Lahm bi'ajeen

November 26, 2002

With Christmas fast approaching it's time to start thinking of fare that can be used if you're entertaining.

The thing that I like about today's recipe from the Middle East is the fact that it can lead a double life. Basically it's an open-face meat pie made with leavened bread dough - something like a pizza.

You can make four large pies and serve them with a salad for a family meal, or you can divide the dough up and make about three dozen small pies that would be ideal pass-arounds for serving at a pre-Christmas cocktail party.

Today's recipe is a breeze if you own a breadmaking machine. Set it on manual so that it will beep at you when the dough has been kneaded and has risen. While this is going on, you can prepare your filling. When the dough is ready, remove it from the machine and prepare the individual pies.

I ended up using a mixed grain bread mix because I didn't have sufficient bread flour and it made a grand base. But you may wish to use plain bread flour.

Lahm bi'ajeen

The pie base:
500g white bread flour
12gm dried yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
250ml warm water
1 teaspoon salt

Place all the ingredients in your breadmaker, set the control to manual and press play. Meanwhile prepare the filling.

Filling:
350g lean minced lamb
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 large tomatoes skinned, chopped and drained
1/2 teaspoon each of cayenne pepper and ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon each finely ground black pepper and white pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons pinenuts

Break up the mince and then add the spices, salt and lemon juice and mix well until the spices are all incorporated. Then mix in the onion and tomato.

When the bread mixture is ready, divide it into four and then either make large pies, or divide each ball of dough into nine or 10 pieces for small pies. Either way, roll the dough out into circles about 4mm thick and then fold up the edge of each circle to form a little rim (1). This will stop the juices spilling out as the pies cook.

For the large pies, divide the filling in four and spread out on each base, using the back of a spoon. For small pies put a spoonful of dough on each circle and spread out to the edges.

Preheat the oven to 230C and place the pies on lightly greased baking sheets (2).

Large pies will take about 15 minutes to cook (3), the smaller ones 10-12 minutes. Check at this time and see if further cooking is required.

Serve at room temperature (4).