Iskender kebabs are a Turkish recipe and remains as one of my favourite meals I have ever eaten when out. Its quite simple really, just bread (pitta) in little pieces, flavoured yoghurt sauce, topped with kebab meat - I used chicken and lamb - topped with a tomato sauce.
I have vaguely kept to those rules but have made it slightly different by marinating the meat in a mix of yoghurt and green Harissa (which is more Tunisian) and topped with a slightly spicier version of the tomato sauce. Green Harissa is an incredibly versatile hot paste of green chillies, coriander, garlic & cumin - all my favourite flavours.
The only thing I actually omitted was their way of topping the lot with melted butter. As amazing at the sounds - I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It seems not just unhealthy, but a little 'gilding the lily' for my taste. Its perfect enough without the added butter.
Ingredients:
For the marinade:
1 large chicken breast, skinless
240g fillet lamb, fat removed
1 cup yoghurt
1 heaped tbsp. green Harissa paste
pinch pepper
Method:
Cut the chicken and lamb into chunks and place in a bowl. Add the yoghurt, Harissa and pepper and stir well to cover. Leave to marinade for 1 hour minimum, in the fridge.
For the yoghurt sauce, mix 1 cup yoghurt with 1 clove of garlic which has been pounded to a paste in a pestle and mortar (or similar), a tbsp. lemon juice and a little salt. Stir well.
For the tomato sauce, fry 1 clove garlic, chopped, in 1 tsp olive oil. Add 2 tsp paprika and stir in. Then add 1 cup water and 3 tbsp. tomato puree & 1-2 tsp. chilli flakes. Bring to the boil and then leave to simmer for 15 minutes to thicken a little.
To assemble:
Skewer the chopped chicken and lamb and put under a HOT grill for about 10 minutes, turning a few times. If they blacken a bit - all the better, but don't overcook. Toast the pitta breads and cut into little pieces. Put the pitta bread pieces on a plate, top with some garlic yoghurt sauce, then the piping hot kebab meat, followed by some spicy tomato sauce.
Serve with some chillies and rice on the side. Lovely!
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