Love: As Demonstrated by Sheep Cookery

I don’t eat very much meat. In fact, I might even call myself a vegetarian when Stephen isn’t home. That isn’t to say that I won’t eat it. I do to be polite and I do have very rare carnivorous hankerings for some beef or chicken or a sausage. I never ever eat lamb, or mutton, or hogget, or whatever stage of life the fluffy little thing was at. And, unlike any other type of meat, I hate cooking it. I can’t stand the smell. I can’t stand the feeling of lamb fat on my fingers. Or, that I can’t get rid of the smell on my hands if I have been cooking it. Stephen finds it quite amusing but, when I smell it, and I can from miles away, I start to react the way he does around sauerkraut (insert gagging actions and noises here). 

It isn’t that they are too cute. I eat lots of cute things without a second thought. I have and will eat things that most people find way more disgusting than lamb - liver, sweetbreads, cooked for three hours brussel sprouts. I just won’t eat it. I just can not make myself do it.

I guess what I am trying to say is that if I cook lamb, or mutton, or hogget, I am either getting paid to do it or I must really, really love the person I am cooking it for. And that must have been what I was thinking when I bought a pound of ground lamb the other day.

Stephen loves lamb, the greasier the better. The more rustic the preparation, the better. If he has to walk past his supper’s brothers and sisters on his way into the restaurant, it makes it taste that much better.

We were talking about time spent in Turkey and I started thinking about Turkish food which mostly is delish but, there is A LOT of lamb, mutton, hogget cooking going on there. I pulled out Turquoise by Greg and Lucy Malouf, my most beautiful Turkish cook book and decided on Lahmacun as a lamby offering to my husband.

Lahmacun is a Turkish pizza, street food, and, in our case, often consumed after too many drinks on the way home from the Escape bar in Marmaris. There was a woman who set up her table and grills and rolled out the dough and made them to order from her bowls of toppings. 

There are two options here: the more traditional, made with lamb, tomato and spices and the lambless Leek, Spinach and Feta Lahmacun.

I used the recipe for the dough from Turquoise by Greg and Lucy Malouf, but changed the amount of water, the original needed more. The lamb topping is similar to theirs but adapted based on what I had in the pantry and Stephen’s tastes. The lambless topping is my recipe.

Turkish Pizza Dough

1 tablespoon dried yeast

3/4 teaspoon sugar

4 tablespoons warm water

5 ounces Greek-style yogurt

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

10 ounces bread flour

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

olive oil

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water and set aside in a warm place for about ten minutes until frothy. In another small bowl, whisk the yogurt and extra virgin olive oil.

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the yeast and yogurt mixtures.

Use your fingers to work in the flour and form a smooth ball (I just did this in the bowl of the mixer with the dough hook). Transfer to an electric mixer with a dough hook (you don’t need to do this if you start the mixing in the mixer like I did) and knead on a low speed for 10-15 minutes until very smooth and shiny. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, then cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rest at room temperature for 2 hours or until doubled in volume. 

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Knock back the dough, then put it onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into 10 portions. Roll each portion into a round, 6 inches in diameter. Brush lightly with oil and spread with your choice of topping. Bake for 6-8 minutes (a convection oven may take as little as 4-5 minutes) and serve piping hot.

Makes 10 small crusts.

Lahmacun

7 ounces ground lamb

1/2 cup finely diced tomatoes (I used some frozen ones I had)

1 small red onion finely diced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/8 teaspoon ground cumin

Fresh ground pepper

Salt to taste

1/2 cup chopped parsley

Saute the onion and tomato with the olive oil until the onion is translucent. Add the lamb, paprika, cumin and pepper. Stir to break up the lamb and cook until lamb starts to brown and mixture just starts to dry out. Add parsley and season with salt.

Makes enough to generously top 5 small crusts.

Lahmacun on the left, lambless on the right

Leek, Spinach and Feta Topping

1/2 small red onion finely diced

1 medium leek cleaned and finely diced 

1 large clove garlic minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 cups chopped fresh spinach

1/2 cup crumbled feta

Saute the onion, leek and garlic in the olive oil until onion is translucent and leeks begin to caramelize.  Add the spinach (if it is really dry add a tablespoon of water) and saute until soft. Remove from heat and mix in the feta.

Makes enough to generously top 5 small crusts.

And now? Only half a pound of lamb left to go to prove my love and devotion.

Comments

[Tamara]

Looks delicious, but I have the same sentiments on lamb as you do. I'll take the lambless version any day!

[Angela]

Your site just gets more and more delicious - being a carnivore like my little nephew I would opt for the lamb version. That said the veggie version looks very tasty indeed!

Much love The Aunt
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[Kirsty]

if Stephen comes to Toronto with you (or we can go without him of course) there's an excellent Turkish pizzeria near our place, lots of yummy yummy lamb to be found!