Author Notes
Growing up in Dubai, I had the opportunity to eat some amazing Arabic food. One of these is the "fatteh" or flatbread topped with ground lamb. Ideally, this can be grilled but since I don't have a grill handy, this recipe calls for cooking the pie in an oven. Since this is a flatbread, there is no yeast, but yeast can be incorporated. —Rohit Mitter
Ingredients
- For Crust
-
1/2 cup
Warm water
-
3/4 cup
All purpose white flour
-
3/4 cup
Whole wheat flour
-
2 teaspoons
Salt
-
Olive oil as needed
-
1 tablespoon
Cornmeal
- For Lamb Mixture
-
3/4 pound
Ground lamb
-
1/2
Red Onion, coarsely chopped
-
4
Plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped
-
1 teaspoon
Tomato paste
-
Salt and pepper to taste
-
Handful cilantro leaves and tender stems
-
3
Garlic cloves, chopped
-
2 tablespoons
Za'atar spice (sumac, sesame seeds, marjoram; some varieties also contain cumin, coriander, or fennel)
-
1 tablespoon
Honey
-
Handful parsley leaves, finely chopped
-
Handful mint leaves, finely chopped
Directions
-
Preheat oven to 475 degrees
-
For the dough, add the dry ingredients - flour and salt - in a bowl and mix. Gently pour in the warm water and a touch of olive oil and combine (if the dough is too sticky, just add some more flour until it smooths out)
-
Generously apply white flour to a clean surface and knead the dough by hand for a few minutes; apply more white flour as needed.
-
Pour some olive oil into a bowl and roll the kneaded dough around until the oil coats the outside of the dough. Cover with a dry cloth and let it sit; approximately 1 hour.
-
After an hour, put it back on a floured surface and gently roll back into a ball, then cover with cloth or plastic wrap and let sit for additional 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, roll out dough to desired thickness with rolling pin (or anything else that may help roll it out!)
-
For the lamb mixture, combine ground lamb, onions, tomatoes, tomato paste, salt and pepper, cilantro, garlic into food processor and pulse until well blended. Add Za'atar spice and continue to pulse (avoid pureeing as texture should resemble some pulp).
-
Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal and brush the rolled out dough with olive oil before topping with the ground lamb mixture. Because the mixture will shrink considerably while cooking, make sure the entire surface area of the dough is covered before baking if you prefer a narrower crust. For a wider crust, apply the mixture accordingly.
-
Bake for 10-15 minutes. Cooking times vary, but the flatbread will be done when the crust is slightly charred and the lamb sizzling. Brush with honey and garnish with chopped parsley and mint. Enjoy!
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