Lahmacun & lime curd
In much more interesting and /way/ less whiny news, I made something that is frigging -delicious-.
They're called "lahmacun", and are first described in How To Be A Domestic Goddess (which, I will admit, is one of my favorite baking books even if the recipes taking some finicking with) as being "a sort of Turkish pizza with a topping of finely ground lamb." Then she really gets into things, and says: "Imagine discs of gold-rimmed softcrumbed flatbread, with a smear of spiced and peppery-lemony meat daubed on top." After reading that, how could I /not/ make them? I ain't made of stone. :P I continued to not be made of stone after they came out of the oven, because I ate three while giggling madly.
I did have to make a couple of modifications to her recipe, to suit the tastes in this household. Mom doesn't like lamb, and the smell of it cooking makes her ill, so I used beef instead. Left out the chile since Mom doesn't like spicy and Dad's lately been having trouble with it off and on, forgot to add the parsley, subbed a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg for the allspice, and I added ground coriander because the combination of cumin and coriander (seed) is killer. Oh, and I used a drained 14.4oz can of diced tomatoes in the topping, instead of 2tbsp tomato puree like the original recipe says.
That being said... XD
Bread ingredients:
1 cup (5.6oz) bread flour
0.5 cup (2.25oz) all purpose flour
1 tsp rapid-rise yeast
0.5 tsp salt
0.5 cup warm water
1 tbsp olive oil
Topping ingredients:
9-10oz ground beef or lamb (buying a steak and mincing it in the food processor Strongly Encouraged)
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 large clove garlic, grated or finely diced
14.4oz can of diced tomatoes, drained OR 2tbsp tomato puree (Obviously, you get a different result depending on what you use)
1 tbsp lemon juice OR pomegranate molasses
2 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf (important!) parsley, plus more for garnish
Some or all of the following spices, to taste:
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Allspice
Cayenne
Cumin (important!)
Coriander
Method:
Sift together the flours, salt and yeast or just stir them together in a bowl. Add the oil and water and mix until it forms a dough -- obviously, since this is bread, you may need to add a little more flour or a little more liquid to make it come together. Knead 5-10 minutes or until the dough's smooth and elastic, and plop it into an oiled bowl to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled. You want a soft dough that's maybe even a little tacky before it's oiled.
While the dough is rising, salt and pepper and then sweat the onion and garlic together until the onion is soft but not colored. Turn up the heat, add the meat and your chosen spices (and tomato puree if using), and fry it until browned while trying to break it into little pieces. The smaller the pieces you have, the better the topping. (Once it's all browned and happy, add the diced tomatoes if using, and let it cook a few minutes to break them down slightly.) Stir in the lemon juice or pomegranate molasses, turn off the heat, and let it wait for you in the hot pan. Please, make sure you /taste/ this to get the seasoning right, and make sure to spice it a little strong, since it'll be going on top of rounds of bread.
Make sure you have two racks evenly placed in your oven, then turn it on to heat up to 425F.
So! Take out your dough, punch it down, and put it onto a clean floured surface. Cut it into 8 equal pieces, which should be roughly the size of eggs. Carefully roll (or stretch by hand) your eggs into roughly 5" diameter vaguely round shapes, and set them on an oiled (or parchment/silpat covered) baking sheet to proof for 10 minutes.
Once your rounds have proofed, spoon a heaping tablespoon on top of each round and spread it out so that it covers as much of the surface as possible. Brush the edges with butter or a titch of olive oil, and bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the bread is lightly golden.
Once they're done, let them set for a few minutes with (paper) towels on top, so that they a) get cool enough to eat, and b) don't develop an icky hard crust on top. You can put some chopped parsley on top at this point if you want, or you can eat as many as your stomach will hold. It's up to you. XD
It occurs to me that typing things like this out would take waaay less time if I didn't stop in the middle to run off and make
I have not made this one as what has no egg whites in it, however I am thinking that my next rendition of lime curd will be yolks-only. The whites wouldn't combine and just cooked separately, which meant I had to strain the curd before I could toss it in the freezer. It wasn't hard, but I'm lazy and hate cleaning gack out of the fine mesh strainer. :P
Ingredients:
0.5 cup lime juice (from roughly 4 Persian limes)
0.5 cup sugar
Zest of 1 lime
3 egg yolks, beaten together
3oz (6 tbsp) unsalted butter (good butter! please!)
Method:
Melt butter over low heat in a heavy saucepan, or in the top part of a double boiler. Add zest, lime juice, sugar, and egg yolks, and proceed to stir constantly for the next ten or fifteen minutes, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and continue to stir constantly, albeit more slowly, until the curd has cooled to room temperature.
Once it's cool enough, you can toss it into that freezer container that you washed carefully with lots of hot soapy water, that's been sitting upside down on a scrupulously clean surface, and top it with the lid that got the same treatment. Then you can freeze it! Lasts longer. Lasts a month in the fridge, in that perfectly clean container, but it'll last longer in the freezer.
I am totally envisioning vanilla cream scones filled with lime curd, taken with me to school to eat. Lahmacun and lime curd-filled cream scones... can it get any better?
They're called "lahmacun", and are first described in How To Be A Domestic Goddess (which, I will admit, is one of my favorite baking books even if the recipes taking some finicking with) as being "a sort of Turkish pizza with a topping of finely ground lamb." Then she really gets into things, and says: "Imagine discs of gold-rimmed softcrumbed flatbread, with a smear of spiced and peppery-lemony meat daubed on top." After reading that, how could I /not/ make them? I ain't made of stone. :P I continued to not be made of stone after they came out of the oven, because I ate three while giggling madly.
I did have to make a couple of modifications to her recipe, to suit the tastes in this household. Mom doesn't like lamb, and the smell of it cooking makes her ill, so I used beef instead. Left out the chile since Mom doesn't like spicy and Dad's lately been having trouble with it off and on, forgot to add the parsley, subbed a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg for the allspice, and I added ground coriander because the combination of cumin and coriander (seed) is killer. Oh, and I used a drained 14.4oz can of diced tomatoes in the topping, instead of 2tbsp tomato puree like the original recipe says.
That being said... XD
Bread ingredients:
1 cup (5.6oz) bread flour
0.5 cup (2.25oz) all purpose flour
1 tsp rapid-rise yeast
0.5 tsp salt
0.5 cup warm water
1 tbsp olive oil
Topping ingredients:
9-10oz ground beef or lamb (buying a steak and mincing it in the food processor Strongly Encouraged)
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 large clove garlic, grated or finely diced
14.4oz can of diced tomatoes, drained OR 2tbsp tomato puree (Obviously, you get a different result depending on what you use)
1 tbsp lemon juice OR pomegranate molasses
2 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf (important!) parsley, plus more for garnish
Some or all of the following spices, to taste:
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Allspice
Cayenne
Cumin (important!)
Coriander
Method:
Sift together the flours, salt and yeast or just stir them together in a bowl. Add the oil and water and mix until it forms a dough -- obviously, since this is bread, you may need to add a little more flour or a little more liquid to make it come together. Knead 5-10 minutes or until the dough's smooth and elastic, and plop it into an oiled bowl to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled. You want a soft dough that's maybe even a little tacky before it's oiled.
While the dough is rising, salt and pepper and then sweat the onion and garlic together until the onion is soft but not colored. Turn up the heat, add the meat and your chosen spices (and tomato puree if using), and fry it until browned while trying to break it into little pieces. The smaller the pieces you have, the better the topping. (Once it's all browned and happy, add the diced tomatoes if using, and let it cook a few minutes to break them down slightly.) Stir in the lemon juice or pomegranate molasses, turn off the heat, and let it wait for you in the hot pan. Please, make sure you /taste/ this to get the seasoning right, and make sure to spice it a little strong, since it'll be going on top of rounds of bread.
Make sure you have two racks evenly placed in your oven, then turn it on to heat up to 425F.
So! Take out your dough, punch it down, and put it onto a clean floured surface. Cut it into 8 equal pieces, which should be roughly the size of eggs. Carefully roll (or stretch by hand) your eggs into roughly 5" diameter vaguely round shapes, and set them on an oiled (or parchment/silpat covered) baking sheet to proof for 10 minutes.
Once your rounds have proofed, spoon a heaping tablespoon on top of each round and spread it out so that it covers as much of the surface as possible. Brush the edges with butter or a titch of olive oil, and bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the bread is lightly golden.
Once they're done, let them set for a few minutes with (paper) towels on top, so that they a) get cool enough to eat, and b) don't develop an icky hard crust on top. You can put some chopped parsley on top at this point if you want, or you can eat as many as your stomach will hold. It's up to you. XD
It occurs to me that typing things like this out would take waaay less time if I didn't stop in the middle to run off and make
I have not made this one as what has no egg whites in it, however I am thinking that my next rendition of lime curd will be yolks-only. The whites wouldn't combine and just cooked separately, which meant I had to strain the curd before I could toss it in the freezer. It wasn't hard, but I'm lazy and hate cleaning gack out of the fine mesh strainer. :P
Ingredients:
0.5 cup lime juice (from roughly 4 Persian limes)
0.5 cup sugar
Zest of 1 lime
3 egg yolks, beaten together
3oz (6 tbsp) unsalted butter (good butter! please!)
Method:
Melt butter over low heat in a heavy saucepan, or in the top part of a double boiler. Add zest, lime juice, sugar, and egg yolks, and proceed to stir constantly for the next ten or fifteen minutes, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and continue to stir constantly, albeit more slowly, until the curd has cooled to room temperature.
Once it's cool enough, you can toss it into that freezer container that you washed carefully with lots of hot soapy water, that's been sitting upside down on a scrupulously clean surface, and top it with the lid that got the same treatment. Then you can freeze it! Lasts longer. Lasts a month in the fridge, in that perfectly clean container, but it'll last longer in the freezer.
I am totally envisioning vanilla cream scones filled with lime curd, taken with me to school to eat. Lahmacun and lime curd-filled cream scones... can it get any better?