Azerbaijan 2024

Disappointingly, we've had three weekends without a race, but that doesn't stop us from being hungry. We've taken the chance to catch up on a previously missed snack.

After the exciting race for Azerbaijan, we've made Quitab. Flatbreads filled with lamby goodness. (Apparently, you can fill it with various things, including vegetarian options, but I don't see why you would want to do that.)

To call it a 'bread' is a bit misleading. The shell is more like a stale crêpe. 

Altogether, they are a bit big to be considered a snack, but that didn't stop Heidi and me from eating several.

To flavour the filling, a spice mix typical of middle-eastern cuisine is used, including cumin, ground coriander and dried mint, accompanied by what was a little more difficult to find - pomegranate molasses. If you want to try this recipe for yourselves, let us know and you can have the rest of this bottle. The bottle informs me that it can be used as a cordial - I'll save you the distress, don't try this at home.

The filling is mixed raw, squished into the pancake of dough and then cooked, traditionally on a cast iron 'tawa' over an open wood fire - they look like an upturned wok. We used the pancake pan. Conveniently, two can be cooked concurrently side-by-side. I was nervous about whether the lamb would be fully cooked, but we managed not to kill anyone.

To serve, these should be painted in melted butter and sprinkled with sumac - another hard-to-come-by spice (thanks Sainsbury's). 

There were a few left over - which became Heidi's school lunch.

Why use the mixer, when you can get this messy?

Squish (that bread is supposed to be circular at this stage)

Cooking

Served

Don't disturb me

Recipe

'Bread':

1 egg
200ml water
pinch salt

500g plain flour

Filling:

250g lamb mince
2 small onions
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp dried mint
1 tbsp (whoever created this recipe seems to have had only one size measuring spoon) pomegranate molasses

1 tsp salt

To top:

50g melted butter

a sprinkle of ground sumac

Method

1. Mix the sloppy bread ingredients and knead making a lovely mess in the kitchen. Ignore your father's suggestion of using the mixer. Leave to rest for 30 minutes.
2. Mix the filling, keep the messy hands approach going.
3. Separate the dough into 10 equal weights.
4. One-by-one stretch and roll into circles (mostly of the square variety). Spread half with the filling, leaving an edge untouched. Fold in half to enclose the filling, sealing the edge by pressing with the back of a fork.
5. The animals came in two-by-two dry fry on the pan turning over once and at some point, deciding that's enough.
6. Spread the top face with butter and sumac - this seems only to make it greasy and I still have no idea what sumac is supposed to smell/taste like.