Lamb Köfte (Turkish Meatballs) & Shrimp Casserole

Turkish Lamb Kofte Meatballs on a skewer

When we backpacked Turkey last fall, the Mo and I practically lived off doner kebabs (gyros) and grilled meats.  One of my favorite dishes that I often ordered were Köfte or Köfta, Turkish meatballs.  I had them with grilled rice, in pita breads, on buns similar to burgers.

Turkish Kofte Meatball burger in Olympos, Turkey

Grilled Lamb Kofte Lunch at a restaurant in Istanbul, Turkey

Unlike American meatballs made with ground beef or veal (or in my case, I like to use 1/3 veal, 1/3 beef and 1/3 pork), Turkish meatballs are traditional made with minced lamb meat.  This is also the case with the Greek, Lebanese and many other middle eastern countries.

I looked up a few different recipes online and was influenced by a handful of them so this recipe is not “original” but a combination of a few recipes.

I wanted to use the skewers that we bought in Kas, Turkey but since we have about 2 feet of snow around the Weber, I opted to bake them.  You can also pan fry the meatballs also.

Turkish meat skewers

Tonight’s meal featured Turkish lamb Köfte meatballs, seafood casserole, short grain white rice, Joseph’s pita bread and yogurt.  All we are missing now is some apple tea and baklava.

Mami Eggroll’s Turkish Delight

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of ground lamb
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• One generous handful of flat parsley, chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 small Vidalia onion
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of pepper
• 1/4 cup of unseasoned bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• optional: 1 teaspoon of chili powder

Directions:

Mince the garlic and onions into tiny pieces.  I used a small food processor to save time.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Add all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and use your hands to fold the meat mixture thoroughly.

Pick up a golf ball size amount of meat and add a dab of water to your opposite hand.  

Roll the meat into a ball and gradually shape it into a oblong shape.  I haven’t perfected this yet.  The shape you chose is optional.  You can do the traditional round meatballs, or flattened meatballs or the oblong meatballs.

Set aside on a cookie sheet with a lip. This is important because the meat releases oil and you do not want the oil to drip into your oven.  (For an easier cleanup, line the cookie sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil)

Bake the meatballs at 375 for 20 minutes.

Turkish Kofte Meatballs

Serve with rice or in a pita bread.

Shrimp Casserole

Shrimp Casserole at a restaurant in Istanbul, Turkey

I couldn’t just serve one Turkish dish tonight so I wanted to make something that complimented the meatballs.  I picked up a really cool copper casserole dish at a consignment shop in Nashua so I wanted to make a casserole.  Unfortunately, I Googled if I could use the copper dish for cooking or serving food and it wasn’t recommend, therefore I can only use the dish “for show” only.

In Turkey, we also had a few different shrimp and seafood casseroles. I remember it being rich and cheesy and flavorful.

Ingredients:

• 10 large shrimps, peeled and deveined 
• one small vidalia onion, chopped
• 1 handful of chopped flat parsley
• 1 cup of tomatoes 
• Optional: 1/2 cup of mushrooms
• Optional: 1 chopped jalapeno
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of pepper
• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon of Adobo seasoning
• 1 cup of Mozzarella shredded cheese
• 1 cup of bell chopped bell peppers (I used a combination of red, yellow and orange)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 cup of water

Directions:

In a large skillet, heat up the olive oil until a light smoke appears. Add the onions, garlic and optional jalapeno.  Saute the mixture until the onion browns.  Add the bell peppers, tomatoes, parsley and optional mushrooms and saute for 5 minutes.

Add the cup of water and bring to a boil.  Let the mixture continue to boil for 5 minutes and add the salt, pepper and adobo seasoning.

Add the shrimp and cook for a couple of minutes until the shrimp turns pink.  Pour the sauce into a casserole dish and top if off with Mozzarella cheese.  Broil the cheese lightly for a nice crisp crust. ( I skipped this part)

Serve with bread or rice.

A Turkish Delight!

Restaurant Review-Saray Restaurant
In preparation for our trip to Turkey, we wanted to familiarize ourselves with the Turkish cuisine.  We are a frequent customer of Restaurant.com, a website where you can purchase prepaid gift certificates at deeply discounted and saw the restaurant featured in the Mediterranean cuisine category.  Intrigued by the online menu, we purchased two gift certificates, one at a $25.00 value (for $ 2.00) and one at a $50.00 value (for $6.00).

I thought it was funny that my Cambodian uncle shares the same name as the restaurant.  His name is Saray, and based on Wikipedia, Saray is a Turkic word of Persian origin (Persian: سرای sarai) which means “palace”.  I couldn’t find any correlation between Turkey, Persia, or Iran with Cambodia.  I guess its just a coincidence??

We originally planned on going just the two of us for an anniversary dinner on a weekday but since there were rush hour traffic delays, we decided to move Turkish dinner to Sunday and invited out my brother and his girlfriend to celebrate her birthday that usually takes place before, on or after Thanksgiving Day.

We met up for an early dinner at 5:00 PM and found ample parking which was a pleasant surprise in the usually crowded streets around Boston University.  We walked to the nearby grocery store, Star Market to pick up a 6 pack of beer since I have read on other reviews on Yelp that one could B.Y.O.B. since they do not have a liquor license.

The restaurant was very clean and the decor was simple but charming.  Upon arrival, the waitresses sat us and provided us with our menus, water and bread quickly.  There were a few other patrons dining in the restaurant.

Hot Appetizer plate

We started off with a few different appetizers including: Calamari, Sigara Borek (Fried Cheese Pastry), Grape leaves and the hot appetizer plate that included homemade hummus, pastrami, Zucchini Pancakes and more fried cheese.

Although I really like the hummus, I wished they provided something to dip it with.  I’m not sure if its a Turkish or American tradition, but I’ve always had hummus with pita chips, crackers or vegetables.  The Zucchini pancakes were also tasty and interesting.

The fried cheese pastry resembled a Chinese crab rangoon and I felt like it needed some kind of dipping sauce. The pastrami was a bit too salty for me and others also agreed.

Cheese Pastry

Calamari

Grape Leaves

Zucchini Pancakes

We ordered an array of entrees and each had a sample of the different dishes we ordered.  On our table, we had: Stuffed Cabbage Roll, “Hunkar Begendi” (Sultan’s Delight), Doner Kebab, and Char Grilled Chicken Kebab.  The meat portions were smaller than expected.

Cabbage Roll

The filling of the stuffed cabbage roll was lamb and rice and the taste and texture resembled corn beef, except that it didn’t have any potatoes.

The most expensive dish, the “Sultan’s Delight” had much to be desired for.  Although the lamb was delicious, there was only 5 meager pieces that looked like it was actually a larger piece cut into 5.  The eggplant puree was tasty and flavorful.

Doner Kebab

The Doner Kebab that was supposed to be sliced lamb and beef looked like it was only one type of meat instead of two.  There was no distinguishment among the lamb or beef.  Lastly, a few of us agreed that the rice may have been under cooked as there were some hard grains.

Chicken Kebab

The grilled chicken kebab was the tastiest dish that we ordered. I think I can live off of chicken kebabs for two weeks in Turkey.

Turkish Coffee

As a finale to our meal, we shared a pudding that was topped with pistachios.  It was just OK.  We also got delicious Turkish coffee that set us back $ 4.00 for a tiny cup.

Overall, the service was extremely nice.  Our water goblets were never empty and they turned off the lights and brought out a small dessert for us and sang “Happy Birthday” to the birthday girl.