Iskender Kebab
Sliced lamb over torn bread, drowned in tomato sauce, finished with yoghurt and a last pour of foaming butter. Bursa's finest, and a genuinely dramatic thing to carry to a table.
- Total time
- 19 min
- Serves
- 2
- Effort
- Medium
What you need
Written for 2 — nudge the counter and the numbers follow.
0 of 9 in the basket.
How you make it
Toast the torn bread in a dry pan over medium heat for 3 minutes until dry and lightly crisp, then divide between two warm plates.
Heat the olive oil in the same pan over high heat and sear the lamb slices in a single layer for 2 minutes, turn, and cook 2 minutes more until browned outside and cooked right through with no pink.
Lift the lamb out, add the passata, oregano, pul biber and salt to the pan and simmer 4 minutes until it thickens and darkens.
Spoon most of the sauce over the bread, arrange the lamb on top, and add the rest of the sauce.
Melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat until it foams and smells nutty, about 2 minutes, then pour it hot over each plate.
Spoon the cold yoghurt alongside and serve immediately while the butter is still sizzling.
Read all that and thought “absolutely not”?
Completely fair. Iskender Kebab is sitting in the Turkish kitchen right now, it costs nothing, and it will never arrive.
Order it insteadMore from the Turkish kitchen
Charcoal, yoghurt and bread worth the trip alone.