shishbarak

Shish Barak is a traditional Lebanese dish, which is basically made of small dumplings filled with ground meat, cooked with yoghurt.

Dough ingredients:

• 5 cups flour multipurpose
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups water
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup warm water (to melt the yeast)
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar (to melt with the yeast)
• 2 teaspoons yeast

Ingredients Filling:

• 1kg ground beef
• 3 small onions chopped.
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste).

Soup Ingredients:

• 10 cups (or 2 kg) of natural yoghurt.
• 2 cups of water.
• 1 teaspoon dry mint powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste).

How to Prepare the filling:

1.  Saute chopped onions in a little vegetable oil until they begin to turn pink.
2. Add ground beef and salt, mix well until the meat is cooked.

How to Prepare dough and balls:

1. Mix dough ingredients and knead with your hands for a few minuts. When it is ready, place the dough on the kitchen counter, which was sprinkled with flour, and flatten into a large disk thickness of 2 mm.
2. Using a cup of coffee (or small cookie cutter), cut the dough into discs (4-5 cm) in diameter.
3. Place the disks of dough on a tray that has been dusted with flour.
4. Place 1/2 teaspoon of meat filling in the center of each disc of dough, fold the edges and close them in the flesh, then pull around the edges and fold them over each other, then flatten sides to make it look like a "hat" or ravioli.(dumplings)
5. Align all the dumplings on a plate sprinkled with flour.

Method of cooking:

1. Pour the yoghurt and water in a saucepan, mix well until all is dissolved and place on the stove over medium heat and continue to stir gently until boiling, then turn the stove to low heat. It is very important that the heat is very low and stirring constantly otherwise the yoghurt can break and can not be recovered.
2. Add mint dry powder and salt.
3. Add the dumplings Sishbarak, and then stir gently over low heat for 15-20 minutes, until the dumplings are cooked.
4. Serve hot as a soup.