Izgara Köfte (Turkish Broiled Meatballs)

One of my favourite ways of Turkish meatballs is this absolutely delicious and very quick and easy to make, that I discovered during our travel in Turkey. These izgara kofte can be made using minced lamb meat, infusing the meat with a fragrant Turkish spices and adding a little bit of sugar it helps to balanced the flavor. This is a simple recipe for making a meatball in the oven. They’re tender, delicate, moist not dry and taste like the autentic Turks kofte/meatballs. We personally love eating this dish in middle eastern style along with the saffron rice, bulgur pilaf, and charcoal grilled chili's, it goes well with shepherd's salad dish and wedges of lemon.  (Makes 20 pieces of meatballs)
Ingredients:
600g ground beef
1 large yellow onion
1½ tbsp kofte spice
½ tbsp sumac spice
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 egg
1¼ cup bread crumbs
1½ tbsp sugar
salt
olive oil
Preparation:

1. The first step was finely chopping my onion in my food processor for a quick prep.

2. Next up, preheat oven to 220°C; In large bowl combine all ingredients including the chopped onion, except olive oil, add some salt around 1¼ tbsp or depends on your personal taste.

3. Mush with your hands to mix well until combine. Clean your hands before handling the food.

4. Take a big  bite size of meat mixture about 4½cm or you could make them any size you wanted. Roll each one in the palms on your hands and shaping them into a full moon, crescent, star :).

5. Seriously just shape them into a classic meatballs or ovals.

6. Place on a shallow pan allow fat to drip away while broiling them into the oven.

7. Brush with olive oil.

8. Adjust your oven shelve to the top middle, place the roasting pan in the hot oven, pour around 500ml of boiling water.

9. Put the meatballs on top of the roasting pan.

10. Bake at preheated oven  for 20-25 minutes until browned and no longer pink in center. You can cook these meatballs in a frying pan, add a few drops of olive oil and fry for 5-6 minutes or in barbecue grill.

11. When done, take them out from the oven.

12. Allow to rest for 1-2 minutes before serving.

13. Serve the warm kofte with steamed saffron rice, shepherds salad and grilled chili. You could do almost anything with them (pita bread with some salad)  or plenty more ideas to serve these  meatballs. 

Eggplant Salad

This dish is turned me on to Turkish cookery called "Patlican salatasi' it taste delicious. I personally love eating this dish with grilled fish, kebobs and hot steamed saffron rice. So I had to try to replicate this eggplant salad dish. The taste is pungent, smoky, tangy and more pleasing in texture. Serve for 4 persons!
Ingredients:
750g eggplants
2 green sweet peppers
1½ lemon juice
7 pitted black olives, chopped
10 pcs cherry tomatoes
1 small white onion chopped coarsely
8 tbsp pure olive oil
1 tbsp freshly chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:

1. Prepare and heat a charcoal barbecue. Wash the eggplants and sweet peppers and grill. Turning a couple of times until they are burnt outside and tender inside.

2. Place in a bowl while still hot, cover with plastic wrap until they are cool enough to hold.

3. Then peel off all the skin, cut the steam of the eggplants and deseed the sweet bell peppers. 

4. Put immediately in the mixing bowl and mash it with a fork.

5. Add the onion, salt and pepper to taste, olive oil, lemon juice, mix well.

6. Add the chopped pitted black olives, tomatoes and parsley, stir gently and blend all ingredients. Do not over mix. Arrange on a serving dish and decorate with black olives (cut into halves) and spring parsley.

Shepherd's Salad

Coban salatasi (Turkish shepherd's salad) a nice and refreshing salad with a bit of heat from fresh chilis.
Ingredients
3 large size red tomatoes
1 medium  size red onion
2 medium size green sweet chilis
2 small size cucumber
a handful of fresh flat parsley
olive oil
salt
sumac
Preparation:

1. Wash, peel and cut cucumbers into small parts. In the meantime, wash the tomatoes, peel and remove the seeds and cut into pieces.  If you prefer, you can leave the skins and seeds on the tomatoes although traditionally most of the restaurants we have eaten in Turkey will peel the skin of the tomatoes. Slice and dice the onion, then cut the chilis diagonally or slit along the length, coarsely chop the parsley, place in large bowl.

 3. Add pinch of salt and drizzle some olive oil.

3. Mix everything together.

4. Serve this salad in small portions on salad plates, sprinkle some sumac spice on top or just toss everything all at once. Garnish with parsley leaves.

Chicken Kebab Serve With Chili's Zucchini & Saffron Rice

Chicken kebabs or kebobs a favorite of ours. Originally this was a Turkish dish of marinated in saffron chicken are supreme flavor and tenderness along with cumin, garlic and onion, that was skewered and grilled over a charcoal fire.
Ingredients:
800g skinless and boneless chicken breast
1 tbsp saffron powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp salt
1 medium red onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp olive oil
2 zucchini and chili's (optional)
Preparations:

1. Cut the meat into a 1 to 2-inch cubes or bite pieces, add salt, cumin and saffron powder.

2. Add the onion and garlic use a garlic press to release more flavor.

3. Mix well the lean meat by hand to extract the flavors.

4. Cover and marinate in the fridge 6 hours or overnight.

5. Skewer the meat, cook over hot coal to your liking, turning and brushing with some olive oil. Alternating with sliced zucchini and chili's and cooked and brush with remaining olive oil and sprinkle salt on each side. Serve kebabs on hot saffron rice.

Pistachios Baklava (Fistikli Baklava )

When I was in Turkey a few months ago I’ve adored the food of Turkey, being addicted to baklava. I have mentioned to our local tour guide in Turkey that I wanted to try making baklava. So I asked specific how its made of and much easier to make than what I though! Baklava is very popular in Middle Eastern countries its supposed origins are Turkish. Generally, baklava is enjoyed as a mid-morning or afternoon sweet snack with a cup of Turkish coffee or tea. This baklava is made by brushing melted margarine or butter on the layers of phyllo pastry, filled with ground nuts and sweetened with honey syrup, cooked up flakier and crisper. This flaky nutty dessert is delicious and very very sweet you practically get a tooth cavity and diabetes just by looking at it. My version of baklava is lemony and less in sugar because the sweetness of syrup can kill! So this is how it looks after it has completely absorbed the syrup. The recipe has been adapted from Turkish cookery.
Note: Covered and store leftover baklava at room temperature for up to a week.
Ingredients:
20-22 sheets phyllo pastry (yufka)
4 cups green pistachios
1 tsp ground all spice
1½ cup honey
½  cup granulated sugar
1 cup melted and unsalted butter or margarine
2 cups of water
half of lemon juice
Preparations:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. In a food processor or grinder place the nuts, process until the pistachios are finely ground and keep aside.

2. Meanwhile place 3½ cups of ground pistachios into the mixing bowl and stir with allspice until well combined. Set aside the remaining pistachios to sprinkle over the baklavas.

3. Brush the 13x9 inch baking dish with melted butter. Place 10 phyllo pastry in the bottom of your buttered dish, brushing each one with butter. Spread ground pistachios generously over the entire surface. Place the remaining phyllo and brush with butter each one . Tuck the edges of the phyllo, dip a sharp knife in hot water and cut through the bottom into 4-5cm square or triangles pieces.

4. Bake them over 30-40 minutes until they are golden brown and flaky.

5. Prepare the syrup: place the water, sugar and honey in a sauce pan. Boil on medium heat and sprinkle some salt to bring out the flavor. Add the lemon juice and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Take the pan out of the oven to cool.

6. If you find that the top is turning brown too quickly, then cover the top with foil or parchment baking paper. Remove the baklava from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes.

7. Lightly brush the top of baked baklava with butter.

8. Spoon and gently pour the sauce into the baklava.

9. Garnish the remaining ground pistachios on top of each  piece baklava, if desired and serve.