🍽️ Cuisine
Şeftali Kebab
Caul-Wrapped Lamb Kebab
Ingredients: 350g lamb shoulder (minced), 100g beef fat (minced), 1 onion (grated), 30g fresh parsley (chopped), 5g ground cumin, 3g ground allspice, 3g black pepper, 5g salt, 200g caul fat (soaked in warm salted water), Pita bread and salad for serving.
Preparation: Combine lamb, beef fat, onion, parsley, and all spices. Knead well for 5 minutes until mixture becomes sticky and homogeneous. Refrigerate 1 hour. Rinse caul fat and spread flat. Cut into squares about 15cm each. Take a handful of meat mixture and form into a sausage shape about 8cm long. Wrap each sausage in caul fat, tucking ends underneath. The fat should wrap around once with slight overlap. Grill over hot coals or under a broiler, turning every few minutes, until caul fat has melted and meat is cooked through with charred spots—about 8-10 minutes total. Serve immediately with fresh pita, sliced tomatoes and onions, and plenty of fresh parsley.
💡 Caul fat is available from butchers with notice. It must be soaked in warm water to make it pliable—cold caul fat tears easily.
Hellim Salatası
Grilled Halloumi Salad
Ingredients: 200g halloumi cheese, 200g mixed salad greens, 1 cucumber (sliced), 150g cherry tomatoes (halved), 1 small red onion (thinly sliced), 50g black olives, Fresh mint leaves, 45ml extra virgin olive oil, 20ml lemon juice, 5g dried oregano, Salt and pepper to taste.
Preparation: Slice halloumi into pieces about 1cm thick. Pat dry with paper towels. Heat a grill pan or skillet over high heat. Grill halloumi without oil (it has enough fat) until golden grill marks appear, about 2 minutes per side. While cheese grills, arrange salad greens on plates. Top with cucumber, tomatoes, onion, and olives. Whisk olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, salt, and pepper for dressing. Place hot halloumi on top of each salad. Scatter fresh mint leaves over everything. Drizzle with dressing and serve immediately while cheese is still warm. The halloumi should squeak when bitten—that's the sign of quality.
💡 Don't marinate halloumi before grilling—it needs to be dry to achieve good color. Fresh halloumi from Mediterranean markets far surpasses supermarket versions.
Şamali
Semolina Cake in Syrup
Ingredients: For cake: 150g fine semolina, 100g sugar, 100g yogurt, 60ml vegetable oil, 1 egg, 5g baking powder, Zest of 1 orange, Blanched almonds for decoration. For syrup: 200g sugar, 200ml water, 15ml lemon juice, 10ml rose water or orange blossom water.
Preparation: Preheat oven to 180°C. Mix semolina, sugar, yogurt, oil, egg, baking powder, and orange zest until smooth. Pour into a greased 20cm square baking pan, smoothing the top. Let rest 15 minutes—this allows semolina to absorb moisture. Score into diamond shapes and press an almond into each piece. Bake 25-30 minutes until golden. While cake bakes, make syrup: boil sugar and water until sugar dissolves, add lemon juice, simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat, add rose water. When cake comes from oven, immediately pour hot syrup evenly over the hot cake. Let cool completely—the cake will absorb the syrup over several hours. Cut along scored lines to serve.
💡 Both cake and syrup must be hot for proper absorption. Cold syrup on hot cake or hot syrup on cold cake results in soggy or dry textures.
