Lamb, flour and goats cheese are the ingredients for this month and the theme is ‘A’. I went with the first idea that came to mind when I read the Paper Chef blog post: Gozleme. I have two themes for ‘A’, the first is another ingredient – aubergine, but if you don’t know what aubergine is and you call it eggplant, you can have the second theme ‘adapt’. I guess adapt fits better as I adapted a recipe I already had so I can’t take all the credit for this one.

Gozleme is one of things that looks like it should be difficult and time consuming to make at home but is actually surprisingly easy and ridiculously tasty.  I almost didn’t even try to make them but I had a bit of spare time one Saturday, gave it a go, and the rest they say is history.  If you are not sure what Gozleme is, where have you been? Just Kidding. Gozleme is a Turkish dish, that is sort of a cross between a flat bread and a pastry, that is filled and then fried or barbecued. I think anything goes when it comes to the filling; a few classic combinations are feta and spinach, mushrooms or minced meat.

The original recipe came from My Grill by Pete Evans.  His version contains beef and is cooked on the barbecue.  It’s still winter here and I wasn’t prepared to barbecue in the dark, so my Gozleme are pan fried, and clearly my filling differs as it contains lamb and goats cheese.  We ate them for dinner, but really Gozleme make the perfect weekend lunch.  With the crispy dough on the outside and the lamb and creamy goats cheese on the inside, they feel a little bit special, and worthy of a lazy Saturday lunch.

Lamb and Goats Cheese Gozleme (serves 2-4, depending on how hungry you are)

200g plain yoghurt
250g self raising flour, plus extra for rolling
pinch salt
150g minced lamb
1 clove garlic
1-2 shallots
1 sprig rosemary
baby aubergine (100g)
100g goats soft cheese
a small handful of chopped, fresh mint
salt and pepper
olive oil
lemon wedges to serve

Start by making the dough. The great thing about this dough is it doesn’t need to rise, so it is quick to make and can be used almost straight away.  Beat the yoghurt and a pinch of salt in a bowl until smooth then gradually add the flour to form a smooth dough.  Knead and then rest for about half an hour while you prepare the other ingredients.

Finely chop the garlic, onion, rosemary and aubergine.  Heat some oil in a small frying pan, and over a medium heat, fry the onion and garlic. After a couple of minutes add the minced lamb and rosemary and fry for another couple of minutes until the meat starts to brown.  You now need to add the aubergine, you may also need to add a little extra olive oil at this point as the aubergine needs a fair amount of oil to cook through.

Once the lamb and aubergine are cooked (this should only take about five minutes) take off the heat, stir through the mint and season to taste.

By now the dough should be ready to roll. Divide the dough into four even portions and on a well floured surface, roll each out into a circle about 30cm round.  Take a quarter of the lamb mix and spread on one half of the circle leaving about a 1cm gap around the edge.  Crumble a quarter of the goats cheese over the top, and brush a little water around the edge of the circle to help seal.

Fold the dough over the meat mixture and seal well. Try and get as much air out of the parcel as you can so it doesn’t puff up during cooking. Crimp the edge with a fork to help seal.  Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.

Heat a frying pan on high with a little olive oil. Cook the Gozleme 1-2 at a time, depending on the size of your pan.  The Gozleme should be cooked for 2-3 minutes on each side until the dough is golden brown and crispy but not burnt.  You may need to press them down in the pan to ensure all of the dough is cooked.  If the dough is not brown enough it will taste doughy and soggy (not very pleasant and highly disappointing).

Serve with a wedge of lemon to squeeze on top.