by Gil Marks
4. For each serving, place a heaping handful of noodles in a large bowl. Ladle the thick soup over the top and, if using, sprinkle with a little parsley. Serve hot with non (flatbread) or pita bread.
Lahmajin
Lahmajin is a small pizza-like flatbread topped with spiced, ground meat.
Origin: Levant
Other names: Lebanon and Syria: lahamagine, laham b'ajin; Turkey: lahmacun, lahmajoun.
In the Near East for many millennia, very thin flatbreads could be baked at home on the top of a sajj, a convex metal dome set over a squat chimney. Slightly thicker ones were baked vertically on the inner walls of a tanur, a cylindrical clay oven with openings on the top for inserting the food and at the bottom for the fuel. It was the popularization in the medieval Arab world of the furn, "baker's oven" (called purni in the Talmud), that led to the proliferation of topped and filled dough. In the furn, a large stationary stone-lined oven with a bottom for baking, wood is burned inside, the ashes are raked out or to the side, then the dough or baking sheet is set on the heated floor of the oven or on the walls, and the bread is baked. This oven gave rise to the development of an array of savory pastries made from basic bread dough in different sizes and shapes; these pastries were prominent in the countries once constituting the Ottoman Empire, notably Turkey, Armenia, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Few households had a furn, so topped and filled breads were generally prepared at home, then carried to the community furn for baking.
The most common form of these simple bread pastries were open-faced pies known variously as sfeeha/sfiha, and manaesh/manakish. The dough rounds were typically sprinkled before baking with za'atar or other herbs or cheese and afterward enjoyed for breakfast. For lunch, the dough rounds were sometimes spread with meat, then baked. When topped with spiced ground meat, the pastry is called laham b'ajin (meat with dough), typically shortened to lahmajin.
The dough for lahmajin is generally rolled out thinner than for most flatbreads. Lamb is the favorite meat for lahmajin, but beef is also used. If there is too much fat in the ground meat, the topping shrinks away from the sides during baking. However, it must have a little fat, for moistness. Although ground meat in the Middle East typically has a smooth consistency, which is produced by pounding it in a mortar, the texture of lahmajin is a bit coarser. Some finicky cooks still insist on chopping the raw meat with a knife rather than a machine to ensure the proper texture. The meat is enhanced with onions and tomatoes. Syrians also add pine nuts, allspice, and a souring agent to the meat to produce a fruity tang, while Turks season it with parsley, red bell pepper paste, and a hint of red chili or cinnamon. After baking, some people tear the breads into large pieces, top them with a little fresh mint and/or chopped cucumbers, and roll them up. Syrians Jews who immigrated to Brooklyn, New York, demonstrating the typical American knack for aggrandizing or miniaturizing foods, developed a smaller version of lahmajin and in the process transformed it into a beloved party food. Among Syrians, miniature lahmajin are now ubiquitous at most celebrations—knowing guests situate themselves by the kitchen door so that they can snare the warm pies before they quickly disappear. Syrians love this treat so much that they developed a version using matza meal in the dough for Passover and a vegetarian adaptation using lentils for dairy occasions.
Middle Eastern Open-Faced Meat Pies (Lahmajin)
makes eight 6-inch, six 7-inch, thirty 4-inch, or forty-eight 3-inch pies
[MEAT]
Dough:
1 package (2¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast or 1 (0.6-ounce) cake fresh yeast
1½ cups warm water (105°F to 115°F for dry yeast; 80°F to 85°F for fresh yeast)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons table salt or 4 teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
About 4 cups (20 ounces) bread or unbleached all-purpose flour
Meat Topping:
2 pounds ground lamb or beef
2 medium onions, minced, squeezed, and drained
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup tomato paste
About 1½ teaspoons table salt or 1 tablespoon kosher salt
Ground black pepper to taste
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
2/3 cup toasted pine nuts (optional)
1. Dissolve the yeast in ¼ cup water. Stir in the sugar and let stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture, remaining water, salt, oil, and 2 cups flour. Gradually add enough of the remaining flour to make a mixture that holds together.
2. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough until smooth and elastic, 10 to 15 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl and turn to coat. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.
3. Punch down the dough, knead briefly, cover, and let rest for about 15 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line several large baking sheets with parchment paper or lightly sprinkle with fine semolina or flour.
5. To make the topping: In a large bowl, combine all the topping ingredients.
6. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. On a lightly floured surface, roll out into ¼-inch-thick rounds, about 6 inches in diameter. Or divide the dough into 6 equal pieces and roll into ¼-inch-thick rounds, about 7 inches in diameter. Or roll out the dough into a 1/8-inch thickness, and cut into 3- or 4-inch rounds; reroll the scraps. Place the dough rounds on the prepared sheets, cover, and let stand for 5 minutes. Press your fingertips all over the top to dimple. Spread with a thin, even layer of topping to the edge.
7. Bake the pies until golden brown on the bottom and around the edges but not crisp, about 20 minutes for medium, or 12 minutes for miniature ones. Serve warm.
Variation
Syrian Meat Topping:
To the topping, add ½ cup tamarhindi (tamarind sauce) or apple butter, 5 to 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 1 to 3 teaspoons ground allspice, and ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon.
Lahm Lhalou
Lahm lhalou is a sweet stew of meat and dried fruit.
Origin: Algeria
Other names: Morocco: l'ghenmi bil barquq.
Lahm lhalou means "sweet meat" in Arabic. Besides the usual dried plums and raisins, some cooks add dried jujubes, which are rare in the West. Also called Chinese dates, jujubes are small yellowish green fruits with large seeds; when the fruits are dried, they taste like dates. The stew is slowly cooked in a tagine (an earthenware pot), producing meat that is meltingly tender. The fruit instills its natural sweetness into the stew, but sugar is also added. Some people like the stew even sweeter, so they adjust the sugar according to personal preferences. The stew is typically served with couscous. Algerian Jews brought the dish to Israel, where it has become popular.
Algerian Lamb with Dried Plums (Lahm Lhalou)
6 to 8 servings
[MEAT]
3 pounds boneless lamb shoulder or beef chuck, cut into 1½-inch pieces
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
¾ teaspoon ground turmeric
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
About 3 cups water
About 1 teaspoon table salt or 2 teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Several saffron strands (optional)
1½ to 2 cups dried plums or dried apricots
1/3 cup raisins
About 6 tablespoons sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons orange-blossom water or ¼ cup orange juice
¾ cup blanched sliced almonds, toasted
1. Pat the meat dry with paper towels. In a large bowl, combine the cinnamon, ginger, and turmeric. Add the lamb and toss to coat. Let stand for at least 30 minutes at room temperature or in the refrigerator overnight.
2. In a large pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. In several batches, add the lamb and brown on all sides, about 10 minutes per batch. Remove the lamb.
3. Add the onions and sauté until soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add 1 cup water and stir to loosen any browned particles from the bottom. Return the lamb. Add the salt, pepper, if using, saffron, and enough water to nearly cover the lamb. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the meat is nearly tender, about 1 hour for lamb, or 1½ hours for beef.
4. Meanwhile, soak the plums and raisins in hot water to cover for at least 30 minutes. Add the fruit to the lamb along with the sugar and orange-blossom water, cover, and simmer until the meat is tender, about 15 minutes. The stew can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and reheated in a covered pot. Garnish with the almonds.
Lahuh
Lahuh is a spongy flatbread cooked on a griddle or in a skillet.
Origin: Yemen
Other names: lachuch, lahuhua, lahukh.
Yemen, a small country in the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula, has long been a remote, primitive, and impoverished land. This rusticity is reflected in the region's breads, which are similar in form to those of ancient times. Originally, these breads consisted of a loose batter cooked in the embers of campfires, then the cooking method progressed to heated rocks. Eventually, simple utensils were used for the cooking. These flatbreads include salufe, a loaf baked on the walls of a clay oven (tabun); khobiz tawwa, fried dough; and lahuh, a pancake cooked on a griddle or a skillet.
Bread, baked fresh daily except on the Sabbath, was the mainstay of the Yemenite diet. Typically, wives would cook a batch of bread fresh every morning, then use the loaves for all the household's meals for the day. After breakfast, a new batch of dough was made, usually adding a little of the remainder of a previous batch, covered with a cloth, and left in the corner of the house to ferment for the next day. The lahuh batter was made from wheat, millet, or sorghum and cooked on a shula, a rectangular terra-cotta or metal griddle set over coals. Until recently, lahuh were naturally fermented by standing for a day or several, resulting in a sour flavor. Today, lahuh is generally raised with yeast and frequently has added sugar, transforming the taste. In addition, the batter is now sometimes cooked in a nonstick skillet.
Yemenite breads are usually some form of spongy flatbread made like a thin round bread baked on the sides of a clay oven or a pancake as "Mr. Lahuh" does here in Safed, Israel.
These flexible, spongy, bubbly loaves are served with a saltah (stewlike soup) and spicy condiments, such as s'chug (chili paste) and hilbeh (fenugreek relish). Or they can be enjoyed drizzled with a little butter and/or honey. Some people wrap a piece of lahuh, instead of pita, around falafel balls or kebabs. Yemenite Jews do not have a special bread for Friday night dinner but use either salufe (round flatbread) or lahuh.
Yemenite Pancake Bread (Lahuh)
about twenty 5-inch and twelve 6-inch breads
[PAREVE]
1 package (2¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast or 1 (0.6-ounce) cake fresh yeast
3 cups warm water (105°F to 115°F for dry yeast; 80°F to 85°F for fresh yeast)
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1½ teaspoons table salt or 1 tablespoon kosher salt
3½ cups (17.5 ounces) bread or unbleached all-purpose flour
1. Dissolve the yeast in ¼ cup water. Stir in 1 teaspoon sugar and let stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture, remaining water, remaining sugar, oil, and salt. Stir in the flour to make a smooth batter with the consistency of a thin pancake batter.
2. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 1 hour. The batter will be frothy. Stir down, cover, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour more. Stir again.
3. Into an unheated small nonstick or seasoned cast-iron skillet, pour about ¼ cup batter for a 5-inch pancake. Use ½ cup batter in a 7-inch skillet for a 6-inch pancake. Place over medium heat for 2 minutes, then reduce the heat to low and cook until the bottom is golden and the top is bubbly and dry, about 4 minutes. Do not turn. Lahuh is only cooked on one side.
4. After each bread is cooked, cool the skillet in cold water, dry, and repeat until the batter is used up. If you do not have a nonstick skillet, heat a heavy skillet over medium-low heat and cover the bottom with a little oil, then pour in the batter and cook until the bottom is golden and the top is bubbly and dry. Lahuh can be stored between sheets of parchment paper or wax paper at room temperature for up to 1 day.
Lamb
In relating the development of very early humanity, the Bible evokes the initial domestication of animals in the phrase "and Abel became a shepherd of tzon [flocks]." The term tzon encompassed both sheep and goats. Sheep—docile, small, and easily herded—were among the first domesticated animals, subsequent to only dogs and the sheeps' close relative, goats. Ever since sheep were first domesticated in Mesopotamia, these productive ruminants have flourished in the dry climate and mountainous terrain of the Middle East, central Asia, and the Mediterranean, providing milk (used for cheese, butter, and yogurt), wool, leather, parchment, and meat. When cattle were later domesticated, they were primarily used for plowing and hauling, and much less commonly consumed.
The word lamb refers to any sheep below one year of age; older animals are called sheep and their meat is known as mutton. The younger the animal, the more tender the meat and delicate the flavor. Lamb was once a seasonal item—lambs were born in early spring, available as suckling (hothouse) lamb (between six weeks to two months old and raised only on mother's milk) in March and April, and then as spring lamb (three to five months). But because of the diversity of climates, modern animal husbandry, and imports, lamb at any stage can now be found year-round.
Sheep hold a special place in Jewish life and lore. The Bible often uses them as a symbol for Israel and refers to both God and the leaders of Israel as shepherds. A host of biblical figures—including all three patriarchs as well as Moses and King David—were actual shepherds. Rachel, the Hebrew word for ewe, provided the name of one of the matriarchs and the name of her sister, Leah, may very well be a play on ayil (ram). Sheep, not surprisingly, play an important role in Jewish ritual. Sounding the shofar (ram's horn) serves as the central Rosh Hashanah rite. As an element in the Exodus story, lamb plays an important role in Passover festivities and is a traditional main course at many Sephardic and Mizrachi Passover Seders. Torah scrolls and mezuzot are written on sheepskin parchment.
When the Bible described the choicest products of the Promised Land as "curd of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lamb, and rams of the breed of Bashan," it was referring to the predominant strain of sheep in ancient Israel, the aptly named fat-tailed sheep. Awassi is a modern improved Israeli breed. The male's tail can weigh more than twenty pounds and, like a camel's hump, serves as a source of nourishment under desert conditions. The "fat of lamb" was a delicacy among Middle Easterners. The Talmud recounts that many owners attached a tiny cart under the precious tail of adult sheep to protect it from damage. Since only the choicest animals were presented as sacrifices in the Temple, the fat-tailed sheep was the type offered. During the Geonic period, the tail fat became a major point of contention between the Karaites, who forbade it for consumption, and the rabbis, who permitted it in nonsacrificial animals.
Fat-tailed sheep provided much more than just adipose tissue. The coarse wool—primarily white but also with brown or black spots and rings—was also valuable and considered the best for making carpets than other types of wool. In ancient Mesopotamia, wool production was second only to food manufacture in the economy. Fat-tailed sheep yielded more milk than most breeds, and the milk was generally transformed into tasty cheeses. The meat of the fat-tail sheep was the type preferred by Middle Easterners—mutton for stewing and lamb for roasting. Ashkenazim do not consume the rear of the sheep, while Sephardim and Mizrachim do.
Sheep did not fare well in much of the northern part of Europe, which was once heavily forested
, and, therefore were a rarity among Ashkenazim, who overwhelmingly favored beef. The exceptions among Ashkenazim were in the geographic fringes of Alsace and Romania, where sheep were occasionally enjoyed. On the other hand, before Columbus, sheep provided the preponderance of Spain's foreign commerce, especially during the Hundred Years' War between England and France (1337—1453). Much of the wool was exported, while the meat and milk went into the country's larders. Not surprisingly, lamb or sheep's cheese was featured in many Sephardic recipes and consumed on a regular basis. Following the expulsion from Spain in 1492, the number and variety of Sephardic dishes in the Mediterranean incorporating lamb only increased. Sephardim and Mizrachim use lamb in a wide array of dishes, including albondigas (meatballs), keftes (patties), kibbeh nayeh (raw ground lamb), kubbeh (filled dumplings), succulent roasts, and tasty stews. Roasted lamb shoulder is a favorite holiday dish in many Sephardic households, particularly on Passover. Similarly, Italians enjoy agnello ripieno (rice-stuffed lamb) for Passover.
(See also Shank)
Lángos
Lángos is a fried flatbread.
Origin: Hungary
Other names: langosh.
During the century and a half of Ottoman control of Hungary in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Turks introduced flatbreads. Throughout most of history, few Hungarians had a home oven. Instead, when housewives wanted to bake something, they would carry the dough to the town bakery and wait for an opportunity to use the facilities, paying the going rate. With the advent of flatbreads, housewives limited the number of trips to the bakery by preparing what they called lángos, from the Hungarian word láng (flame), on a heated stone on the hearth, quickly baking very thin loaves. In addition, cooks would deep-fry thin loaves of bread at home in a skillet or pot set over an open fire. When the potato became popular in Hungary in the nineteenth century, it was added to the dough and the resulting bread, called krumplislángos, quickly became the favorite type. In particular, lángos served as a standard cold-weather bread. The warm loaves provided sustenance through the long winter, frequently accompanying a bowl of lentil or bean soup or gulyás as a complete meal.
