Meat Samsa

Method

1. 01

   Step 1: Make a plain dough

   Mix the flour, warm water and salt and knead for 8 minutes until smooth. Cover and rest for 30 minutes so the gluten relaxes and the dough rolls out thin without tearing.

2. 02

   Step 2: Roll out and butter

   Roll the dough into a rectangle about 2 mm thick and spread soft butter evenly over the whole surface. It must be soft, not melted — melted butter simply soaks into the dough.

3. 03

   Step 3: Coil it and chill

   Roll the sheet into a tight cylinder, stretch it gently to twice its length and wind it into a coil. Wrap and refrigerate for 1.5 hours so the butter between the turns sets and becomes layers.

4. 04

   Step 4: Cut the meat by hand

   Dice the beef and the fat into 5 mm cubes. Minced meat will not do here: it packs into a lump and lets its juice out before the pastry has set.

5. 05

   Step 5: Mix the filling

   Combine meat, fat, onion and spices. There is as much onion as meat because its juice turns into broth inside the samsa. Crush the cumin in your palms first — it smells twice as strong that way.

6. 06

   Step 6: Slice the coil

   Cut the chilled coil into 8 pieces. Set each one cut side up and roll it into a 12 cm round, which keeps the layers lying flat in the finished pastry.

7. 07

   Step 7: Shape the triangles

   Put 2 tbsp of filling on each round and pinch three seams together at the centre. Place them seam side down on the tray — the weight of the samsa holds the seam shut better than any crimping.

8. 08

   Step 8: Glaze and seed

   Brush the tops with yolk and scatter sesame seeds generously. Neat yolk gives a dark gloss; thinned with water it bakes paler and more even.

9. 09

   Step 9: Bake at two temperatures

   Give them 15 minutes at 220 °C so the fierce heat lifts the layers, then drop to 190 °C for another 20 minutes until deep golden. Rest them 10 minutes: there is boiling broth inside.