Shish Barak

Ingredients

• 300g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp fine salt, for the dough
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 150ml warm water
• 250g minced lamb
• 1 small onion
• 3 tbsp pine nuts
• 1 tsp Lebanese seven spice
• 1 tsp fine salt, for the filling
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1kg full-fat plain yogurt
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tsp fine salt, for the sauce
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp dried mint
• 1 tbsp ghee
• Vermicelli rice, to serve

Before you cook

• Chop the onion very finely
• Crush the garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt
• Beat the egg with the cornflour and a ladleful of the yogurt until smooth
• Line two baking trays with parchment

Steps

1. Mix the flour, half teaspoon of salt, olive oil and warm water into a dough, then knead it for 8 minutes until smooth and springy.
2. Cover the dough and rest it for 30 minutes so the gluten relaxes.
3. Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 2 minutes, then tip them out.
4. Fry the chopped onion in the same pan with a splash of oil for 6 minutes until soft.
5. Add the minced lamb, seven spice, teaspoon of salt and the pepper, and cook for 8 minutes until browned and dry.
6. Stir in the toasted pine nuts and spread the filling on a plate to cool completely.
7. Roll the rested dough out as thinly as you can manage, to about 2mm, on a lightly floured surface.
8. Stamp out rounds with a 5cm cutter and gather and re-roll the scraps.
9. Put half a teaspoon of cold filling in the centre of a round, fold it into a half moon and press the curved edge firmly shut.
10. Bring the two pointed corners together around your fingertip and pinch them to seal, so the dumpling sits up like a small ear.
11. Shape the rest of the dumplings the same way and space them out on the lined trays.
12. Heat your oven to 200C and bake the dumplings for 10 minutes, until they are dry to the touch and just blushing gold.
13. Pour the yogurt into a heavy pot, whisk in the egg and cornflour mixture and the salt, and add 250ml of water.
14. Set the pot over medium-low heat and stir constantly in one direction with a wooden spoon for about 8 minutes, until the yogurt reaches a bare simmer and turns glossy.
15. Slide the baked dumplings into the yogurt and simmer gently for 12 minutes, until the dough is tender all the way through.
16. Heat the ghee in a small pan, add the garlic paste and dried mint, and swirl for 30 seconds until it smells sharp.
17. Pour the mint garlic ghee into the pot and stir it through once.
18. Ladle the shish barak into bowls with plenty of sauce and serve with vermicelli rice.