Lachmajou (Ground Beef on Bread)

Last week we received a security warning that got us a bit worried. Since I'm the kind of person that is too used to the safe environment in Singapore (i.e., getting complacent), the news was quite scary, to say the least. Thus, we decided that we should minimise any outings as much as possible and that also meant that we have to stock up food ingredients to tide over this short period of time.

A quick visit to the supermarket thereafter has resulted in a fridge that is filled to the brim! Since then I've been cooking a new dish everyday, partly to deplete the stock, and partly due to my sudden urge to try out a few new recipes.

Lachmajou is one of the dishes that I attempted. It is a kind of pizza-like dough baked with sauteed beef on top. Once the dough is cooked, just sprinkle some parsley, add a dash of lemon-squeeze and it's ready to be served!

Lachmajou Recipe
Adapted from Tessa Kiros' Falling Cloudberries

Ingredients:
10g dry yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
250g bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
10g butter, melted
150ml water

Topping:
1 onion, chopped
400g ground beef
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
15g chopped flat-leaf parsley
120g canned tomatoes, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon, to serve

Method:
1) In a medium bowl, add in yeast, sugar, flour and salt. Stir the mixture by hand until combine.
2) Add in butter and water, knead by hand or mixer until the dough is smooth and elastic.
3) Cover the dough with clingwrap and leave in a warm place for 1 1/2 hour, the dough should rise to twice its original size.
4) In the mean time, heat up olive oil in a saucepan and saute the onion until soften.
5) Add beef, cinnamon, most of parsley as well as salt and pepper, continue to saute until the moisture is evaporated and the beef is lightly golden in colour.
6) Remove from heat, stir in canned tomato.
7) Pre-heat the oven to 220 deg C.
8) Punch down the dough, divide into 10 smaller pieces. Roll out each piece into a disc with the thickness of 1-2mm.
9) Arrange on a baking tray, spoon the sauteed beef onto the dough, and then drizzle with some olive oil on the beef.
10) Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining chopped parsley and lemon juice, serve.