Spiced Lamb and smokey chilli Lahmacun, Eggplant Zaalouk, Mint and radish salad and Labne

I ate a variation of this dish while in Turkey, well the Lacmacun part anyway. Its basically their version of a pizza and you can get them all over Turkey. They are so delicious hot from the wood fired oven! I want!

To make it more of a meal, I served it with a warm eggplant salad, a refeshing mint and radish salad and some homemade labne

There are a few recipes in this post post but don't let it scare you away. They are either quick and easy or can be done in advance. For the Lahmacun I adapted one of my favourite chefs, Greg Malouf's recipe.I love his food! I used his dough recipe exactly but changed the topping.


Lahmacun dough

1 T dried yeast
3/4 t sugar
40 ml warm water
150g thick natural yoghurt
60ml extra virgin olive oil
310g strong bread flour ( I just used high grade)
1/2 tsp  sea salt

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water and set aside for about 10 mins.
Place the flour, salt, olive oil and yoghurt in a bowl of the stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and add the yeast mixture. On a low speed knead for about 10-15 minutes or until the dough is smooth and shiny.
Cover with a damp tea towel and leave for 2 hours until its doubled in size.
After 2 hours knock back the dough and divide into 10 x 55g balls. Roll out to about 14cm rounds and lightly brush with olive oil and spread with the lamb topping.

Chopping all the topping ingredients together.

Spiced lamb and smokey chilli topping

200g minced lamb - not too lean
1 red chilli
1 small red onion, finely diced
1 tomato, seeded and diced
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp sumac
1/4 tsp dried mint
1/2 tsp allspice
1 clove garlic, microplaned
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper


Char the outside of the chilli and put in a bag to steam. Peel off the skin and chop the chilli up.
Place all the ingredients in a chopping board and with a large knife chop everything together to form a fine paste. Season well.

To make the Lahmacun heat your oven to 220 degrees. I used my pizza stone so I heated that up too but you could just use a baking tray.

Roll out your dough and flop the rolled dough onto the hot stone and brush lightly with olive oil and spread over the filling. Bake for about 4-8 minutes depending on how hot your oven is. You want the edges brown and the base cooked.

I cooked all of mine in batches of 3 and then when the time came to serve I flashed them in a hot oven to warm through.


Eggplant Zaalouk

2-3 T olive oil
1 eggplant, diced
2  cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp each of coriander and cumin seeds, ground
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tin of cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup water
pinch sugar
1/2 cup of coriander and parsley, chopped
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt and black pepper

Heat oil in a pan on a high heat, add the eggplant and cook for 5 minutes. Add the spices and cook out. Add the tomatoes, water and sugar and cook until the tomatoes reduce and coat the eggplant. When the eggplant is tender its done. Season and add the herbs and lemon juice.


Mint and Radish salad

1 cup of mint leaves
4-6 radishes, thinly sliced on a mandolin
150g baby spinach
juice of half a lemon
1 T virgin olive oil
flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mix all together before serving.


To serve

Labne
Extra red pepper flakes if you like it a bit spicy
Pomegranate molasses to drizzle over the Lahmacun

When eating this I like to pile everything on top of my Lahmacun so every mouthful is delicious and balanced and then fold it over and eat it with my hands. Yum!!

As you can see a wee friend popped into the photo...