Baladi bread packed with raw spiced minced beef, peppers and onion, then baked or griddled until the bread turns into a crackling case for the juicy filling. Egypt's cousin to arayes, invented by a Cairo butcher in the 1970s and now nationwide street food.
Also known as: hawawshy, hawawshi baladi, hawwaoshi, Egyptian meat bread
Watch it made
Ingredients
- 4 baladi breads or sturdy pitas
- 500 g beef mince, 20% fat
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 small green pepper plus 1 hot green chili, minced
- 30 g parsley, chopped
- 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp coriander, 0.5 tsp allspice
- 1.25 tsp salt and black pepper
- 40 ml melted ghee or oil, for brushing
How to make it
- 1
Stir the raw mince with onion, peppers, parsley, spices and salt; do not precook anything.
- 2
Open each bread and pack in a thin, even layer of the mixture, pressing it out to the rim.
- 3
Brush both sides generously with ghee.
- 4
Slide onto a preheated oven tray or stone at 220 C and bake 15-18 minutes, flipping once, until the crust shatters like a cracker and juices sizzle at the seams.
- 5
Rest 3 minutes, then cut into quarters.
Pro tip: Preheat the tray until it hisses. Meat juices flood the bread as it bakes, and only scorching metal underneath can outrun them; a cold tray guarantees a pale, damp bottom.
