Not more Turkey (Week 1 - Turkey)

After Christmas turkey, we were a little amused to find that we were travelling east too Turkey for our first week of our Around the World Food Adventure. We had a family favourite, Dolmas, (Stuffed Vine Leaves) which was discovered when we did our previous years challenge. I use cabbage leaves instead of vine leaves and we all really enjoy it.


Sometimes I serve it with a mash comprising of Swede, parsnip, potato and carrot – lovely. But I have also just served it with sweat potato and that worked very well too. or even just had it on its own.


The other dish from Turkey was not the famous Kebab or Baklava but a simple mince dish Kirmali Pirasa Sote (Leek sautéed with mince beef). I did make some changes to the original recipe; I used enough to feed us all of the meat. I used tin tomatoes and I put some herbs in cinnamon and coriander (from another Turkish recipe). I cooked some small Okri pasta and mixed that in and it came out pretty good!

Cooked with score (out of 100):

Dolmas....................................Stuffed Vine Leaves..........................90

Kirmali Pirasa Sote...……………..Leek sautéed with mince beef.........62

 

Dolmas

Source: More Than Mince – Hamlyn Cookery Club

If you cannot get tinned or fresh vine leaves, then young cabbage leaves make a good substitute.

 

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

2 tbsp oil

1 onion, chopped

125g / 40z long-grain rice

900ml / 1 ½ pints stock or water

500g / 1lb minced lamb

3 tbsp chopped parsley

2 tsp chopped mint

2 tsp chopped dill

12 young cabbage leaves

Salt and pepper

150ml / 5 fl oz natural yogurt

NB: Try and use a good lamb stock, made from bones. Otherwise a chicken stock would work, but beef would be too strong.

 

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and sauté the onion until soft and translucent. Stir in the rice and cook, stirring, until lightly coloured. Add sufficient stock to cover the rice and cook over a low heat, stirring, until the rice is tender and the liquid is completely absorbed.
2. Allow to cool and then mix in the minced lamb, parsley, mint, dill and seasoning.
3. Cook the leaves in boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain well and cut out the coarse central stalk.
4. Spread the leaves out on a board and place a spoonful of the lamb mixture in the centre of each one. Fold the edges over the filling to make small, neat parcels.
5. Arrange the parcels, with the folds underneath, in a single layer in a shallow pan. Pour in sufficient stock to just cover the Dolmas.
6. Now cover with foil, pressing it close to the surface to keep the Dolmas under the stock. Cook them gently over a low heat for about 1 hour.
7. With a draining spoon, lift the Dolmas out of the stock on to a serving dish. Serve the yogurt separately.
    

Kirmali Pirasa Sote (Leek sautéed with mince beef).

Source: turkishfoodandrecipes.com

1 lb leek, finely chopped
½ cup lean ground beef
½ cup tomatoes, finely diced
1 Tbsp canola oil
½ tsp salt to taste
1. Take canola oil and ground beef in a pot and sauté until the ground beef gets pink.
2. Stir in chopped leeks and sauté until they decrease in volume.
3.Add tomatoes and salt. Cook over low heat until the leeks are soft.