Frying pan Turkish flatbreads

Today marks the start of Organic September and what better way to kick it off than this great recipe from much-acclaimed vegetarian cookery writer Anna Jones, author of A Modern Way to Cook

Anna writes: "The part of east London I live in is full of Turkish cafes. They turn out charcoal-baked flatbreads and insanely good salads, and although meat is front and centre in Turkish food, there are some amazing vegetable dishes too. Here is a quick way to make my two favourites at home."

Anna's Frying Pan Turkish Flatbreads

Ingredients

To make the flatbreads

• 200g spelt flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 200g Greek yoghurt, or 150ml warm water

To make the topping

• 2 red onions
• 3 red peppers
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried Turkish chilli flakes
• 1 green chilli
• a small bunch of fresh mint

To make the salad

• 1 red onion
• 1 lemon
• 5 ripe vine tomatoes
• a small bunch of fresh mint
• a small bunch of fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon sumac
• 1 teaspoon harissa or Turkish chilli paste
• 2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
• extra virgin olive oil

Getting started

Put all the flatbread ingredients into the bowl of your food processor and pulse until the mixture forms a ball. If you don't have a food processor, this can be done in a bowl using a fork to begin with, followed by your hands, but it will take longer.

Dust a clean work surface with flour and tip out the dough. Knead for a minute or so to bring it all together. This is a quick flatbread recipe, so you don't need to knead it for long. Put the dough into flour-dusted bowl and cover with a plate. Put to one side to rise a little for 10-15 minutes while you do some other jobs. Don't expect it to rise like normal dough, but it may puff up a tiny bit.

To make the topping, heat a frying pan on medium heat, then finely chop your onions and red peppers and put them into the pan with 1 tablespoon of oil. Cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes, until soft and sweet, then add the dried chilli. Chop the fresh green chilli and mint and add to the pan along with a final tablespoon of oil.

Next, make your salad. Finely slice the onion and put into a bowl with the juice of half a lemon and a good pinch of salt. Scrunch with your hands, then leave to pickle.

Chop the tomatoes roughly, then roughly chop the leaves of fresh herbs. Put them into a bowl with the spices and the pomegranate molasses and add the lemon-picked red onions. Season well with salt and pepper and add a little more lemon juice and a good drizzle of olive oil, balancing out the flavours until it tastes great.

Now back to the flatbreads. Put a large frying pan or griddle pan (about 22-24cm) on a medium heat.

Dust a clean work surface and rolling pin with flour, then divide dough into four equal-sized pieces. Using your hands, pat and flatten out the dough, then use the rolling pin to roll each piece into about 20cm round, roughly 2-3mm thick.

Once your pan is hot, cook each flatbread for 1-2minutes on each side, until nicely puffed up, turning with tongs.

Spread with the onion and chilli mixture while hot, and serve straightaway with spoonfuls of salad.

What to drink: As it's still warm and summery as I'm posting this I'd go for a crisp dry white or rosé. There are in fact some good ones from Turkey (though I haven't come across many that are organic) but anywhere round the Mediterranean - neighbouring Greece, Italy or Southern France would be fine too.

Follow all the Organic September action, find recipes and features at www.soilassociation.org/organicseptember and by following #OrganicSeptember on social media. You can find more of Anna's recipes on her website Anna Jones.

Celery, tomato and echalion sauce - a simple way of serving fish

My friend cookery writer Andrea Leeman is one of the best home cooks I know with a knack of making even the simplest food taste utterly delicious.

Her latest book A Veg for All Seasons, inspired by her (and my) local Bristol greengrocer Reg the Veg and published by Bristol photographer and designer Stephen Morris is a great example of the kind of small-scale publishing project that's burgeoning nowadays.

As the title suggests it includes a selection of recipes for using seasonal vegetables including this healthy sauce for serving with roast or poached white fish.

Andrea writes: echalions are the long torpedo-shaped or 'banana' shallots. An excellent sauce in which to cook fresh white fish such as chunks of flaky cod, sea bream fillets or whole sea bass. You could pep it up with half a chopped green chilli.

Serves 4

4 celery sticks

4 ripe tomatoes

2 echalions (banana shallots)

A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley

2 tbsp olive oil

200ml dry white wine such as muscadet

a small to medium-sized seabass or 4 x 150g white fish fillets

sea salt and black pepper

String and chop the celery sticks in half lengthways, then into small half-moons. Make 3-4 slashes in the tomatoes, put into a bowl and pour over boiling water; after a couple of minutes, run under the cold tap, skin and remove the hard core at the top before chopping into pieces. Peel and chop the echalions and chop the parsley.

Spoon the olive oil into a pan and heat; add the celery, tomatoes and echalions, fry gently until the vegetables soften. Pour in the wine and cook for another 3 minutes before adding the chopped parsley and salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the sauce into a suitable dish for roasting or steaming the fish – if steaming the pan will need a lid. Lay the fish on the sauce and spoon a little over the top. Oven time is about 20 minutes in a medium oven, poaching on the stove takes approximately 5-6 minutes on a low heat, but don’t forget to cover the fish so the steam can do its work.

What to drink: As Andrea has mentioned Muscadet it would make sense to drink it with the dish. Picpoul de Pinet or a dry Italian white such as Pinot Grigio would also work well or even a dry Provençal rosé.

You can buy A Veg for all Seasons from Reg the Veg or order it online from Waterstones for £10.