Tepsi Kebab #2

A cold winter night calls for comfort food, and the Turkish equivalent of meat loaf fully qualifies! We tried this a couple months ago, and enjoyed it so much it was requested to be on "regular rotation"!

This time, in addition to making with turkey meat (substituted for ground beef), I upped the amount of red and green bell pepper, added parsley, and more tomato to roast along with the kebab. I used my deep-dish pizza pan this time too, and that makes it a bit more authentic (round vs rectangular).

I also used the food processor instead of mincing all the veg by hand (garlic, onion, green and red bell pepper), being careful not to puree anything. I also chopped the parsley (omitted last time) with the processor, and drained off the excess moisture from all the veg.

If you are careful to pulse only 5 - 7 times, this works really well, keeping all the veg in minced bits rather than pureed mush.I mixed into three pounds of ground turkey, along with a couple tablespoons of "seven spice" mixture from a Middle Eastern market, and a little salt.

I spread half into the oiled pan, layered on slices of mozzarella cheese, then another layer of the meat mixture.  Top with the leftover tops and bottoms of the peppers and quartered plum tomatoes, anoint with the sauce (1 cup hot water and a couple tablespoons of tomato paste), and toss into the oven at 375F.  I roasted some broccoli on a separate tray for more veg too.

Roasted the kebab to 180F internal temperature, it smelled incredibly good! We had to drain off a good amount of excess moisture and then it was dinner time!

Again, southeastern Turkish (Hatay province) comfort food, much like our meat loaf in a flatter form.  Hit me up if you have questions, the amounts are really free-form and particular to your own tastes.

Leftovers on __Sopes__ for Supper

Last weekend, we visited a Butera supermarket, which quite a variety of ethnic foods. In one of the refrigerated displays were packages of sopes, a Mexican formed-and-fried masa bread not too different than tacos or tostadas, but thicker. Each sope is about four inches in diameter, maybe 1/8 inch thick, with a rim around the top side to help hold in toppings. They are a popular street food in Mexico.

Not having much in the way of Mexican leftovers, I pulled steak and lobster mac'n'cheese leftovers from the freezer and defrosted it. I shredded a couple brussels sprouts to provide a little greenery, sliced the steak, halved some grape tomatoes, and started assembling...



I started with a slice of smoked gouda cheese in each sope, added a couple slices of steak, chipotle salsa, the shredded brussels sprouts, and tossed them into a hot oven to warm up... After ten ot fifteen minutes, I pulled them out and plated them, garnishing with the grape tomato halves...

Mmmmm very tasty, if very inauthentic... The sopes are thick enough to lend a bit of a chew, and as I said before, the rim really helps retain the toppings and does not shatter when you bite them like tostada shells typically do.

Recommended! You can use Mexican toppings or even make mini pizzas with pepperoni, mozzarella, and red sauce...