Tantuni

The beef is boiled first and then fried on a flat plate, and the bread is steamed on top of the cooking meat.

Beef, Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains beef, lamb.

Ingredients

the meat

• 700 g beef or lamb, cut into fine julienne
• 500 ml water
• 2 teaspoons salt

to fry

• 4 tablespoons cottonseed oil, or sunflower oil
• 2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

to fill

• 4 lavash or thin flatbreads
• 2 tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely sliced
• a large bunch of parsley, chopped
• 2 tablespoons sumac
• 1 lemon

Method

1. THE BEEF IS BOILED FIRST AND THEN FRIED ON A FLAT PLATE. Two cooking methods in sequence, which is unusual and is the whole character of the dish. The meat is cut into very fine julienne and simmered in a little salted water until it is tender and the water has almost gone -- perhaps twenty-five minutes. Then it goes onto a very hot flat surface with oil and is tossed hard with two spatulas for two or three minutes until the edges catch and crisp. Boiling alone gives tender grey meat with no savour; frying alone, on strips this fine, gives something dry and tough before it is cooked through. The sequence gives both tenderness and browning, and neither step can be left out.
2. THE BREAD IS STEAMED ON TOP OF THE COOKING MEAT. The lavash is laid flat over the meat on the hot plate for the last thirty seconds or so, so the steam coming off it goes up into the bread. It softens, becomes pliable, and takes on the smell of the meat -- and because it is already damp with that steam it rolls without cracking. Warmed separately in a dry pan it is drier and more brittle, and the filling's juices go straight through it.
3. THE MEAT IS CUT BY HAND INTO VERY FINE JULIENNE AND NOT MINCED. Threads a few millimetres thick. Minced, it clumps and steams rather than frying; cubed, it cannot crisp in three minutes. The fineness is what lets the second stage work at all.
4. COTTONSEED OIL IS THE FAT WHERE IT CAN BE HAD. It takes a high heat without smoking and has a particular neutral-but-not-quite flavour that is part of how the dish tastes. Sunflower oil is the nearest substitute and is perfectly serviceable; olive oil is not -- it burns at the temperature needed.
5. THE PAN HAS TO BE AS HOT AS IT WILL GO AND THE MEAT GOES IN DRY. The boiled meat is lifted out of what little liquid remains and patted if necessary. A wet pan or wet meat drops the temperature and it stews instead of frying.
6. THE SUMAC AND LEMON GO ON INSIDE THE ROLL. Two tablespoons of sumac over the filling and a hard squeeze of lemon before rolling. The dish is rich and the sourness is what carries it; added at the table it only reaches the first bite.
7. The meat cut BY HAND into very fine julienne.
8. Simmered in the water with the salt 25 MINUTES, until tender and the liquid has ALMOST gone.
9. A heavy flat pan or griddle heated until it is as HOT as it will go, and the oil added.
10. The meat lifted from the pan DRY and tipped on.
11. TOSSED HARD with two spatulas 2 to 3 MINUTES, until the edges catch and crisp. The Aleppo and black pepper thrown over.
12. A LAVASH LAID FLAT OVER THE MEAT on the hot plate for the last 30 SECONDS, so the steam goes up into it.
13. The bread lifted off, a quarter of the meat laid along it.
14. The tomato, onion, parsley and SUMAC piled on and the lemon squeezed HARD over.
15. ROLLED TIGHT and the end wrapped in paper.
16. TESTED: the meat should be tender with crisped edges, and the bread should roll without cracking. A brittle bread means it was not steamed on the meat.
17. Eaten at once, in the hand.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes