We taught you how to roll and freeze the yebra, and I’m sure you were eager to know how to actually cook at eat it…well here’s one way to do it!

Yebra is definitely a Syrian favorite. We eat it with sweet sauce, sour sauce, meat filled, and with rice and chick peas inside (a pareve version). Different families prefer it different ways. This is not how our mom makes it, but it’s a really yummy version with apricots, one of my favorites.

These take a long time to cook, so if you’re making it for Friday night dinner, make it on Thursday night and reheat it before dinner Friday.

This recipe is from the Deal Delights cookbook.

Ingredients:

• Oil
• About 25 – 30 yebra
• Dried apricots
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (I used fresh squeezed)
• 1/4 cup oot (tamarind paste)

Directions:

1. Place 1 tablespoon of oil into a pot – the recipe says a 3 quart saucepan, but my experience with this is BURNT yebra. Have a cast iron skillet? Use that! Line the bottom with dried apricots, cut side up (halve them if you have whole apricots). Top with yebra, cover, and let steam for 10-15 minutes.

2. In a bowl, mix the water, sugar, lemon juice, and oot. Add the sauce to the pot and top with additional apricots. Put a small plate on top to prevent the yebra from unwinding. Cover and simmer on LOW for 2 1/2 – 3 hours.

You will need:

• 8 yellow squash or zucchinis, or a combination of the two
• 1 pound of hashu
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• about 40 dried apricots (these are our favorite, so we like to add extras)
• 1 teaspoon of kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons of lemon juice (freshly squeezed, of course)
• 3 tablespoons ourt, tamarind paste. You can use homemade, but we buy it.
• 1 cup of water

1. Core the squash and stuff it with hashu.
2. Heat the oil in an oven-proof skillet. Over a medium flame, place the squash in it, adding half of the apricots on top. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the squash begins to sweat.
3. Add the rest of the apricots, the lemon juice, ourt, water, and salt. Raise the fire to medium-high and use a heat-proof plate to weigh everything down. Bring to a boil.
4. Lower the heat and let simmer for an hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
6. Transfer the saucepan to the oven and cook for another 40 minutes.

From Aromas of Aleppo.

We use it for potatoes, eggplants, squash and zucchini, onions, cabbage, tomato, grape leaves, etc.

There is a different way to prepare each mehshi dish, depending on the vegetable, and even variations on individual vegetables.

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1/3 cup rice, soaked for 30 minutes
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon all spice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 onion, grated

Just mix all of the ingredients together. We like to use our hands.