Spinach Baked Fatayer – Grandpa's Favorite Appetizer

I was lucky to be raised in my grandparents' house. Growing up with elders I have considered to be more as my parents, shaped my personality into a more traditional aspect. The person who helped me to grow into this personality is my Grandpa. He is my role model in life.

My grandpa is a self-made man. He never went to school; he barely knew how to read and write. He started off as a young boy in a small shoe workshop in Beirut. He learned everything from his patron. He then worked hard enough to open his small workshop in a tiny ally. This workshop expanded to take over the shops next to him.

From there, he started exploring options to go into shoes retail. And He succeeded to do so. He had 9 kids; he taught every one of my uncles to start from scratch even when he had the capability to help them.

One story, he told me that when my dad started to work with him. He gave him a box filled with shoes and told him to go to Hamra Street (Famous Street in Beirut) and lay the shoes on the sidewalk to sell them.  He wanted him to learn the value of money and that nothing comes easy. And this is what he taught my sisters and me as well. 

My grandpa raised me to be myself, to base my actions on right and wrong away from any religious, social or cultural standards. He was always proud of us, for being hardworking, straight A students, grateful for the life we had and the love we gave him in health and sickness. 

Even after he passed away 14 years ago, whenever I accomplish something, I would always think of him, because I know for a fact, he is the reason behind it. 

In honor of his memory, I will be sharing one of my grandpa’s favorite appetizer Spinach Fatayer (Pies). 

Ingredients:

For the dough:

- This dough is known as oil dough (عجينة الزيت), it doesn't need any yeast to rise. Its a crispy kind of dough. So If you like your fatayer crispy not fluffy use this recipe:

- 3 1/2 cups of flour

- 1/4 oil

- 1 tbsp sugar

- 1 1/2 cup of water

- pinch of salt

For the Spinach Stuffing:

- 800 g of spinach (fresh cooked or frozen)

- 2 medium chopped onions

- 1 tbsp salt

- 1 tbsp lemon salt

- 1 tbsp sumac

- 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses

- 1/3 cup of olive oil

Directions - You can refer to the cooking tutorial for easy reference as well:

- Start with mixing all the dry ingredients of the dough in a big bowl. Create a hole in the center, add the olive oil and the water and start kneading the ingredients till you have a nice smooth dough.

- Add some oil in the base of the boil and on the face of the dough. Cover it and Leave it to rest for an hour.

- In a bowl, Add all the Spinach stuffing ingredients and start mixing them. Then put them in a colander to drain all the liquids from the mix for around 30 minutes.

- Once the dough rested for an hour, Remove it. Cut it in 4 equal parts. Sprinkle some flour on it and on the surface you are planning to roll the dough.

- Using a rolling pin, start rolling the dough till the dough is very thin. Press a small cup into the dough to create equal round shapes.

- In the center of the small round shaped dough, place around 1 table spoon of the spinach stuffing. Start by closing up the dough from one corner up to the center only. Then do the same from each of the corner so you would end up having a triangle shaped pastry.

- Repeat till you are out of dough and stuffing.

- In a pan, pour some oil on the base and wipe it with a kitchen tissue all over the pan. Place all the spinach pastries in the pan and brush some oil on each to have a nice golden color.

- Place the pan in a medium heated oven at 180 C for 30 minutes. IF the based is cooked and the top is still white. Change the burner from bottom to top just for couple of minutes to get the golden color we are looking for.

Tips and Tricks to make the recipe successful:

- It is very important to drain the spinach stuffing. If you don't do that, the water inside the stuffing will have the spinach pastry open back once in the oven.

- For the spinach, if you have fresh ones. Place them in boiled water for a couple of minutes to cook then wash them with cold water so that it doesn't black into black color. If you have went with the frozen pack (same as I did), you just need to defrost them then wash them with cod water. In both cases, I would always drain the spinach well by forming small balls out of the spinach and squeeze hard to get all the water out.

- Again, this is known as oil dough making it very crispy. If you are looking for a fluffy dough, you can use the same dough ingredients we use for pizza or manakish (I will post the recipe very soon).

- What to do with left over dough? I filled it with Nutella, shaped similar to babka bread and baked it in the oven. It makes really good dessert.

Here is the recipe tutorial for ease reference and Hope you Enjoy! Cheers!