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Cooking to benefit refugees of Syrian conflict

From left: Arlene Haddad of Natick, Carolyn Ganim of Westwood, Joanne Khouri of Sharon, Gloria Sabbag of Westwood, and Christine Bezreh of Needham in the kitchen at the Church of St. John of Damascus in Dedham.Gretchen Ertl for The Boston Globe

DEDHAM — In the kitchen just off the social hall of the Church of St. John of Damascus, a group of women chatter away as they make “meat fingers” (also known as “bride’s fingers” or assabee in Arabic). The little savory pastries begin with several layers of paper-thin phyllo rolled around a mixture of spicy ground lamb.

Most of these women are related and of Syrian descent. Their organization, the Virgin Mary Society, is in the middle of a yearlong effort to raise funds to benefit refugees and children orphaned by the conflict in Syria. Selling the pastries to parishioners is part of this project. Besides, they like to get together and cook. “We are a small community and enjoy doing this,” says Carolyn Ganim.

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Christine Bezreh of Needham is setting up an assembly line, directing helpers who stand at a stainless-steel counter cutting two sheets of phyllo dough into strips, and brushing them with melted butter. They layer the strips, place the lamb mixture — called hushweh — at one end, and roll them up, cigar-style, then set the fingers on large baking sheets. There is a lot of good-natured ribbing among the women, who have been cooking together for decades. Bezreh reminds them that they asked her to be in charge. “I told them they’d be sorry,” she says.

The ground lamb is simmered with an aromatic blend called Syrian pepper, which includes allspice, black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon. The spices give the lamb, and everything it goes into, a distinctive, warm scent. “We put this on everything,” says Ganim.

Bezreh is also preparing two other dishes with hushweh. One is made with chicken; in the other, sheikh al mahshi (“fit for a king”), she uses the meat mixture to stuff eggplant. She buys her lamb at the Cedar Market, a Middle Eastern shop in Norwood, and insists that the meat is coarsely ground.

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Phyllo filled with ground lamb. Gretchen Ertl for The Boston Globe/Boston Globe

The chicken dish, often served after church on Sunday, begins with a whole boiled chicken, which is cut up and served over long-grain white rice laced with the seasoned lamb. The dish is monochromatic until Bezreh begins to scatter first pomegranate seeds, then parsley, then pine nuts generously over the entire surface. Gloria Sabbag of Westwood says that her mother, Rita Khouri, who was born in Damascus, “never served a dish to company without first decorating it with pine nuts, pomegranate seeds, and parsley. Never.”

To make the eggplant, which is topped with an intensely red tomato puree, the lamb is sauteed with onions and pine nuts, sandwiched between fried rounds, and baked in a casserole. These and many other specialties are in the “Church of St. John of Damascus Centennial Cookbook,” which the women put together in 2007.

This group and other members gather about three times a year to cook their Middle Eastern specialties. For their annual November bazaar, they start preparing in August.

They try to do everything the way their grandmothers might have. In an e-mail, Bezreh writes, “We made 10,000 [stuffed] grape leaves for last year’s bazaar. Grape leaves are picked in late June when they are at their most tender. We make an all-out appeal to the parish to pick their grape leaves for the bazaar. Many Middle Eastern people have grapevines in their backyards. We made about 250 pounds of kibbee [bulgur wheat and ground lamb], 1,200 meat pies, plus thousands of cookies and pastries.”

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It takes a village.


Debra Samuels can be reached at dgsamuels@gmail.com.