Egyptian Hawawshi | Spiced Ground Beef-Stuffed Pita

Finely chop the onion and pepper, rub them with a pinch of salt, and squeeze out their liquid by hand. Onion that is not drained will make the inside of the bread soggy and leave the dough undercooked. Knead the ground beef with the drained onion and pepper, chopped parsley, diced tail fat, and all the spices by hand for 4 minutes.

Use a knife to cut a semicircle along the edge of each pita and open a pocket without splitting it completely in half. Divide the filling into four portions and spread it inside each pocket to an even 1 cm thickness. Thick spots will not cook through; thin spots will dry out. Press the opening gently to seal.

Preheat the oven to 220°C / 430°F. Arrange the hawawshi on a parchment-lined baking sheet and brush both sides with melted butter. Bake for 15 minutes, turn, then bake for 12 minutes more. The bread should be deep golden, with fat bubbling at the edges.

Insert a skewer into the center of one hawawshi and pull it out: it should be hot, with no pink liquid on the tip. If pink liquid appears, bake for 5 minutes longer. Remove from the oven and let rest for 3 minutes; cutting it immediately will let the filling spill out.

Whisk the tahini with the lemon juice and 40 ml of cold water. It will thicken at first, then turn into a pourable cream as you keep stirring. Cut the hawawshi into triangles and serve hot with the tahini sauce and pickles.