Chef's unDiet: Lo-Cal Lahmajoun a.k.a Armenian Pizza

It was popular in Jerusalem centuries before the birth of Christ. I'm sure both Jesus Christ and Mohammed ate them.

Could Lahmajoun have been on the menu at the Last Supper?

Probably not. It's more a lunch thing than a supper thing.

Literally, lahmajoun means, "Meat on dough." 

That's not very sexy. 

Neither is "shish kebob" which literally means, "Meat on a stick."

Let's stick with lahmajoun. It has a more exotic ring to it.

Origins

Lahmajoun started in the mountains of Armenia. A near as I can figure, about 3.000 years ago Syrian traders brought lahmajoun to Lebanon where it really took off spreading throughout the Middle East. Since it was lamb-based, Christians, Muslims, and Jews all dove in eagerly.

No food taboos here.

The name itself is a mix of Arabic and Turkish. "Lahma" is Arabic for meat. "Joun" is close enough to "dough" in Turkish.

Lahmajoun is a paper-thin dough topped with a meat sauce and wrapped around a salad (or not). The cooked dough should be crispy around the edges but still pliable. How else would you roll it up around vegies?

This recipe is non-traditional so as to cut out some calories. The traditional version uses ground or finely chopped lamb. Here's we'll use a mix of extra-lean ground beef and fat-free ground turkey. There's a "better" option but it's not for everyone. I mention it at the end of the post.

I hope my ancestors won't spin in their graves.

Note: This Recipe is Part of the Chef's UnDiet Series soon to be available on Amazon. The recipe makes 12 lahmadjouns. Each is about 220 Calories, so a portion would be one and a half.

As with all Chef's UnDiet Recipes, measures are in gram weights. Yeah, you need a kitchen scale.

A word on yeast: Yeast is Yeast. There is no advantage, and many drawbacks to using fresh yeast. This recipe calls for so-called instant yeast. If using active-dry, increase the quantity 1.5 times. If using fresh, increase the quantity 3 times.
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Let's start with the "djoun" part

Ingredients

Instant Yeast (fast-rise etc) 6g

Warm water (about body temp) 210g

Salt 7g (about a tsp, 5 ml)

Splenda (sucralose, don't try any other artificial sweeteners. Use 7g sugar instead) 1g

Shortening (Crisco-type) 50g

Flour, all-purpose 320g (plus a bit more for dusting surfaces)

Cooking Spray (like Pam)

Method

1 - Weigh everything into the same mixing bowl. Try to keep the yeast and salt on opposite sides of the bowl.

2- Mix to combine.

3 - Turn mixture out onto a lightly floured surface.

4 - Knead until dough is smooth and loses its shagginess and stickiness.

5 - Spray a mixing bowl with the cooking spray. Transfer the dough to it and let rise until doubled. That will take about an hour. If you don't have a warm place to let it rise, put it in your oven and turn on the oven light.

6 - Punch the dough down and divide it into 12 pieces of 50g each. On a lightly floured surface, cup your hand over each piece of dough like a cage. Roll the dough around. Let your fingertips scratch along the work surface. This action will form the dough into balls with a smooth outer surface.

7 - Let the dough balls sit, covered, on your work surface for about 20 minutes while you preheat your oven to 450F / 235C / Gas Mark 8 AND prepare the meat topping.

Moving on to the "lahma"

Ingredients

Ground Beef, extra-lean 300g

Ground Turkey, fat-free, 380g (or use 680g of any ground meat if weight loss is not an issue)

Garlic, very finely minced or passed through a press, 9g (about 3 cloves)

Tomato paste, 65g (about 1/4 cup)

Canned Whole tomatoes, drained, 420g (about 2/3 a big can)

Bell peppers, very finely chopped, 100g (about 2/3 cup)

Flat leaf parsley, chopped 60g (about a cup)

Ground Allspice 1g (about 1/2 tsp, 3ml)

Salt 6g (about a tsp, 5ml or to taste

Ground pepper to taste.

Method

1 - Brown the meats with the garlic in a cooking pot large enough to fit everything. Traditionally, this mixture is uncooked. Here, we partially precook it for food safety's sake. We're using ground turkey.

2 - Add the tomato paste before the meat cooks through ( about a minute into the process). Stir well.

3 - Add the tomatoes and bust them up. Careful, they spit.

4 - Add everything else and cook nearly through. It should take about 5  minutes total.

Baking the Lahmajoun

1 - Use a rolling pin to roll each dough ball to a diameter of about 7-8 inches (15-20cm). Yes, it will be super thin. The thinner the better. Get it as thin as you can.

2 - Transfer each dough disk to a rimmed, unoiled cookie sheet. You may be able to place 3 per sheet. If you can fit 4, they aren't thin enough unless you like them thick. You may also be able to fit two cookie sheets in your oven. Test the fit.

3 - Spread about 80-100 grams of the meat mix on each disk. Go as close to the edges as you can while keeping the coverage even. Use clean hands or a small offset pastry spatula. A clean set of hands is the best kitchen tool.

4 - Bake at  450F / 235C / Gas Mark 8 for 5 to 7 minutes. Actual cooking time will depend on how thin you managed to get the dough. You want it cooked through but still pliable. It should have little char bubbles on the bottom.

5 - Let cool on a rack and repeat until all 12 are cooked.Cool them all to room temperature.

Service

This is where the fun starts. As far as topping your lahmajoun, anything goes.

Lahmajoun is usually served with or without "shatt-TAH." That's the Arabic word for hot stuff and usually refers to cayenne pepper in this context.

Traditionalists will insist on fresh mint, tomatoes, and assorted pickles with or without shatt-tah.

I use pickles (regular kosher dills, plus turnips, cauliflower, and carrots), shredded iceberg lettuce,  tomatoes, onions, and a liberal dose of cayenne pepper or Tabasco sauce (both qualify as shatt-tah).

My Mom likes to stuff lahmajoun with fattoush salad. My sister prefers tabouleh. My Dad likes them au naturel but spiced up nearly to the point of being inedible. Years ago, my son stuffed a lahmajoun with a hot dog complete with ketchup and coleslaw. Talk about being non-traditional.

Did I mention anything goes?

Have fun. Go wild.

Rolling your lahmajoun

Lesson 1 is, "Don't overfill!" The header picture is nice but has more than twice the filling as will actually fit.

With the lahmajoun in front of you, fill the middle quarter to third with whatever you like, leaving the bottom quarter unfilled.

Fold that bottom quarter over the toppings

Fold the two sides tightly over the folded bottom quarter and the fillings. Now you have a portable lunch.

An unDiet portion is 1.5 lahmajouns. It's tough to stop there.

Here's the tip that won't please everyone. 

It may even trigger aversion in some people. 

The tip is to replace all the meat with lean ground horse meat. Many cultures find that option repulsive. 

If that describes you, no worries, stick with the beef/turkey mix. 

If eating horse meat doesn't gross you out, use it. The unDiet portion using horsemeat is 2 lahmajouns.

Storing Lahmajoun

You can store your lahmajoun in the fridge for about 3 days. After that, the dough will dry out. Breads hate refrigeration. Refrigerated breads go stale faster, but the lahma part must be refrigerated. It's a Catch-22 thing.

You can also freeze them for up to a year if well-sealed. Breads don't mind being frozen.

Either way, place the lahmajouns meat-side to meat-side and interleave each pair with wax paper. Put them in a big zipper plastic bag of the Zip-Loc type.

I find it safer to freeze them in sets of 4. If I keep them hanging around in the fridge I end up munching them all up without even realizing it!

Cheers