Eat & Drink
Originally published on Monday, 21st April 2008
Turkish Lahmacun
Serves 1-2 as a snack
I first had these little pizzas in Moscow where all of the best restaurants are Azeri, Georgian or Turkish. They were baked on the floor of a wood-fired oven which glowed and lit up the whole room.
I like to make lahmacun in a similar style to ‘pide’ where the edges are crimped into a kind of canoe-like shape. Otherwise you can leave them flat and then squeeze lemon juice over them and eat them rolled up like all the taxi drivers in Istanbul.
Ingredients
1 recipe pizza dough
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
450 grams minced lamb
3 tomatoes
2 green chili peppers, minced
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp ground black peppercorns
Handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Sea salt
Freshly grated black pepper
Olive oil for brushing on pizzas
65 grams pine nuts
100 grams Turkish or Bulgarian feta, crumbled
12 mint leaves, shredded
1 lemon, halved
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 250 C and place a large baking tray in the oven to heat up.
Skin the tomatoes by cutting an ‘X’ on the bottom of each and place the tomato in a bowl of boiling water for a few minutes. Remove the tomatoes and plunge under cold running water. This will loosen the skin and make it easy to peel off. Peel, core and chop the tomato finely and set aside.
Warm the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and lamb and continue to sauté until it begins to brown, 5-8 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, chilies and spices and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes. The mixture should be very thick. Stir in half of the parsley and season to taste with the salt and pepper. Set aside to cool slightly.
Roll the dough out into 6 inch ovals and place on a sheet of parchment paper. Brush lightly with the olive oil and divide the filling evenly among each leaving a ½ inch border around all the sides. Using your fingers, crimp the sides of the pizzas with your fingers to make a little boat-like shape. Sprinkle with the crumbled feta and pine nuts.
Remove the baking tray from the oven and slide the pizzas along with the parchment paper onto the tray. Place the pizzas in the oven and bake for 6-10 minutes or until crisp and golden. Sprinkle with the remaining parsley and mint and squeeze a bit of lemon juice over each. Serve immediately.
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