Thursday, August 18, 2011

Lahmacun (Turkish Lamb Pizza)

IMG_3647

Sorry it has been too long! I don't know where the summer has gone. We still have days here in New York that almost hit 90 degrees, yet the early morning chill in the air has started, which no matter how old I get, still makes my stomach slightly queasy with the memory of starting a new school year. To ease that discomfort, I watch Anthony Bourdain before I go to sleep, and one I have on replay is his Istanbul episode. Not good to watch late at night when you have no access to shish kebob, donar kebab, fried cheese and one I was dying to try: lahmacun (or lahmajoun). After an hour of recipe searching on the web, compared with what ingredients were in my kitchen, I chose this recipe. It looks like a lot of ingredients, but they're all easily found in your local supermarket. The dough is easy to make, although I would suggest adding a pinch or two of salt to the mixture, because while it came out cripsy, there wasn't much flavor to it. The meat mixture was nice and well rounded, but I added some extra hot sauce to mine.

As a condiment to slather on top, I mixed together a quick yogurt sauce. I used a 6 oz. container of plain greek yogurt, a tablespoon of chopped parsley and two cloves of garlic - minced. Something I would definitely make again in the future, though I'd rather try the original in Istanbul.