Lebanese Sfiha 'Lahm Bi Ajin'

Sep 29, 2007 → By H.A.R. → Filed Under: Traditional Dishes

sfiha

Lebanese cuisine is absolutely mouthwatering ... it's difficult finding a dish that isn't delicious!
One of my favorite yummy things are pastries called Sfiha or some like to call them Lahm Bi Ajin, which translates into meat with pastry!
These make a great snack or soup accompaniment!
I guarantee that if you try this, you'll fall in love with it!

Ingredients: (this amount makes a whole lot!)

Dough:
1 kg (5 cups) plain flour
1 tsp dry yeast
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 cups water

Filling:
1/2 kg ground meat
1 kg firm tomatoes, finely chopped
5 medium onions, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
A dash of: cayenne red pepper, cinnamon, ground allspice
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp yogurt
1 tbsp sesame paste (Tahini)
5 tbsp fried pine nuts

For the dough, mix all the dry ingredients then add the water & knead until it forms a ball.
Put in a bowl & cover & let sit in a warm place for two hours.
For the filling, mix meat, tomatoes, onion and spices. Add yogurt & sesame paste. Mix all with fried pine nuts. Add butter & mix more.
Divide dough into walnut size balls. Roll between hand palms to smooth.
Roll out balls with a rolling pin to form 8 cm diameter circles. Put one tbsp of meat mixture on dough circle.
Bring the edges up and press to make a square.
Arrange meat pastries in a tray brushed with butter. Bake in a pre-heated moderate heat oven (180° C) for 30 minutes or till dough is golden and meat is cooked.

Bon appetite!

7 Comments

Rima | September 30, 2007 1:21 PM | Reply
yummmmmmmmmm i love lahm b3ajeen especially with lemonnn or laban yummmmm hehehehe

Chris | October 7, 2007 11:54 PM | Reply
Looks delicious!
We made some last week:
http://weheartfood.blogspot.com/2007/09/lahmajoun-sfiha-meat-pies.html

sana42001 | June 11, 2008 4:02 PM | Reply
This is arabic dish and not only Lebanese, I dont think it is right thig to say this dish from that country but the right thing to say, this is arabic midetranian food.

According to the history some of our mazeh and main dishes are from Turkesh people.

So we can say this country do this dish better than others. I think lebanese are good in mazeh but main dish is for syrain, they are the best, and palastinain are good in pickles and some mazeh.

I am from Jordan and I gave 5 stars for masaf.

Ghaliah | June 11, 2008 5:35 PM | Reply
OhI love Sfiha so much, it's so delicious. I am from Jordan as well sana42001, mansaf is so good.

Me | June 14, 2008 7:13 AM | Reply
Jealous comments even in food?
God bless Lebanon!

LINA | March 10, 2009 5:51 PM | Reply
'Lahm Bi Ajin' is not the same thing as Sfiha 'Lahm Bi Ajin' is a paper thin lebanese pizza not the same thing at all

Layla | March 13, 2009 9:29 AM | Reply
If you actually do your research (which I did for an Arabic Food Technology assignment) you'll know that sfiha is not the same as lahm bi'ajin and that it is actually a Syrian dish that orignated in the north of Syria.
And you're right, Sana - most of the food we call Lebanese is actually Levantine and from centuries before, where no-one categorised it as coming from a particular country. You cannot pick a food and say that it is for a particular country either when it was made centuries before these countries became independant. They are either Levantine (Levantine being Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine and Iraq) or Turkish.
But it's not the history we're discussing. The food is delicious either way!

Lebanese Sfiha 'Lahm Bi Ajin'

Recent Entries