“Islim Kebabı” is one of the best dishes of the Turkish cuisine and the eggplant is again the leading actor!
Traditionally the eggplant is fried for this recipe, however I prefer to bake it to have a lighter and healthier dish.
As it is typical rule for Turkish cuisine, we consume this amazing food with yogurt or yogurts based side dishes such as “Ayran” or “Cacık”.
Ingredients: (2-3 pax)
-2 big or 3 medium size eggplants
-10 cherry tomatoes
-2 green pepper
-1 pinch of parsley
-1 table spoon tomato paste
-2-3 table spoons olive oil
Ingredients for “Köfte”( meatball)
-250 gr minced beef
-1/2 onion (finely chopped)
-2 table spoons breadcrumbs
-1 table spoon olive oil
-1/2 coffee spoon ground black pepper
-1/2 coffee spoon cumin,
-1/2 coffee spoon Jamaica pepper (allspice)
-1/2 coffee spoon salt
Yapılışı:
Mix all the meatball ingredients in a large bowl, bread the mixture. Make walnut sized meatballs as it is shown in the photos.
Peel the eggplants as striped (See the photo). Slice them vertically as strips (1/2 centimeter thick)
Soak them into salted water for 10-15 minutes, rinse and dry them.
Place them on a baking tray covered with baking sheet.
Sprinkle olive oil on each strip with a brush.
Bake eggplants until get brown in preheated oven (190 Celsius in the oven without fan, 170 Celsius in the oven with fan) Meanwhile, bake the meatballs in another baking tray in the same oven.
Slice the green pepper into rectangular pieces (2×3 cm)
Place 2 strips of eggplants on a chopping board as a cross shape, place one meatball on the intersection point of the two strips.
Close 4 parts of eggplant on the top of each other to form a little package as it is shown in the photos.
Place one cherry tomato and one slice of pepper, secure them all with a toothpick.
Place the eggplant/meatball packages into a deep baking tray.
Add tomato paste into 1,5 cups of water, mix them well, pour it on the eggplants packages.
Bake them for 20-25 minutes in preheated oven (190 Celsius in the oven without fan, 170 Celsius in the oven with fan)
Garnish it with finely chopped parsley before serving.
Enjoy!
La Chef Turca 