Fatayer

In a small bowl, add the yeast and sugar to the water. Set aside for 10 minutes. Place flour in a large bowl. Drizzle with oil; mix and rub with your hands until smooth (about 5 minutes). Add salt to yeast, pour over flour and work into a dough. Knead, adding more water if needed. Place in a bowl, cover and set aside to rise in a warm draft-free place for one hour.

To make the filling, sprinkle diced onion with salt.

Wash spinach thoroughly, chop and mix with the onions. Set aside for a few minutes, then work the mixture between your hands until wilted and watery [I just placed the mixture above a pan of simmering water, like a bain marie, to wilt]. (You may place in a sunny location for half an hour to aid this wilting stage). Squeeze out all the moisture from the spinach mixture and place in a clean, dry bowl. Add black pepper, red hot pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. Mix.

Cut dough into small pieces, the size of walnuts. Roll into balls, place on a tea-towel, cover with another tea-towel and let rest for about 10 minutes.

Roll dough flat into a circle. Spoon a heaping teaspoon of filling onto the centre, keeping the edges of the dough dry. Fold into a triangular shape. Do this by mentally dividing the circumference into 3 portions—lift the right and the left sides, fold them toward the middle and seal, then bring up the lower portion and seal also. You might need to spread a little water around the outside to make sure that the dough sticks together.

Lay spinach pies on baking pans greased with olive oil; brush the tops of the pies with olive oil. Bake in a 300 F. oven until the bottom is golden brown, 15-20 minutes. Broil tops until golden brown also.

They are best when eaten at room temperature.

Makes about two dozen.

If some dough is left over, fill generously with sliced Havarti cheese and bake. It is delicious, especially for toddlers.

Lina’s notes:

I used Quick Rise Red Star yeast packets + brown sugar + all-purpose flour (sifted) + (greek olive oil + mazola blend).

I kneaded the dough until it was no longer super sticky (at first it sticks so much you wonder how you can ever roll it out), about 2-3 minutes. I let it rest 1 hr then cut it into walnut size pieces, rolling into a bit of flour if they stick. This will give you fatayer the size of a child’s hand.

I flattened each piece with my palm (rolling pin too heavy, stretches dough too much) until the dough was very very thin, transparent. Placed 1tsp roughly of spinach filling, and used water to seal the dough.

For the filling, I used pre-washed spinach chopped, onion very finely chopped. I used much more sumac than recipe requires, I also used chopped mint (1 large handful) from garden, 1 tsp pomagranate molasses and lemon to taste.

I wilted the spinach and onions over a bain marie, added 1/2 lemon juice, mixed and placed in white colander. I then squeezed the hell out of the spinach to remove moisture, returned the spinach to bowl, added 1 extra lemon, olive oil and spices. There was not that much liquid in it by the time I placed it on the dough.

Baked at 450F for 15 minutes roughly, rotating pan halfway. The fatayer were browned on edges but whitish otherwise. They were crisp and did not become soggy at all the next day.

Saw other recipes with basil, mint, swiss chard, dandelion, pine nuts, currants.