Lahmacun is the fast food of southeastern Turkey that conquered the whole country: dough rolled almost transparently thin, spread with a raw paste of finely minced meat, onion, tomato, peppers, garlic and herbs, and baked in a blazing oven for a few minutes until crisp at the edges and soft in the middle. You squeeze lemon over it, scatter it with parsley and onion, roll it up and eat it with your hands, usually with a glass of cold ayran. In Istanbul it is sold everywhere, from simple pide salons to late night counters.

The secret is that the topping goes on raw and is spread very thin, so it cooks in the time the dough takes. A pizza stone or an upturned heavy baking sheet in the hottest home oven does a very fair job of the wood oven.

The dough

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups (310 g) all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (210 ml) lukewarm water
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil

The topping

Ingredients

• 8 oz (225 g) ground lamb or beef
• 1 small onion
• 1 medium tomato
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1 green chili
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon biber salçası
• 1 teaspoon isot or pul biber
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Shaping and baking

Ingredients

• 1 bunch flat leaf parsley
• 1 red onion
• 2 lemons

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