Vayetsei Recipe – Sinyeh – Kebab Patties Baked in Tahini

Miriam Kresh

Ingredients for kebabs

1 kg/2 lbs ground lamb (beef, turkey or chicken may be subsituted), coarsely ground

2 tablespoons olive oil or, if available, 25 gr./1 oz. ground lamb fat

1/2 onion, chopped fine or grated into the meat

1 heaping teaspoon finely chopped garlic

1/2 bunch fresh parsley, chopped fine

Salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Tahini

2 cups (use unprocessed tahini paste straight from the jar, preferably whole-grain)

Juice of 2 lemons

1 cup of cold water (important that it be cold)

1 large clove garlic

1/2 teaspoon salt

Note: do not use store-bought ready-to-eat tahini. It will separate in cooking and look awful. Mix your own as described above.

Vegetables:

1 onion, sliced

1 bell pepper, any color, sliced

1 large tomato, sliced

1 lemon, sliced thinly

Mix all the kebab ingredients. Cover and put in refrigerator to mellow for 1/2 an hour at least.

Prepare the tahini. Mix all the ingredients, stirring with a whisk. The mixture might be lumpy at first. Don’t worry; keep stirring. If it is too thick, add a little more cold water. The consistency should be thin. It will thicken with cooking.

Correct taste. It should be lemony.

Preheat oven to 180˚C. – 350˚F.

Roll kebabs into 5 cm/2″ balls. Sauté, in batches, in olive oil until browned on both sides but not cooked through. Remove to a platter.

Add the onion and bell pepper to the hot oil used for frying the kebabs. Fry 2-3 minutes until onion just starts to change color.

Place kebabs on a clean frying pan (or oven tray). Cover with fried onion and bell pepper slices. Scatter sliced tomato and lemon over all.

Pour tahini over the kebabs and jostle the pan a little so it seeps between the kebabs and spreads evenly. Place the frying pan over medium heat or oven tray in oven.

Cook for 5 minutes, until the tahini thickens and changes color from white to light brown.

Look for the golden-tinged edges.

Serve with plenty of pita to mop up the delicious sauce.

This recipe appeared on Miriam’s blog: http://www.israelikitchen.com.

Miriam Kresh grew up in the US, and lived in Brazil and Venezuela before moving to Israel 33 years ago. Her cuisine has been influenced by the flavors of Latin America, the midwestern US, French and Italian cooking, and the flavors of the Middle East. She is the author of hundreds of online and print publications about food and travel, and shares her passion for cooking through her blog Israeli Kitchen: http://www.israelikitchen.com.