SHISHBARAQ

SHISHBARAQ

Shishbarak (Arabic: ششبرك‎) is a stuffed dumpling dish made in Balad Sham (Lebanon, Syria and Jordan) that has been described as a kind of local variation. After being stuffed with ground beef and spices, thin wheat dough parcels are cooked in yogurt and served hot or you can fry and serve as a light snack.
It's a dough filled with minced meat and shaped into a shape similar to a half moon then served with yogurt sauce … the sauce is basically yogurt, garlic and coriander (some people like to use mint instead), of course every family around the Balad Sham has there own recipe for it and this is the recipe passed from my sister in law (Shes a syrian), so to make it you will need:

Dough:
4 cups flour
a pinch of salt
water … as much as needed to form the dough
Mix all the ingredients until become a soft dough until you get a firm dough that doesnt stick to the sides of the bowl … also it shouldn’t stick to your fingers when lightly pinched. Lightly flour a bowl and place the dough to rest for around 1/2 an hour or until you prepare the filling
Filling:
1 small onion .. finely chopped
1 lb minced meat
1 ts allspice
salt and pepper to taste
1 tb ghee or butter
Sauce (enough for half the amount of shish barak):
1 liter yogurt … around 4 cups
2 tbsp cornstarch
Salt to taste
4 cloves minced garlic
1/4 finely chopped coriander
2 tb Ghee or butter
Refer to the filling of the fried kibbe or kubbe recipe, its the same, then let it completely cool down before using it.
Now to shape the shish barak-first roll out the dough.You can either use a rolling pin or use a pasta machine maker. It should be rolled thin a little thicker than a lasagna around 0.2 mm
Then using a 2 inch round cutter or a Turkish coffee cup like I did, cut the dough into circles. (you can increase the size if you wish to)
Now add around 3/4 ts of meat to the center of the dough, Start closing the dough to form a semi-circle, they should look like a cresent
Keep repeating until the dough is over.
Now place all the shish barak onto a baking sheet.(some people skip this step and drop the dough straight to the yogurt)
Or at this point you can freeze the shish barak and whenever you need it just simply make the yogurt sauce and drop the shish barak without defrosting it.
NOTE: the amount of yogurt sauce mentioned in the ingredients is enough for HALF the shish barak and not the whole amount. If you want to make the whole amount at once then double the sauce ingredients …

To make the sauce,
Fill around 1/2 cup of water and dessolve the cornstarch. Then add the cornstarch mixture to the yogurt. Whisk the yogurt sauce on low heat until it slightly thickens then add the salt. Now add half the shish barak and let it boil for around 15 mins. In a frying pan, melt the ghee or butter then add the minced garlic and cook until its golden. Then add the coriander and cook a little more. Then add the garlic, coriander mixture to the shishbaraq, mix it well then take it off the heat.Serve immediately while its still hot or you can fry as a light snack without yogurt