion into thin strips
2. Add the salt to the onion and let it cure for half an hour
3. Toast your pine nuts over medium heat until golden brown
4. Wash spinach thoroughly and place in a pan to wilt on high heat
5. Cook the spinach until it has wilted then place in a sieve and push the liquid out of it with a spoon
6. Drain any liquid from the onions then place in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients except the spinach
7. Mix the onions, spices, and liquids together until well combined then add the cooked and drained spinach.
8. Mix till evenly distributed and set aside.

Cheese filling:

1. Soak your Halloumi or Akkawi cheese for at least half an hour, then drain and dry. This will remove excess salt from the cheese
2. Grate your Halloumi or Akkawi block into a bowl then add the remaining ingredients for the cheese filling.
3. Mix it all together until it forms a paste, add more cream cheese if the mixture is too crumbly or not paste-like.

Meat filling:

1. Dice half of an onion into small cubes.
2. Place a tablespoon of oil in a pan and crush your clove of garlic then add it to the pan.
3. Add the diced onion to the garlic and cook the two together till the onions turn translucent
4. Once they look cooked, add the salt, pepper, and nutmeg to the onions and mix in. Then push to one side.
5. Add the beef to the empty side of the pan and press down to achieve a lot of contact with the pan.
6. When the beef is cooked on one side, flip it over and begin breaking it into small pieces, mix the onions into the beef.
7. Cook until the meat is evenly brown.
8. Toast your pinenuts and add them to the mixture then set aside to cool

Assembling:

1. Cut your dough into quarters, and then place one quarter on a lightly flowered work surface.
2. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out till it is a few millimeters thick
3. Using a 10cm round dough cutter or a cup, cut circles out of the dough
4. Compress a heaped teaspoon of a filling into an oval shape then place on half of a circle, leaving an edge around the rim of each circle about 3 millimeters wide.
5. Gently pull the other half of the circle and release it from the work surface, then fold it over the filling.
6. Bring the other half of the circle to the edge forming a semi-circle of dough and press the two edges together to seal the pastries.
7. Finally, peel the pastries off of the work surface and crimp the edges of each one
8. Hold it in your hand, then fold the edge inwards towards the dome of the semi-circle, tug from the underside of the edge and pull it up and over the rest of the edge. Keep doing this until you have gone all the way around the pastry.
9. Fold the last bit of pastry around the back.
10. Repeat until you have used all the pastry, then roll the excess pieces together and reuse them to cut more dough circles.

Cooking:

1. Heat your frying oil in a frying pan on high heat.
2. Test it by placing a Sambousak in the oil. If it starts bubbling, the oil is ready to be used. Turn it down to medium-high heat.
3. Add 6-8 Sambousaks and let them fry for around 30 seconds before flipping them this will cause the bottom side to seal and harden.
4. Fry the Sambousak for 3-4 minutes, turning them every minute or so until golden brown. Remove from the oil and let them dry on a wire rack.
5. Serve within 15 minutes so the fillings are still warm.