Samsa recipe

Raw hand-diced lamb with its own weight in onion, baked inside a buttered rolled-up dough that separates into layers.

3 hours and 5 minutesmedium11 ingredients

Ingredients

• 500 g lamb shoulder
• 100 g lamb tail fat
• 500 g onion
• 500 g flour
• 100 g butter
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 220 ml water

How to make Samsa

1. Knead 500 g of flour, 220 ml of warm water and 1 teaspoon of salt into a firm dough, cover it and rest it 30 minutes.
2. Roll the dough into a thin sheet, brush it all over with 100 g of soft butter, roll it up into a tight cylinder and chill it 1 hour. This rolled lamination, not packet puff pastry, is what gives the layers.
3. Chop 100 g of lamb shoulder and 100 g of tail fat by hand into 5 mm cubes. Do not mince it and do not cook it: the meat goes in raw and steams inside the pastry, which is where the juice comes from.
4. Mix the meat with 500 g of finely chopped onion, as much onion as meat, plus 1 tablespoon of crushed cumin seeds, 1 teaspoon of black pepper and 1 teaspoon of salt.
5. Slice the chilled cylinder into 12 rounds, stand each one on its cut face and roll it out to a 12 cm disc so the spiral stays visible.
6. Put a heaped spoonful of filling on each disc, fold it into a triangle and pinch the seams shut, then set them seam side down on a lined tray.
7. Brush the tops with 1 egg yolk and scatter the sesame seeds over.
8. Bake at 200 °C for 30 to 35 minutes until deep golden. A tandyr clay oven gives the smoky crust and a home oven will not reproduce it, so use the lowest rack for a firmer base.
9. Rest 10 minutes before eating: the filling is scalding.

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