Middle East version of Sang Choy Bow / Ladies' Fingers

I found this fantastic recipe for the filling for Ladies' Fingers from a Lebanese restaurant called "Abla's" in Victoria. see website:

A rather simple recipe with some key spices.

• ¼ cup pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 250g coursely minced lean lamb
• 1 medium-sized onion, chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground allspice
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon sumac

For those unaware of Sumac, its a middle eastern Spice, rich red crimson colour, which is sweet and savoury. Its almost like a sweeter version of paprika. It also has lemon aromas.
Many homus recipes call for Sumac as a garnish. Im really fond of it.

For the minced lamb. The first time I used some lamb loin strips from wollies. They may have been rib fillets im not too sure, but they were long cylindrical morsels. Without a mincer i just diced them finely and they worked great. I wouldnt use bought lamb mince unless you know a good butcher lol. You want lean lamb without a lot of fat.
We've since snaffled a Kenwood attachment mincer for the mix master and minced the lamb and that worked just as well if not better and much quicker. I wouldnt attempt this recipe for the lettuce leaves filling unless you used good quality lamb.

The recipe suggests using this filling and rolling it in filo pastry and making Ladies' Fingers or Cigars as I would call them lol.

However I thought the filling was so tasty that it would make a great substitute for the traditional chinese Sang Choy Bow filling in lettuce leaves.

Sure enough it tasted so good in cos lettuce leaves.

I modified the recipe slightly, adding a clove of garlic, and using eshallots instead of onion.
I also added some English spinach into the mix. It gave it more colour.

While these lettuce leaved satchels are scrumptious by themselves and a great entree, I found that Feta really went well with the mix. However personally I wanted something slightly more refreshing with it. So a nice crispy hot and cold salad really did the trick, and I turned it into a main course.

Hot and Cold salad:

The only reason I went for this combination is that I really love zucchini and eggplant, and I wanted these ingredients in my salad. I also thought the crunch of snow peas would be great. Sugar snap peas would be great too.

In a fry pan, with olive oil and quickly fried some zucchini and eggplant until slightly golden on either side and remove and drained. Then I added some red capsicum julienned with the snow peas and very quickly and removed.

I set aside and just cut up some cucumber, red onion, tomatoes, and Fetta cheese.

I have trialed making some Pomegranate molasses. 4 cups of pomegranate juice, 1 cup of sugar and 1 lemon, reduced down to 1 cup. Although i found it slightly TOO viscous similar to the syrup used for the baklava.

I think the tart and sweetness of pomegranate juice to be sensational and would go terrific for a vinegarette for this salad.

Since I was pushed for time and just adlibing and basically lazy lol I just added some pomegranate and cranberry juice i had, and added some lemon juice, sugar with some dijon mustard. It really tasted good in the salad and supported the lamb filled lettuce leaves perfectly.

What I would like to trial would be to make them to the original recipe for Ladies' Fingers and make a Pomegranate molasses dipping sauce. It would substitute duck sauce and spring rolls lol A middle eastern twist.

Ideally when in season, using fresh pomegranate seeds would be the best for the salad.

I have to say though in many of the new recipes ive tried recently this lamb filling is one of the best tasting combinations ive tried.