Meat dishes and kebabs

Kebab with yoghurt

Ingredients: 600 cal (6 servings)

Sauce: Place pides on a grill and heat both sides gently. After cubing the pides, put them on a preheated plate and top of with 2 1/2 tablespoons of melted butter or margarine. Mix well and set aside. Marinate the cubed meat in onion juice and olive oil. Skewer the meat cubes, leaving 1/2 inch between each meat cube, place skewers 2 inches above moderate coal fire and grill all sides until golden brown for 4-5 minutes. While the kebaps are being grilled, peel and dice the medium tomatoes, put in a pan and cook gently for 2 minutes. Spread the cooked tomato sauce on the pides, beat the yoghurt with a fork and add on top of the tomato sauce. Place the kebab again evenly and decoratively on each plate, top with red pepper and melted butter or margarine.

Slice the tomato and grill very gently while grilling the green peppers well. Top with the grilled tomato and green pepper slices and serve hot.

Mutton shanks kebab with vegetables

Ingredients: 460 cal (6 servings)

PREPARATION: Scrape the carrot, slice thinly or grate. Grate the celery, and the onion. Pound the garlic ina mortar.

Put the margarine and olive oil in a pot and place on heat. Put the flour in a bowl and coat the shanks with it. When the oil is heated, put shanks in the pot and fry well until golden brown. Season the fried shanks with salt and black pepper and put the vegetables on the shanks in the pot. Saute the vegetables slightly, constantly stirring. Mix the tomato paste with 1/4 glass of warm water or meat broth, and pour it over vegetables. Cover and cook, occasionally stirring. Rinse and strain the peas and add them to the kebab 20 minutes later. Allow to cook for 45 minutes, before seasoning kebab with thyme. Check for water while the kebab is cooking and add water if necessary.

Sultan's delight

Ingredients: 500 cal (6 servings) Eggplant puree:

PREPARATION: Peel and grate the onions. Pare the tomatoes, scoop out the seeds and dice.

KEBAB: Put the margarine and grated onions in a saucepan and saute over moderate heat. Add the meat and saute with the onions for 3-4 minutes until golden. Cover and cook until the meat absorbs the water while stirring occasionaly. Season with 1/2 tablespoon black pepper and salt. Add the tomatoes or the tomato paste and 2-2 1/2 glasses of hot water, and simmer until the meat is tender. Check occasionally for water and add water if necessary.

EGGPLANT PUREE: Put the butter and flour in a small saucepan, place over moderate heat and saute for 2 minutes making sure that the flour doesn't turn golden. Set aside. Grill the eggplants on strong coal or gas heat, burning the skins. Peel the skins of eggplants and blanch them in a bowl containing lemon juice. After blanching for 15 minutes, remove the eggplants from lemon juice and press them with the hand to drain. Put the eggplants in the flour one by one and blend them well with a fork. Place the saucepan on heat, add 1 tablespoon of salt and add 1/5 glasses of hot milk, and blend them well by beating rapidly. Continue beating until the eggplant mixture becomes a dens paste. Add the grated kashar stir well and remove from heat.

When both the kebab and the puree are ready, place puree on serving dish, put the meat decoratively in the middle and serve hot.

Kashar is a sheep sheese similar to Cheddar or Kashkavale available in Jewish stores.

Urfa kebab

Ingredients: 950 cal (6 servings)

PREPARATION: Mince the meat twice. After washing and peeling the tomatoes, remove the seeds and mince. Grate the onions. Wash and chop the parsley.

Place ground meat in a bowl. Add the onions, tomatoes, three quarters of parsley, olive oil, red papper, black pepper and salt. Knead for an half an hour blending well. Make into sausage shaped meatballs and skewer. Place skewers 5 cm. above moderate coal fire, and grill until they are golden brown. Meanwhile melt 100 grams butter. Cut the pides into quarters, and coat with melted butter before toasting on a grill. When the pides are toasted, place on plates, dice and pour hot broth on top. Place the meatballs on pides fter the meat broth has been absorbed. Top with chopped parsley and serve hot.

Shish Kebap

Ingredients: (5 servings)

Cut tomatoes into large chunks removing the inner soft part. Cut the green peppers in half, remove the seeds and cut into smaller pieces. Skewer a piece of meat, tomato, and green pepper succesively. Cook on a barbecue, 3 to 4 minutes each side.

Doner Kebap

Ingredients:

Remove any bits of skin and bone from the meat. Cut into serving-size pieces. Pound with a meat tenderizer or the edge of a heavy saucepan until 1/8 cm. thick. Trim. Prepare a marinade of onion juice, olive-olil, salt and pepper, and soak meat in the marinade. Spread over each piece of meat the lamb fat, and ground lamb mixed with an egg. Thread pieces of meat on a long skewer, starting with the larger pieces. Trim the chunk of meat on the skewer and add trimmings to the end of skewer. The chunk of meat is broiled in the "Doner Kebab" broiler, made specially for the purpose.

Lamb with onions and cos lettuce

[kapama]

Ingredients: 520 cal (6 servings)

PREPARATION: Cut the meat into 8 pieces. Peel, wash and cut onion petioles into 1 inch slices. Wash the lettuce and cut into 2.5 inch pieces. Peel and slice the onion into rigns. Chop the dill.

Wash the meat and put into a saucepan. Add the lettuce, fresh onion petioles, onion, dill, some salt and water. Cover and cook for 90 minutes. Place in a serving bowl when cooking time is over.

Put the cubed lamb meat in big casserola, top with 1/3 of the tomatoes, green besns, carrots, eggplants, gibson onions, half of the tomatoes, green peppers, potatoes, garlic, okra and the rest of the tomatoes. Add 1/2 tablespoon salt, the granulated sugar, the margarine, and the water. Cover and place in moderately hot oven. Allow to cook for almost 1.5 hours until the meat and beans are tender. Remove from oven, place on a plate and serve hot.

Lamb and vegetables in casserole

[Sebzeli Kuzu Guvec]

Ingredients: 480 cal (6 servings)

PREPARATION: Slice the tomatoes into circles. Head, tail and string the beans and cut them into two. Scrape and cut the carrots lengthwise and cube them. Afetr cutting the eggplants lengthwise in two, divide from the middle and cube. Peel the gibson onions. Remove the seeds of green peppers and cut into four. Peel and cibe them potatoes. Scrape the fibres on top of the okras. If the garlic to be used is the fresh petioles, dice them. If cloves are used, peel them.

Put the cubed lamb meat in big casserole, top with 1/3 of the tomatoes, green beans, carrots, eggplants, gibson onions, half of the tomatoes, green peppers, potatoes, garlic, okra and rest of the tomatoes. Add 1/2 tablespoon salt, the granulated sugar, the margarine, and the water. Cover and place in moderately hot oven. Allow to cook for almost 1.5 hours until the meat and beans are tender. Remove from the oven, place pot on a plate and serve hot.

Shepherd's meatballs

[Coban Koftesi]

Ingredients: 210 cal (6 servings)

Add the grated onions, the soaked and minced slices of bread, the egg, black pepper, garlic, parsley and 1/2 tablespoon salt to finely ground meat and knead for 10 minutes to blend well. Moisten hands, take walnut-sized pieces of the meat and form into flat round shapes by pressing and rolling with palms. Place meatballs in pot containing heated margarine. Add minec tomatoes or tomato paste mixed with 1 glass of water ans 1/2 teaspoon salt, cover and allow to cook for approximately 30 minutes over modrate heat. serve hot.

Raw meatballs

[Cig Kofte]

Ingredients: 355 cal (6 servings)

Wash and drain the bulgar. Grate the onions, chop the parsley and mix them together. Skin and dice the tomatoes and add to the onions and parsley. Put the salt, black pepper, red pepper, allspice and cumin into the mixture, and blend by mixing with the hand a couple of times and set aside. Put the meat and bulgur on a large tray and make into a apste by kneading.

Moisten hands with cold water occasionally while kneading. Add the prepared mixture of onion, tomatoes and spices to the meat and knead to make a paste. Take small pieces of the mixture and press with the palm to flatten i, and put on a serving plate. Decorate with lettuce and parsley before serving. It is recommended that you prepare raw meatballs just before serving, because if they are allowed to stand for a long time, the taste is spoiled.

Lady's thigh meatballs

[Kadin Budu Koftesi]

Ingredients: 250 cal (6 servings)

Saute the chopped onions and two thirds of minced meat with 1 tablespoon margarine. Boil the rice in lots of water till soft, and drain. Remove meat from heat, add the rest of the minced meat, the rice, chopped parsley, salt, black pepper, and 3 egges and knead well. Take egg-sized peces of meat and form into oval shapes. Put half of the flour on a tray, place meatballs on the tray and sprinkle the resty of the flour over them. Beat 2 eggs in a bowl, coat the meatballs with beated egges 20 minutes before the meal, and fry them in a pan containing 3/4 glass of heated olive oil, till golden. Take meatballs of the pan woth a perforated spoon, draining them well, and place on a serving plate. Serve with french fries as an accompaniment.

Meatballs filled with spices and nuts

[Icli Kofte]

Ingredients: 670 cal (6 servings)

Melt the margarine in a saucepan, add the pine nuts and saute till light golden. Add and saute the diced onions gently as well. Put the minced meat and currants into a saucepan and continue sauteeing till golden brown. Remove from heat and add the chopped parsley, salt, black pepper, pounded walnuts and blend. Allow to stand for a while. In the meantime, put bulgur on a large tray, add the red pepper, cumin, salt and 1 glass of cold water and knead for half an hour to blend well. Sprinkle water while kneading if the bulgur becomes sticky. When the bulgur becomes a light paste, add the twice minced mutton and continue kneading for another 15 minutes.

When the mixture starts to feel like a paste, take small pieces of it and form egg-like balls. Then, by turning the index finger rapidly inside the bulgur balls, make fine holes in them. Fill the holes with saute which was set aside and sequeeze the cover the holes. 30 minutes before serving, put balls in saucepan containing 6-7 glasses of boiling water and some salt, and allow to boil for 15-20 minutes. Strain balls with perforated spoon, and place on serving dish.

P.S.: Although many restaurants and stores prefer to offer fried meatballs, the traditional cooking method is boiling.

Mutton ragout

[Koyun yahnisi]

Ingredients: 452 cal (6 servings)

PREPARATION: Skin the tomatoes, remove seeds and chop.

Cut the meat into egg-sized pieces but do not bone it. Put the meat and the gibson onions into a saucepan, place over medium heat and allow to cook for 15 minutes, occasionally stirring. Add the tomatoes and salt and allow to cook for 5 minutes. Then add 3 glasses of hot water, cover and allow to simmer on low heat for 2 hours ands serve hot.

Preserved meat

[Kavurma]

Ingredients: 355 cal (6 servings)

Cut the meat into egg-sized pieces, put in a saucepan with 1/2 tablespoon of salt and cover. Cook for 5 minutes on medium heat, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 1-1.5 hours, stirring occasionally till it begins to sizzle. Uncover, add some more salt, as saute for 20 minutes, constantly stirring.

kavurma may be served with yoghurt and crushed garlic sauce. Women in several regions of Turkey prepare 8-10 kilos of kavurma in the summer and can it. They top the cans with heated cooking fat to preserve for winter time. Kavurma, when preserved, can be used in several dishes throughout the year.