İskender Kebap

Assembled rather than cooked — the dish is foaming butter poured over it at the table.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

• 600 g döner kebab, as on its own page, carved
• 4 flatbreads or pide, a day old, in 3 cm squares
• 400 g tomatoes, blended and sieved
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 150 g butter
• 400 g thick yoghurt
• grilled long green peppers and tomatoes, to serve

Method

1. IT IS ASSEMBLED RATHER THAN COOKED, AND THE DISH IS FOAMING BUTTER POURED OVER IT AT THE TABLE. Every component arrives already finished: the döner is carved from its own page, the bread is yesterday's, the tomato sauce is made and hot, the yoghurt is cold. What makes it a dish is the last ten seconds -- a hundred and fifty grams of butter heated in a small pan until it is foaming and just turning nut-brown, carried to the table, and poured over the lot so it hisses. That sound is the point. Butter stirred in during assembly, or melted and poured warm, gives a plate of the same ingredients that tastes flat and greasy rather than transformed.
2. THE BREAD IS A DAY OLD AND IS CUT, NOT TORN. Three-centimetre squares of yesterday's pide. Fresh bread turns to paste under hot sauce and hot butter within a minute; day-old bread drinks both and keeps its shape, which is the whole reason there is bread under there at all. Torn, the pieces vary and the small ones dissolve.
3. THE BREAD IS WARMED DRY BEFORE ANYTHING GOES ON IT. A few minutes in the oven or in a dry pan, so the squares are hot and crisp at the edges when the sauce arrives. Cold bread chills the whole plate, and the butter will not foam against it.
4. THE YOGHURT GOES ON COLD AND TO ONE SIDE, NOT OVER THE TOP. A thick spoonful beside the meat, untouched by the butter. The contrast between the hot buttered meat and the cold sharp yoghurt is deliberate; spread underneath or stirred through, it warms, thins and splits.
5. THE BUTTER IS TAKEN TO FOAMING AND NOT TO BROWN. The moment it stops hissing and the foam goes pale tan it is ready; another twenty seconds and it is beurre noisette, which is delicious and is not this -- it loses the fresh dairy edge that cuts the tomato. Straight off the heat and straight to the table.
6. The döner carved as on its own page and kept HOT.
7. The tomatoes blended and SIEVED, then cooked in the olive oil 15 MINUTES with the salt until thick. Kept HOT.
8. The day-old bread cut into even 3 cm SQUARES.
9. The squares warmed in a dry pan or a hot oven 4 MINUTES, until hot and crisp at the edges.
10. Warm plates. The hot bread squares spread over each.
11. Half the hot tomato sauce spooned over the bread.
12. The carved döner piled on top, then the rest of the sauce.
13. A thick spoonful of COLD yoghurt placed BESIDE the meat, not over it.
14. The grilled peppers and tomatoes set at the edge.
15. The plates carried to the table FIRST.
16. The butter heated in a small pan until FOAMING and just turning pale tan -- not brown.
17. Carried straight to the table and POURED OVER so it HISSES.
18. Eaten immediately, while the butter is still foaming.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes