Spinach-stuffed pastry fatayers: a recipe from Iraqi chef Philip Juma

These comforting, crunchy pastry parcels are perfect for wintery days, says Philip Juma
Philip Juma3 February 2017

These pastries, when fresh out the oven, are heaven. Ideal for cold, wintery days, they are comforting and delicious. Crunchy, yet soft pastry with a vibrant, spinach stuffing – it just works.

Alternatively, you can use meat or cheese – both of which I’ll be posting recipes for in the future.

Ingredients (makes 25 fatayer)

For the dough:

400g all-purpose flour

200ml warm water

25ml warm milk

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

130ml rapeseed oil

For the stuffing:

900g fresh spinach

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 green onion finely chopped

1 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sumac (optional)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 pinch citric acid

Method

For the dough

Proof the yeast by dissolving it in 50ml of warm water with the sugar. Leave for 15 minutes to activate the yeast. Foam and bubbles should form.

In a processor, dry mix the flour and salt. On a medium speed, add the oil and proofed yeast mixture. Slowly work the wet ingredients into the dry, adding the remaining warm water and milk slowly.

You are looking for a soft and sticky texture that has a gentle bounce when pressed. Add more water if the dough seems dry, and more flour if too sticky/wet.

Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside to prove for 1 hour or until almost doubled in size.

Roll the dough out to approximately 5mm thick. Cut out using a 4” circular mould. Cover until ready to use.

For the stuffing

Pre-heat your oven to 210 degrees.

Finely dice the onion and sautee in a pan with a splash of olive oil. You just want to sweat them for 4-5 minutes removing the bitterness and giving them some sweetness.

Next, finely chop the spinach then place it in a dry saucepan and wilt over medium low heat with a pinch of salt. Allow the spinach to cool then squeeze out as much juice as possible. Discard the excess liquid. The drier the spinach, the better. Add the chopped onions, salt, sumac, olive oil to the spinach.

NB: The lemon juice can make the spinach wet, which can be difficult to work with on the pastry. The citric acid is an excellent substitute; however, I like to use both. Add the lemon and citric at the last moment before stuffing the pastry so it doesn’t become too wet.

Take a pastry circle, and fill it with 1-2 tbls of the spinach mix. To shape your parcels, fold in the dough from 3 sides to form a triangle. Press edges together to seal.

Place your fatayer on a greaseproof baking tray. Brush each parcel with olive oil. Bake until the pastry is golden brown.

Enjoy.

Philip Juma is the founder of Juma Kitchen. Follow him on Twitter @PhilipJuma and @JumaKitchen. Find more of his recipes for the Evening Standard here.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in