Cheats Lahmacun Pittas (from Dinner Tonight)
This recipe is from my cookbook, Dinner Tonight. Traditional lahmacun is made up of thinly rolled out dough, topped with a spiced lamb mince mixture, which varies in its combination of ingredients and spices depending on the region, and then cooked at a very high heat. This version, using ready-made pitta breads, and with no rolling involved, satisfies my Friday night fakeaway craving in minutes, and you can easily swap in plant-based mince if you prefer. You can prepare the topping the night before to save on time, or even freeze it and defrost it in the fridge, overnight, ready to use the next day.
SERVES 4-6
(MAKES 12 PITTA HALVES)
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes
4 large, ripe tomatoes
2 large onions, peeled
1 large kapya biber (capia pepper), red romano or red bell pepper, deseeded, roughly chopped green çarliston (charleston) pepper or small green bell pepper, deseeded, roughly chopped
50g/1¾oz fresh flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped 400g (140z) lamb or beef mince
4 large garlic cloves, finely grated
1tsp ground cumin
1½ tsp paprika
1½ tsp pul biber (Aleppo pepper/ Turkish red pepper flakes)
3 tbsp tath biber salças/ (Turkish sweet (mild) red pepper paste)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp coarse black pepper
6 large pitta breads, sliced open into two flat pieces
2 lemons, quartered
Pickled peppers, to serve
For the salad:
1 large brown onion, peeled and very finely sliced 258 (10z) fresh flat leaf parsley. leaves, roughly chopped
1 tbsp sumac
1 tosp extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp sea salt flakes
Preheat the oven to 230°C/210°C fan/450°F/gas mark 8. Line two large, shallow baking trays with parchment paper.
Quarter two of the tomatoes and both onions, and blitz them together with the red and green peppers and the parsley in a food processor. Place the mixture into a sieve over a large bowl so the excess liquid can drain out for 10 minutes, but do not push down on the mixture - allow the juices to release naturally.
Pour out the excess juices from the bowl (or keep to add to a soup or stew), then transfer the contents of the sieve into the bowl along with the mince, garlic, cumin, paprika, pul biber, tath biber salçast, olive oil, fine sea salt and coarse black pepper and mix together really well. The mixture should be quite smooth and paste-like.
Add enough water to a large, shallow dish so that it comes up to 4-5mm (¼in) from the bottom of the dish, and dip each pitta half, cut-side down into the water but only so the cut side dampens.
Lay the softened pitta halves, with the dampened insides facing upwards, on the lined baking trays. Evenly spread the mince topping over the insides of each of the 12 pitta halves, ensuring to go right to the edges of the bread. Bake in the oven for 5-7 minutes or until the topping starts to caramelise and the mince is just cooked.
While the lahmacun cooks, prepare the salad by mixing together the onion, parsley, sumac, extra virgin olive oil and sea salt flakes.
Halve and thickly slice the remaining two tomatoes.
Once cooked, top with the onion and parsley salad and lots of freshly squeezed lemon juice. I also like to add sliced tomatoes and pickled peppers (optional), before rolling up and devouring.
