Eggplant Kebap from Southeast Anatolia - Delicious Türkiye with Wolfgang Puck #3

Hello everyone! One of the seven regions of beautiful Turkey is Southeast Anatolia. It is not only the birthplace of kebabs and baklava, but also the human civilization. That's right. We're in the capital of Turkish gastronomy. I'm cooking eggplant kebabs, a regional favorite. But first, let's start with a little bit of information about this region. Southeast Anatolia is the place where gastronomy meets history. It's the birthplace of baklava and kebab. This is where the oldest civilization site in the world was discovered. It's called Gobekli Tepe. It's 12,000 years old. You can visit the capital of Turkish cuisine, Gaziantep, where you can get the best red peppers, pistachio, baklava, kebab, and many other delights. Today we take you to Southeast Anatolia, one of my favorite places, especially Antep, the land of kebabs and baklava. So we're going to show you how to make a great lamb kebab with eggplant. We're going to grill it on charcoal. So I have the eggplants here. We're going to peel them one out of two so that way they cook better because the skin gets a little tough, if not. Now I'm going to cut it. Cut off the ends. And then the rest, I'm going to soak it in salted water. All right. Try to cut them all in the same size. I love kebab. It's so easy to make and it's fun to grill outside. You can get it also as street food or in really nice restaurants. So we let the eggplant soak for about an hour and then we take it out, dry them off. Okay. And now we're going to make our meat. So the meat for kebab is generally lamb or beef, often also chicken. But in Antep, they use a lot of lamb. So we have here some grated onions, add it to the meat. And then cumin, okay. Some spicy peppers, okay. Maybe a little more, we make it spicy. Naturally, some chopped garlic. Turkish cuisine uses a lot of garlic. That's why they are so healthy probably. Okay. A little chopped herbs and an egg. Okay, maybe add another egg. Okay, we're going to mix the meat really well with the spices, the onion, the garlic. And then we're going to make little balls like the size of a walnut or a golf ball and skewer it on these beautiful metal skewers. Now most of the time in Turkey, even in the street, they grill it on charcoal grills. Most of the time in Turkey, the kebabs are grilled on fire, on wood-burning fire or charcoal fire. Okay, I'm going to move it a little faster, so I'm going to grip my hand. All right, salt and pepper. Okay, naturally we need sea salt. Okay, be sure that your ground meat is mixed really well. Okay, I think we are done. So now you see the size of the eggplant also depends the size of the meat. So you want it to be really about the same size. I'm going to put a little oil on my hand and on my sheet pan here. Okay, I'm going to try to form about the same size balls I'm going to put on the skewers. I love Turkey and Antep especially because the best kebabs and the best baklava. You cannot go wrong there. Okay, now let's start making our kebabs. Here we have our traditional skewers. Put an eggplant, try to get it through the middle and then one meatball here. Then another piece of eggplant, another piece of meat. So it's great because you cook the vegetable and the meat all at once. Another one. Okay, another meat. It looks like it's a little big, but it's okay. Oh, this is a family version here. Okay, that's it. And now we finish with one more eggplant. Here we go. So the meat is better when it's not too lean so that way their meatballs don't dry out. A lot of people use lamb, but it should have a little fat in it. That's the way I like them. Then they're really juicy. Already the Ottomans ate kebabs. And they had chefs who were really specialized in making kebabs. Alright, I think two should be okay, huh? I'm also going to grill a few vegetables. Some onions, some peppers, lengthwise. Not too many seeds in there, alright. And some tomatoes. So we're going to season and drizzle everything with a little olive oil. Salt and pepper, especially on the vegetables. And then we are ready to grill. So first I put on the kebabs and then I grill some vegetables with my kebabs. So that way I get perfectly grilled vegetables to go with my meat. Let's pick up the kebabs and finish them off. Now my kebabs are done. Beautifully charred outside, also my vegetables. And now I'm going to make a little sauce for it. I'm going to have some tomatoes. I'm going to slice them and chop them up a little bit. A little garlic. And then ready to make a little sauce. Okay, I'm going to add a little olive oil. I'm going to add a little cumin. Okay, a little hot pepper. Some dry mint. And now the tomatoes. And a little tomato paste for more color. With a little water and we're going to cook it. Okay. A little salt and pepper. Alright, the sauce is ready. I'm going to add a little fresh parsley in here. Alright. And then we're going to take out our plate here. Alright, I'm going to put a little salt on here. I'm going to put this meat and my eggplant right on here. With a few vegetables. They're still nice and hot. A few onions. Here is the pepper. And maybe a little bit more sauce. And here we have it. We are ready to eat the best kebab in the world. Ground lamb and eggplant, it's delicious. You will come to Southeast Anatolia and try that. I think you will stay there. I know, I love it there. They have the best food. Please watch the other episodes of Delicious Turkey. And do not forget to subscribe to GoTurkey. YouTube account and follow it on social media.