Venison Lahmacun- a wild game take on Turkish Street Food
I usually travel to Germany about twice a year. In the last 3 years, Covid made this pretty much impossible. Besides missing my folks and friends, I missed food! You’d think it would be brats or good Sauerbraten, but really, it is Turkish street food. Nothing better than a Lahmacun or a Döner at 2am on a Saturday after leaving the bars.
Germany has a rich Turkish culture and you can find family owned Turkish street food joints (Döner Shops) on every street corner in bigger cities all the way to small towns.
At present, ethnic Turkish people form the largest ethnic minority in Germany. With about 40,000 Kebab (Döner Shops) scattered all over the country, Turkish street food is the most popular “fast food” in Germany.
My favorite dish you find in any shop is Lahmacun. A thin flatbread, topped with spiced ground meat (usually lamb or beef), that is often used as a wrap and builds the base to a complete handheld meal. The word Lahmacun stems from the Arabian word lahm b'ajin, with simply means meat with dough.
The flavor profile of this flatbread is very fresh yet savory with the tartness of sumac and tomatoes, the spice of fresh chilis and the earthiness of cumin.
Sumac is a spice that was new to me. I know it is an important part of Za’atar but the flavor really added this feeling of home to the Lahmacun. It is tart, kind of like lemons, but yet more subtle. I am not very good at describing flavors, so please just give it a try.
The traditional topping for Lahmacun is parsley, tomatoes and onions drizzled with fresh lemon juice, but his might vary slightly all across the Middle East. I like to add a little cucumber and feta to mine and roll it up as a wrap.
I did prepare my lahmacun in an OONI pizza oven, which brings it closest to the preparation in traditional wood-fired ovens. I also made some in my “conventional” oven with a pizza stone. Both worked very well. I have seen people using frying pans on stove tops with lids to prepare the lahmacun. I haven’t tried it but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Prep Notes:
After making the paste, I put it in the fridge for an hour, and a bunch of liquid separated from the solids. I poured the liquid out to make the paste a little drier. Worked great.
I take a spoon full of the paste and fry it in the pan to taste it. After that I adjust salt as needed.
I rolled the dough very thin and spread the paste very thinly. It doesn’t take much paste since it is super flavorful and you want to make sure it cooks in the short time in the oven.
I use a wooden pizza peel to launch the lahmacun in the oven. If you don’t have one, you can also use an upside down cookie sheet. Use flour to prevent it from sticking.
I doubled up on the paste and froze half. Like this I only need to make the dough next time around and I could use a full pound of venison.
Lahmacun ready to be launched in the oven.
Venison Lahmacun
Ingredients
- 600g Bread Flour (about 5 cups)
- 1 package of yeast
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- 1.5 cups of water (adjust based on the water absorption of your flour)
- 1/2 lb of ground venison
- 1 tbsp of tallow or lard (you can also use any other fat like butter or ghee)
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 large pepper (Bell pepper or Anaheim)
- 1 red chili
- 1 green chili
- 1/2 onion
- 1/4 bunch of parsley
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1.5 tsp of kosher salt
- 1.5 tsp sumac
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 block of feta cheese in cubes
- 3 tomatoes in cubes
- 1 cucumber peeled and in cubes
- 1/2 red onion thinly sliced
- 1/2 bunch of parsley finely chopped
- 1.5 tsp sumac
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tbsp olive oil (or to taste)
- 1 tsp kosher salt (or to taste)
- fresh cracked pepper
Instructions
- Mix all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. I use a whisk to mix them all together before adding liquids.
- Add oil and water slowly while mixing the dough on a low setting. If you don't have a dough mixer you can do all this by hand.
- Mix till dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and it has a silky smooth surface (5-8 minutes).
- Take the dough out of the bowl, pour about 1 tsp of oil into the bowl and spread with your hands. Place the dough back in the bowl, cover with a dish towel and let it rise for about an hour.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and knock it down. Now you can separate the dough in 10 equal pieces. My dough was a nearly perfect 1000g so I weight each dough ball to be 100g.
- Roll each dough piece into a ball and let it rest on the counter, covered with a dish towel till you are done with your paste.
- Roughly chop tomatoes, pepper, chilis, onions and parsley and add to the food processor together with salt, oil, all spices and herbs.
- Blend it till it comes to a homogeneous paste.
- Add venison and tallow and blend for another 30 seconds or till all is mixed well.
- Dice tomatoes, cucumber and feta in bite size cubes.
- Toss all ingredients in a bowl.
- Pre-heat OONI oven to 800F or gas/electric oven to 500F (if using a conventional oven with pizza stone or steal, pre-heat for 45 minutes)
- Use rolling pin to roll out dough in a thin 12" ish circle and transfer to pizza peel.
- Spread a thin layer of paste on the dough.
- Launch lahmacun into oven and cook for 2 minutes while turning frequently (about 5 minutes in conventional oven. No turning needed)
- Lahmacun is done when the dough bubbles and the bottom is nice and brown.
- Take Lahmacun out and store on large cookie sheet covered with another cookie sheet or a towel. I used a large deep frying pan covered with a lid. Lay them face on face, like this they won't dry out. This step is very important if you want to roll the lahmacun.It makes them nice and soft and keeps them warm at the same time.
- Take one Lahmacun, add toppings, drizzle with fresh lemon juice, roll up and enjoy.
