Turkish Kebaps

Köfte is yummy..

Köfte is ground meat (usually lamb or mutton) mixed with crumbled bread, minced onions and spices, shaped into little cylinders and cooked.

The most common form of the dish is Izgara Köfte, grilled köfte, usually garnished with sliced onions, chopped parsley and a sprinkle of paprika, and served with yogurt and a pile of fresh Turkish sourdough bread.

A good drink to sip while eating izgara köfte is ayran (yogurt blended with water and a pinch of salt).

Shish köfte is a variant in which the köfte is pressed onto a flat skewer (shish) and grilled. Same stuff, different shape.

Salçali köfte is köfte simmered in a savory sauce (usually tomato).

Izmirli köfte is a vegetable stew with köfte-style meatballs.

Peynirli köfte is a variant in which cheese is added to the köfte mix, enhancing the flavor.

Inegöl, a town east of Bursa, is famous for its super-succulent köfte. The succulence comes from an abundance of fat, which tastes great but is not so good for your arteries.

Lets eat the Çöp Şiş (Çöp Shish)

The Aegean region was where I lived when I first moved to Turkey in 1967. I was learning Turkish then, and didn't know what to make of this famous regional dish: çöp sis ("CHIRP" sheesh).

Sis (sheesh) I knew, as in sis kebap (SHEESH keh-bahp), chunks of lamb put on a skewer (sis) and roasted (kebap). Everybody knows about "shish kabob."

But çöp is the word for...trash! Did Aegean locals actually eat...Trash Kebap?

As I learned more Turkish, I understood. Çöp is actually the word for "chaff," the wheat stalk that is blown away in winnowing. It's the part you don't need from your wheat harvest. In other words, it's "trash."

So when the consumer lifestyle came to Turkey with its bounty of refuse, the old word for chaff was re-used—recycled!—to mean trash. So it was not really "Trash Kebap" but "Chaff Kebap."

So...what is it? Three or four little chunks of lamb and a chunk of fat on a split wood skewer (the "chaff"), quick roasted and served with a spicy green pepper.

First prepared as a snack or street food, it has ascended to the status of a main course—at least in the Aegean region south of Izmir, where you'll see restaurant signs advertising it everywhere.

What about the Iskender KEBAP!!

kender (or Bursa) Kebap is named for the chef who created the dish and the city of Bursa where he created it.

As the story goes, Mehmetoglu Iskender Efendi created the first plate of Iskender kebap in Bursa in 1867.

Iskender Usta ("Chef Alexander") chose lamb raised on the thyme-covered slopes of Mount Uludag (which rises south of Bursa, which is south of Istanbul and the Sea of Marmara). He roasted the meat as self-basting döner kebap on a vertical grill, cut off thin slices as it was done, spread the slices atop a bed of diced flat pide bread, then topped the meat and bread with savory tomato sauce and browned butter.

With a dollop of yogurt on the side and a sprinkle of parsley on top, the dish was served to his appreciative clientele.

The fame of Iskender Usta and his dish spread throughout Bursa, and Turkey, and the world.

Over the years other restaurants opened in Bursa and began serving the dish, each claiming culinary descent from the master himself and bearing names such as Iskenderoglu ("Son of Iskender").

Although Iskender/Bursa-style kebap is now served throughout Turkey in many restaurants, the best is still made in Bursa where various restaurants compete for discerning clientele. There is a particular care taken with the selection of the meat and the preparation of the dish in Bursa that is not found everywhere else.

I think it's worth visiting Bursa just to eat this stuff.

Most Iskender kebap restaurants in Bursa do not serve alcoholic beverages. The preferred beverages are water, mineral water or ayran, the yogurt-and-water drink (which is what I prefer to sip while eating Iskender kebap.)

Iskender kebap is traditionally ordered by the porsyon (portion). You order bir porsyon (one portion) for a normal meal, bir-buçuk porsyon (one-and-a-half portions) if you're pretty hungry, and a duble porsyon ("double portion:" two portions) if you're famished and haven't had Iskender kebap in months.

While you're in Bursa, try the traditional candied chestnuts (kestane sekeri), delicious peaches (seftali) and excellent fruit juices (meyva sulari) as well.

Hey! tell me the Döner Kebap..

Döner kebap is filets of meat stacked on a vertical spit and roasted at a vertical grill.

Döner means "turning:" the vertical spit is rotated, or turned, in front of the heat source (charcoal, gas or electric). When the meat directly opposite the heat source is properly roasted, the spit is rotated so that the cooked meat may be sliced off with a huge knife, and an uncooked portion of meat exposed to the fire.

Because the meat is vertical, it is self-basting, which helps to account for its rich flavor.

(In Greece döner is translated as gyro, but may also be called doneri.)

The thin slices of meat are served lots of different ways: plain on the plate, stuffed into Turkish bread (döner sandviç), rolled into flat bread (dürüm), or laid atop diced flat bread and topped with sauces.

Traditional döner is made from milk-fed lamb but in the 1980s a heart-healthier alternative—tavuk (chicken) döner—became popular as well. Today it's not unusual to see twin döners, lamb and chicken, sizzling side by side.The supremo of döners is İskender Kebap ("Alexander's Roast Lamb"), named for a chef in the city of Bursa who created the dish: lamb raised on the thyme-covered slopes of Mount Uludag (which rises south of Bursa) is roasted à la döner, spread atop diced flat pide bread, then topped with savory tomato sauce and browned butter and served with a dollop of yogurt on the side.

I consider this dish addictive!

What is the kebap ?

Kebap (or kebab) simply means "roasted," and usually refers to lamb roasted in some form, but may refer to chicken—or even (roasted) chestnuts—as well.

The most familiar Turkish kebap is shish kebap: chunks of lamb roasted on a skewer. It sounds simple enough, but to make it best you need Turkish free-range lamb, a true charcoal grill, and the knack for getting the outside singed while the inside of each chunk remains soft and succulent.

Döner Kebap is lamb roasted on a vertical spit and sliced off when done. When laid on a bed of chopped flat bread and topped with savory tomato sauce and brown butter, it becomes Iskender (or Bursa) Kebap

Izgara Köfte is ground lamb mixed with egg, rice or bread crumbs and spices, formed into longish meatballs and grilled. If you squoosh the meat onto a long flat skewer and grill it you have shish köfte. (Shish köfte may take on the name kebap if the chef adds his own touches to it.)

Çöp Shish is three or four little chunks of lamb, and a chunk of fat, grilled on a small wooden skewer: a specialty of the Aegean region, especially south of Izmir.

Shashlik is chunks of lamb interspersed with tomatoes, onions and peppers/pimientos (although any good Turkish chef will cook the lamb and vegetables on separate skewers because their cooking times are quite different).