Middle Eastern turnovers get their flavor from the lamb and the amazing array of spices. If you use pre made puff pastry these turnovers come together very quickly.
Lamb Turnovers
Servings
24 Servings
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 large onions roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 pounds ground lamb
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 4 sheets pre-made puff pastry dough thawed
- 2 eggs whisked
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onions and water and sauté until caramel- ized, around 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the onions from the pan and set aside in a bowl.
- In the same pan where you caramelized the onions, add the ground lamb, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, salt, ginger, cayenne pepper and black pepper and cook over medium-high heat until cooked through, around 5-7 minutes. Stir the lamb mixture occasionally.
- Add the caramelized onions to the cooked ground lamb mixture. Stir in the all-purpose flour until the flour has dissolved completely and the liquid from the meat has reduced, around 2 minutes over medium-high heat. The lamb mixture should be thick.
- On a flat surface, slightly roll out the pre-made puff pastry dough to a 10”x10” square. With a sharp knife, slice the pastry into six squares. Spoon a heap- ing tablespoon of meat into the center of each square. Brush the edges of the square with the whisked egg.
- Fold the squares over the filling to form a triangle. With a fork, press down the edges to seal the turnovers.
- Place the turnovers a few inches apart on four baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Brush the tops with the egg. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and puffed.
- Tip: These lamb turnovers can be made ahead of time and frozen. To reheat, just defrost the turn- overs, place on a baking sheet and heat in the oven uncovered.
- As seen in the Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller Magazine
- Summer 2013
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Thanks, Tamar! Our guests loved this whole menu!
Hmm, I think you might be right, I don’t think the exact size or shape matters that much.
I’m trying to envision how to cut 6 squares out of a 10″ by 10″ square sheet of puff pastry; is that meant to say 6 rectangles?
For sure, any ground meat will work.
Can I replace the ground lamb with any other ground meat? As some of my guests don’t like lamb I was thinking to make half with ground lamb and half with ground turkey or beef.
I halved this recipe as I already had 1lb of ground lamb in the freezer. This wasn’t too difficult to make.The filling was a lot though for the squares and I just folded them over to make a “pillow”. I couldn’t do the triangle. They were very good. The turnovers are quite large and the recipe would feed a crowd.