I am interested in making this recipe soon and I was wondering if there is a substitute for sumac used in the za'atar spice if I can't find it. Also, what is aleppo pepper? Is there a substitute if I can't find it as well? I can't wait to make this recipe!

Aleppo pepper is a Syrian crushed chili, if you cannot find it, you can simply use crushed chili flakes instead.

As for the sumac, there really is no good substitute for it's unique flavor.
It should be available in most Middle Eastern stores, maybe phone around, it's worth it.

Good luck, let me know how it turns out.

A good place is Yaas Bazaar on Londsdale Ave & 18th (there about). They have nice pastries and a eatery, quite unique place.

This next question is for Dawn or anyone. Do you have a recipe for making pita bread, as all pita bread contains calcium propionate. I love lamb though.

(2) Has anyone ever cooked or eaten "cavello". (not sure of spelling).
Just curious.

I do have a good recipe for homemade pita bread and will have to dig it out. I'll try to enter it into the Test Kitchen asap...but that entails me having to make a batch and take pictures, etc. Stay tuned! :)

I adore middle eastern food; this will be the next dish on my list. Dawn thank you for this beautiful recipe. I shall let you know the results!

I was happy to finally get a chance to make this recipe after finding sumac to make the za'atar spice mix. I must confess to be still searching for aleppo pepper. (I substituted with chili peppers and a pinch of cumin.) When I find it I will make this recipe using diced lamb, I found the ground lamb that I used had too much extra fat that I drained off. I think the diced lamb will give it a more stew like quality to the dish which I personally would prefer. It's great finding new spices and trying out different recipes, I look forward to finding aleppo pepper and making this recipe again and discovering new recipes to use these spices.

And let you know I made this for friends in NYC well before the holidays. I went to a store which specializes in spices for cooks and professional chefs. They had the sumac and the aleppo pepper (which I never thought they would). I went to an unfortunately expensive butcher to get the meat as I'm not a big fan of ground lamb. And I prefer the texture of stew since we were given the alternative between ground and dice, I chose the dice.

I chose to serve it with couscous cakes (couscous, cilantro, mint, and egg and shallow/pan fried) with Greek yogurt. The cakes sort of mimic the flavors in the recipe but I thought there would be something textural about pouring the stew over the cakes and cutting/breaking into them when taking a bite. Most of my friends really liked it; the ones that don't like lamb, ah such is life.....

It was so worth making!!!