Shishbarak (Idlib Dumplings in Yogurt-Rice Sauce)

Shishbarak is a dish that travels the eastern Mediterranean — manti in Turkey, shish barak in Lebanon, jushpara in Persia — but the Idlibi version has its own fingerprint: the yogurt sauce is stabilized and thickened by short-grain Egyptian rice cooked right inside it, not by egg or cornstarch. The rice gives the broth a silky, almost congee-like body that coats the dumplings as they simmer. Faten folds hundreds of them at a time, each one the size of a one-lira coin, and her daughters and neighbors fold alongside her — the small scale of the dumpling is deliberate, a way of making the work last long enough to be social. The filling is shared with sambousek and kept intentionally simple: lamb, onion, salt, black pepper. No seven-spice, no cinnamon. 'The olive oil and the onions give it everything,' Faten says.