TURKISH PIZZA ANYONE..Serving Pides with Pride!

“Ideas are like pizza dough, made to be tossed around.”
Anna Quindlen
Turkish pizza anyone?

…they call them PIDES, street food from Turkey. Quite similar to something called lahmajoun, an Armenian pizza. Scrumptious, I tell you!! I saw this post by Elle @ Elles New England Kitchen while following DB Filbert Gateaus posts 2 days ago & I was sold…hook, line & sinker.
Pide – Turkish Pizza

Pide is a staple Turkish food and you’ll find it all over the country. The Turkish eat an astounding four times as much bread as any other nation. Most of this must be mouth-watering pide, the Turkish flatbread sold in every store and baked on every street corner. Pide is also the name of Turkish pizza, the bread topped with lamb, onions, cheese and tomato or any variety of combinations. Pide is a long thin banana shaped bread, rolled with some skill from a small ball of dough. The bread is then covered with the topping of your choice and slammed into a large, solid fuel burning oven for about 10 minutes. The resulting pide is sliced up and served piping hot.

Serving Pides with Pride!

Just the words ‘Turkish pizza’ transported me to an exotic land, the land of my dreams; there was no stopping me. Morning broke &, thanks to Elle, I was engulfed with sweet dreams of Turkey & it’s street food.

This spice, sumac, comes from the berries of a wild bush that grows wild in all Mediterranean areas, especially in Sicily and southern Italy, and parts of the Middle East, notably Iran. It is an essential ingredient in Arabic cooking, being preferred to lemon for sourness and astringency.

I am the proud owner of a bag of Sumac powder that my sweet niece thoughtfully got for me from Dubai. She often makes the Turkish Adana Kebabs I posted long ago, recipe here, & enjoys them a lot. The bag of sumac, a beautiful purple-red powder, has been beckoning me to use it for a while; pide seemed to present one such opportunity, since I had been longing to use sumac for something other than adana kebabsdelightful, delicious & simple kebabs.

A small change to the recipe was the use of a fresh papaya tenderizer to soften the lamb…that’s just me because I do not like my lamb chewy. The flavours were great, the process SIMPLE; & the big bonanza…the kids loved them!
Moreish‘, rustic & delicious!
For the kids, I used a small amount of marinara sauce as the base sauce first, followed by the the topping & additional Baby Gouda cheese grated on top … was terrified of getting rejected on the ultimate pizza frontier I guess…but they loved them. Served pides to the kids as flat pizzas, the regular way & sliced. Was elated that they enjoyed pides so much; love it when they explore their tastes & experiment with new flavours; HUGE relief.

Here’s the recipe as adapted from Elles @ Elles New England Kitchen

Dough: ( I made 1 1/2 times the original recipe, got me 10 Turkish pizzas)
Active Dried Yeast – 1 1/2 tsp
Sugar – 1 tsp
Flour – 4 cups
Whole wheat flour – 1 cup
Salt – 1 1/2 tsp
Oil – 2 tbsp
Method:

  • Mix the yeast, sugar and 1 cup warm water in a mixing bowl. Proof for 10 minutes.
  • Add flour, salt and oil, mix slightly, then knead the dough on a floured board until smooth.
  • Shape into a ball, cover and let dough rise for about an hour.

Topping:
Ground lamb – 500gms (or your choice of meat)
Fresh green papaya – 1 tsp ; grated fine (very optional)
Onions – 2 small; finely diced
Garlic – 6-8 cloves/ 2-3 tbsp minced ( I like plenty of garlic)
Olive oil – 2 tbsp
Tomatoes – 4-5; seeded and chopped
Green capsicum – 2 small; diced
Coriander – 1 bunch; finely chopped
Tomato paste – 2 tsp
Sweet paprika – 2 tsp
Sumac powder – 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Salt and pepper to taste
Low fat cottage cheese – 300-400gms (I used Le Bon)
Method for topping:

  • Marinade mince + 1 tsp papaya paste +1 tbsp minced garlic + 1 tsp sumac powder for 30 minutes, in the fridge.
  • Heat a skillet over medium heat, add the oil and saute the onions and remaining garlic for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the mince & stir fry on high till cooked through well & any liquid dries up. If you use papaya, the mince will have a kind of pasty consistency, not crumbly. Take off heat.
  • To this, add the tomatoes, coriander, green capsicum, tomato paste & spices & mix it all up. Taste and adjust seasonings.
  • Heat oven to 450°.
  • Divide dough into 10 portions and roll out to thin circles. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment, and place 2 dough circles on each. Spread some of the topping on the first 2, top with grated cottage cheese or feta, then put the baking sheet in the oven.
  • Have 1/2 cup of cold water ready, and toss it in the bottom of the oven quickly, then shut the door. (I forgot to do this)
  • Bake for 8-10 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough.
  • Remove from pan to a cooling rack.
  • Roll pizzas up to eat.

Rolling in the PIDES – Pizza, the Turkish way

This one’s on its way to my old friend Ben @ What’s Cookin US for his I Love Baking’ event, a baking event for baking loving people…& to Susan’s @ Wild Yeast Blog for Yeastspotting.

This post featured on

  • Reuters.com UK

PIZZA FROM SCRATCH…Winning over yeast!!

“The belly rules the mind.”
Spanish Proverb
PIZZA FROM SCRATCH…
My battle with yeast is an old one…it never seemed to give me results that others proudly displayed. I was beginning to bear a personal grudge against it, when I bumped into Ben! Thankfully we concurred that both our strengths lay in baking powder…YES…and he too was in a yeast dilemma!! As with all battles, this one had to be won, one way or the other. Susan’s recipe from Food Blogga came to my rescue…& I can proudly say…this round was mine. I made a pizza from scratch & the daughter declared it was WAY better than Pizza Hut. I thought so too! All credit to Susan for posting such a fab recipe, step by step, & with bits of wisdom thrown in…there was no way I could have lost this one!
A delicious slice…baked like we like it!
Pizza has always been on my list of things to do, & I have tried in the past with somewhat disappointing results. This one was great…the dough rose like never before & thrice!! Once in the frdige as well…believe it or not. My only deviation from Susan’s pizza dough recipe was to substitute 1 cup of flour with whole-wheat flour, & I must confess, I let it sit for a second rising in all my excitement! I made the dough the previous day, rested it in the fridge overnight, & it worked great the next day. Thank you Susan. Hey Ben, there’s hope for us!!

The recipe as adapted from Susan’s blog

Ingredients:
Pizza Dough:
Flour – 4 cups ( original has 5-6 cups)
Wholewheat flour – 1 cup
Instant yeast – 20gms / 2 tbsps
Warm water – 2 cups
Salt – 1 tbsp
Sugar – 1 tbsp
Olive Oil – 2 tbsp Topping:
Pizza sauce – 1 1/2 cups (of your choice; I made my own)
Olive oil, Mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, sweetcorn, brocolli, red & yellow bell peppers, green peppers, spring onions, oregano etc…whatever catches your fancy or is in the larder!!

Method:

  • Dissolve 2 cups of warm water + yeast + sugar + salt in a bowl.
  • Mix the 2 flours together & add the warm water + olive oil to it & knead to a dough.
  • Transfer to a floured surface & knead well for 5-10 minutes till it forms a soft & silky dough.
  • Place the dough in a large bowl greased with olive oil, & oil the top of the dough too. I covered the bowl with wrap. Let it rest in a warm/draught free place for at least 2-3 hours.
  • Punch the dough down to release the air bubbles. (I let it rise for an hour again just to enjoy the action of yeast & then put it in the fridge after this to use the next day. Take it out of the fridge 30 minutes prior to use)
  • Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface to roll out. You can let the rolled out dough rest for about 30 minutes; it will rise slightly and create a puffier crust. I got 3 big thin-crust pizza bases from this dough. Leftover dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

  • Brush the top with 1 tsp of olive oil. Top lightly with pizza sauce, grate some cheese over it, add the veggies/chicken/whatever, red chili flakes if you like, followed by some more cheese.
  • Bake at 225 degrees C on a pizza sheet for 25-30 minutes / till done. Refer to Susan’s blog if you are lucky enough to own a pizza stone.

  • ENJOY!!!
  • Note: Do go across to Food Blogga here for hot tips on baking a great pizza!
Please wait...

Subscribe to my newsletter

Want to be notified when the article is published? Do enter your email address and name below to be the first to know.
Exit mobile version