From Spain to Turkey to Israel, a Family Recipe Lives On

Shared by Shoshana Elimelech
Recipe Roots: Spain > Ankara, Turkey > Holon, Israel 

As we cook over the course of a lifetime, the recipes we reach for can morph, some are forgotten, others become staples of our table, and still others are tucked away in the cupboard only to be dusted off when a family member or dear friend asks for them. That is how it is with Shoshana Elimelech’s pastel, a free form savory pie of sorts, made with a thin layer of dough that’s wrapped around a filling of ground meat, rice, and onions. It’s a recipe that Shoshana’s daughter Rachel recalls from her childhood, but not one that her own daughter Noa had tried in years. That changed earlier this year when we gathered for a cooking session in Shoshana’s home in Holon, just south of Tel Aviv. 

In the family, the recipe can be traced back to Shoshana’s grandmother, who was also named Shoshanah, but its roots tell a longer and deeper story. The family’s believed to have migrated from Spain during the Inquisition to Turkey, having brought the recipe (like many Sephardic Jews did) with them. 

In Ankara, the family lived with several others around a courtyard where all the cooking was done and recipes were shared. Money in their family was tight and they subsisted mostly on beans and rice during the week, reserving pastel for Shabbat meals, pairing it with green beans, zucchini or cauliflower and salads of cabbage or tomatoes. If guests joined, Shoshana’s mother and grandmother would stretch the meal with rice. 

While Shoshana didn’t help in the kitchen when she was little, she saw how her mother and grandmother worked the dough and made the pastel. She brought the recipe with her further east when she moved to Israel in 1949. Here, she married a man named Menashe, who had been her neighbor in Turkey, and started to cook. 

When Shoshana’s daughter Rachel was little, she would poke around the kitchen asking her if she could join in or run an errand to pick up ingredients. She remembers helping  Shoshana to stretch the dough for the pastel across a round table in their home, and making the dish in a pan that came from Turkey. Still, it is a recipe that lives with Shoshana, now the next generation. 

At 88, she doesn’t make it often. But like so many of those recipes that sit in the back of the cupboard, this one is beloved. 

Shoshana's Pastel

Makes: 8 servings
Total time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients
For the dough:
1 ¾ cups plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

For the filling:
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 lb ground beef
½ cup long grain rice, rinsed
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 - 1 ½ cups water

For frying:
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

Preparation:
1. Make the dough: In a medium bowl mix 1 cup of flour with salt. Start adding the water while mixing. Knead the dough for a minute, add the oil and continue kneading. Add the remaining flour and knead until the dough is smooth, about 1 to 2 minutes. Cover the dough with a towel and set aside to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. 

2. Make the filling: Place a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the oil. Once the oil is hot add the onions and saute until caramelized, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add the meat and breakdown any large pieces into small pieces. Saute the mixture for about 10 to 15 more minutes until the beef is cooked through. Add the rice, salt and pepper and stir until combined. Add 1 cup of water and bring mixture to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low and continue cooking the meat and rice, covered for about 30 minutes until the rice is cooked through. If the water is absorbed before the rice is cooked, add another ½ cup of water into the mixture. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and cool to room temperature, about 15 minutes.

3. Prepare the dough: On a large floured surface, roll out the dough evenly. Roll the dough out into a large circle, about 12 inches in diameter. At this point start stretching the dough by lifting one edge of the dough with one hand, placing your other hand underneath, with your palm up, and pulling out the dough. Repeat this stretching process around all sides of the dough. Let the dough rest for 30 to 60 seconds every so often to allow it to relax. Once the dough is stretched to a diameter of about 1 ½ feet  it is ready to be stuffed and fried.

4. Make the pastel: Add 2 tablespoons of oil to a 12” non-stick pan, off-heat. Carefully lift the dough and place it on the pan matching the center of the dough to the center of the pan. There will be a lot of dough hanging around the pan. Patch any holes that are created on the dough that has been placed on to the pan. Add all of the meat filling onto the dough spreading it along the pan. Seal the meat filling with the dough that is hanging around the pan, folding in each side onto the meat and trimming any edges of the dough that are too thick before folding the dough. Overlap the folds over each other until the pastel is sealed and is in a circular shape. Drizzle the rest of the oil on top.

5. Place the pan with the pastel over medium heat and cook until the dough underneath the pastel is golden brown, about 10 minutes. To flip the pastel, place a flat plate on top of the pastel in the pan and invert the pan to flip the pastel onto the plate and slide the pastel back onto the pan. If there are any holes on the fried side of the pastel, you can patch the holes of extra pieces of dough. Continue cooking the second side of the pastel until it is golden brown, about 5 to 10 minutes, shake the pan every so often to make sure the dough is not sticking to the pan. Flip the pastel again to cook it on the side that you patched with dough until all the dough is cooked through.

6. Slide the finished pastel onto a serving plate and serve hot. 

Cook’s Notes: To re-use any extra dough, cut the dough into small pieces and sprinkle with sugar. Fry in an oiled pan over medium heat until golden brown on both sides and serve as a snack.