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Turkish kitchen

Adana Kebab

Hand-minced lamb, red pepper and enough fat to make the grill sing. Without a charcoal mangal you will use a screaming hot pan, and honestly nobody at the table will complain.

Total time
18 min
Serves
2
Effort
Medium

What you need

Written for 2 — nudge the counter and the numbers follow.

Cooking for
2 people

0 of 9 in the basket.

How you make it

  1. Knead the lamb with the pepper paste, pul biber, cumin, salt, garlic and parsley for a full 3 minutes until it turns sticky and slightly paler; this is what stops it falling apart.

  2. Divide into 4 and press each portion along a flat metal skewer, or shape into flat sausages about 2cm thick if you are using a pan.

  3. Heat a griddle or heavy frying pan over high heat with the olive oil until it is faintly smoking.

  4. Cook the kebabs for 4 minutes on the first side without moving them, then turn and cook 4 to 5 minutes more, pressing gently, until well charred outside and cooked all the way through with no pink remaining in the centre.

  5. Rest the kebabs on warm flatbread for 2 minutes so the juices soak in.

  6. Serve with raw onion tossed in sumac and a squeeze of lemon.

Read all that and thought “absolutely not”?

Completely fair. Adana Kebab is sitting in the Turkish kitchen right now, it costs nothing, and it will never arrive.

Order it instead

Charcoal, yoghurt and bread worth the trip alone.