Swiha

Ingredients for 3 servings:

• 300 g minced beef or lamb, rather lean
• 1 tsp cumin
• 300 ml water, hot
• 2 tomatoes, roughly diced
• ½ tube(s) tomato paste
• ½ handful of pine nuts, briefly roasted
• 1 handful of parsley, weighed
• e.g. chili powder or pul biber
• 1 large red onion, cut into rings
• olive oil
• 400 g flour
• 1 cube of yeast
• 1 tbsp honey
• Salt and pepper, black

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour 20 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 20 minutes

Minced meat pizza from Lebanon

For the dough, put the flour in a bowl. Make a well in the center and crumble in the yeast. Drizzle the honey over the yeast and let stand, covered, for 3 minutes. Add salt and 300 ml of lukewarm water to the side of the bowl and mix everything together for at least 10 minutes. Add more water or flour as needed (it’s a bit of a matter of feel). The yeast dough should be firm, smooth, and elastic, about the size of an earlobe. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. Then knead again and let rise for another 20 minutes. For the topping, heat a wide pot or large frying pan and briefly toast the cumin seeds. Then add olive oil and fry the minced meat. While you do this, loosen any burnt bits with a tiny splash of water and a wooden spoon and continue frying. The longer you do this, the better the sauce will be. Add tomato paste and fry for 1-2 minutes, then add the hot water. Add the tomatoes and season with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Reduce to a mushy, chewy consistency, being careful not to burn anything. Finally, stir in the toasted pine nuts and finely chopped parsley, remove the sauce from the heat, and let it cool to lukewarm. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celsius (480 degrees Fahrenheit). In the meantime, divide the dough into 4 to 6 portions. Roll out each portion thinly (the shape is a matter of taste; I like it rustic, just as it comes) and spread with the topping ragout (not in a thin layer, but not too thickly either, or the dough will become mushy during baking). Fold over the edges of the swiha slightly. Finally, top each piece with one or two onion rings and let stand for another 5 minutes. Place the swihas in the hot oven on the hot(!) baking sheet and bake for 5 to 10 minutes; the crust should be brown but not rock hard. Just before baking, I pour a whole glass of hot water onto the bottom of the oven. As a finishing touch, I recommend a drizzle of olive oil just before serving. In our family, we serve it with lightly salted yogurt and (most importantly) beer (even many Muslims say it pairs best with the dish). We traditionally eat it on Christmas Eve.