Sfihas

A few weeks ago someone from the blog page on Facebook asked me the recipe of the vegan sfihas and that was when I realized that I didn't post it here.

According to Wikipedia, "sfiha is a pizza-like dish originating from the Levang (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq), and introduced in Brazil and Argentina by Levantine immigrants. In contrast to the modern use of lamb of beef, traditional sfiha are open-faced meat pies made with ground mutton. Historically, sfiha were much like dolma- simply ground lamb, lightly spiced, wrapped in brined grape leaves. In Brazil, sfihas are folded into a triangular pastry, although the open-faced version is very common too."



That's why we Brazilian know (and love) sfihas. But I thought everybody new about them and just realized that this is not through when I started talking to people here in Dublin about them and nobody - Irish or European - new what they are.

They're delicious, easy to cook and easy to "veganize". You can fill them with your favourite soy mince sauce or with vegetables (Matteo loves to use a filling that is made with broccoli, tofu, soy cream and herbs). I don't think a recipe for the filling is necessary, but let me know if you want it.

Sfiha dough recipe

Ingredients:
3 cup self-raising flour
2/3 cup water
1/3 vegetable oil
salt
1 small cooked potato

Preheat the oven to 220ºC.

Combine the flour, water, oil and salt using your hands. Add the mashed potato to the mix and combine until get a smooth dough.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it for about a few minutes. Take small portions of dough – the size of a walnut – and make them into balls. Using a rolling pin, open each dough ball into a circle. Place ½ tablespoon of the filling into the center of the circle. Fold in the lower third of the circle towards the center of the sfiha, then the left and right thirds of the circle, forming a triangle. Pinch the ends together to seal the filling inside.

Place the sfihas, 1 inch apart, onto an oiled baking sheet.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden.

My personal (vegan) chef

This November me and Matteo will celebrate 6 years together (L). And looking back I'm sure that we always shared everything to make our lives easier - and happier. People say that I'm a lucky woman and I know I am. But I think that having a guy at home that helps out with the daily stuff is not that hard to find anymore (or at least, shouldn't be!). And because this blog is all about the (vegan) food, I'll limit the post to the cooking. Me and Matteo always shared the cooking at home. He's great in some kind of food, I'm good in other things and sometimes the restaurants are the best place to be. And now that I'm staying out all day to work and study, he's cooking more than never.

Last Sunday we were watching a Jamie Oliver TV show. I have to say that as a vegan I almost hate him, but he's a good chef and when I see him doing vegetarian (and also vegan) dishes I try to get all the good tips and use them. We watched three of four episodes and Matteo was very excited after it. On Monday he went to the supermarket and bought tons of stuff to cook as a real chef ("better than Jamie Oliver, cause I'm vegan!" - his words, couldn't agree more).

When I got back from College on Monday night I had this waiting for me:

Focaccia sandwich with artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, olives and fried polenta cubes

Chocolate cake + yogurt berries ice cream

None of these pictures are good enough to show how good everything was and I had even more amazing food on Tuesday, but I didn't take the pictures (was too hungry to think about them, sorry!).

It's really amazing to have someone to share love and passions and important choices like the veganism.

Today I didn't have classes and I baked some tomato rosemary scones, from Isa Chandra's book Vegan Brunch. Yep, it was my turn and my chance to say thanks to this amazing guy ;-)