Fatayer — small stuffed baked pastries made from yeasted dough and filled with spinach-sumac or spiced lamb — are the Palestinian equivalent of empanadas or samosas: a portable, complete meal in hand-sized form. The technique demonstrates Palestinian bread-making principles: a resilient, enriched yeasted dough that can be shaped, filled, and pinched closed without tearing, then baked until golden.
- **The dough:** Yeasted, slightly enriched (olive oil in the dough for tenderness and flavour), worked until smooth and elastic. [VERIFY] Khan's specific fatayer dough recipe. - **Spinach-sumac filling:** Cooked spinach, sumac, onion, olive oil, lemon — the sumac's acidity brightens the iron-rich spinach flavour. Must be squeezed completely dry before filling — any residual moisture steams the pastry from inside and produces a soggy base. - **Lamb filling:** Spiced ground lamb with onion and pine nuts — the same spice logic as kofta. - **The seal:** The pinched edges must be firmly sealed before baking — any opening allows the filling's moisture to escape and the pastry to open.
Zaitoun