İskender Kebap (Bursa-style döner on bread with tomato sauce and yoghurt)

Recipe No.: W-90

InternationalTurkish90 minServes 4

This dish is attributed to Bursa and to İskender Efendi, who is said to have invented it in the mid-nineteenth century and to have turned the döner to grill on a vertical rather than a horizontal spit. Thin slices of döner meat are laid over cubes of pide bread and covered with tomato sauce, with yoghurt beside them, and then the browned butter is poured on, sizzling, in front of the guest. This home version uses marinated sliced meat seared in a very hot pan; it approximates the döner rather than copying it.

Origin of the dish: Turkey (the city of Bursa) — Attributed to İskender Efendi in Bursa in the nineteenth century

Photo: Iskender Kebap Bursa Iskender.JPG by Benreis, CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Ingredients for İskender Kebap

• 600 ghalal lamb or beef (leg or sirloin), sliced very thin (about 3 mm)
• 3 tbspyoghurt, 1 small grated onion with its juice, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt, black pepper and ½ tsp cumin (For the marinade)
• 4small Turkish pide or pita breads, cut into 2 cm cubes
• 1 tbspbutter, 1 tbsp tomato paste, 3 grated tomatoes, ½ cup stock and salt (For the sauce)
• ½ cup(100 g) butter, for browning
• 1 cupthick yoghurt
• 4long green peppers and 2 tomatoes, grilled

Method

1. Mix the meat slices with the marinade ingredients and leave in the fridge for 2–4 hours.
2. For the sauce: melt the tablespoon of butter, stir in the tomato paste for a minute, then add the grated tomatoes, stock and salt and simmer for 12 minutes.
3. Toast the bread cubes in a 200°C oven for 8 minutes or in a pan.
4. Heat a heavy pan over very high heat and sear the meat in batches, 2 minutes per side, until browned without releasing too much liquid.
5. Grill the peppers and tomatoes in the same pan or under the grill until lightly charred.
6. Put the bread cubes on the plates, pour a little sauce over them, arrange the meat on top and pour over more sauce, garnish with the pepper and tomato, and put the yoghurt alongside.
7. Melt the butter and keep it on the heat until it browns and smells nutty, then pour it sizzling over the plates at the moment of serving.

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