One Hundred and One Mezze: 18. Hummus with Meat

I decided to use the name Hummus with Meat for this dish rather than the name used in Levantine restaurants here in London, "Hummus Kawermah". Kawermah (or awerma or qawerma) is an almost extinct form of preserved meat while the topping of this dish is obviously not that. It is fried meat. In Syria the word hummus kawerma doesn't exist and the dish is called "Hummus bil Lahmeh" which literally translates to Hummus with Meat.

This dish was one of my favourite suppers when I was young. Possibly beaten to first place only by Shawerma. This dish was my dad specialty. He would never buy a meat ready prepared by the butcher to make hummus bil lahmeh. He would buy a nice cut of meat and clean it and chop it himself to get a perfect lean pieces of meat as we liked it.

If you want to make this dish chose a good quality cut of meat. You need something lean and tender with very little fat. I personally go for a beef fillet but a lamb neck fillet works equally as good.

Here is my recipe:

Beef Fillet 250g
Pine nuts 50g
Ghee butter 1tbsp
Salt
Pepper
Hummus

Start by frying the pine nuts in the ghee butter till nice and golden. Remove to the side.

Cut the fillet into small pieces (as in the picture). Fry in the ghee butter. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Spread the hummus in a plate. Top with the cooked meat and pine nuts.

Serve with Arabic flat bread.