Ishlekli

Ingredients

Dough

• 600 gplain flour
• about 320 ml warm water
• 2 teaspoonssalt
• 1egg
• 3 tablespoonsoil

Filling

• 800 glamb, finely chopped
• or 800 g minced lamb
• 5onions, very finely chopped
• 100 glamb tail fat, chopped
• or 3 tablespoons oil
• 2 teaspoonssalt
• 2 teaspoonsblack pepper
• 1 teaspoonground cumin
• 200 mlwater

To finish

• melted butter, for brushing
• 1egg, beaten, optional

To serve

• green tea
• sliced raw onion
• chal or fermented milk

Directions

1. Mince works but chop it if you can. The onion must be chopped extremely small. Use a great deal of onion, nearly as much as meat. Put the flour and salt in a large bowl.
2. Add the warm water in gradually. Beat the egg and add it in too. Add the oil to the bowl as well. Bring it together into a firm dough. Knead it for a good ten minutes. It should become smooth and elastic. Wrap it and rest it for thirty minutes. Resting lets it roll out thin.
3. Put the chopped meat in a bowl. Add the very finely chopped onions. Add the chopped tail fat or the oil. Add the salt, pepper and cumin. Mix it in thoroughly with your hand. The filling should be loose and quite wet.
4. Divide the dough into two pieces. Make one slightly larger than the other. Roll the larger one into a wide round. Aim for about forty centimetres across. Roll the second one slightly smaller. Take both down to about four millimetres. Set the larger round on a greased tray. Spread the filling out over it.
5. Leave a clear border of four centimetres. Keep the layer even throughout. Brush the border with a little water. Lay the second round over the top. Press the two edges together firmly. Roll the edge over on itself all round.
6. Crimp it with your fingers as you go. It must be sealed completely shut. Cut a small hole in the centre of the top. Brush the top with beaten egg if you like. Heat the oven to 200C before baking.
7. Bake it for about twenty minutes. Give it another forty minutes. Scoop out a hollow in the hot sand. Set the pie in, wrapped or on a tray. Cover it with hot sand and then embers. Give it about an hour and a half. Lift an edge to check the underside. The meat inside must be fully cooked. Brush the hot top with melted butter.
8. Let it rest for a good ten minutes. Serving it is done hot and cut in wedges. Cut it into eight even wedges. Hot juice runs out as you cut it. Serve sliced raw onion alongside. It keeps two days and reheats in an oven.

Technique

• The pie is buried in hot sand with embers heaped over it, so it bakes surrounded by heat on all sides with no hot spots; sand holds heat well and releases it slowly, making an oven out of the ground with no equipment beyond a fire.
• The meat goes in raw and cooks inside the sealed dough with its juices trapped by the crust, which is what keeps it moist; cooking the meat first gives a dry pie.
• The filling is deliberately loose and almost sloppy, since that water turns to steam inside the pie and is what makes it juicy.

Substitutions

• An oven at 200C then 180C stands in for sand baking with a very close result.
• Minced lamb works in place of chopped, though the texture is denser.

Variations

• Almost nobody bakes it in sand now, though it is still done at gatherings occasionally.
• Some cooks add potato to the filling.
• A tamdyr, the clay oven, is the other traditional method.

History

Meat and onion pie baked under hot sand and ash, associated with Balkan province.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ishlekli?

Ishlekli is a bread & pastry from Turkmenistan: meat-onion pie traditionally baked under desert sand and embers. Meat and onion pie baked under hot sand and ash, associated with Balkan province.

How long does Ishlekli take to make?

Ishlekli takes 45 minutes plus resting of preparation and 1 hour of cooking. The recipe makes one large pie, 8 wedges. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Ishlekli?

Yes, within limits. An oven at 200C then 180C stands in for sand baking with a very close result. Minced lamb works in place of chopped, though the texture is denser.

What is the most important thing to get right in Ishlekli?

Mince works but chop it if you can. The onion must be chopped extremely small. Use a great deal of onion, nearly as much as meat. Put the flour and salt in a large bowl.