Pide (Turkish pizza) with chopped beef and ajvar
beef, dough breakfast, dinner, ručak
September 15, 2019
If you are fond of pizza or any other kind of dough, you will be nuts about pide. Pide, or Turkish version of pizza, is a soft dough filled with various stuffings. For this occassion, we have chosen a juicy combination of chopped beef and ajvar.
Although they are called Turkish pizza, the pides are much softer and airier than their Italian cousin. The basic dough for pide we describe here is made with olive oil, although there are numerous pide recipes, depending on the region they come from. In this fashion, pides can be filled with cheese, sausages, or Turkish sujuk, minced or chopped meat, and just like pizza seems to give a wealth of possibilities for combination of flavours; moreover, our ajvar made them especially succulent. Their common feature is the shape of the boat, soft dough and unrivalled taste.
Working with the pide dough can be a little tricky since this type of dough is softer than the bread dough, so just choose whether you will grease or flour your hands, rolling pin or kitchen countertops. Do not mix these two techniques to avoid hard buns of dough from oil and flour, and feel free to start making these delicious dough boats, since pides are worth every effort.
- Prep: 2 hrs
- Cook: 15 mins
- Yields: 8 to 10 pieces
Ingredients
For dough:
500g hlebnog belog brašna
for dough:
500g of white bread flour
olive oil
14g of dry yeast
4 tablespoons of oil
soil
For stuffing:
350g of lean beef – one piece
1 large red pepper
1 large green pepper
2 small zucchinis
1 large red onion
1 large plum tomato (or any kind of tomato without seeds)
150g of mozzarella or any melted cheese
4 tablespoons of ajvar
1 lemon
salt, pepper
olive oil
Directions
Melt the yeast in 100ml of lukewarm water with a pinch of flour and sugar and set aside for about a couple of minutes or until the yeast is activated.
Sift flour to the mixing surface, add salt and make a hole in the middle to pour the activated yeast and oil. Carefully knead the dough, gradually adding about 100 ml of lukewarm water. Knead the dough until it becomes smooth and soft, then shape a ball, place it in a larger bowl, coat the dough with olive and cover with a transparent foil to avoid crusts and cracks while the dough grows, cover it with a clean cloth and let it rest for at least an hour.
During this time, prepare the stuffing. Season the piece of beef with salt and pepper, and optionally add a pinch of sumac and cumin powder. Shortly fry the meat on all sides in a well-heated frying pan, just as long as it gets crusty and remains raw inside. When cool, cut the beef into thin slices and sprinkle with a half lemon juice.
Chop the onions, peppers, zucchini and tomatoes into small cubes and simmer in a separate bowl until soft. Season them with some salt, pepper and half a lemon juice. Remove from heat and add meat and ajvar to vegetables, mix everything well to obtain a mixture to put in pide.
Mix the grown dough once more shortly to squeeze the excess air out of it, then roll it in a thinner noodle and cut into equal parts to make the pide. Roll out the dough for the pide as thin as possible, in a rectangular shape.
Spread the stuffing in the middle of the dough, about 2-3cm from each edge, add the slices of cheese, and make boat-shaped dough. Before baking, coat the dough with a mixture of egg yolk and water and bake the pide in a well-heated oven, at 220 - 230C with the fan on for up to 15 minutes. Oil dough is extremely delicate to work with, so put oil and brush on your hands and work surface well, and in order to maintain its shape, it is best to knead the dough directly in the pan. Sprinkle the finished pide with fresh herbs, basil, thyme or parsley.
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