Sambousek Jibneh
The Arabian cheese sambousek: half-moon pastries filled with akkawi, halloumi and parsley, deep-fried or baked golden.
Overview
The Levantine-Arabian cheese half-moon, the milder vegetarian cousin to the meat sambousek. You roll a smooth pliable dough from oil, yogurt and flour and let it rest briefly while you build the filling: grated akkawi (desalted by soaking for thirty minutes) or a mix of low-moisture mozzarella and halloumi, crumbled feta, chopped parsley, scallion, mint, an egg yolk to bind and a touch of ground black pepper. The dough rolls to three millimetres, cuts into eight-centimetre rounds, gets a spoon of filling in the centre, folds into a half-moon and is crimped sharp with a fork. From there it's either deep-fried at 175°C for two minutes a side until golden, or brushed with egg wash, scattered with sesame seeds and baked at 200°C for fifteen to eighteen minutes. The cheese melts inside the sealed shell, the pastry browns. Eaten warm with labneh or a chilli-lemon dip on the side.
Ingredients
Pastry
- 300 g plain flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 100 ml sunflower oil (or olive oil)
- 100 g Greek yogurt
- 1 egg (large)
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- 50-80 ml cold water (as needed)
Filling
- 150 g low-moisture mozzarella
- 50 g halloumi (grated, halloumi rinsed to reduce salt)
- 100 g feta cheese (crumbled)
- 1 egg yolk (large)
- 3 tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped fine)
- 2 spring onions (finely chopped)
- 1 tablespoon fresh mint (chopped) or 1 teaspoon dried mint
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- A pinch of nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon nigella seeds (optional)
Egg wash (for baked version)
- 1 egg yolk (beaten with 1 tablespoon milk)
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds (white)
- 1 tablespoon black sesame seeds (optional, for visual)
For frying (alternative)
- 1 litre vegetable oil
Method
Stage 1 - Pastry
- Whisk flour and salt; rub in oil with fingertips.
- Whisk yogurt with the egg and vinegar; mix into the flour.
- Add water 1 tablespoon at a time to a smooth pliable dough.
- Wrap; rest 20 minutes.
Stage 2 - Filling
- Mix grated akkawi (or mozzarella-halloumi blend), crumbled feta, egg yolk, parsley, spring onion, mint, pepper, nutmeg and nigella in a wide bowl.
- Don't add extra salt - the cheeses are salty.
Stage 3 - Roll
- Heat oven to 200°C (180°C fan) if baking.
- Roll pastry on a lightly floured surface to 3 mm.
- Cut out 8 cm rounds (a small bowl or biscuit cutter).
- Re-roll scraps once.
Stage 4 - Fill and crimp
- Place 1 teaspoon of filling on each round.
- Brush the edge with water; fold into a half-moon; press to seal.
- Crimp the curved edge with a fork.
Stage 5 - Cook (choose one)
Baked:
- Place on a lined baking tray; brush with egg wash; sprinkle with sesame and nigella.
- Bake 15-18 minutes until deep golden brown.
Fried:
- Heat oil to 175°C.
- Fry 4-5 at a time, 90 seconds per side, until amber-gold.
- Lift onto kitchen paper.
Stage 6 - Serve
- Eat warm. The cheese is hot and melty.
Notes
- Akkawi is the authentic cheese: A brined cow's-milk Levantine cheese, mild and milky, melts smoothly. The mozzarella-halloumi substitute is the practical option outside the region - mozzarella gives the stretch; halloumi gives the salt and a hint of squeaky texture.
- Don't over-salt: Feta + akkawi (even desalted) + halloumi all bring salt. Skip adding extra; the filling is plenty seasoned.
- Fried vs baked: Fried gives the crispest, richest result. Baked is lighter, more practical for a batch, and works well with the egg-wash-and-sesame finish.
Storage
- Best within 1 hour of cooking.
- Refrigerate 3 days; reheat at 200°C oven 5 minutes.
- Filled raw sambousek freeze 2 months; bake from frozen at 200°C for 22 minutes, or fry from frozen at 170°C 4 minutes per side.
More like this
Sambousek Bil Lahm
The meat-filled half-moon that sits next to the cheese version on every Levantine-Arabian table. You roll a soft butter-and-yogurt dough thin, stamp it into nine-centimetre rounds, and place a teaspoon of spiced lamb mince in the centre of each. The lamb is fragrant with baharat, onion, toasted pine nuts and a touch of pomegranate molasses that adds a sweet-sharp depth you can't quite place. The rounds fold into half-moons and crimp with a fork. From there they go either route: deep-fried at 170°C for three or four minutes per side, or baked at 200°C for eighteen to twenty minutes with an egg wash for shine. The pastry blisters lightly, the filling stays juicy. Eaten warm with a wedge of lemon, often as part of a meze spread alongside hummus, mutabbal, salata and warm flatbread.
Fatayer Jibneh
A soft yeasted olive-oil dough rises for 45 minutes. Filling: grated akkawi (desalted first if very salty) or a mix of low-moisture mozzarella + halloumi (rinsed to reduce salt), crumbled feta, chopped parsley, mint, dried mint, black pepper and a touch of nigella seed. Dough divides into 16 balls; each rolls into a 10 cm disc. A heaped tablespoon of cheese mix sits in the centre. Folded into a tricorn: three sides of the disc fold up over the filling, pinched at the top in three seams. Brushed with olive oil. Baked at 220°C for 15-18 minutes until deep gold.
Kuku Sib Zamini
Potatoes are boiled in their skins until tender (about 25 minutes); cooled slightly, peeled, grated on the coarse side. Onion is sautéed in oil with a pinch of turmeric until soft. Eggs are beaten with salt, pepper, saffron-water, baking powder and a tablespoon of flour. The grated potato and softened onion are folded through. The mixture is tipped into a buttered 24 cm round or square tin; baked at 180°C for 25-30 minutes until the top is gold and the centre is just set. Cooled slightly; cut into squares. Excellent with Greek yogurt or as part of a sabzi-khordan (Persian herb-and-cheese plate).
Mutabbaq
The Saudi street snack that almost every food court and roadside griddle in the kingdom has running through service. You make a stretchy oil-rich dough and let it rest for a full hour so it develops the pliability that mutabbaq depends on (the trick is that the dough has to stretch translucent without tearing). While it rests you cook a filling of ground beef or lamb with onion, leek, garlic and baharat, cool it, then mix in beaten eggs and chopped parsley just before folding. The eggs go in raw and cook inside the pastry as it griddles. Each dough ball gets oiled heavily and pulled by hand on an oiled surface into a 35 cm square thin enough to see through, with the filling spread in a 15 cm square in the centre. The edges fold in to enclose, and the whole parcel griddles on a hot pan with a glug of oil for two or three minutes per side until it's amber-crisp on the outside and the egg has set inside. Cut into quarters, eaten warm at the counter or carried home wrapped in paper.