Name: Hatay ASİ KASAP & KEBAP
Address: Bağlıca, Bağlıca Blv. 55/2, Etimesgut, Ankara, 06790, TR
Telephone: 0532 459 09 31
Rating: 4.2

Türkiye

Turkey

Ankara

Etimesgut

Hatay ASİ KASAP & KEBAP

Cubes of lamb sealed in a parcel of greaseproof paper with onion, tomato, pepper, garlic and herbs, and baked slowly in a wood oven until the meat is tender and the parcel has swollen with its own steam: kağıt kebabı, paper kebab, is the kebab that is never grilled. It belongs to Antakya and the Hatay kitchen, with a strong claim from Gaziantep and a long history in the Ottoman palace cookbooks under the broader family of kebabs cooked in a closed vessel, which includes the clay-pot testi kebabı of Cappadocia and the tray-baked tepsi kebabı. The paper does what the clay does: it holds in moisture, so the lamb braises in its own juices and the vegetables melt into a sauce with no added water. It comes to the table still wrapped, and the parcel is cut open in front of the diner so the steam escapes there and not in the kitchen.

The meat is lamb shoulder or leg, cut into pieces of two to three centimetres with some of the fat left on, sometimes mixed with a little chopped tail fat. It is tossed with sliced onion, chopped tomato, green pepper, crushed garlic, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes and a handful of parsley or thyme, and in Hatay often with a spoon of pepper paste. Some cooks brown the meat briefly first; most do not, and rely on the long bake. A portion is placed on a double sheet of yağlı kağıt, the greaseproof paper, with a knob of butter on top, and the paper is folded and twisted into a sealed packet, sometimes tied with string. The packets go into a moderate oven, 170 to 180°C, for an hour and a half to two hours, until the meat gives to the touch through the paper. They are served on a plate or straight on lavash, with bulgur or rice pilaf, and the parcel is slit at the table.

Judge the meat first: it should be soft enough to pull apart with a fork but still in pieces, moist from the juices in the parcel, with the fat rendered and the garlic and pepper cooked into it. The vegetables should have collapsed into a thick, glossy sauce at the bottom of the paper, not a watery pool. Open the parcel and smell: it should be lamb, onion and butter, with no scorched paper. Mark down tough or dry meat, which means too little fat or too short a bake; a parcel that has leaked and dried out; a sauce that tastes mainly of tomato paste; meat that was pre-cooked and reheated in paper for show; and a kebab served already unwrapped in the kitchen, which loses the point of the dish. Bread should be there to mop the paper clean, and ayran is the drink.

Kağıt kebabı

Hatayda yemiş gibi oldum. Etin tadı yağı tuzu gayet güzeldi. Baharatlar iyiydi. Lavaş market lavaşı gibiydi bence ekmek olmamış etin içindeki biber parçaları biraz kalın gibiydi. Yanında gelen mezeler eh, atom baya acı. Yemekten sonra gelen kabak tatlısı da hataylıyız diye ikramdı, tatlı baya güzeldi

Hatay ASİ KASAP & KEBAP

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