Sermîsak — Turnovers with Lorik, Onion and Parsley

Name: Sermîsak — Turnovers with Lorik, Onion and Parsley
Prep time: 50 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 90 min
Yield: 20 servings
Ingredients: 230 ml lukewarm water; 10 g fresh yeast (or 3 g dried yeast); 1 tsp sugar; 400 g wheat flour (type 550); 1 tsp salt (for the dough); 3 tbsp olive oil (2 tbsp for the dough, 1 tbsp for the filling); 1 piece onion; salt for the filling, to taste; 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley; 300 g Lorik (see the recipe Lorik — homemade whey curd cheese; or 250 g ricotta with 50 g crumbled sheep's cheese); 1 tsp nigella seeds; 0.5 tsp red pepper flakes (Pul Biber)

A Kurdish classic from Afrin in north-western Syria: Sermîsak are little half-moons of soft yeast dough made with olive oil, filled with Lorik, the crumbly whey curd cheese, finely chopped onion, lots of parsley, nigella seeds and a little Pul Biber. In Arabic they are called Sambusak. The turnovers are not deep-fried but baked slowly in a dry frying pan or on the Sêl until they are speckled golden brown and warm and creamy inside.

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Cook time

90 min

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Servings

🧂

Ingredients

View Original ↗

Nutrition

per serving

111 kcal

Calories

4 g

Protein

3 g

Fat

15 g

Carbs

Ingredients

For 20 servings

Estimated cost~€1.80 · ~€0.10/serving

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Instructions

1
Pour the water into a large bowl, crumble in the yeast and dissolve it with the sugar; if using dried yeast, mix it into the flour instead. Add the flour, 1 tsp salt and 2 tbsp olive oil and knead everything for about 10 minutes into a soft, smooth dough.
2
Cover the dough and leave it to rise in a warm place until it has roughly doubled in size.
3
Meanwhile, for the filling, chop the onion very finely, rub it with a pinch of salt and, after 5 minutes, squeeze it out firmly in a clean cloth. Finely chop the parsley, discarding the coarse stalks. Crumble the Lorik with a fork, mix it with the onion, parsley, nigella seeds, Pul Biber and 1 tbsp olive oil and season carefully with salt, as Lorik and sheep's cheese are often salty already.
4
Knead the dough briefly, halve it and roll out each half on the floured work surface to a thickness of about 4 mm. Cut out 10 cm rounds with a glass or cutter, knead the trimmings together and roll them out again until you have about 20 rounds.
5
Place a heaped tbsp of filling (about 20 g) on one half of each round, leaving a 1 cm border, fold the other half over and press the edge firmly together. Then crimp the edge with a fork or twist it: take the edge between your thumb and index finger, fold a small section diagonally inwards, press it down and keep moving along until a twisted rope forms.
6
Leave the turnovers to rise again briefly on the floured work surface under a tea towel.
7
Set the Sêl from the Turkish or Arabic grocery upside down on the hob (or use a large upturned cast-iron frying pan or a heavy frying pan without fat instead) and preheat over a medium to low heat. Place 5 turnovers on it at a time and bake until the underside is speckled golden brown.
8
Turn the turnovers over and bake the second side in the same way until they have puffed up and spring back when tapped.
9
Wrap the finished Sermîsak in a tea towel so that they stay soft, bake the rest in the same way and serve warm.
10
Tip: Sermîsak taste best warm, keep covered in the fridge for two days and can be warmed up again in a dry frying pan; once baked and cooled, they can be frozen for three months. Black olives, tomatoes and Çay — Kurdish tea in a glass — go well with them. If you have no Lorik, use just crumbled sheep's cheese with a little ricotta and leave out the salt in the filling.