Add a Middle Eastern edge to your next lunch with this flavoursome sourdough flatbread topped with melt-in-the-mouth lamb
Ingredients
• 2 tablespoons plain yoghurt
• 1 tablespoons lemon, Juiced
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• coriander, leaves finely chopped
For the flatbread:
• 660g plain flour, plus extra to dust
• 165g spelt flour
• 4 teaspoons sea salt
• 125g soured cream
• 165g sourdough starter
For the cumin lamb hearts:
• 2 lamb hearts, excess fat, tubes, gristle and coarse sinews removed
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted and ground
• 1 tablespoon szechuan peppercorns, toasted and ground
• olive oil
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Method
1 Make the sourdough flatbread. In a large bowl, combine the ingredients for the dough with 300 ml of water and mix with your hands for 5 minutes. Allow to rest for 1 hour.
2 Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 15–20 minutes then leave to rest for 3–4 hours, kneading and folding it every hour, until the texture is shiny and satiny.
3 Gather the dough into a ball and divide into 6 golf ball-sized rounds. Freeze any leftover dough.
4 Use floured hands to press each ball of dough flat and stretch out into 10 cm rounds about 3 mm thick. You could use a dusted rolling pin here.
5 To cook the flatbreads, heat a large, dry pan over a very high heat. Add the flatbread, cooking one at a time, and fry for 1 minute, until bubbles start to form on the top. Then, flip the bread and cook it for another minute. Take off the heat and wrap in foil to keep warm.
6 Rinse the hearts thoroughly in cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Cut each piece into 3 and put in a bowl with a good glug of olive oil and the ground spices. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.
7 Heat a heavy-based griddle or pan over high heat. When hot, add the hearts and brown all over.
8 In a small bowl, combine the yoghurt and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.
9 To serve, top the flatbread with the yoghurt. Add the griddled hearts, a good spoonful of chopped pickles and a sprinkling of the coriander.
For the sourdough starter:
1 To make the starter, all you need is water and some plain (all-purpose) flour. Pour 200 g of flour into a large, clean bowl or jar.
2 Add 200 ml of water, mix well and cover with a kitchen towel. Put the bowl somewhere warm and leave overnight.
3 The next day, you should start to see bubbles forming and the mixture beginning to swell. The bubbles mean that wild yeast have started to make themselves at home in your starter, and that it is ready for feeding.
4 Feed your starter with equal amounts of flour and water for the next 3 days – your starter should be ready to use after about 5 days.
Recipe courtesy of Freddie Janssen, extracted from Pickled. © Hardie Grant
