PIDE BREAD: SPONGY TURKISH BREAD STUFFED WITH LAMB

The "pide" is a flattened and fermented Turkish bread. There are two types of "bread pide", the filling and the flat. The stuffed bread is known as "İçli pide, and unfilled bread is called ekmeği, a little thicker than the previous one but without filling.

The "İçli pide" is elongated, canoe-shaped stuffed with meat stews or combinations of feta cheese and vegetables. This post is about the bread "filling pide ".

What is the origin of the "Pide Bread"?

This bread is undoubted of Turkish origin. Clearly, lahmacun, or so-called Turkish pizza, is the predecessor of the pide's bread, albeit without yeast. But how and why did bread start to ferment? In ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, the wheat dough was already made for bread. This dough was cooked in stone ovens.

The fermentation process started spontaneously. The dough was probably made a few hours in advance, and for some reason, it didn't cook. The combination of the hot climate and the spores in the environment caused the dough to ferment. And it is easy to conclude that food was scarce and it was not easy to discard food. But many may have noticed that this caused the bread to increase in size, last longer, and get a pleasant acid taste.

This process was refined over the years to get the commercial yeasts that we know today.

For this reason, historians place unleavened bread such as chapati, and pita bread as older recipes than recipes that do contain yeast as pide's bread.

The first versions of the pide's bread were prepared by the poor, and before cooking they were filled with what people had on hand. Thanks to this we have such a wide variety of fillings.

In Ramadan time, Muslims consume ekmeği pide. That is, without filler. This bread is smeared with a little egg, to give it the color, and garnished with Nigella seeds.

Typical fillings of the Pide

1. Kavurma: the favorite filling of this bread is minced beef or sheep meat. Sautéed with enough butter and vegetables.

2. Cheese: filled with mixtures of white cheeses. Feta, pastirma, sucuk, or champis combined with spinach or chard.

3. Yağlı Pide: it is a variety of round bread. Fried eggs and butter are added on the top to the dough before cooking.

PIDE BREAD

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Servings

6

Prep Time

45 minutes

Cook Time

25 minutes

Ingredients

For the dough:

• 2 ½ cups of all-purpose wheat flour, 275 g.

• ¼ cup of plain yogurt, unsweetened

• 1 egg

• ¼ cup oil, 60 ml

• ½ cup of water

• 1 tbsp of sugar

• ½ tsp of dry yeast, 10 g.

• ½ tsp of salt

For the filling:

• 250 g. minced lamb meat

• 3 tbsp of oil

• 2 garlic cloves, crushed

• 1 small white onion, finely chopped, 80 g.

• 1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped, 80 g.

• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

• 1 bunch of parsley, finely chopped

• ½ tsp of ground cumin

• ½ tsp of ground black pepper

• ½ tsp of 7-spices

• 1 tsp of salt

Directions

1. In a bowl add the water, yeast, and sugar. Stir it well until the yeast dissolves. Let this mixture sit for about ten minutes until you notice that the surface of the water has filled with bubbles.

2. Then add the egg, yogurt, oil, and salt to the mixture. Stir with a hand mixer.

3. Stir in the sifted wheat flour. Knead for about ten minutes until the dough comes off easily from your hands. If the dough is very sticky you can sprinkle a little flour, otherwise, you can add a few additional tablespoons of water. Shape into a ball and let the dough rest for about twenty minutes.

4. Then place the dough on the table and knead it for about five minutes until it looks smooth and even.

5. Divide it into three pieces and let it rest again while you prepare the filling.

6. Place the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. When the oil starts to bubble, add the onions, and garlic. Cook them for about five minutes until the onion turns translucent. Then add the bell pepper, tomato paste, parsley, and seasonings: cumin, 7-spices, pepper, and salt. Stir for a couple of minutes.

7. Put the meat in the pot with the veggies and stir until everything is well combined. Try to shred the meat. Cook the meat covered for about ten minutes until all the liquid has evaporated. Turn off and reserve.

8. Preheat the oven to 160 ° C / 320 ° F. Grease a baking sheet and sprinkle a little flour on top.

9. Sprinkle some flour on a flat surface. Take the first ball of dough and roll it out with an oval-shaped rolling pin to a maximum thickness of 5 mm.

10. Place enough meat in the center of the oval, and then close the ends of the dough into a canoe. Repeat this procedure with the other balls of dough.

11. Place the Pide's bread on the tray, and bake for about twenty to twenty-five minutes

Recipe Note

Serve with little herbs and chopped onion on top.