Turkish food question, What was I eating?
Jul 6, 2009, 3:55 pm
#1
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Turkish food question, What was I eating?
I Just returned from a three week visit to Turkey and fell in love with the country, the people, and especially the food. There was this one item I especially liked, but could never find out exactly what it was, I hope that one of you can help me out.
It looked like a giant pile of ground beef (but was "meat-free"), the seller would make small hand-formed, oddly shaped portions (picture squeezing the stuff in one hand until it kinda oozed between the fingers), and serving it with lettuce leaves, lemon, and flat bread. It had a spicy kick to it, reddish in color, and had a slightly "under-cooked couscous" texture.
Any ideas? Recipie?
Thanks,
--JD
It looked like a giant pile of ground beef (but was "meat-free"), the seller would make small hand-formed, oddly shaped portions (picture squeezing the stuff in one hand until it kinda oozed between the fingers), and serving it with lettuce leaves, lemon, and flat bread. It had a spicy kick to it, reddish in color, and had a slightly "under-cooked couscous" texture.
Any ideas? Recipie?
Thanks,
--JD
Jul 7, 2009, 8:11 am
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Jul 7, 2009, 11:05 am
#9
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From that wiki:
Also confirmed that it has beef by my Izmir friend.
HTSC
Bulgur is kneaded with chopped onions and water until it gets soft. Then tomato and pepper paste, spices and very finely ground beef are added. This absolutely fatless raw mincemeat is treated with spices while kneading the mixture, which is said to "cook" the meat. Lastly, green onions, fresh mint and parsley are mixed in.
HTSC
Jul 8, 2009, 4:31 am
#11
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Those sound like exactly what I've been eating lately (I've been having irresistible cravings for both parsley and lentils during the last couple of months).
Lentil Kofte (which google shows me as these )
I wouldn't call this a genuine recipe, but it's an adaptation of how I make tabbouleh (which I really can't get enough of lately).
For tabbouleh I use a small measure of fine bulgur wheat (it doesn't require cooking - but the larger grains do - these larger grains might be better if you want a 'meatier' texture for kofte) to which I add just over half the same amount of cold water and let it soak.
I cut up a bunch of parsley as finely as possible as well as a few sprigs of fresh mint.
One small onion (or scallions or a shallot or two) - diced
a diced small tomato
a grated garlic clove
juice of a lemon
some sea salt
Once it's all been stirred together I then add a generous quantity of olive oil.
My b@stardised version of lentil kofte involves omitting the diced tomato and most of the oil and adding a spoon of tomato puree as well as either a spoon of harissa or a spoon of Korean pepper paste (kochujang) - just because I'm more likely to have kochujang around than harissa, kochujang just seems to keep for longer.
I also add a portion of cooked red lentils which I make as firm as possible.
I just add the lentils and tomato and pepper pastes to the tabbouleh and make the mixture into bullet or round shapes. I eat them with cucumber yoghurt or hummus if I have some and salad leaves - they also make nice sandwiches.
I suspect that cooked course bulgur wheat will make the lentil kofte type patties even nicer but the fine grain bulgur wheat is so convenient I just haven't got around to it yet (and it means that I get to have tabbouleh AND lentil patties by keeping some of the tabbouleh base mixture aside and adding some diced tomato)
Lentil Kofte (which google shows me as these )
I wouldn't call this a genuine recipe, but it's an adaptation of how I make tabbouleh (which I really can't get enough of lately).
For tabbouleh I use a small measure of fine bulgur wheat (it doesn't require cooking - but the larger grains do - these larger grains might be better if you want a 'meatier' texture for kofte) to which I add just over half the same amount of cold water and let it soak.
I cut up a bunch of parsley as finely as possible as well as a few sprigs of fresh mint.
One small onion (or scallions or a shallot or two) - diced
a diced small tomato
a grated garlic clove
juice of a lemon
some sea salt
Once it's all been stirred together I then add a generous quantity of olive oil.
My b@stardised version of lentil kofte involves omitting the diced tomato and most of the oil and adding a spoon of tomato puree as well as either a spoon of harissa or a spoon of Korean pepper paste (kochujang) - just because I'm more likely to have kochujang around than harissa, kochujang just seems to keep for longer.
I also add a portion of cooked red lentils which I make as firm as possible.
I just add the lentils and tomato and pepper pastes to the tabbouleh and make the mixture into bullet or round shapes. I eat them with cucumber yoghurt or hummus if I have some and salad leaves - they also make nice sandwiches.
I suspect that cooked course bulgur wheat will make the lentil kofte type patties even nicer but the fine grain bulgur wheat is so convenient I just haven't got around to it yet (and it means that I get to have tabbouleh AND lentil patties by keeping some of the tabbouleh base mixture aside and adding some diced tomato)
