Adana kebabı

In 2021 I bought some serious kebab skewers. After one year I finally used them for an Adana kebabı. Not exactly a proper authentic Adana kebabı because I used sumac, cumin and urfa biber in the kebabs. I understand my version is referred to as urfa kebab. If you really dig into the taxonomical classification of kebab things get more complicated. For the original Adana kebabı you should only use salt and sweet red peppers. Also the lamb should be mixed with 30% tail fat. The Turkish butcher didn’t have tail fat so I asked him to mix the lamb meat with 20% fat. He put everything through the meat grinder and I walked out with minced 20% fatty lamb meat.

I mixed 500 gram of minced lamb meat with 5 grams salt (about 1 teaspoon), 1 teaspoon cumin, 2 teaspoons sumac, and 1 tablespoon urfa biber. Urfa biber is also called Isot biber. Urfa biber is a red chili pepper, ripening to a dark maroon on the plant. After harvest the pepper is sun dried and tightly wrapped afterwards. This pepper is only 7,500 SHU on the Scoville scale. 500 gram is about 6 skewers and 1 skewer is really enough for one person.

If you don’t mix the cumin, sumac and urfa biber with the meat you can sprinkle those spices on top of the meat on your plate. Next time I will probably just use urfu pepper and salt. Careful with salt. Once it’s in, you cannot adjust for less salt.

The salt has the function to dissolve the muscle protein, which helps the meat stay on the skewer. During the mixing of the meat you add water and knead this into the mass. The result should be an almost clay like meat-mixture. Chill in the fridge. If you follow these steps you can mould the meat around the skewers like clay and it will not fall off during the grilling.

Cooking time should be around 12 minutes. You serve the kebabs with Turkish flat bread, a tahini-garlic sauce and a salad made of red onions and sumac. Grill some green pepper on the charcoal for extra vegetables. An easy addition is buying a jar of Türlü Turşu (mixed vegetables pickles), which goes great with the fatty meat.

The tahini sauce is easily made by mixing tahini with garlic, salt, lemon juice and enough water to make a nice sauce-like consistency. Use an electric mixer for the best result.

Sumaklı soğan salatası

The red onion salad is quite simpel as well. The ingredients are: red onion, sumac, salt, lemon juice and parsley. Add the parsley only just before serving!

Urfa biber (Isot biber).

Flat bread

With not much to do in my free time, other than care for my father, I decided the summer of 2021 should be the summer of flat breads. It’s staple food in many parts of the globe. To make a distinction between the different types of flat bread I divided the different types of flat bread in unleavened and leavened flat bread. The regions I am interested in are the Indian subcontinent (and its influence on migration: Kenyan chapati, Surinamese roti), the Middle-East and Turkey. That’s plenty of bread to make for just one summer.

Unleavened flat breads

Indian Chapati/ roti
Atta flour, water, salt. For 2 chapati I use one cup of atta and 100 ml water. Recipe

Indian Paratha
Atta, water, ghee/butter/cooking oil. The flaky chapati from Kenya is in fact a paratha (“parat” means layer in Punjabi).

Surinamese roti
Actually the Indian dhalpuri. A roti with a stuffing of ground yellow split peas, cumin (geera), garlic, and pepper.

Which flour?
For Indian flat bread like chapati and paratha atta flour is used. Atta is a whole wheat flour made from hard wheat (which is also used to make Italian pasta) and is high in gluten content, which provides elasticity.

Chapati, matar paneer and home made lime pickle.

Saj bread
This is an unleavened bread baked on a saj, a convex metal griddle. This can be markook shrek or an even thinner and very large bread called lavash. This bread is common in the Middle-East.

Leavened flat breads

Turkish Flat Bread (Bazlama)
300 ml warm water
12 g active dried yeast 1 packet
15 gram sugar
Combine the yeast, sugar, and water and activate the yeast for 10 minutes.

200 g Greek-style yogurt
30 ml extra virgin olive oil
Mix the yoghurt and oil.

15 g kosher salt
500 g all-purpose flour
¼ cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley
Mix the yeast-mixture, yoghurt and flour. Roll the dough portions into approximately 15 cm circles.

Khubz (Greek: pita)
The name is confusing since ‘khubz’ is the generic Arabic word for bread. A recipe from Claudia Roden’s “A New Book of Middle Eastern Food” (1968):

500 gram ‘strong’ flower. Strong flower is made from hard wheat and is high in gluten content.
300 ml water.
15 gram fresh yeast or 7 gram dried yeast
Sugar
Salt
Oil.
Bake in hot oven.
Note: when I bake this bread in my oven, the outside becomes hard. The same dough on a flat piece of cast iron on the stove results in a soft khubz.

Indian Naan (no yeast but baking soda)
1 cup all-purpose flour plain flour, Maida
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 cup yogurt room temperature
1-1/2 tsp oil canola, vegetable
1/4 cup look warm water use as needed

Making Naan:

For garnishing mix all the ingredients, butter, salt, cilantro, and green chili. Set aside.

Mix the dry ingredients together, add 1 tablespoon of oil and yogurt mix it well. Then add the water gradually to make very soft dough but not sticky. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface, knead the dough well. Apply light oil to the dough and cover. Let the dough sit for about 3 hours in warm place.

Dough should be about 1-1/2 time, knead the dough again on floured surface. Divide the dough in four parts, lightly roll into the flour, cover the balls and let it sit for about five minutes before rolling.

Roll the naan one at a time on a lightly floured surface little less than 1/4 inch thick. Sprinkle the water lightly on one side of the naan.

Put water side naan over tawa, once the naan start bubbling and dough start drying, turn the tawa over flames keeping about 2 inch away from the flames to cook the naan from top. Note: yes naan will stick to tawa and will not fall of, this the reason you cannot use the nonstick skillet.

Once naan browned to your satisfaction, remove, and spread the butter mix over.

Man’ouche Lebanese flatbread
360 g flour
150 g self-raising flour
10 g salt
5 g sugar
4.5 g dry yeast
250 ml lukewarm water
As needed: olive oil
As needed: za’atar

Mix the flour, self-raising flour, salt, and sugar well. Dissolve the yeast in the water and leave the mixture to rest for a while so that the yeast can activate. Gradually add the yeast and 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the flour mixture. Knead for ten minutes until it forms a smooth and supple dough. Cover the dough and allow to rest for one and half to two hours.

Knead the dough again and divide into eight small balls. Leave the dough to rest again for 30 minutes. Flatten the balls with your hands into thin, round pizzas. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle over the za’atar. Bake in a hot oven at 200°C or on the traditional convex pan (saj) for a few minutes until done.

Kırmızı Mercimek Çorbasi (red lentil soup)

30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.

31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.

Genesis 25:30-31

One of the easiest soup I know. But you need homemade chicken stock if you want to do it properly. Any homemade chicken stock will do: I made my latest version of this soup with Chinese chicken stock made from half a soup chicken, a piece of ginger and spring onions. Simmer for at least two hours.

Fry onion in some olive oil. Add a small tin of tomato puree and cumin powder. Add chicken stock and red lentils. Simmer for half an hour until the lentils are cooked. Optional: fresh tomatoes, potatoes, carrot. I didn’t puree my soup because red lentils cook soft very quickly, if you add potatoes you can puree the soup with a blender. Finally add some shredded chicken left over from making the chicken stock. Adjust for salt and add black or white pepper.

Finishing touch
Dress the soup with either one of the following: dried mint leaves, olive oil, lemon juice, red pepper flakes or sumac. You can also melt butter over low-medium heat. When it starts spitting, stir in chilli flakes. Then, pour the butter over the soup.