Where I live in Hackney, London, there is a Turkish kebab shop on every corner. The mum or granny of the family often sits in the window, rolling gozleme and bases for their pizza-like lahmacun: I challenge you to find a better, cheaper lunch. I rarely make them at home though as I’m not as adept at rolling, but I found myself out of town the other day and craving them.
So this was dinner, with an ezme salad featuring mandarin, inspired by a recent trip to the restaurant Bubala in London, where they put grapefruit in theirs. I am sure neither of these dishes are traditional: I’ve simplified the lahmacun dough and added a few things like harissa to the ezme salad, but that’s exactly what recipes should be, and what I love about where I live in London: a tapestry of food, people and culture.
Lahmacun with sumac, cumin and herbs (pictured above)
Lahmacun are often nicknamed “Turkish pizzas.” There are as many variations of these flatbreads in Turkey as there are pizzas in Italy, from bazlama to manaqish, depending on where you are. The breads vary in how the dough comes together and how they are cooked, as well as what they are topped with. I obviously go for the vegetarian version: here, earthy spices lift finely chopped sweet peppers and late-summer tomatoes.
Prep 45 min
Rest 1 hr
Cook 5 min
Makes 4 pizzas
For the pizza dough
350ml luke-warm water
1 tbsp dried yeast
1 pinch sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
500g strong white bread flour (or 00 pasta flour)
1 pinch salt
For the topping
2 red peppers, deseeded and chopped
3 tomatoes, finely chopped
1 fresh green chilli
2 garlic cloves
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp tomato puree
Zest of ½ lemon
To serve
1 handful fresh mint, roughly chopped
1 handful fresh parsley, roughly chopped
1 tsp sumac
Extra-virgin olive oil
Mix the warm water, yeast, sugar and oil in a bowl, and leave for about 10 minutes.
In a stand mixer with a dough hook, mix the flour and salt for a few seconds. Then, with the motor still running, slowly add the liquid, and keep mixing until the dough no longer sticks to the sides and is soft, glossy and stretchy – about five minutes. Alternatively, you can mix the dough and then knead by hand for 10 minutes. Stretch the dough between two hands, if you can see through the thin layer of dough that forms then it’s ready.
Cover the dough so it’s airtight, and leave somewhere warm for about an hour. Once it has doubled in size, turn out and knead for a few more minutes, until soft.
Heat the oven to its hottest setting and put a pizza stone or heavy-based frying pan in to get really hotside.
Finely chop or blitz the topping ingredients in a food processor to a rough, salsa-like texture. Season well with salt, then pour the topping into a sieve and stir until most of the liquid has drained off, and you’re left with a thick, tomatoey salsa-sauce.
On a well floured surface, split the dough into four and roll each piece out into a 5mm-thick round. Remove the hot pan from the oven and carefully put a circle of dough into the pan. Put two tablespoons of the sauce on top and spread evenly in a nice, thin layer.
Bake for about five minutes, until bubbly, golden and charred at the edges. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with the fresh herbs and sumac, then finish with a drizzle of olive oil. Repeat with the rest of the dough and topping and serve immediately.
Ezme salad
An absolute staple of Turkish cuisine. You will find a bowl of this spicy salad as part of many meze spreads. I first tried it in an east London takeaway, alongside falafel, Turkish feta and stewed green beans, and now I can’t get enough. Leave the flavours to mingle for a couple of hours if you can.
Prep 20 min
Serves 4 as a side
2 ripe vine tomatoes, finely chopped
1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
1 mandarin or clementine, peeled and segmented
2 red peppers, finely chopped
½ cucumber, finely chopped
2 tbsp capers
½ bunch parsley, leaves picked
Zest and juice of ½ a lemon
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
2 tbsp olive oil
1 pinch each salt and pepper
1 tbsp harissa
½ tsp sumac
1 pinch chilli flakes
Put the tomatoes, onion, garlic, mandarin, peppers, cucumber, capers and parsley in a serving bowl.
In a jar or small bowl, mix or shake the lemon juice and zest, pomegranate molasses, olive oil, salt, pepper and harissa together. Pour this over the salad ingredients, toss together, then sprinkle over the sumac and chilli flakes.
Serve straight away or put in the fridge, covered, for later.
