Riz oo bazalyah/Oozie

This is pretty much two recipes in one because you can serve it as Riz oo bazalya (rice and peas) or to be a bit fancier you can make it into oozie. This is actually a really easy dish to make and the oozie can be made ahead of time an frozen and then cooked up when needed. I always keep a few oozie in the fridge for my lazy days or for those days when you just had too much on your plate and didnt feel like cooking or eating nasty take out. According to Oussama Oozie is typically served at a funeral (eeck) in Syria but I've never experienced that I've only seen it served at parties. This is how i make Riz oo Bazalya/Oozie and.....My first video.

So first measure and wash your rice. Place it in a pot with cold water and some oil and salt. Let is come to a boil and then turn it down to a medium flame.

When the water is almost gone and there are little holes on top of the rice you would turn the rice all the way down on low and let in continue to cook (that is how i make plain rice) but instead we are...

Going to take a bag of frozen peas and let them steam while the rest of the rice is cooking! Genius, I know.

So once the rice is cooked and the peas have steamed add in the ground beef. I just cook some ground beef and once it is done cooking I add some salt and mixed arabic spice.

Take puff pastry and lay it flat.

Cut the puff pastry into 9 even squares

So one square at a time roll it out thin, as thin as you can without it ripping.

I like to place some nuts in my oozie, i cooked up some pistachios, almonds and pine nuts

Place like one of each kind of nut in the center of the puff pastry

Place your rice (about 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup)

Then bring the edges all into the middle. It wont shut tightly but once you flip it and cook it it shouldn't open anymore.

This is the oozie flipped

To watch how to fold an Oozie in a video click HERE

( this is my first video, i realize how awkward it is that I'm not talking, i'll fix that next video. Also i usually use an ice cream scooper to put the rice in so i don't have to dig the rice sometimes out of the measuring cup)

Bake them off in an oven (400 degrees F) until golden brown and serve with cucumber yogurt.

Written Recipe:

1 cup of jasmine rice

1 1/2 cups of water

1 small bag of frozen peas

1 cup of ground beef

some oil

1/2 teaspoon of mixed arabic spice

salt to taste

1 package of puff pastry (so 18 oozies total)

mixed nuts (pistachios, almonds and pine nuts)