Turkish Mince & Grilled eggplant Gozleme

(makes 8)

Another experiment - with one of my fave Turkish foods. It was probably one of the few Turkish dishes i knew of, other than kebabs, before i got to Turkey. Watching the big strong Turkish women sit and make gozleme was absolutely fascinating: they would sit in 3's, one would roll, the next would fill and the last would fry it up! And that is just what they did, all day long and i must say, they were damn good at their job!

Roll, fill, grill

The other exciting thing about gozleme over there was that there was just so many choices, i guess it's just like pizza toppings but at the markets in Sydney they are limited to vegetarian, meat or 'the lot', whereas over there you can choose from 20+ fillings! Delicious! My fave additions were grilled eggplant, and mince & potato... so that's what i decided to make.


Prep time: 45 min
Cooking time: 10 min (each gozleme)


Ingredients:
Dough:

1 sachet of dried yeast (7g)
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp salt
300mL warm water
3 C plain flour + extra for kneading and rolling out
2 T olive oil

Filling:
200g Mince beef
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Sumac
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Coriander
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1/2 brown onion
1/2 potato
2 cloves of garlic
1 small eggplant
1 head of spinach/silverbeet
100g Vintage cheddar cheese 
100g Bulgarian feta
8-10 sprigs of Parsley
1 lemon, to serve


Method:
1. Mix the yeast, sugar, salt in the warm water and cover. Let it sit in a warm sunny place for 5 minutes, or until it bubbles and rises.
2. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Add the yeast and olive oil and mix until combined. This should form a soft sticky dough.
3. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead for 3-5 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic, you will need to keep applying flour! Place on a greased baking tray and cover for 20 minutes or until it has doubled in size.

4. Meanwhile, mix the beef with the paprika, sumac, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper and olive oil.
5. FInely dice the garlic, onion and potato.
6. Cut the eggplant into thin 1cm x 3cm strips. Heat a large fry pan with 1/2 T olive oil, then add the eggplant and apply salt generously. Cook for 3-5 minutes then turn over, drizzling olive oil on top to soften and add flavour to it. Cook for another 3-5 minutes until it looks nicely char-grilled.
7. Remove the eggplant and put aside. Add the garlic, onion and potato to the pan and cook for 5 minutes until softened. Add the beef mince, stirring continually to break up the mince. When cooked, remove and put aside
8. Wash the spinach and finely slice into thin strips. Finely chop the parsley.
9. Roughly cut the cheese into small blocks. 

All the tasty fillings ready to go!

10. Cut the dough into 8 pieces, then roll out one piece at a time on a floured surface into a large rectangle (about the size of an A4 page). 
NB. Be careful not to roll it out too thin as it will break! Best to trial one first and see how it goes and taste-test too!
11. Fill half the dough with your combo of ingredients - in this case, add the spinach, then the 2 types of cheese, the mince mix, eggplant and parsley then fold the other half over. 
NB. You may need to press down on it to flatten it before and after you put it in the pan!

12. Heat a fry pan or BBQ on high heat. Generously drizzle olive oil on, then transfer the dough over. Cook on one side for 5 minutes or so, checking that the bottom has become firm and crusty. Flip over and continue to cook for another 3-5 minutes.
13. Remove from the pan and cut into 8 pieces and serve with a wedge of lemon!

Storage: After much experimentation, i have concluded that it's best to store it as dough that hasn't been rolled, in glad wrap and either freezer or the fridge are ok (for a couple of days). Rolling it out in advance is tricky because it can get sticky and may fall apart.

If you make extra, then it keeps ok in the fridge for a day or 2, and you can just reheat on the sandwich press!