One of my favorite Turkish foods is Lahmacun. Lahmacun is traditionally made mixing ground lamb with onions, pepper paste and some spices. You can use beef if you prefer. When I lived in Turkey, all I had to do was walk out onto the street and could easily find a Lahmacun Salonu or even better pick up the phone and order some to be delivered to the house. Since, there are no Lahmacun Salons in Alabama, I figured I had to do it myself. I had been thinking that there had to be a way to get at least a little close to the real thing. Well, after some experimenting, I did it. I will say, you will NEVER get the exact taste, so for the real deal, I strongly suggest you visit Turkey for yourself. If you have already had lahmacun in Turkey and you miss all that crispy goodness, try my recipe. Also, I plan a later post to experiment in making my own dough from scratch for the lahmacun so I will post that soon. A couple of notes, I bought a pizza stone a while back to make my pita bread on and I knew that would provide the best results but if you do not have a pizza stone, just make sure your oven is hot and place use a cookie sheet to bake your lahmacun. Also, you really do need to use the red aka purple onion for the garnishing salad. I would not make it if I had to use a yellow onion. Yellow onion is fine for the meat mixture but not the salad. And lastly, don’t try to eat them all dainty and proper. Be prepared to get your hands a little messy that is part of the fun of eating them. Serve with an ice cold glass of Ayran. Afiyet Olsun!
- 1 pound Ground Beef or Lamb
- 1 Large Onion
- 1 Tablespoon Red Pepper Paste (If you cannot find pepper paste from Turkey, you can substitute 1 Teaspoon Chili Garlic Sauce from Asian grocery)
- 1 Bunch Flat Leaf Parsley (reserve ½ for the salad)
- 2 Large Tomatoes (seeds removed)
- 1 Package Flour Tortillas or
- Pita Dough
- (rolled into ten thin rounds - uncooked)
- 1 small Red aka Purple Onion
- 2 Lemons cut into wedges
- Sumac (optional)
- Combine onion, parsley, red pepper paste, tomatoes, crushed red pepper, garlic and salt in a food processor until well combined and in small pieces. If you do not have a food processor, just chop the ingredients very finely.
- Place the ground beef in a large mixing bowl and add in the mixture from the food processor. With clean hands, mix well.
- Put into a smaller bowl and cover.
- Place in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook the lahmacun but try to wait at least about 30 minutes so the flavor can mix together.
- Wash the parsley. thinly slice the red onion and cut the lemons into wedges and place on a platter.
- Remove the mixture from the fridge.
- Place a pizza stone in the lower rack of the oven and heat to 450 degrees.
- In the meantime, place a piece of wax paper on the counter and place a flour tortilla on top. Take a generous amount of the meat mixture and with your clean hands, press out to the edge of the tortilla.
- Place two tortillas in the oven. At this point you can turn the oven to broil.
- Cook 4-5 minutes until the meat is cooked and the edges are crispy.
- You can now place the cooked lahmacun on a plate with a clean kitchen towel on the bottom of the plate. Fold them in half so they will not get soggy and cover with another towel.
- You could also cook more than two at a time and use a large cookie sheet.
- As one batch cooks, continue preparing the other ones for the oven.
- Once cooked, serve with parsley, red onion and a nice squeeze of lemon juice. If you like sprinkle some sumac on top. Serve with a nice cold glass of Ayran. Afiyet Olsun!
