Tallow flatbread

RECIPE BY

Mat Lindsay & O Tama Carey

Sydney chefs Mat Lindsay (Ester, Poly) and O Tama Carey (Lankan Filling Station) are leading lights in the Australian culinary world. Mat is known for his honest, flavourful fire-focused cooking and O Tama for her journey of discovery with Sri Lankan food.

Tallow – or wagyu fat – brings richness to these flatbreads. You can cook them in a cast-iron pan but for a better flavour and texture we prefer to cook them on the grill, the smoke adding an extra flavour to the fat in the dough that is unmatched. In any case you don’t want it to be too hot, so the dough has a chance to caramelise deeply without burning.

01 / 01

Flatbread

½ cup warm water
7g dried yeast
2 tsp caster sugar
370g (13 oz) plain flour
30g (1 oz) wholewheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
25g (1 oz) tallow, melted, plus extra for brushing on finished breads
½ tsp salt
150g (5.3 oz) thick Greek yoghurt, at room temperature

Flatbread

Combine warm water, yeast and 1 tsp sugar in a bowl and leave for 5-10 minutes until frothy and active.
In a large bowl combine the flours, baking powder, salt and remaining sugar. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yoghurt, tallow and yeast mixture. Stir, and bring the mix together; it should make quite a wet dough, but if it’s too sticky to handle, add a little more plain flour.
On a well-floured surface, knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it’s smooth and elastic, then put the dough in an oiled bowl covered with clingfilm and leave it in a warm place for roughly an hour or until it doubles in size.
Knock back the dough, then divide it into 8-10 balls.
On a floured surface, pat the dough balls out with your fingertips to roughly 1cm thick. Aim to make more of an oval shape, leaving them a little thicker at the sides. You can use a rolling pin if you wish, but your fingers will create an uneven surface, giving contrast between thicker and thinner parts, the crisp and the chewy, and will result in a flatbread that has more character once it’s cooked.
When your coals are ready for grilling, carefully lay the dough on the grill, cooking for 2 or 3 minutes, giving it a chance to puff up and cook to a nice dark caramel colour, even a little darker in some places. Turn it over and cook the other side for another 3 or 4 minutes until cooked through.
Brush each flatbread with some of the extra melted tallow as it comes off the grill and give it a nice sprinkling of sea salt. Serve them hot straight off the grill, or keep warm in a clean cloth till you’re ready to serve.