Name: Meşhur Kebapçı Cahit Usta
Address: 5/B, &, 1376. Sokak, Balgat, Ceyhun Atuf Kansu Cd., Çankaya, Ankara, 06520, TR
Telephone: (0312) 287 92 97
Price range: €€
Rating: 3.2

Türkiye

Turkey

Ankara

Çankaya

Meşhur Kebapçı Cahit Usta

Cubes of lamb threaded on a flat skewer and grilled over charcoal until the edges char and the centre stays pink: kuzu şiş is the plainest dish on a Turkish kebab menu and the one that exposes a kitchen fastest, because there is nothing to hide behind. The word şiş simply means skewer, and the construction is the one that gave the world the shish kebab; the Turkish version is distinguished by the cut, usually leg or shoulder of young lamb with some fat left on, by the marinade, which is restrained, and by the heat, which comes from mangal charcoal rather than gas. It is eaten across the country, but the kebab cities of the south-east, Gaziantep, Adana and Şanlıurfa, set the standard, and in Antep it is often cooked with pieces of tail fat between the meat to baste it.

The meat is cut into pieces of two to three centimetres, large enough to stay juicy inside while the outside colours. It is marinated for a few hours, sometimes overnight, in grated onion and its juice, olive oil, salt, black pepper and often a little yoghurt or milk, which tenderises without masking; thyme and pul biber are optional, and heavy spice mixes are not Turkish. The pieces are threaded tightly onto wide flat skewers so they do not spin, with fat between them in the Antep style, and grilled over a bed of glowing charcoal with no flame, turned every minute or so and salted again as they cook. Six to eight minutes is typical. The skewer comes to the table with lavash that has caught the drippings, grilled green peppers and tomato, sliced onion with sumac and parsley, and usually a bowl of rice or bulgur pilaf.

Cut a cube in half before scoring. The outside should carry real colour and the smell of charcoal; the inside should be rosy and moist, with the fat rendered soft rather than chewy. The lamb should taste of lamb, seasoned with salt and onion, and the meat should pull apart easily without being mushy from over-marination. Mark down grey, dry cubes cooked through to the centre, pieces cut so small they cannot stay juicy, a marinade that tastes of vinegar or spice paste, mutton sold as lamb, and any şiş cooked on a gas grill or a flat plate, which gives no char. A skewer where the fat pieces are missing is not wrong, but one in Antep without them is a lesser version. Judge the plate too: the bread should be soft with juice, the peppers blistered, the onion fresh.

Kuzu şiş

Nereden başlasam bilemiyorum. Et yağ oranı dengesizdi. Etlerin sosu çok yoğundu, kuzudan eser kalmamıştı. Yanına gelen ekmeklere anlam veremedim sosa batırılmış bayat ekmek fikri? 

Sosu azaltın, lavaşları soslayım ve ekmeklerden kurtulun.

Meşhur Kebapçı Cahit Usta

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