Homemade Lahmacun Wrap with Sumac Onions (Lahmacun Dürüm)

Put 500 g of flour in a large bowl, mix in the salt and make a well in the centre. Pour the vegetable oil and lukewarm water into the well, draw the flour in from the sides to bring it together and knead for 10 minutes. The dough should be smooth, as soft as an earlobe and very slightly sticky; a stiff dough tears when you roll it thin.

Shape the dough into a ball, cover it in the bowl with cling film or a damp cloth and leave it to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. There is no yeast in the dough; this rest lets it relax, and rested dough does not spring back as you roll it.

Grate the onion, squeeze out its juice with your hand and discard the juice. Peel the tomato and chop it very finely; chop the long green pepper, the deseeded kapia pepper and the parsley with a knife until they are as fine as mince. Knead everything with the mince, crushed garlic, red pepper paste, isot, black pepper and salt in a large bowl for 3-4 minutes. The topping should be soft enough to spread with a spoon; if it stays stiff, add 1-3 tablespoons (15-45 ml) of water. Cover and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes while the dough rests.

Chef's tip: If you use a food processor, pulse the vegetables in short bursts without turning them to purée, and add the parsley last for 10 seconds; a topping that releases too much water makes the dough soggy.

Slice the red onion thinly into half-moons and rub it with the sumac and salt between your fingers for 1 minute; the onion softens slightly and turns reddish. Finely chop the parsley and mix it into the onion. If using lettuce, wash and dry the leaves and cut out the thick ribs; pick the leaves off the fresh mint. Cut the lemons into quarters.

Set the oven to 250 °C with top and bottom heat, turn a baking tray upside down and heat it on the lowest shelf for at least 20 minutes. Divide the rested dough into 10 equal pieces; each ball weighs about 85 g. Round the balls, cover them on a floured worktop and leave them to rest for another 15 minutes. Divide the topping into 10 equal portions as well (about 90-100 g each).

On a floured worktop, roll a ball out with a rolling pin into an oval about 18 x 30 cm and 1.5-2 mm thick; the dough should be thin but not torn. Shake off the excess flour and lift the dough onto a sheet of baking paper. Spread one portion of topping thinly and evenly with wet fingertips or the back of a spoon, up to 0.5 cm from the edges.

Slide two prepared lahmacuns, on their baking paper, onto the hot tray and bake at 250 °C for 5-7 minutes. The topping should have turned from red to brown, with no pink left in the mince, and the edges should have coloured lightly in places; when lifted with tongs, the dough should bend, not snap. If you bake it for 7-10 minutes until the base browns, as for crisp lahmacun, the dough hardens and cracks when rolled.

Chef's tip: Do not take the lahmacun out before the mince is fully cooked. If the edges are starting to harden while the topping is still pink, the topping has been spread too thickly; spread it more thinly on the next lahmacuns.

If you are not using the oven, heat a 28-30 cm heavy-based or cast-iron frying pan over medium-low heat for 3-4 minutes and sprinkle a pinch of flour over the base. Roll a ball out into a round about 24 cm in diameter so it fits the base of the pan, spread the topping and place it in the pan topping side up. Cook with the lid on for 5 minutes, then uncovered for 3-4 minutes, until the base is speckled in places and the topping is fully cooked; do not turn it over. The lid traps the steam, so the top does not dry out.

Without waiting, stack the cooked lahmacuns in pairs with the topped sides facing each other and cover them with a clean cloth or put them in a bag. The heat and steam trapped underneath soften the edges. Before rolling, test by gently bending one edge; if it bends without cracking, it is ready to roll. As you cook the rest, cover each batch in the same way; covering also stops the cooked ones from drying out.

Lay a lahmacun topping side up and squeeze a lemon quarter over it. Parallel to the long edge, lay a lettuce leaf and a few fresh mint leaves down the middle if you like, then 3-4 tablespoons (45-60 ml) of the sumac onion and parsley salad. Fold the bottom end up by 3-4 cm, then roll up tightly starting from one long edge and hold it seam side down. Serve the wrap while hot.

To eat by hand, cut a piece of baking paper or aluminium foil about 25 x 30 cm if you like. Lay the wrap vertically in the middle of the paper with its folded end at the bottom, so that its top third sticks out above the top edge of the paper. Fold the paper below the wrap up over the folded end, then wrap both sides tightly around the roll. The paper holds the roll together and cuts down on lemon and topping juices running onto your hand. Tear the paper downwards as you eat.