Recipe: Tray kebab from Antakya (Tepsi kebabı)
A favourite from Turkey's perhaps best regional cuisine.
Hi there,
This week marked the second anniversary of the devastating earthquakes that struck South Eastern Turkey and North Western Syria so violently.
Regular readers will know that I have a special affinity for the area. Since 2017, I've visited Antakya many, many times. As many who had a chance to visit before the earthquakes changed everything, I simply fell in love with the place. The people, the culture, the history, the hospitality.
And, of course, the food. Considered by many (myself included) Turkey’s perhaps best regional cuisine, the food here combines the best of Levantine and Turkish kitchens. Indeed, the closest city isn't another Turkish one, but Aleppo – and it shows in the flavour profile and use of ingredients.
I wrote a piece about the food of Antakya here, but today I wanted to highlight one special dish.
Meat plays a huge part in the local cuisine, and my favourite is the tepsi kebabı. Akin to a giant hamburger (but with different flavourings), which is then topped with a simple tomato sauce, vegetables and roasted. Delicious!
Like for burgers, the meat you use makes all the difference. In Antakya, they mostly use fatty cuts of rib meat from quality beef, which they chop by hand into a coarse mince. Prior to the earthquake, this was widely available at local butchers.
For the rest of us, a fatty, coarsely ground beef of good quality is an excellent substitute. If you like the flavour of lamb, you could add in a bit of lamb mince as well.
That said, I've made it with regular shop bought ground beef as well, and it still turned out super tasty – if not exactly as on my travels to Antakya.
Let me if you try it out by leaving a comment below the recipe!
Until next week,
Vidar
please tell me how you’d prefer recipe to be sent- your old email doesn’t work: mine is helenmarie617@gmail.com
Funny looking picture🤦♂️😳
What are you doing hanging around with bunch of scary / criminal lookin guys?😂