Turkish Meatballs on the Grill / Izgara Köfte

Writer's Note: In Turkey the relationship with your butcher is as important as the one with your doctor.  Turks develop relationships with their butchers over years, even generations.  When I told my aunt that I wanted to include a recipe for meatballs on this blog, she told me that the only factor that mattered was the quality of the ground beef.  "Can Americans go to their butchers and request specific cuts?  Because the recipe is simple, it's all in the beef."  For Turkish meatballs you want to ask your butcher for ground beef from the rib area of the back of the cow (kaburga), as close to the bone as possible.  After that, the recipe is easy.  You can also use a combination of 25% ground lamb with the beef.  Lean beef will dry on the grill and leave you with dry, tasteless meatballs.  This is not a recipe for health fanatics.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef, from the rib area
2 medium sized onion, diced finely
2-3 slices crustless bread, dried thoroughly
3 tbsp cumin
2-3 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. ground black pepper
2 tbsp. Aleppo pepper and/or 1 tsp. dried thyme, 2 tbsp. olive oil (optional)


Directions:

Heat your barbecue.  Pulse the dry bread and onions in a food processor just until ground.  Be careful not to turn them into a paste.  Knead all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl for at least 10-15 minutes until incorporated (this tenderizes the meat).  If the mixture feels dry, you can add a few tablespoons of olive oil.  Fashion the mixture into patties 1 inch thick and 3 inches wide (they will shrink as they cook).  Grill until cooked through and serve with a tomato salad.  You can also grill cut onions or green peppers and serve them along with the meatballs.

Purslane Salad with Garlic-Yogurt Dressing (Semizotu Salatası)

Writer's Note: Most American cooks do not know about purslane, and American farmers often treat it as a weed to be eradicated. But according to Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma, it is one of the two most nutritious greens in the world (the other being lamb's quarter). I searched high and low for purslane until I located it at the Hollywood Farmer's Market. It's likely to pop up at markets and specialty food stores as it becomes more popular. This is a traditional salad made from purslane in Turkey. It is also lovely cooked with onions and olive oil as a spinach replacement.  Purslane is a rather delicate green so be gentle with it and cook it within 2-3 days.

Ingredients:

2 large bunches purslane

3-4 garlic cloves, peeled
2-3 cups yogurt

5-6 tbsp. olive oil

1/3 teaspoon salt and salt to taste

Directions:

Using a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic cloves and 1/3 teaspoon salt to a fine paste. This is an excellent way to work out your daily aggressions in a productive fashion. There should be no chunks of garlic left in the paste. Whisk the garlic paste and yogurt together to make the dressing for the purslane. Wash the purslane carefully and pull off the individual leaves from the stalks. Mix the dressing with the purslane leaves, drizzle olive oil over it, season to taste with salt, and serve.  You can decorate the salad with black olives or a few sprigs of dill.