arabic food

These are Middle Eastern meat filled dumplings cooked in a yogurt based sauce. It is one of the top comfort foods in Arabic cuisine.

Shish Barak

All purpose flour

Milk powder (optional)

tbsp Granulated Sugar

Salt

Vegetable oil

Water

lb lamb

Pine nuts (toasted in olive oil)

Onion

Parsley

Garlic cloves

tbsp Smoked Paprika

tbsp Seven spice (or allspice)

Salt & pepper

oz Plain yogurt (do not use greek yogurt.)

tbsp Corn starch

Water (may need more)

Garlic (crushed)

tbsp Dried Mint (crushed)

First, prepare the dough by combining all the ingredients together with a kitchenaid with the paddle attachment or by hand. Initially pour the cup of water a little at a time. Cover and let it rest for 30 min as you prepare the filling.

In a food processor, add the onion, garlic, and parsely from the meat filling and pulse. Add this mixture to the beef and saute in a pan with the seasonings. Cook till browned well. Add toasted pine nuts to the filling as well. Set aside.

Once the dough is ready, cut the ball in half and roll out each half thinly. About 1 inch thick. Cut small circles into the dough using a cookie cutter or a small coffee cup. Spread out each circle and add 1 tsp of beef filling onto one side of the circle. Shape like an empanada pinching at the seams. Then pinch the ends of the dumpling together or overlap them to look like tortellini. Repeat this step until all the dough is done.

Place the dumplings onto a nonstick pan sprayed with olive oil. Bake in a 400 F oven for about 10 minutes until lightly browned. Feel free to broil for a minute for more color.

At this point, once the dumplings are cooled you can place them in a ziplock and freeze them for another meal.

Let&#039;s work on the yogurt sauce. Add the yogurt, corn starch, salt, and water to a blender.

Add this mixture to a pot and place on medium heat. Keep mixing until the sauce starts to thicken about 10-15 min until it boils. If you want it thickened more, add a ladle of the yogurt sauce into a bowl and add more corn starch to it and stir. Place back into the pot to thicken it. I like my yogurt thick enough to coat a spoon.

Once at the consistency you prefer, add the dumplings and cook for 10 minutes together. They should be floating to thr top.

In a pan, saute the garlic in olive oil until crisp. Add this to the yogurt sauce and garnish with dried mint as well. Enjoy warm!

These Lebanese Stuffed Grape Leaves (Warak Enab) are made with a spiced ground beef and rice mixture - a delicious Mediterranean dish commonly served as an appetizer!

Lebanese Stuffed Grape Leaves (Warak Enab)

olive oil

beef

salt (plus more for seasoning layers)

7 Spice

short grain white rice

cinnamon

grape leaves (about 60-70 in brine)

medium Yukon gold potatoes (sliced)

lemon juice

Drain grape vine leaves and soak them in a large bowl of water.

Gently separate and wash the leaves individually. Stack them on a plate and set them aside. It is best to cover them with a damp cloth so they don&#x27;t dry out, until you are ready to start rolling them.

Grape Leaves Preparation

Heat a large pan with olive oil, and cook ground beef until browned. Season with salt and 7 Spice.

Add uncooked rice to the ground beef, then cinnamon and mix well until everything is incorporated.

Prepare Stuffing (Hashweh)

To stuff and roll the grape leaves, lay a grape leaf flat on a cutting board, scoop out a heaping teaspoon of the rice mixture into the center of the grape leaf, and carefully fold in the sides and roll it like you would when making a wrap. Repeat until all the stuffing has been used and place the wrapped grape leaves in a tray.

Line the bottom of a large pot with tomatoes and/or potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Neatly arrange the stuffed and rolled grape leaves in rows, alternating directions, to completely cover the circumference of the pot. Drizzle each layer with olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Place small round plate on top of grape leaves in the pot to hold them down and prevent floating while they are cooking.

Add 5-6 cups of boiling water to completely cover the grape leaves and the plate, then cover the pot and cook on Medium heat for 30 minutes, until most of the water is absorbed and the rice is cooked.

Add the lemon juice on top of the grape leaves, then cook on low heat for an additional 45 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool uncovered for 30 minutes. Transfer to a dish and enjoy warm!

Stuff, Wrap and Cook

https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/GTLOUz5m.mp4

Stuffed Grape Leaves

In the Middle East, stuffing vegetables is very common. One of the most popular are Malfoof, which are stuffed green cabbage leaves. These are filled with minced meat &amp; seasoned rice then rolled in pre-boiled cabbage leaves which then simmers in a pot for hours. This dish is so worth all the effort!

Malfoof (Stuffed Cabbage Leaves)

Cabbage heads (Green)

water

Salt & Cumin to season boiling water

lb Ground Beef (80/20)

White Rice (short, medium, or long grain)

Tomatoes (Finely chopped)

Onion (Finely chopped)

tbsp Seven Spice

tbsp Ground Turmeric

tbsp Ground Cumin

Salt & Pepper to taste (Be generous enough

Olive oil

tbsp Tomato Paste

tbsp Red pepper paste (shatta) (optional)

Salt (Start

tsp Ground Cumin

Garlic (chopped)

tbsp Olive oil

Bouillon cube, crushed

Create deep cuts with a sharp knife around the stem of the cabbage. This will allow for the cabbage leaves to fall off the core easily.

In a large pot, add water 3/4 of the way and sprinkle salt and cumin. Bring water to a boil.

Gently place the cabbage head into the water and use a large fork to keep hold of the cabbage as it is placed under the water. The leaves will start to fall off within minutes. Grab them gently with a tong and place them in a large platter next to you.

For the filling, mix together all its ingredients well.

Next, prep your work station. You will need a cutting board and sharp knife along with the tray of cabbage leaves, the bowl of filling, and a clean tray for the stuffed cabbage rolls.

First, place the cabbage leaf onto the cutting board and cut alongside the white stem in the center to form two leaves. Don&#039;t throw out the center but rather save to make my cabbage soup and line the bottom of the pot with.

Add 1-1 1/2 tbsp of filling onto one side of each leaf depending on the size of the leaf.

Roll it tightly and repeat.

Set aside on the clean platter and repeat this step until all the leaves are stuffed.

Saute an entire garlic head in 2 tbsp of olive oil in the bottom of the pot that will be used to stack the leaves in.

Once the garlic is fragrant and lightly browned, sprinkle salt &amp; pepper. Add the extra pieces of the cabbage that was trimmed or leftover cabbage leaves too. Mix together and cook for a few minutes. Shut off the heat and let the pot cool a bit for layering the stuffed cabbage.

Begin stacking the cabbage rolls tightly next to one another in the pot on top of the sauteed garlic and lefotver cabbage.

Mix together the tomato paste, chilli paste, boiling water, cumin, boullion cube, olive oil, and salt for the cooking liquid.

Pour the liquid on top of the stuffed cabbage leaves until they are just covered completely plus an extra inch.

Place a plate on top fitting to the pot. Bring to a boil then cover the pot and simmer for 2.5 hours until the cabbage is super tender. Serve alongside yogurt &amp; lemon wedges. Enjoy!

Thank you for this recipe! As a first-timer, it was easy and delicious! I truly appreciate you sharing this with us. :)

Love this dish! Easy recipe even for a beginner like me!! I even followed the maklouba recipe. I’m in love. 😍

I tried this recipe during Ramadan and it was a big hit in our family, my 5 year old as well as husband enjoyed it, so much so that he’s asked for it to be a staple in our regular meals. Look forward to trying out more recipes!

love the flavor palette of this dish. super easy to make ! Great for big dinner parties !

I have been dreading making this recipe for years and was always intimidated by the cabbage. It was so easy and delicious!

This is the second time I made malfouf using this recipe and my Kuwaiti husband loves it! Thank you❤️

I made this for the first time and it was a sucess! 
So tasty and with a lot of flavour! Tender in melt in your mouth! it was a success, we devoured it with love!
Super easy to follow with detailed steps by step direction with pictures, nothing can go wrong!
I made it vegan by using beyond meat ground beef! 
Thank you Haifa for another incredibly delicous recipe! Sahteen

This is absolutely delicious! I am learning my way on how to cook Middle Eastern food, and thanks to Heifa I’ve been able to make my Palestinian partner proud. I surprised him with this dish when he came home from work. One bite and he said it took him back to his childhood. I highly recommend trying it!

While I don’t make malfoof a lot when I do, I hop in and find this recipe. It’s delicious. I do leave out the shatta because of my little girls.

Best malfoof I’ve ever made 😍 I got so many compliments

I made it vegetarian and my pregnant sister loved it so much..it was really tasty and they melted soo yummy...today I will make your samosas InshaAllah...we are a
half palestinian and used to live in Palestine when we were kids so i am so glad that I found you on IG and now your blog..such nostalgia and brings amazing childhood memorera...best recepies ever..now i have switched from following Swedens largest middle-eastern blog to yours😁

I followed this recipe to the T and it came out amazingggggg, I will say this though, the filling is a lot. It is enough for 5 small to medium cabbages. I had to go back to the store to grab two more cabbages and I still had left over filling. I added some pomegranate molasses but everything was delicious!

Ok, this is such a wonderful recipe! It came out so yummy! Definitely will be on repeat. Thank you so much, Heifa. I have made malfoof before with different herbs and lemon, but this one just had flavors that went so well together. ❤️

Perfect recipe with really good step by step directions. Definitely a labor of love but not quite as tedious as Dawali.

Tried it yesterday.  Very good and tender. Melt in your mouth for sure. The only thing I don’t like is the cumin. It took away from the other flavors. I would leave out cumin next time. Not sure what to replace with but very delicious recipe.

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Shish Barak

Lebanese Stuffed Grape Leaves (Wara...

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Shish Barak

Lebanese Stuffed Grape Leaves (Wara...

Malfoof (Stuffed Cabbage Leaves)

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