Mahshi Kharshouf

Ingredients

• 1 onion
• chopped
• 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts
• 10 ounces ground veal
• lamb
• or beef
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 small egg
• lightly beaten
• A 14-ounce package frozen artichoke bottoms (about 9)
• defrosted
• or 9 or 10 fresh ones (see page 282 for preparation)
• Juice of 1/21 lemon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

1. Fry the onion in the oil till golden.
2. Add the pine nuts and stir till lightly colored.
3. Mix the raw meat, flat-leaf parsley, salt and pepper, allspice, cinnamon, and egg, and knead to a soft paste with your hands.
4. Then work in the onions and pine nuts.
5. Take lumps of the meat mixture and fill the artichoke bottoms, making little mounds.
6. Place them in a shallow baking dish.
7. Mix the lemon juice with the olive oil and about 1 cup water and pour into the dish.
8. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 30 minutes, until the meat is done.
9. Serve hot or cold.
10. You may add 1/4 teaspoon turmeric to the water in the baking dish.
11. For an alternative filling: Mix the ground beef with 1 egg and 2 slices white bread, crusts removed, soaked in water and squeezed dry.
12. Add salt and pepper, 1/21 teaspoon thyme, and a pinch of nutmeg, and knead well.
13. A Tunisian version of the filling is ground veal with 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion, salt, and pepper, mixed with 1 lightly beaten egg.