Citra's Home Diary: Turkish Food Recipe; ISKENDER KEBAB (Homemade) . With Video / İskender kebab tarifi

Merhaba From Türkiye 👋

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Turkish Food Recipe; ISKENDER KEBAB (Homemade) . With Video / İskender kebab tarifi | Çitra's Home Diary. #turkishcuisine #mediterraneanfood #kebabrecipe #iskenderkebabrecipe #resepmasakanturki #copycatrecipe #dinnerrecipe #kebab

Iskender kebab or iskender doner is one of the famous kebab dishes of Bursa region where I'm living now. It takes its name from its inventor, İskender Efendi, who lived in Bursa in the late 19th century Ottoman Empire.

The 1st restaurant was in Kayhan Bazaar, Bursa in 1867. And until today become very famous and huge with many chains restaurant inside or outside Bursa.

The dish consists of döner kebab prepared from thinly and carefully cut grilled lamb topped with hot tomato sauce over pieces of pita bread and generously slathered with melted special sheep's milk butter and yogurt. Tomato sauce and melted butter are generally poured over the dish live at the table, for the customer's amusement.

"Kebapçı İskender" is trademarked by the İskenderoğlu family, who still run the restaurant in BursaThis dish is available in many restaurants throughout the country mostly under the name "İskender kebap", "Bursa kebabı", or at times with an alternative one made up by the serving restaurant such as "Uludağ kebabı".

You may like this Pideli Köfte recipe (Turkish Kofte with pide/ flatbread)

"Usta" prepare iskender kebab

As I mentioned above, the dish consists of some elements; The kebab-main element, flatbread (tırnak pide), and tomato sauce. Also, the dish is served with grilled banana chili pepper, (grilled) tomato, and yogurt. Hot boiling butter will pour over the dish. This hot fragrant butter is the real deal for this dish, so do not skip it! 😊

The kebab is originally made from lamb meat, but for my homemade version, I mix it with beef as well. If you are already familiar with Turkish kebab, you may already know that mostly kebab here is prepared and cooked on a rotating meat spit (commonly a vertical spit). Then the crispy cooked meat is shaved off for serving, and the remaining of the meat is kept heated on the rotating spit.

If you have a mini kebab rotisserie at home, you are lucky. You can just arrange and stuck the meat onto the iron skewer of your rotisserie machine, then you are good to go. But for you who don't have that fancy machine (like me😊), you still can make your kebab at home just like my way which I am about to share today.

If you like this post, you may love this Turkey or Chicken Shawarma Recipe

What we need.

Meat. I use two kinds of meat- beef, and lamb. But feel free to use all lamb meat, as I mentioned above originally authentic iskender kebab mostly uses lamb meat. Reputedly original İskender kebab using special lamb which fed with thyme plant.

Flatbread pide. Or known as tırnak pide in Turkish language. Tırnak pide is different from other flatbread or Ramazan pide, it's thinner and more crunchy. Just use any flatbread you have if you can not access this tırnak pide.

Tomato sauce. It should be fresh and not too thick, it should have a pourable consistency. I will also share how to make homemade tomato sauce for this dish.

Butter. This is the real deal of this dish, so don't skip it. Use the best quality of butter. Melt it until bubbling and pour over the dish just before you eat it.

Yogurt, thick plain one for enjoying with this dish. Grilled carliston/ banana green chili pepper.

Let's jump to the recipe....

Homemade İskender Kebab

By: Çitra's Home Diary

Serve: 6-7 portions

Ingredients:

For kebab:
🥩 700 gr lamb meat (kuzu et)
🥩 300 gr lamb/ beef minced meat (dana/ kuzu kıyma)

🥩 1 big yellow onion (soğan)

🥩 2 cloves of garlic (optional) (sarımsak-isteğe bağlı)

🥩 150 gr thick Turkish yogurt (yoğurt)

🥩 100 gr milk (süt)

🥩 3-4 Tbsp dried thyme (kekik)

🥩 1 tsbp chili flake (pulbiber)

🥩 3 tsp salt or to taste (tuz)

🥩 1 tsp black pepper (karabiber)

For the sauce:

🍅 2 big tomatoes, peel them then blend them smoothly

🍅 4-5 Tbsp tomato paste

🍅 1 Tbsp sweet chili paste

🍅 2 cloves of garlic, minced

🍅 1 tsp salt or to taste

🍅 1 tsp sugar

🍅 about 2½ cup of water (more if you want a thinner sauce)

For serving:

🥩 flatbread/pide bread, cut into bite-size

🥩 yogurt

🥩 grilled carliston chili pepper/banana chili pepper

🥩 good quality butter. melted.

How to make:

Make kebab

1. Slice the meat as thin as possible. If you can not slice it very thin, just slice about 1 cm thick then gently flatten it with a meat tenderizer. Place and mix with minced meat into a medium bowl.

2. Shredded or blender onion and garlic until pure-smooth. Mix it with other ingredients; yogurt, milk, thyme, chili flake, black pepper, and salt.

Mix the sauce mixture with meat and mix it until completely blended. All meat is covered by the sauce.

3. Take a plastic sheet/ plastic film, make double to avoid leaking. Place the meat over the plastic sheet and roll/ wrap it into a big log. Seal both edges tightly then keep in the freezer few hours or overnight.

Make the sauce.

1. Pureé tomatoes and garlic. Mix with tomato and sweet chili paste, salt, and sugar. Add water and heat over medium heat until bubbling. Set aside.

Assemble the dish.

1. Take the kebab from the freezer and let it sit at room temperature for about 10-15 minutes. Using a sharp knife slice the frozen kebab about 1-2 mm thick.

2. Meanwhile, heat the grilling pan. Add butter or solid fat to the pan. Grill the frozen kebab directly over the pan, do not wait until it defrosts otherwise you will get crumble kebab. If you have kebab log waiting, keep it in the freezer while waiting for the grill so it won't defrost.

Do not flip over often, just wait until golden brown on one side before you flip your kebab slice. Grill the kebab slice until golden brown on both sides.

You can grill some green banana chili peppers at the same time.

3. Cut the flatbread pide into bite-size, place over a serving plate. Place the kebab meat over the bread then flush with tomato sauce. Then pour boiling butter just before you eat it.

Serve with Turkish thick yogurt, grilled green chili pepper, and tomato slices.

Afiyet Olsun. Enjoy.