Fattah is an Arab dish usually eaten on the first day of Eid.

Fattah means "crumbs" in Arabic and hence the use of crumbled stale flatbread as the foundation of the platter containing rice, meat and soup.

There are many types of Fattah according to the method of cooking of the country.

The most famous is the Syrian Fattah followed by the Egyptian (Nubian) Fattah.

Whether you like it Syrian, Palestinian or Egyptian you will definitely enjoy this recipe.

Ingredients:

•One kg of meat cut in cubes. One may use any type of meat but lamb is preferred.

•Two cups of short rice.

•2-3 loafs of pita bread

•two small peeled onions

•dash of pepper

•mastic

•cardamom

•garlic

•ghee

•cumin

•tomato paste

•salt

•vinegar

Firstly prepare the meat:

Fill a pot with water and put 2 small peeled onions, pepper, mastic (mystica) and cardamom (el hal).

When the water starts to boil drop in the pieces of meat and let them boil to a stew.

Then prepare the rice:

Wash the rice and let it sit in water for about 10 minutes then sieve it well.

Place two tablespoons of oil in a pot on medium heat.

As soon as the oil starts to fry add the rice and half a tea spoon of salt. Stir the rice for 5 minutes.

Add 2 glasses of the meat stew (shorba) to the cooking rice. Let the rice cook for 20 minutes on the lowest heat until it absorbs all the stew and becomes tender. When the rice is all dried up remove it from the stove.

Prepare the pita bread:

Cut the pita bread into small squared pieces and then place those pieces into a pan. Apply oil or butter to the bread pieces and oven fry until it becomes golden and crispy.

With the above three steps finished you have to place the ingredients in a deep bowl in layers before you can proceed on to the fourth step.

Do not forget to pour some of the meat stew on each layer after placing it in the deep bowl.

Make the lowest layer from bread top it with a thin layer of rice and pour some stew.

Add the meat layer and pour some more stew on it. Place the final layer of rice and do not pour soup on the top layer of rice so that it does not turn soggy.

Finally prepare the dressing:

In a frying pan place one tablespoon of crushed garlic, one table spoon of ghee (samna), half a teaspoon of cumin (kamoon) and 1\4 teaspoon of salt.

Dissolve one tablespoon of tomato paste in two tablespoons of water in a cup.

In a frying pan, use low heat and stir the garlic, ghee, cumin and salt until the mixture darkens.

Then add to the darkened mixture the tomato paste you prepared. Stir the mixture for a minute then add 1 tablespoon of vinegar.

Leave the mixture on low flame for 4-5 minutes. Pour the dressing on top of the Fattah.