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Shish Barak (Meat Dumplings in Cooked Yoghurt)

Shish Barak (Meat Dumplings in Cooked Yoghurt) reads richness 5.4, salinity 4.7 and nutty 4.0 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Syrian main, about 2 hr 7 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 5.1 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 1.1 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 0.4 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 1.4 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 6.6 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 4.2 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Richness 5.4 · Salinity 4.7 · Nutty 4.0 · Allium 3.8 · Umami 3.5 · Herbaceous 3.4 · Warm Spice 1.7 · Floral 1.4 · Earthy 1.3 · Bitterness 1.2 · Sweetness 0.9 · Funk & Ferment 0.9 · Fruity 0.6

What's in it (17)

• all-purpose flour — 300 g
• water — 150 g
• salt — 5 g
• olive oil — 27 g
• lamb — 250 g
• onion — 120 g
• ground allspice — 5 g
• salt — 3 g
• pine nuts — 40 g
• olive oil — 27 g
• full-fat sheep's yoghurt — 1000 g
• white — 35 g
• cornflour — 8 g
• garlic — 18 g
• salt — 3 g
• mint — 15 g
• ghee — 30 g

Time & effort: about 2 hr 7 min (1 hr 36 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 109.1 kcal, 4.6 g protein, 4.6 g fat, 12.6 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains dairy · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (9 steps)

1. Make the dough: mix the flour and dough salt, work in the water and olive oil, and knead 8 minutes to a firm smooth dough. Cover and rest 30 minutes.
2. For the filling, fry the pine nuts in the filling olive oil over medium heat for 2 minutes until gold, lift them out, then cook the onion in the same oil for 6 minutes until soft. Add the lamb, allspice and filling salt and fry 8 minutes, breaking it up, until dry and browned. Stir the pine nuts back in and cool completely.
3. Roll the dough out to 2 mm — thin enough to see the board through — and cut 5 cm rounds. Put half a teaspoon of filling on each, fold into a half-moon and pinch the edge firmly, then bring the two corners together and pinch to make a little hat. You should have about 45.
4. Heat the oven to 190°C and bake the dumplings on a lined tray for 12 minutes until they are pale gold and dry to the touch. This pre-baking is what stops them dissolving in the yoghurt.
5. Now the yoghurt, which is the part that goes wrong. Whisk the yoghurt with the egg white and the cornflour slaked in a little cold water until completely smooth. Set over medium heat and bring to a bare simmer, stirring constantly in one direction with a wooden spoon for about 10 minutes. It must be moving whenever it is heating, or it will split into curds and whey and cannot be brought back.
6. Once it simmers and thickens to the consistency of pouring cream, lower the heat, add the baked dumplings and cook 10 minutes more, stirring gently, until they are tender and have swollen slightly.
7. Fry the crushed garlic in the ghee over medium heat for 40 seconds until fragrant but not brown, take off the heat, crumble in the dried mint and let it sizzle for 10 seconds.
8. Pour the garlic-mint butter into the pot, stir once so it marbles the surface, and serve at once with plain rice.
9. Substitutions: cow's yoghurt can stand in for the full-fat sheep's yoghurt; unsalted butter can stand in for the ghee.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Fettuccine Alfredo with Grilled Chicken — Italian-American
• Pesto alla Genovese — Italian
• Plokkfiskur (Mashed Fish and Potato) — Icelandic
• Pesto Genovese with Trofie — Italian
• Ocopa Arequipena — Peruvian

Keep reading: what richness, salinity, nutty mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.