Persian Turkey Kofte Kebabs with Shirazi Salad

I love Middle Eastern flavors.  The spices, the flavor, the simplicity of the preparation.  This is one of my favorite meals, and it also happens to be a healthy, gluten free, paleo, low fat recipe. 

Popular in Iran, Turkey, Armenia, and other Middle Eastern countries, kofte kebabs are typically made with ground lamb meat and herbs like parsley and mint. These ground meat 'meatballs' are skewered and grilled.  There are endless amounts of variations in meats and herbs, and lentil and potato kofte can be made with no meat at all.

These kebabs are traditionally heavily seasoned with spices like coriander, cinnamon, turmeric, and allspice.  I used ground turkey to make them healthier, and spiced them up to disguise that they are not lamb or beef.  

I served these with my favorite Persian Shirazi Salad, which sounds fancy but is really a simple salad of tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, and mint. The cold shirazi salad is a perfect cooling complement to the spiced kebabs. 

Add plain rice and some grilled (or in my case broiled) green peppers, and you've got an exotic, healthy meal. 

Persian Turkey Kofte Kebabs with Shirazi Salad

1 lb ground turkey
4 cloves garlic, peeled, mashed with the flat side of knife, and minced
1 tsp kosher salt
3 tbsp grated onion
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire 
1 1/2 tbsp ground coriander
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
fresh ground black pepper
Olive Oil
skewers - if using wood skewers, soak first. 
1 Green Pepper, seeds removed and cut into 6 large pieces

Shirazi Salad recipe follows.

Place everything except olive oil and green pepper (and skewers obviously) in a bowl and mix together. Let meat marinate in the fridge for an hour or all day if you have time. 

Form into 6 inch 'sausages.' If using metal skewers, coat in the skewers in olive oil so meat doesn't stick. Thread two sausages to a skewer through the two sausage ends.  You may need to adjust the sizes of your sausages according to the size of your skewers,  Keep them all the same size though. Throw the green pepper on the same pan if there's room, or a separate pan will do.

Broil on Hi for about 15-20 minutes, turning skewers and green peppers occasionally.  They are done when juices run clear, there is no pink, and outsides are evenly charred.

Shirazi Salad:
2 English Cucumbers
4 round tomatoes
1 medium red onion
1 tbsp dry mint or parsley (try to use mint if you have it)
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1 tsp olive oil

Dice tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onions in a uniform small cube size.

Mix olive oil, lime juice, and dried mint (or parsley) in a bowl.
Pour over the vegetables.  Can be consumed immediately, but best if refrigerated for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.

Serve with plain rice.  You can cook the plain rice in chicken or vegetable stock instead of water for extra flavor.  

Little Party Bites

Oh look at these cute little bites!  

I made these to ease the Boyfriend's growling stomach while I prepared some 3-4 hour dinner.  If I had any friends here in CO I would prepare them as an appetizer, they'd be perfect to have out for parties.  

The herbed cream cheese gives these bites a savory note, the prosciutto adds a nice flavor from the fat and salt, and the cherry jam gives it a touch of sweetness to round it out.  

And they were so easy to prepare, the most time going into assembling them in a pretty fashion.  

I'll be honest, most of them I just smushed together.  Hey it was just me and the Boyfriend, you know?! What do you want from me?  

Little Party Bites

1 8 oz block cream cheese, at room temperature

3 tbsp minced fresh rosemary

1 tbsp minced fresh mint

1 tsp lemon juice

4 oz thin-sliced prosciutto, cut lengthwise into 1/4 inch ribbons

Cherry preserves 

1 box wheat thins (or Gluten Free crackers)

Use a mixer to whip the cream cheese with the rosemary, mint, and lemon juice (or alternatively, mix well by hand)

To assemble, spread a bit of cherry preserves on the wheat thin.  Twirl the prosciutto ribbon loosely and place in a half circle on the cracker.  Place a dollop of herbed cream cheese in remaining empty space behind prosciutto.  Garnish with more rosemary, mint, or a spring of parsley. 

Double Mint Chocoholic Cookies

Cookies, cookies, cookies.

This is my first year without family and friends nearby for the holidays.

I don't have any cookie exchanges.

I won't be bringing cookies to work.

You think that'll stop me from baking way too many cookies?!  Heck no it won't.  

The Boyfriend says these taste like thin mints, and he's right.  A thin mint taste with a moist cookie interior.  

Yum.

I baked these as cookies and in a bar form, and I'll be honest, I prefer the cookies.  The cookies turned out absolutely perfect, and while the bars were so good in taste, they are not fun to try to cut into squares.  It just kind of crumbles.  I managed to get a few nice cuts, but mostly we just ate 'brownie crumble.'

To make the cookies more festive I rolled them in red sprinkles. 

Double Mint Chocoholic Cookies

Modified from Cathy Lowe's recipe

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1 tbsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp mint extract

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 10 oz package dark chocolate and mint morsels

5 oz semi sweet chocolate chips

Red sprinkles (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, both sugars, vanilla, mint extract, and cocoa.  Add the flour mixture gradually and once combined, add the mint and chocolate chips.  

Roll the dough into 1 inch (or larger if you prefer) balls.  If you are using the red sprinkles, pour a bunch of sprinkles in a bowl and roll each ball of dough in the sprinkles. Place cookie balls on greased baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes and let cool on a wire rack.

Mint Julep Meringues

Confession.   I don't know why the Kentucky Derby is a big deal.  I'm sure I'd enjoy it- as I like to party.  I get down with the drinking, the eating, then the drinking some more.  Hanging out outside.    Drinking.

Don't think I'd glance in a horse's direction though.   I mean, if everyone else looked I wouldn't intentionally NOT look.  Alright, maybe I'd glance.  But I'm just not that interested.  

But any excuse to cook.. 

          and drink...

                     sounds pretty good.  

Why I chose to make these little guys on such a goomy/wet/humid day, I'll never know. 

Everyone knows that the humidity will make meringues crisp exterior a little soggy!

                              (maybe everyone but me.... )

Anyway, I took the plunge, and they turned out pretty good, despite the humidity. I modified Emeril Lagasse's recipe for meringue cookies, by adding the mint julep ingredients: mint and bourbon!

Mint Julep Meringues

2 large egg whites, at room temperature

1/2 tsp cream of tarter

2/3 cup superfine granulated sugar    (Important! Do not use regular sugar)

1/2 tsp mint extract

2/3 tsp bourbon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat egg whites until foamy.
3. Add the cream of tarter and beat until fluffy but not dry.
4. Add the sugar in batches, about 3 tbsp at a time.  When halfway through sugar, add the mint extract and bourbon.
5. Add the remaining sugar in batches. Beat until sugar is dissolved and meringue is shiny and bright.  It should be fluffy and sticky to the touch.  If it is runny or liquid-y, something did not work.  Start over.  (I had to do a do-over! Didn''t beat the egg whites until foamy enough, and added too much bourbon the first time.  Big surprise, trying to booze my recipes up..

Next we will put the meringues in the oven.  If you don't need the green stripe for decoration, you can use a tsp to scoop meringues onto your baking sheet.  They will not change size, so scoop them as prettily as possible.

If you want the green stripe- grab a pastry bag and green food coloring.  On one side of the pastry bag, drop 4 or 5 drops of green food coloring on the side, letting it run all the way down in as straight a line as possible.  Carefully fill the pastry bath with meringue batter, a tablespoon at a time.  If you just shove it in, the green food coloring will make your meringues green all over. 

Then pipe out the little guys on you baking sheet, put in the oven and TURN THE OVEN OFF.  Leave, undisturbed, for 2 hours or until dry and crisp.  

Store in an airtight container.