Laham b’Ajeen (Syrian Meat Pies)
These pizza-like pies are popular in Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, and Israel. They have an endless amount of phonetic spellings, too: lahmacun, lachmanjan, lachmajun/joon, lachma bi ajun, etc. Laham b’Ajeen make a great hors d’oeuvres for any party. Even though they are a bit time consuming (mostly waiting for the dough to rise), it is truly a worthwhile treat. I adapted this recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Aromas of Aleppo. Meat pies always remind me of Sweeney Todd…creepy….
This recipe yields 24 pies. Recipe can be easily multiplied to any amount.
Dough:
2 cups flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/4 c warm water
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Combine flour, salt, yeast, warm water and oil in a bowl and mix. Knead until a soft dough is formed.
Cover the dough with a towel for one hour at room temperature so that it can rise (below).
Meat:
1 lb ground meat
1 large onion, finely chopped
half a 6-oz can of tomato paste
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp pepper
1/2 cup of tamarind paste (”ou”)
pine nuts for garnish
In a bowl, combine meat, chopped onion, tomato paste, tamarind, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and cumin. Mix well.
When the dough has risen, roll on parchment paper until very thin. Cut out circles (Using the top of a glass), about 3 inches in diameter.
Place dough rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread meat mixture onto the rounds.
Bake the pies at 350 F degrees for about 20-25 minutes. Top with pine nuts.
March 15th, 2010 at 7:42 am
this is very impressive!! you know that these can be made kosher for passover too without sacrificing too much flavor!
March 15th, 2010 at 9:14 am
These look really good… get in my belly
March 15th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
but whats with the sweeny tod reference?
April 9th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
I just wanted to share are a few tips that my Savta (grandmother), who lives in Israel but is from Syria originally, taught me.
Your Laham b’ajeen are too small and too thick. You should instead seperate the dough into balls about the size of a golf ball and then let them rest for 10-15 minutes. Then start to flatten them using your hands and then using a rolling pin to get them very thin, maybe 1/4 of an inch think. Before adding the meat topping use a little olive oil to spread them out into circles about 8-12 inches in diameter. Mine, even after years of practice, still turn out a little two crispy sometimes but ideally they should be pliable enough to roll up jelly roll style after spreading hummus and matbucha over the meat. You might want to experiment with using a little bit more yeast as well. When I use 5 cups of flour I usually add atleast 2 packets of yeast which is about 5 1/2 -6 tsp dry yeast.
Just typing this up is making my mouth water thinking of my Savta’s Laham b’ajeen, yum!!