Lamb Flatbread

This has been one of my most exciting recipes I’ve made so far. Developing a dough is very new to me, but somehow I aced what I wanted much quicker than I thought. I wanted a chewy, crispy flatbread- something that could hold on its own, but also could be used as a wrap.

This particular flatbread is inspired by one of my favourite Turkish dishes called Lahmacun. It’s something I get every time I visit Istanbul, and a dish that I miss whenever I’m not there.

makes: 8

prep/cooking time: 1.5 hrs-2 hrs

Ingredients

For the flatbread:

2 1/2 cups (347g) plain/a.p flour

1 tsp (7g) salt

3/4 cups (165ml) water at 32°C (lukewarm)

1 1/4 tsp (5g) active dry yeast

1/4 cup (60g) greek yogurt

Method:

1. In a big bowl, add in flour and whisk in the salt.

2. In a separate container add in your water and yeast, mix it around and let it sit for 5 minutes.

3. Stir the yogurt into the water mixture until most of it has dissolved (it doesn’t matter if it hasn’t fully dissolved)

4. Make a well in your flour mixture and pour in the water mix. Using a spatula or your fingers bring the dough together. Once the dough comes together, place it onto a clean surface and knead it for 5-7 minutes - this will start to build the gluten networks. The surface of the dough won’t become soft and uniform, little bumps will still be apparent, but when poked, the dough should spring back 3/4 of the way and in general be more elastic. Rest the dough in a lightly greased bowl for 1 hour, or until it doubles in size.

For the topping:

150g lamb mince

2 tbsp tomato paste

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 medium white onion, skinned, roughly chopped

1 clove of garlic, roughly chopped

1 tomato, roughly chopped

1/2 of a red pepper, de-seeded and de-stemmed, roughly chopped

1/2 cup fresh parsley

2 lemons, cut into 8 wedges

olive oil

Method:

1. Whilst the dough is proofing, make the topping. In a bowl, add the lamb mince, tomato paste, cumin, chilli powder and salt mix together until everything is well incorporated.

2. Using a blender, add the chopped onion, garlic, tomato, pepper and parsley. Pulse until the mixture breaks down to a fine chop, it will be very loose and lots of liquid will seep from the veg, make sure to not break it down too much - this can also be done manually with a knife, it will just take a bit longer.

3. Working in small batches, squeeze out as much liquid as possible from the veggie mix - you can do this with your bare hands or put the total of the mix into a muslin and squeeze out the juices.

4. Add the squeezed veggies to the bowl of lamb and incorporate everything evenly.

5. When the dough has proofed, remove it from the bowl and put it onto a clean working surface. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and make rough balls from each portion of dough. Return the balls into the bowl and cover whilst making the flatbreads.

6. Place a baking sheet into your oven close to the grill and turn your grill setting on. In addition, heat a flat large pan on medium high heat.

7. Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin. Using 1 portion of dough at a time, flatten it into a circle or oval shape until it’s around 0.5 cm thick, make sure that the dough is not stuck to your surface, top the dough with some of the raw lamb mix, and drizzle some olive oil on top.

8. Transfer the topped flatbread into the hot pan, lamb topping facing up, and let the dough cook until the bottom gets golden. You will see bubbles forming from the top. When the bottom has cooked and gone golden, place the flatbread in the oven until the mince has cooked, and it’s gained a little colour, remove from the oven and let it cool down a bit.

9. Continue doing steps 7 & 8 until all the dough and mince has been used up. Serve warm with lemon wedges.