Growing up in Brazil, we were so exposed to Middle Eastern food and Esfiha was something that you could literally find in almost every corner.
Ingredients:
Dough
¾ cup of water
2 cups bread flour
1½ tablespoon sugar
1½ tablespoon dry milk
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon yeast
Filling
1 lb of lean ground beef
2 large tomato cut in small pieces
1 large onion chopped
½ bunch Italian parsley
2 tablespoon olive oil
¼ teaspoon ground all spice
Sal and pepper to taste
Method:
Dough
I use my mini bakery Zojirushi for the dough, or follow the instructions of your bread machine.In my bread machine.
Place the water first at the bottom of the bucket and add the dry ingredients. Choose the dough setting, when the cycle is complete, gently remove the dough from the bucket and knead until all the bubbles are removed.
Filling
Mix all the ingredients and let it set for a few minute.
Assembly
Knead the dough to remove the air bubbles, after removing the air bubbles from the dough make a roll and cut into 12 equal pieces.
Open the dough (approximately 4 in diameter), place approximately 3 tablespoon of the meat filling in the middle of the dough and close it by making a triangle (see the pictures).
Place the esfihas in a flour surface and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Bake in a hot oven, 400F for 20 minutes.
Did you know that esfiha is also called sfiha in Arabic? It means meat with dough. In Brazil, esfiha is very popular due to the presence of a large Arab population.
