Fatayer – Stuffed meat pie

For me, nothing is better than a recipe that includes a number of ingredients that would be at the top of my “yes” list for things we love. This recipe for meat pie is one that I saw Joanna Gaines cook on her show, “Magnolia Table”. Her original recipe is here. I loved the story about her mother being Korean and her father being half Lebanese and half German. Food coming from all of these cultures are things I aspire to learn about and perfect in my kitchen, so this first episode that I happened to watch was a wonder for me!

One of the things that I liked about the recipe was the ability to cut some corners, if wanted, or make it all hand made, if time is on your side. I, of course, took some liberty and added my own twist and spices, but the core elements remain…meat, onion, cheese, potato and spice wrapped in a type of bread or biscuit. Come on….no one can argue that that does not sound amazing!

The available shortcuts

Like any meat pie or veggie pie, there is an outer layer, that is hopefully, crusty and delicious. You can make this crust from scratch, or you can take the short cut that I took away from the Magnolia Table recipe and use store bought biscuits. There are other cuts, such as buying frozen hash browns for the potato or pre-shredded cheese. I went scratch for these because I had the ingredients on hand and it would take only a little extra work to do it myself. However, as you look through ingredients, I will point out where you can cut corners to make this as quick and easy as you want.

The ingredients

• 1 Pound ground beef – we are huge fans of the Panorama 80% lean beef from Crowd Cow
• 1 Package of large biscuits, such as this Shaws brand or the Pillsbury style we all know
• Half of a large onion, diced finely
• 2-3 ounce of shredded cheese, prefereably cheddar, but any good melting cheese will do, such as fontina, young gouda etc. This is about your taste and what makes you happy!
• 1 medium to large gold potato, shredded. I went old school and used a hand shredder, but here is where you can cut some corners. Use approx. 3/4 -1 cup of defrosted frozen hash browns, such as these from Target
• 3 Tbsp Zaatar spice. This is something you can find in your regular grocer. If you cannot find, no whoop. Spice this with your favorite herby spices
• 1 Tbsp. harissa spice – this is totally optional. I used one that I found locally, called Pride of Africa, Tunisian Harissa. It appears hot to the tongue, but once in food, it not hot at all. It just adds some mystery!
• Salt and fresh ground pepper to your taste (roughly 2 tsp kosher salt and 1 tsp course pepper)
• 1 Tbsp. grapeseed or veggie oil
• 3 Tbsp. butter – melted

Instruction

This could not be a more simple and easy recipe, if you enjoy a quick weeknight meal!

Let biscuit roll sit on counter for 20-30 mins while you prep the cheese and onion

Chop onion into a fine dice. Set aside

Shred cheese and set aside in refrigerator. If using pre-shredded cheese, move to next step

Remove the biscuits from container, flour broad surface and roll out each biscuit until thin and about 8 inches in diameter. Do not get precious here, a little bigger or smaller is not going to make these meat pies any less delicious! And, if you do not have a rolling pin, grab a bottle of wine, booze or soda, wipe down with lysol or similar wipe (yes, I am a bit anal in this area), dry completely and then flour it up. Just as good as any rolling pin you could find!

Put the onion into a non stick or HexClad pan with oil . Once the onions are becoming translucent, add in the beef. Add in 2 Tbsp. of the Zaatar spice as well as the Tbsp. harissa spice. Stir and continue to break it up into small pieces as it cooks.

In separate bowl grate the potato. If using frozen hash brown, still use a side bowl and defrost. In both cases, squeeze the bulk of water out of the potatoes using a towel or a load of expensive paper towels (yeah, flexing my inner cheepy and saying that paper towels should be used sparingly…they are expensive and..well, a bit wasteful! IMHO).

Allow the beef/onion mix to cool and then add to the potato mix. Add in salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Separate the mix into 8 equal parts. Place into center of each rolled out biscuit and then fold up the bisciut over the mixture. Brush with butter and sprinkle top with remaining zaatar spice and salt to your taste

Bake for 30-40 mins on middle rack, checking in at about 25 mins to ensure they are not cooking or browning too quickly. Remove when browned and cutting through one shows a hot, delicious and steaming center!

Serve with my amazing recipe for dilly, minty tzaziki!