Turkish Delight
My mum got me Adam Liaw's book Tonight's Dinner for my birthday a few years back. One of our family comforts is watching SBS Food, my particular fave is Adam's show The Cook Up. Apart from the food, it's very wholesome and sometimes we also just need a bit of wholesome viewing, you know?
Like most of the books on my shelf, this one is more accessible than inspirational, but that does not mean that it is not chocker block full of great dinners. He is a busy man on all fronts and like all of us, wants to be able to feed his family yummy and nutritious things quickly, but with a bit of wow factor.
The ball and chain are a bit out of sync on the veggies we love. Fennel is on that list, as I have mentioned, as is eggplant. I am really sad about eggplant. I guess this blog series is a little about making him good acquaintances with some veggies I am mates with. They don't need to be best friends, but would be nice for them to get along. My point being, I chose this recipe because it's base is eggplant. You can either throw it on the BBQ or bake it with big bulbs of garlic. You scope out the flesh and roughly chop and mix with the roast garlic and the yoghurt and it's so delish you could eat it by itself.
It's made even more scrummy by the lamb mixture on top though, even more simple to throw together. Basically some lamb mince, red capsicum, butter and tomato paste. It also calls for some Turkish hot pepper paste, I searched high and low around Prahran market for this to no avail, so I used Aleppo pepper instead because I had it in the cupboard. I don't know how different it would have tasted with the Turkish hot pepper, but the Aleppo seemed to do the trick.
These two elements looked so good as separates. Putting them together I was humbly reminded of the importance of choosing a good vessel for serving. The yoghurt is thick, but it does run a bit, so using a serving bowl with a shallow lip would look beautiful. I chose a beautiful, but very flat, square platter, once I put the yoghurt on and then spread the mince it all ran to the edge and looked rank. I was so disappointed with myself for this very obvious faux pas, but quickly served it in some pretty bowls with lovely green herbs and pita bread.
The great news was that the B&C thought it was really good. Second helping good and no commentary about the eggplants, so I think they are heading in the right direction.
This recipe is in Tonight's Dinner, but is also on the SBS website, here: Lamb mince ali nazik | SBS The Cook Up with Adam Liaw. Will absolutely have this on the rotation for a quick weeknight meal that feels like you have spent far more time on it than you have.
