Left-over lamb pie
Hands up who has memories of their Mum making shepherd’s pie? Us too. Ours minced the cold roast lamb using a hefty metal mincer with a crank handle. It screwed onto the edge of the bench or dining table and made short work of reducing the lamb to teeny tiny bits; yes, kids, there was life before food processors. Shepherd’s pie is surely delicious, there’s no doubt about it, but we thought it’d be nice to ring a few changes with the leftover lamb scenario and fashion a pie using filo; it’s like the Turkish version of a homey, comforting, lamb pie. Although rightly, it should be made using yufka pastry, not filo. Yufka dough is fine and is also used in sheets, but these are thicker than filo and more pliable. Yufka is also a bit more versatile as it can be cooked in a pan or on a griddle. Essential for various types of börek and also for gözleme, there’s a real art to making it which we’ve never mastered. In Turkey, people buy it fresh from a bakery or market vendor, frozen from the supermarket, or even dried, when it’s revived with a sprinkle of water before use. On filo; try to avoid using thawed frozen filo as this type tends to easily break and the one you buy from the supermarket chiller section is way easier to handle.
We like this pie slathered in avjar (pronounced ‘aye-varr’), a condiment made from roasted capsicum and eggplant that’s a staple in the Balkans. It’s also lovely with sausages, or just slathered over crusty bread. We’re not sure how the Turks or the Balkans would feel about the culinary cross pollination here but we’ve done it anyway. Avjar tastes wonderfully smoky and even comes in spicy iterations; if you can’t find it, just break out the tomato sauce instead. There’s never any shame in tomato sauce although it would probably get a disapproving side eye from Turkish quarters but shhh, just don’t tell them.
SERVES 4-6
1½ tbsp olive oil, plus extra, for greasing
1 onion, chopped
2½ tbsp Turkish pepper paste, or tomato paste
2 tsp sweet paprika
½ tsp ground cinnamon
large pinch ground allspice
60g (⅓ cup) raisins (the sticky, Lexia ones work great), chopped
600g left-over cold roast lamb, chopped into pieces about 5mm
260g (1 cup) Greek-style yoghurt
125ml (½ cup) extra virgin olive oil
1 large egg
12 sheets filo pastry
1 egg yolk
sesame seeds, for sprinkling
green salad and avjar, to serve
Heat the oil in a frying pan or medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and a large pinch of salt, then cook, stirring, for 4-5 minutes or until softened. Add the pepper paste, spices and raisins, then cook, stirring for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant. Stir in the lamb, season with salt and pepper, then remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.
Brush the base and sides of a 23 x 32 cm x 2.5cm baking dish generously with olive oil. Preheat the oven to 180˚C, fan-forced.
Combine the yoghurt, extra virgin olive oil and egg in a bowl and whisk until combined and smooth. Place 2 sheets of the filo in the dish, gently pushing it into the edges and corners; there will be overhang, especially at the ends.Brush a sixth of the yoghurt mixture (around 70ml) all over the filo, then place two more sheets over the top, easing them in to fit. Brush all over with another sixth of the yoghurt mixture, then top with another two sheets of filo. Brush with another sixth of the yoghurt mixture, then scatter the lamb filling evenly over. Place 2 sheets of filo over the top of the filling, brush with another sixth of the yoghurt mixture, then repeat the process one more time. Place the final two sheets of pastry on top, then whisk the egg yolk into the remaining yoghurt mixture, Spread this over the top of the pie. Using a sharp knife or kitchen scissors, carefully trim the pastry edges, then tuck the trimmed edges into the side of the dish, as best you can, to neaten the edges. Scatter the pie with sesame seeds, then bake for 35-40 minutes or until deep golden. Cool slightly, then serve with avjar and a green salad.
