Lahme bil Siniyeh: The Damascus Tray Bake

The meat is spread across the tray, either sliced or pressed flat as kofta. Potato slices, tomato, onion and pepper are arranged around it, tomato paste thinned with water is poured over the lot, and the tray bakes at 180 degrees for about an hour. That is the whole recipe. The story is not in the cooking but in where the tray goes.

Who bakes the tray

In the old city of Damascus and in the older quarters the arrangement runs like this: the butcher prepares the tray, the family carries it to the neighbourhood oven, and the oven bakes it. Beyond the question of space at home, the heat of a communal oven suits this tray better than a domestic one. The arrangement still holds, and it is something a visitor can watch happen: towards midday people pass through the lanes carrying trays.

The parsley rule

Damascus has its own naming rule for this dish, and it settles the confusion. If there is no parsley in the mix, the dish is lahme bil siniyeh; if there is parsley, it becomes kefta bil siniyeh. The two are siblings rather than twins, because no tahini sauce goes near this one — the tahini version is a separate treatment of the kofta. You do not have to ask: the mix tells you which you are looking at.

When it reaches the table

This is food for a full table. When Damascenes list the main dishes of Ramadan, this tray is among them, sitting beside the fatteh, the soup and the salad as the substantial plate. Outside a home it is hard to find, because it is not a restaurant line.

Rice or bread comes with it, and in most houses ayran as well. As the tray is served, the tomato liquid that collects under the potatoes is wiped up with bread; that liquid is the part everyone reaches for.