Fatayas with Lillian Basha George

TRANSCRIPT:
[Animated Heritage NL Logo; Still image that reads: Fatayas or Meat Turnovers with Lillian Basha George]

[Lara Maynard and Andrea O’Brien are seated at a table in a kitchen with Lillian Basha George who is standing. There is a bowl of ground meat on the table and several small balls of dough. Lillian is flattening a ball of dough with a rolling pin.]

Andrea O’Brien (AO): Hi I’m Andrea O’Brien with Heritage NL and today I’m in Corner Brook with my co-worker

Lara Maynard (LM): Lara Maynard

AO: and

Lillian George (LG): Lillian George.

AO: Lillian Basha George.

LG: Excuse me, Lillian Basha George.

AO: And today we’re looking at a Lebanese dish that has been passed down through Lillian’s family and Lillian can you tell us what the name of the dish is?

LG: The Lebanese name is fatayas but I shorten it up to the Newfoundland name for turnovers. Meat turnovers.

AO: And who did you learn these from? How did you learn how to make these?

LG: I used to see my mother make them and it passed down through there.

[Ingredients:
-Ground meat (lamb or beef)
-Lots of onions
-Salt and pepper
-Bread dough (homemade or store bought)
-Flour to keep the dough from sticking

Utensils:
Bowl, fork, knife, rolling pin, cutting board, lightly greased baking sheet]

AO: Okay so what were the steps? So you have.

LG: You have your meat. [Lillian mixes the ground meat with a fork.] Now back then I think they used lamb but I use ground beef. Medium I use because you need a little bit of fat in it. You don’t want it too dry. And then I use lots of onions and salt and pepper.

AO: And you start this when?

LG: I just mixed it up last night and just left it all in the fridge so to get the flavor through. Salt and pepper and that. 

AO: So it has to season a little bit first?

LG: Yes it has to season but you can make it up the same morning if you want.

AO: Yeah, and the step you’re at right now then.

LG: Is the dough. Now, if you make your own dough, fine. [Andrea moves flour cannister.] If not you can always buy the dough at the groceteria. And you just cut it up in little pieces like this size [Lillian holds up a piece of dough roughly two inches in diameter] and then you flatten it out, okay? [Lillian flattens dough with a rolling pin and then demonstrates how her mom would flatten dough with her hands.] I remember my mom doing it. I remember her taking her dough like this and doing this and she’d be at this forhours flattening it out. But I take the easy method and I just roll it out.

AO: She never used a rolling pin at all?

LG: No, I’ve never seen her use a rolling pin.

AO: And you’re rolling it really, really thin?

LG: Yes, the thinner the better. And that’s what I find. [Lillian stretches dough with her hands.]

AO: And it is just the the ingredients you put in any kind of bread dough or anything like that?

LG: It’s just bread dough. [Andrea moves the bowl closer to Lillian.] Yeah just take your dough, your bread dough, make it as thin as you can. [Lillian puts meat mixture in centre of dough and demonstrates how to fold up the dough in a triangle.] Then you take a scoop of meat and you just put it and you just put it in there and you don’t roll it or pat it out. Just get it in there because if you put it together, mash it together it becomes too tight. That’s my experience. And that’s it. You just bring it up to a triangle.

LM: And just press the dough together a little bit.

LG: I usually make, amount to 70 or 80 when I make them. Sort of time consuming but I usually make them a bit bigger. [Lara flours a rolling pin. Flattens out dough with her fingers and stretches it.]

AO: What occasions would your mom make these for?

LG: She would make them for Christmas or any time of year but it was a habit with me in all the years I was married every Christmas Eve I’d have cabbage rolls, a big pot of cabbage rolls made and turnovers made so if anybody came in that’s what they got to eat for Christmas Eve.

AO: Okay, yeah. And was it always meat or did you use other stuffing too? [Lillian stretches dough with her hands.]

LG: No, I use meat always.

AO: Did your mom use any other stuffings?

LG: Yes, spinach. You could make spinach turnovers. Spinach and lots of onions and that’s it. And they’re delicious

AO: Would you cook the spinach a little bit first?

LG: No.

AO: Or let it marinade?

LG: No.

AO: You would put it in fresh?

LG: No you put it in fresh, yeah fresh spinach.

LM: A bit of salt and pepper.

LG: Yeah lots of salt and pepper.

AO: And did you dip it in anything?

[Labeen Recipe reads:
Labeen-Lebanese Yogurt
-(Jeeby’s)

1qt. Milk
1 pt. Half & Half
2 T. Starter (make this heaping, using “Rowbay” or Yogurt)

Heat milk and Half and Half on low, until it comes to a boil. Remove, and cool until just lukewarm. (To test, put little finger in pot, and let stay to the count of 10.) Add starter, stir well. Place in a corner, on the draining board, wrap with blanket or quilt, and let stand for 6 1/2 hrs. Remove from covers, place in refridgerator. (This lasts indefinitely.)

As a hard spread-
To the above yogurt, add 1 T. Salt. Mix well. Place in a muslin bag, or a fine cloth bag, place in colander with top folded over, place colander in a bowl, and set in the refrigerator overnight.
(Yogurt can be placed in muslin bag and salted on outside of bag to remove moisture.)
To use, spoon in a bowl, cover with olive oil, and crushed dried mint leaves. Spread on tortillas or toast.]

LG: With the meat turnovers you would have labeen. It’s like sour cream but you make it from scratch

[Labeen as a salad recipe reads:
As a salad:

1 Cucumber-sliced thin
2 cloves Garlic
1 t. Salt
2 C. Labeen (yogurt)
1 t. Dried Mint-crushed
Crush garlic in salt. Add labeen and mix thoroughly. Add cucumbers and dried mint. This is delicious served with kibbee or meat pies.]

AO: What kind of foods do you remember that your mom made that would have been kind of Lebanese traditional dishes?

LG: Roz e yekhne and that was made with green beans and steak, or lamb whatever they used, and tomatoes and rice on the side.

AO: Sounds really good. So lamb was really popular with the older generation of Lebanese people who came here.

LG: They used a lot of lamb. [Lillian flattens out dough with rolling pin. Presses fataya together with hands.]

AO: So you said that uh your mom made pita bread and a lot of Lebanese families made their own?

LG: Flatbread they called it.

AO: Yeah, is the ingredients any different?

LG: No it’s just a plain bread dough and you’ve seen them flatten out the bread and that? [Lillian demonstrates how her mom would stretch flatbread.] They swing back and forth? And that’s what my mother used to do. You see her with the bread back and forth.

AO: And is that cooked in the oven or on top of the stove?

LG: No, it’s cooked in the oven, in a hot oven. [Lillian flattens dough with a rolling pin, turning dough over as she goes.] Yeah, it’s delicious right fresh.

AO: And so you’d have that then like as, with your meals kind of?

[

Baked Kibbee

2 T. Pine Nuts
1 cube Butter
Same ingredients as above

Divide meat in two parts. Grease baking pan, 8″x12″x2″. Pat half the meat onto bottom of pan, smoothing with cold water. Add pine nuts, and bits of butter throughout. Smooth top layer over this. With a knife, clean meat from edge, by running blade around pan. Then cut diagonally, both ways about 1 1/2″ apart – forming diamonds. Make five holes with finger through kibbee, adding rest of butter on top. (This allows butter to be evenly distributed while baking.) Bake in 250 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours, or until brown.]

LG: Yeah. [Lillian puts meat mixture in centre of dough.] They’re cutting meat that has no fat, they don’t want any fat in it. Because they’re probably going to have what they call kibbeh. Kibbeh.

[Kibbee recipe scrolls quickly by on screen]

AO: Yeah.

LG: And that meat is made without any fat whatsoever and it goes through the mincer two or three times. You would eat raw kibbeh.

AO: Okay.

LG: A lot of people used to love it. Not only Lebanese, other people too.

AO: Was that a minced meat?

LG: Yeah.

AO: Okay.

LG: Yeah that you would mince it and you would have it minced two or three times and you do this with it with your hands [Lillian demonstrates how to work kibbee with your hands.] and then you could eat it raw. I used to eat raw with flatbread.

AO: And they put some spices in it or something?

LG: Not necessarily, you know just salt and pepper whatever and probably a bit of olive oil.

AO: So there’s still butchers here in in Corner Brook who do that?

LG: Yeah, yeah you could go up to any of the stores and ask them and most of them. [Lillian flattens dough with a rolling pin. ]

AO: When did your family first come to, I guess, Newfoundland and?

LG: In the early 1900s and my father was born in New York on the way so um then my mother came as a baby from over in Baalbek a little town in Lebanon. [Picture of Lillian’s parents, Simon and Annie Basha, on screen.] We lived in Curling. My grandparents lived in Curling then my mother and father lived in Curling and we grew up in Curling to 49 then we came to Corner Brook. [Lillian flattens dough with a rolling pin.]

AO: And what was their profession?

LG: Merchants, and the grandparents would be on the road selling and they would go from door to door selling stuff. Wears and tears and that. [Lillian fills dough with meat mixture and presses fataya together.]

AO: Yeah.

LG: And then they usually were merchants and then they were in the fish business and then the family, the boys got into it the same thing in the fish business and that. But yeah all the Lebanese crowd used to get together have parties and dances and that.

AO: And all this really good food that you’re making.

LG: And all the, all good food. [Lillian flattens dough with a rolling pin.]

AO: Your children do they know how to do this?

LG: Bev the youngest one she cooks um, she’ll make turnovers and she’ll make all kinds of different dishes but not necessarily Lebanese dishes. [Lillian fills dough with meat mixture and presses fataya together.] But the the oldest one no she hasn’t made any of this. She always says she’s going to try it.

LM: Now is this greased? [Lara brings the baking sheet over and Lillian fills the baking sheet with fatayas.]

LG: That is very lightly because there is a lot of fat in it.

[Bake for 5-10 minutes on the lower oven rack at 450-475°F]

LG: Now I think I’ll take these and make meatballs out of these.

[If you have any leftover meat you can make meatballs and bake those in the oven as well.]

LM: Okay, and you’re going to roast the meatballs as well?

LG: There.

AO: So here’s your finished product. [Lillian, Lara, and Andrea are sitting at the table holding fatayas. They cheers with the fatayas, and taste them.] Cheers.

All: Cheers

AO: So you would serve this with a green salad sometimes?

LG: Oh, I’m sorry with a green tossed salad.

AO: So traditionally that’s how you guys would serve it or?

LG: Yeah they most likely would serve it with a salad that’s all.

AO: And your, the dipping sauce that you called what?

LG: Labeen

[After 10 minutes in the oven put your fatayas or meat turnovers on the top rack until they are browned. Remove from oven and enjoy!]

AO: So the ones that are in the oven now you cook them for about 10 minutes and then you put them on the top rack.

AO: To brown them.

LG: Just to brown them.

[Still image of Lillian holding “Favorite Recipes of the Basha Family” cookbook.]