Lahmacun

DIRECTIONS FOR THE DOUGH:

In a small bowl, mix yeast and the sugar. Add 1/2 cup of warm water, stir well, and close the lid (or cover with a plate). You can leave the bowl on the counter, but I usually put it somewhere warm. Warmth accelerates the process and better activates the yeast. Activating yeast is important to have a better-rising dough.

Keep the mixture warm for about 15 minutes without opening the lid. When the time is up, you should have a nice foamy liquid. Even if you do not, still keep it and make the dough. It will still work.

In a large bowl, combine the remaining 1 cup warm water, flour and the yeast mixture.

Mix everything well and knead it into a nice, soft, springy dough. It should be as soft as your ear lobes. Add flour or water as needed. A well-kneaded dough will be much easier to work with later. Keep this in mind!

Coat the dough with just a little bit of oil, cover with a damp cloth and leave it to rise in a warm place. I usually cover the bowl with the lid and bundle it up nicely to have a good volume dough. Give it a rest for around 1 hour before you take it out from the cover. When you do take the dough out, make sure it has doubled in size.

Once the time is up, open up the lid and punch the dough a little. Flour the working surface and drop the dough. Cut it into pieces smaller than a tennis ball but larger that a golf ball. You should have about 10-12 pieces.

Roll each one and place on the floured surface. Cover with a damp cloth and let it stand until your topping is ready (about 20 minutes). Turn the oven on and keep it at 420 F.

DIRECTIONS FOR THE TOPPING:

Wash the greens well and chop them nicely. I usually wash and soak the parsley and the mint in water prior to using them. This way, all the dirt remains in the water.

Cut the onion and garlic in pieces. Put the pieces into a chopper and chop until nicely minced.

Heat the skillet on medium-high heat and melt the butter. Add the onion and garlic mixture; saute for about 1 minute. Reduce the heat to low, close the lid and simmer for 2 more minutes. Take the skillet off the burner and cool the onion mixture.

Peel the skin off the tomato and cut it to very small pieces. A lot of people like to seed the tomatoes. I don’t like it, since it also removes all the juice from the tomato. But if you feel like seeding the tomato, go ahead.

Have all the ingredients in one big bowl. At this point, add chili pepper, salt, cumin, lemon juice, paprika, chopped jalapenos (or chopped pickled hot peppers) and mix everything very well. I am stressing this—the ingredients MUST be well mixed!

The dough is well-rested at this point. Take the dough one by one and roll into a round, flat circle or an oval measuring up to 5 mm thick. I like my Lahmacuns very thin. This way they come out a little crispy. My husband likes them much softer, so I make his portion a little thicker but no more than 5-8 mm.

Some use pizza stones to bake Lahmacuns. While it is a good alternative to the original brick ovens, in my opinion, it is not very practical. So, I suggest using regular baking sheets. Sprinkle some non-fat cooking spray (or just a little oil will work), place the rolled dough on the sheet, slightly brush with some olive oil (canola oil works too) and top up with 2 tablespoons of the ready topping. Spread the topping evenly and very thinly.

I place 2 pieces of doughs in one regular 11″x17″ size baking sheet. If you have bigger sheets and want to use those, you are more than welcome to do so. Three baking sheets are enough to keep the whole process going pretty fast. Put two baking sheets in the oven at a time. The top one usually gets baked faster. When you take the ready batch out, rotate the bottom one to the top and place a new batch on the lower rack.

The oven should remain at 420F—not too high and not too low. Since you are going to be constantly opening the oven, the temperature ideally will stay at about 370F. Cooked Lahmacuns are crispy at the ends and softer in the middle. Corners usually get nicely tanned. Take them off the baking sheet to a wider container and cover with a towel until you are done with every single one of them. Humidity under the towel will soften Lahmacuns, making it very easy for you to roll them around the fresh ingredients you might want to use.

Pace yourself; the process is a little overwhelming. But the end result is worth every minute of your time in the kitchen. We really enjoy Lahmacuns rolled around onions, some fresh curly parsley and hand-squeezed lemon juice.

Step-by-step recipe with pictures can be found at the related blog post link.

Bon appetit!