Lahana Sarma (Stuffed Cabbage Rolls)

Although this is a Turkish dish, you probably can find an equivalent in most cultures. I remember my mom making this growing up, though I think our stuffed cabbage rolls were topped with tomato sauce.

One difference is the use of dill. Dill is a favorite spice in Turkey. I hardly use fresh herbs in cooking, but this is one I'd suggest making the effort for. Dill is so aromatic and flavorful; a little goes a long way.

Lahana Sarma (Stuffed Cabbage Rolls)

1 large savoy cabbage

1/2 cup cooked brown rice

1 small onion, diced

2 tsp chopped dill

1 tsp dried tarragon

1/2 lb ground lamb

1/2 lb ground beef

salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook brown rice as directed on package. Set aside and let cool.

2. Remove outer leaves from the cabbage and submerge the rest of the cabbage for 10 minutes in boiling water. Immediately submerge in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.

3. In a large bowl, combine ground meats with onion, dill, tarragon, rice, and salt and pepper. Mix well.

4. Drain cabbage and remove leaves. Flatten the leaves out on a cutting board and remove the tough center ribs. You should have two pieces of cabbage for rolling after doing this.

5. Make small sausage-shapes with the meat mixture and place one on each cabbage leaf. Roll the leaf, folding the ends inside as you work. Place in a large pot and add water; enough to cover cabbage rolls about halfway. Cook on medium until water begins to boil, then turn heat down to a simmer. Cook for approximately 40 minutes, watching to assure that cabbage does not disintegrate. Arrange on a serving dish and serve immediately.

The Verdict: The cabbage rolls end up being a little over two inches long each. It's fun to have a square meal--meat, vegetable and rice--in one little package.

Because I usually use brown rice, I would suggest cooking your rice first if that's your choice as well. This recipe called for soaking the rice for 30 minutes only, which I did, and it didn't cook thoroughly. It might work for white rice, but coarser brown did not.

I would suggest buying a large cabbage so that you have larger leaves to work with. You may not use the entire cabbage, but at least you won't be trying to create cabbage origami with tiny leaves. You can always save the extra cabbage for side dish later in the week. If you find that your cabbage is still raw as you get towards the middle, you may wish to blanch it a second time for a shorter cooking time.

For a different spin, and an extra vegetable, you can top your rolls with a mixture of a can of tomato sauce, a can of diced tomatoes, a tablespoon of sugar and a splash of vinegar. Place the cabbage rolls into a large baking dish, ladle the tomato mixture on the top of each roll, then add water so that it covers the rolls to about halfway up their sides. Bake, uncovered, in a preheated 350 degree oven.

Lahmacun (Turkish Pizza)

Lahmacun (pronounced lah-mah-jhoon) is probably the only recipe that calls for copious amounts of parsley that I love. For whatever reason, the mix of meats, vegetables and spices seems to negate some of that sharp parsley taste that disagrees with me.

Lahmacun is a very thin pizza without cheese. It's topped with ground lamb, onions, garlic, parsley and spices, then baked until golden brown. You can use store bought pizza dough, or if you have a bread machine, you can make your own. (You can, of course, make your own without a bread machine but I like dumping it all the ingredients into one place and letting it do all the work for me.) My pizza dough recipe comes from The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys homemade bread. Furthermore, Beth Hensperger suggests using SAF yeast when making breads. After some experimentation, I've come to realize she knows what she's talking about. If you're going to make your own anything in the bread machine, get yourself a bag of this yeast. It lasts forever and makes beautiful doughs and breads.

The recipe for lahmacun is a combination of many different recipes. If you find that you like lahmacun, play with the ingredients yourself. Just remember to stretch your dough very, very thinly to create very thin crust. It still tastes great with a thicker crust, but it's not as authentic.

Beware! This makes a LOT of pizza--six or eight smallish pizzas! Because it's thin, more than likely you'll eat one per adult. But with a small family, you'll definitely have leftovers.

Lahmacun

For the dough:

1 1/3 cups water

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp SAF yeast or 2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

1. Add ingredients to your bread machine according to the manufacturer's directions. Set to dough cycle. Take out of the machine immediately and divide into desired number of portions. Flatten each portion into a disc. Cover with a damp towel and let rest for 30 minutes until the dough has increased in size by 20%.

2. Roll out and shape dough. Lahmacun are not perfectly round, so the more lopsided, the better. Or place dough in plastic food storage bags and refridgerate for up to 24 hours. To use, let rest for 20 minutes at room temperature before rolling out.

For the lahmacun topping:

1 lb ground lamb (or 1/2 lb ground lamb, 1/2 lb ground beef)

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 tbsp garlic, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 bunch parsley, finely chopped

1 large tomato, peeled and finely chopped

2 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 jalapeño pepper, finely chopped

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili pepper

salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Heat olive oil in a skillet and add onion and garlic. Cook until onion is translucent. Set aside and let cool.

2. In a large bowl, combine rest of ingredients as well as onion and garlic mixture. Mix very well until mixture resembles a thick paste.

3. Roll out dough into ovals that are approximately 6-x 8-inches in diameter. Spread about 4-5 heaping tablespoons of lamb mixture over each. Place one or two on a large cookie sheet (whatever fits) and cook for 10-15 minutes; crust should be golden brown and topping should be browned as well. Cover cooked lahmacun with a towel as subsequent pizzas are cooked. Serve immediately.

The Verdict: Gosh, these are yummy. Like, "my belly hurts because I didn't stop eating in time" yummy.

Kind of like pancakes, I find that my first couple of crusts that I roll out aren't quite right. In my case, they're too thick. But like I mentioned above, while that's not traditional, it still tastes fantastic.

My husband and I both enjoyed them immensely (hence "my belly hurts"...although that might just have been me) and my son ate a couple of small slices. He recognized it as pizza by site, but his American senses weren't fooled by taste. The excitement of pizza for dinner quickly faded. If you have a child who loves pizza, call it lahmacun to avoid any disappointment.

I know some people see lamb as an ingredient and keep searching for a dinner recipe. Before you dismiss this because of that, consider making it with just ground beef. I've even made it with ground turkey before. While I try to limit our lamb consumption (yeah, I'm one of those suckers who can't separate "but it's a lamb--a fluffy, cute lamb!"), I do still love it. And if given the choice of turkey or lamb, I'm going to choose lamb. That slightly gamey flavor is part of the appeal of the dish.

Quick Lamb Kofta with Harissa Yogurt Sauce

Kofta? Harissa? Hope I didn't lose anybody with those two words...

In Turkish, kofta is spelled köfte, but aside from the spelling, it's basically the same thing. Kofta, köfte, kufteh, qofte or whatever you call it is a football-shaped meatball (American football, that is), most often made of lamb, that is traditionally grilled. My first Turkish köfte came from a Turkish-Armenian market in a nearby town that I'd bought frozen, except I'd thought they were fully cooked. I was about to plate my thawed köfte when I realized they were bleeding on the plate. I don't believe that any version of Kofta is tartare.

I've since learned to make my own. I usually make them with lamb and bulgur, however, I wanted to check out this recipe from the April 2010 Cooking Light. They suggest serving the kofta with boil-in-bag jasmine rice cooked with one teaspoon of saffron threads, then sprinkled with green onions. My grocery cart was swelling with items and saffron threads, while yummy, are expensive. So we went with regular old jasmine rice.

Quick Lamb Kofta with Harissa Yogurt Sauce

Kofta

2 tbsp minced fresh cilantro

2 tbsp fresh grated onion

2 tbsp 2% Greek-style plain yogurt

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp turmeric

2 tsp bottled minced garlic

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 lb lean ground lamb

cooking spray

Sauce

1/2 cup 2% Greek-style plain yogurt

1/4 cup chopped bottled roasted red bell pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp bottled minced garlic

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1/4 tsp salt

1. Combine cilantro and next 9 ingredients (through lamb); shape into 12 oblong patties.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add patties to pan; cook 10 minutes or until done, turning occasionally to brown on all sides.

3. While kofta cooks, prepare sauce. Combine 1/2 cup yogurt with remaining ingredients. Serve sauce with kofta.

The Verdict: I like this recipe better than my current köfte recipe. And I don't generally equate raw meat with smelling wonderful, but in this instance, it definitely was. Unfortunately, I cooked this dish earlier in the day and reheated it. While it still tasted great, I think it dried it out. So definitely don't overcook it, and if you plan to reheat or make enough for leftovers, beware that the microwave takes away some of the juiciness.

The vegetables you see are from a bag of frozen Mediterranean blend from Whole Foods. They were, in a word, horrible. Frozen zucchini and other water-heavy vegetables do not freeze well. Noyan suggests that a good Turkish-type side dish is simply sliced cucumbers or tomatoes.

By the way, I didn't have any coriander. I had a large container of it that was not in a spice bottle. It was an annoying size that kept getting in the way and eventually it got moved to the kitchen counter. Bad idea. Amir soon knocked it over, making my whole kitchen smell like a Middle Eastern grocery. If you have a sprightly toddler whirling around your kitchen and lose your coriander that way, or if you just don't have any, no fear. A substitution in a pinch is sage mixed with a little lemon zest. The recipe does call for fresh cilantro, but while cilantro is the plant coriander comes from, the tastes are entirely different.