Lahmacun - Turkish lamb flatbread

[mskerr]

Going to attempt to make lahmacun/lahmajoun again today: lamb cooked with onions, paprika, cumin, coriander, and tomato, baked on homemade flatbread, topped with chopped onions, tomatoes, parsley, and a squeeze of lemon. I haven't had a proper one yet, but it's basically all my favorite things in one meal.

I'm basing mine on the recipe in "Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day", but instead of using the usual ground lamb, I'm using the "lamb stew mix" from my supermarket, which isn't cubes, but a motley mix of steaks, meaty bones, and other random meaty chunks. Going to braise the lamb, then pull it.

Anyone have experience making this?

[Hassouni]

Making, no, because in the Middle East it can usually be had for a buck or less. See if you can add some biber salçası, or Turkish sun dried pepper paste, or, to make it more Arabic, add some pomegranate molasses

[Nicolai]

1- Lahm Bel Ajin - Arabic version

- 500g mince lamb meat

- 750 g fresh tomatoes (tomatoe paste can be added or substituted)

- 2 medium size onions

- red chilli peppers (optional)

- S&P + a dash of cayenne pepper (optional)

Lemon juice after baking and before eating (not before serving)

Chop all to fine texture and spread over dough and bake.

2- Lahm bel Ajin with added pomegranate molasses is the Armenian version and not the Arabic version!

[Hassouni]

Depends who you ask!

[mskerr]

Report: My braised lamb ended up turning into a curry, over basmati rice with green onions. I'm finding flatbread quite a bit trickier than expected, so it's probably just as well I didn't go for the full-on lahmacun yet. I'm gonna stick at it though!

[HungryC]

I've made it a couple of times, see recipe & photo here: http://bouillie.us/2...ith-lamb-pitas/ I frequently use premade pita...inauthentic, but quick & tasty. Anissa Helou's Mediterranean Street Foods cookbook has a good pita recipe, IIRC.

edited to fix links

Edited September 10, 2012 by HungryC (log)

[sazji]

Turkish lahmacun and Lahm bi Ajeen, though they may have developed from the same idea, are very different dishes. There are also variations in Turkey; in Urfa they use onions while in Antep they go for garlic and the dough is rolled much thinner.

One thing that really is essential for the "right" favor is pepper paste (biber salçası). The best ones are hard to find outside Turkey as they are sold in bulk, bought from villagers who sun-dry them for a much deeper flavor. The Tamek brand sold widely in the States (or sometimes TurTamek, its export incarnation) is useless - watery and flavorless. If you can find TUKAŞ brand, it's quite decent for a canned one.

One funny thing about Turkish recipes (the ones printed here) is that they often call for "paste," without specifying whether it is tomato or pepper, leaving it up to the cook whether to use one or the other, or a combination of both. A little tomato paste is good in lahmacun but don't neglect the pepper paste!

Many people in Turkey make their own filling and drop it off at the neighborhood bakery, whether they make it into lahmacun, saving the housewife the trouble of preparing her own dough. This is true for other local "filling-on-bread" recipes like pide, etli ekmek, etc.