Thatsa Sesame Syrian Meatball!

On top of some pita/All covered with ghee/I lost my poor meatball/When somebody sneezed

                                                              -Old Syrian Boy Scout Song

In an attempt to roll with the punches last week at work, I decided to embrace spherical foods, my savory favorite of which is the meatball. I like 'em big, juicy, and slightly rare. Again, I'm talking about meatballs.

I found a recipe on SyrianCooking.com for "Dawood Basha", which by the parenthetical that followed implied can be roughly translated as "meatball." But I wouldn't know because I don't speak Arabic. YET. Below is a slightly modified version.

Uncooked meatballs ready for their close-up.

Ingredients

• 1 pound beef or lamb

• 2 cups your husband's homemade spaghetti sauce

• 1/2 cup chopped onion

• 1 cup chopped parsley

• 1/2 tablespoon Baharat (Syrian Spice Mix)*

• 1/2 cup sesame seeds

• Olive oil or ghee

*Baharat can be bought online or at most foreign food markets. You can make it yourself by combining spices that might just be already in your pantry (what I did).

Directions

1. Combine ground meat, onion, parsley, and baharat. 

2. Form meat mixture into balls, any size of your choosing.

3. Coat with sesame seeds.

4. Brown balls in oil or ghee over medium heat until there's thin cooked exterior crust.

5. Finish in oven at 350 degrees until interior is of desired brownness (or pinkness in my case).

6. Served balls bathing in warm tomato sauce over rice, not spaghetti, duh.

Recipe: Barazek (Sesame Cookies)

"Cookies" may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Syrian food, but I promise once you try barazek you may consider Damascus as a potential baked good mecca. (Pun intended. Not really. Cause, you know, Mecca is in Saudi Arabia.)

Barazek with sesame seeds.

I made barazek late at night after braving Superbowl traffic (#EADOproblems) and consumed them with relish even later at night with some milky tea. I love their slightly sweet, nutty flavor. Some recipes call for sesame seeds, some call for pistachios, some both. I opted to segregate my mix-ins and split the batch.  Credit for the (slightly adapted) recipe below goes to Amira's Pantry:

Barazek

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter brought to room temperature

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon vinegar

• 1 1/2 cup white flour

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup sesame seeds

• 1 cup coarsely chopped unsalted pistachios

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Cream together sugar and butter.

3. Mix in egg, vanilla extract, and vinegar.

4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

5. Add flour-baking powder mixture to wet ingredient. Let rest in fridge for 30 minutes.

6. Shape dough into small discs. Coat with sesame seeds or pistachios or both by pressing them in a bowl filled with the aforementioned ingredient(s).

7. Bake for about 20 minutes until bottom is golden brown.