Lahmacun

Ingredients

• 400 g strong white flour
• 5 g fast-action dried yeast
• 350 g lamb mince
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1 red pepper, roughly chopped
• 1 large tomato
• a big handful of parsley
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tbsp Turkish pepper paste
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp aleppo pepper
• 2 lemons, in wedges
• 2 tsp sumac

Method

1. Make a lean dough

   Mix the flour, yeast, 1 tsp salt and about 250 ml warm water into a soft dough and knead until smooth. No oil — lahmacun dough is deliberately lean so it bakes thin and crisp rather than bready.

   10 min

2. Prove

   Cover and prove until doubled, about an hour.

   1 h

3. Blitz the topping

   Pulse the onion, pepper, tomato and parsley in a processor until very fine, then squeeze the mixture in a sieve to remove the liquid before mixing with the lamb, purees and spices. Squeezing is essential — a wet topping steams the base into a soggy sheet.

4. Roll very thin

   Roll each piece out as thin as you possibly can, thinner than pizza, almost translucent. Lahmacun is meant to be rolled up and eaten in the hand, and a thick base makes that impossible.

5. Spread thin and bake hot

   Spread the meat in a paper-thin layer right to the edges and bake at maximum heat on a preheated tray for 8 to 10 minutes. The topping cooks in that time only because it is spread so thinly.

   9 min

6. Dress and roll

   Scatter with sumac and plenty of parsley, squeeze lemon over generously, then roll it up and eat with your hands.