5/6 Blog #6 I Love Lahmajun

     This week's dish hails from the Turkish area of the Middle East (Turkey, Armenia, and Syria) and is called Lahmajun, or as it has later become known, Armenian Pizza. Now that nickname is a little deceiving as this meal, while it does have crust and a tomato-based sauce, it has no cheese. This name was given to it by Europeans later in the 20th century because of its similarity to Italian-style pizza though. This dish really rose in popularity in the early-mid 20th century throughout Turkey and Armenia. 

    

    This dish was quite a joy to make. First came the bread, called a laffa, used as the crust. This was a very basic bread dough that I whipped together, then let proof for an hour.

    As you can see above, after proofing in a bowl covered with a damp towel, I wrapped the dough and put it in the fridge before my family and I went up to the Poconos, where I finished the meal. The first thing I did when I got up to the mountains was toast some pine nuts. Now pine nuts aren't nuts they just taste like them. They are just the edible seeds of the pine tree. 

    The pine nuts were very slightly overdone, and I probably should've shallow-fried them instead of a dry toast, but I didn't feel like dealing with hot oil for this dish. 

    Next, I sauteed tomato paste and tomatoes together for a few minutes to get rid of that acidity tomatoes hold. I then added the beef and some of the same spices I have used for nearly every recipe so far. Cumin, salt, and pepper. I had always associated cumin with Latin food so I have been pleasantly surprised by its presence in the Middle East. I then removed the tomato beef mixture from the pan and added onions and jalapenos to sautee and cook a little. I then added the beef and tomato back into the pan and let all of those flavors simmer together for a few minutes. 

       I then removed the pan from the heat and took out my dough. Now, this was the part I was most scared of. This dish is normally cooked in a special oven called a taboon, which I of course did not have access to. So I had to heat a pan up until it was incredibly hot then sear the bread. Now you have seen me fry bread here before with the lachuch from a few weeks back, but this was uncharted baking territory for me. But I was successful, and I topped my pieces of bread with the now slightly congealed beef topping and put this in the oven for ten minutes. 

    This meal was another in a string of delicious successes, as the entirety of the Margolis family enjoyed this meal. I think this is their favorite of the projects I've done. I really wonder why? Overall, this meal had such depth of flavor, the tomatoes were sweet, the jalapenos added the perfect amount of spice and the bread served its role perfectly. 28.7/10 would make it again. Join me next week for what should be an exciting Mother's Day meal.