It is truly unfair to call this delightful meal “a Middle Eastern variation of the pizza”. It is a meal by itself and after you taste it, you will understand why Lahmacun deserve its distinction.
I learned to cook it in my homeland and I asked a friend from Turkey to share the recipe. He agreed; lucky for me and for you too. A couple of WhatsApp messages with pictures gave me clear instructions how to cook them properly.
At the end of the recipe, I will explain what I did that actually ‘violates' the sacred companion sauce called ‘Cacık'. The recipe for it I will share it in the next blog post.
What do you need for Lahmacun?
Ingredients
Suggested for 4 persons.
- Minced Beef meat: 500g.
- Tortillas or “corn pancakes”.
- Tomatoes: 3 units.
- Ripe onions: 3 units.
- Cilantro branches: 3 units.
- Parsley branches: 3 units.
- Garlic paste: 2 teaspoons.
- Cooked chilis: 3 units.
- Oil: 50mL.
- Salt.
- Grounded Pepper.
Materials, Tools and Machinery
Preparation of Lahmacun
Before anything else, preheat the oven at 250ºC.
Grinding and Mixing
Grind all vegetables (tomato, onion, cilantro, parsley, garlic and chili) with the food processor and pour in a metallic recipient. Add the condiments (salt, pepper and oil) and finally add the raw meat.
Then mix all together until it is homogeneous. After it is done, place the mix on a hot frying pan and fry it until the meat in cooked.
Cooking the Lahmacun in the oven
Once the oven has reached the desired temperature (250ºC) place a tortilla on a plate appropriate for the oven, such as a metallic one. Put the tortilla and the plate inside the hot oven for about a minute o two.
After that, take the tortilla out and place the mix of meat and vegetables on the hot tortilla and finally place inside the hot oven to begin the cook. This process should last between 5 and 10 minutes.
When the cooking is finished, proceed to take the Lahmacun out of the oven and then serve it in your table.
Final version of the Lahmacun
Additional Seasoning
Now, you could also add Cacık in top in the Lahmacun. If you didn't know, it is pretty common to add salty yogurt to many meals in Turkey. You may like this new flavour a lot, just like I did it. I will add the recipe for Cacık in the next blog post.
As I turns out, you shouldn't add Cacık in the top of the Lahmacun as I did; rather just eat it laterally with bread and cucumber. But it tastes good both ways! Try it yourself, compare and share your experience in the comments below.
External Resources
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If you happen to speak turkish or be a turk (Merhaba Ortadoğun'dan arkadaş), you could watch these 2 videos in YouTube, which helped me to understand the recipe much better. Even if you don't speak the language, this will give you a visual idea of how to do it with your hands the right way.
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- Cacık, the delicious salty yoğurtPrepare the delicious salty yogurt sauce Cacık from Turkey. It's a quick and easy recipe to do at home. Click here to learn how!
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