I decided on Iskender Kebab in tomato sauce with pide bread and yogurt. Partially because it looked really tasty and partially because I was confident that I could find the ingredients. After I'd assembled the ingredients and started working on the recipe with tears streaming uncontrollably down my face and onion juice all over my hands I couldn't help but think "what kind of fool looks and and onion and grater and says, 'I think I'll grate that'? And what kind of idiot sees that they have to grate an onion and thinks it's a good idea?"
I know, it looks like a medical procedure, but I promise it's just onion and cheesecloth. Once the onion is grated you separate the juice from the pulp and use the juice as a marinade. I was afraid that all you would taste is onion, and I was wrong, I don't know how to describe the flavor, it was unique and I would like to try it again though grating an onion has been the least enjoyable thing in my home culinary experience. Next time it's going into the food processor, don't know why I didn't think of that before.
I work at a bakery with three girls named Jill. One of them used to work at a Persian/Iranian restaurant in Bozeman and assured me that that was authentic to the cuisine.
The pide bread was my first experience making bread with yeast. The only other breads I've made are sweet breads that don't require yeast or rising. Pide bread is a Turkish flat bread with sesame seeds, or in this case, sesame and poppy seeds. I don't know how to stretch bread so it's ugly, but I can work on that in the future. What is important is that it was tasty.
I couldn't find my pastry brush when I went to apply the egg wash and a paper towel makes for a poor substitute. My bread had scrambled eggs on top. It looks a little weird, but wasn't noticeable on mastication and consumption.
The end result was interesting. Five people were at dinner and we all felt the same, the individual parts were lacking, but the bread topped with the kebab and a dollop of plain yogurt combined to make something unique and wonderful that we would all eat again. Here are Ozlem's recipes for the pide bread and the iskender kebab. If you make it, let me know how it goes and have plenty of tissues for all the tears you will shed.
