In winter, replace the tomato and lemon with pomegranate molasses and toasted pine nuts. I love to roll up the lahmacun with the salad inside.
Serves 4
for the dough
500g/3½ cups strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon fast-action dried yeast
1 teaspoon salt
olive oil, for oiling
for the topping
1 onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 small red (bell) pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes (preferably Turkish)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
pinch of ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
250g/9oz minced (ground) kid
to serve
1 lemon, cut into wedges large bunch of parsley, leaves only
4 large ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced
For the dough, put the flour, yeast and salt in a big mixing bowl and mix in 300ml/1¼ cups of water with a spoon. Mix well to combine completely, place a damp cloth over the bowl and leave for an hour or so until almost doubled in size.
Put all the topping ingredients apart from the minced meat into a food processor or blender and blend to a coarse paste. Don’t make it too smooth. Add to the minced meat in a bowl, mix well and set aside.
When the dough is ready, preheat the oven to its maximum, with a pizza stone or baking tray inside to preheat. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it gently with lightly oiled hands for 1 minute.
Cut the dough into 4 pieces and shape each into a ball. On a well-floured surface, roll each dough ball into an oval; try to get it as thin as possible without tearing.
Carefully remove the pizza stone or baking tray from the oven and place on a heatproof surface. Lay a dough oval on the stone or tray and spread a quarter of the topping evenly over the dough.
Bake for 6–8 minutes until the dough is crisp and the topping is cooked, then repeat with the remaining dough and topping. Serve immediately with the lemon wedges, parsley and tomatoes.