Lahmacun, Lahmajoun (lahmaˈdʒun) or lahm bi-`ajĩn (From Arabic لحم بعجين lahm bi-`ajĩn, "meat with dough") known as Turkish pizza,or Armenian pizza is an Anatolian and Middle Eastern dish usually made up of a round, thin piece of dough topped with minced meat (most commonly beef and lamb). Lahmacun is often sprinkled with lemon juice, and then served rolled up with pickles or other vegetables, including tomatoes, peppers and onions.

Availability

Lahmacun is most prominently made and sold in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, Turkey, Cyprus, Iran and Armenia, where there are many restaurants that cater solely to lahmacun – these are called furn lahm bi-`ajĩn (lahm bi-ajin bakery) in Arabic, lahmacun salonu in Turkey and lahmacuanots in Armenia. It can also be found in countries with sizeable Arabian, Kurdish, Turkish and Armenian communities, like Cyprus. In Canada, there are Armenian restaurants specializing in lahmacun. In many German and Dutch restaurants that sell kebab, lahmacun is usually filled with vegetables like lettuce, red cabbage, onions and others and topped off with kebab meat and a sauce (usually spicy on a tomato base or mild on a yoghurt base); it is then rolled into a tube to be eaten right away.

The Turkish cities of Şanlıurfa (also known as Urfa) and Gaziantep (also known as Antep) are particularly famous for their lahmacun, also representing the two different Turkish styles of making it. The Urfa-style lahmacun has onion among its ingredients, while the Antep-style lahmacun has garlic instead. Middle Eastern inmigrants in Argentina own restaurants and bakeries in which they sell lahmacun closed in a triangular shape as "empanada árabe" (meaning "Arabic-style empanada").

Recipe / Ingredients

For 4 servings

• Flour
• 75g lamb meat
• Four thinly chopped onions
• One tomato
• One tablespoon of paprika sauce
• Ten leaves of parsley
• Salt, black pepper, capsicum

Preparation

Raw minced meat (should be minced by knife instead of machine to get a better texture), extremely thin chopped onion, chopped tomato, paprika sauce, chopped parsley, butter, salt, pepper and capsicum are mixed. Salt, pepper and capsicum are added as the cooker wishes.

Risen bread dough is divided into hickory-nut sized pieces. They are processed using an oklava, a tool to make dough thinner. Flour is recommended to be used along with the oklava. After the dough is thin enough, the previously mentioned mixture (salt, pepper and capsicum) is distributed over the dough. It should be cooked in a stone oven for a richer taste.

In popular culture

• Lahmacun ve pizza (literally Lahmacun and Pizza) was a 2002 Turkish television series.

See also

• Sfiha

References

External links

• Lahmacun, Turkish recipe
• Lahmajoun, Armenian recipe