Lahmajo

Ingredients

Dough

• 500 gstrong white flour
• 300 mlwarm water
• 7 ginstant yeast
• 10 gsalt
• 1 tbspolive oil
• 1 tspsugar

Topping

• 400 glamb, finely minced twice, with about 20 per cent fat
• 2onions, quartered
• 2ripe tomatoes, quartered
• 1red pepper and 1 green pepper, deseeded
• 4garlic cloves
• 1large bunch flat parsley
• 2 tbsptomato paste
• 1 tbspred pepper paste, optional
• 2 tspsalt
• 1 tspAleppo pepper
• 1 tspground cumin
• ½ tspblack pepper
• 1 tbsppomegranate molasses, optional

To serve

• 2lemons, in wedges
• more parsley
• sliced onion with sumac
• tan or ayran to drink

Directions

1. Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and water to a shaggy dough, rest 15 minutes, then add the salt and oil and knead 8 minutes to a smooth, medium-soft dough. Prove covered for 1 hour 30 minutes until doubled.
2. Blitz the onions, peppers, tomatoes, garlic and parsley in a food processor to a coarse, wet pulp, then tip it into a sieve and press out as much liquid as you can. Wet topping is the reason home lahmajo goes soggy.
3. Mix the drained vegetable pulp with the minced meat, tomato paste, pepper paste, salt, spices and pomegranate molasses, working it with your hands for 2 minutes until it is a spreadable, uniform paste. Rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Put a baking stone or a heavy upturned tray on the top shelf and heat the oven as high as it will go, 280 to 300°C (575°F), for at least 45 minutes. The heat is what makes this dish work.
5. Divide the dough into 10 pieces, roll each into a ball, and rest 15 minutes. Then roll or stretch each ball on a lightly floured bench into a round of 20 to 22 cm and 1 to 2 mm thick; it should be almost translucent.
6. Spread 2 to 3 heaped tablespoons of the meat mixture over each round in a very thin, even layer, right to the edge with no border. The layer should be barely 2 mm thick, so the meat cooks in the same minutes as the dough.
7. Slide onto the hot stone and bake 4 to 6 minutes, until the edges are just crisping, the base is spotted brown and the meat has changed colour and dried at the surface. Do not overbake: lahmajo should stay foldable, not crack.
8. Stack the finished rounds under a cloth to keep them soft, then serve with lemon squeezed over, a handful of parsley and sumac onions laid down the middle, and roll each one up to eat by hand.

Technique

• Armenians distinguish lahmajo from pizza firmly: no cheese, no thick base, and the topping is a thin paste rather than a scatter of ingredients. The word comes from the Arabic lahm bi-ajin, meat with dough, and the dish is shared with Syria, Lebanon and southeastern Turkey; the Armenian version tends to be spicier and more parsley-heavy.
• The single biggest fault at home is a wet topping on a slow oven. Drain the vegetable pulp hard and get the stone genuinely hot.
• Thin is not optional. A thick round steams and turns bready, and the whole appeal is the contrast between crisp base and soft, rolled body.
• Traditionally these were taken to the neighbourhood bakery on trays and baked in the communal oven, which is why home versions have always struggled with heat.

Substitutions

• No baking stone: use a heavy cast-iron pan preheated for 15 minutes over high heat, cook the lahmajo 2 to 3 minutes on the hob, then finish 1 minute under a hot grill.
• Beef with added fat works if you prefer it to lamb, and is common in the diaspora.

Variations

• A Beirut Armenian version is markedly hot and sour, with more red pepper paste and pomegranate molasses.
• Some bakers add a spoon of tahini or a scatter of pine nuts to the topping.

History

Brought to Armenia by refugees from Cilicia and Aleppo, it remains a marker of western Armenian cooking.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lahmajo?

Lahmajo is a street food from Armenia: paper-thin round of dough spread with minced meat, rolled up with lemon. Brought to Armenia by refugees from Cilicia and Aleppo, it remains a marker of western Armenian cooking.

How long does Lahmajo take to make?

Lahmajo takes 40 min plus 1 hr 30 min proving of preparation and 25 min of cooking. The recipe makes 10 rounds, 4 to 5 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Lahmajo?

Yes, within limits. No baking stone: use a heavy cast-iron pan preheated for 15 minutes over high heat, cook the lahmajo 2 to 3 minutes on the hob, then finish 1 minute under a hot grill. Beef with added fat works if you prefer it to lamb, and is common in the diaspora.

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

Slide onto the hot stone and bake 4 to 6 minutes, until the edges are just crisping, the base is spotted brown and the meat has changed colour and dried at the surface. Do not overbake: lahmajo should stay foldable, not crack.