Dinna' Time!

As promised, it is time for me to share a fabulous dinner idea with you all. Unfortunately, I did not take a pic of this one, but I did make it with my own two hands. Dinner was inspired by...TURKEY! This was our dinner menu:

Köfte (Turkish meatballs made with ground lamb)
Turkish salad
Rice Pilaf

While in Turkey, my favorite dinner was Köfte with potatoes because the Pansiyon at which we were staying made great homemade dinners and this happened to be their specialty! Let me tell you, it was comfort food at its finest. So I looked up a recipe for this Turkish treat online and found one that called for all things I had on hand. The recipe called for ground beef, but I decided to use lamb instead. The extra fat is so worth it in this dish!

For the salad, I cut up garden fresh cucumbers and tomatoes. In Turkey, we actually ate a lot of salad with lettuce, but I also saw this cucumber and tomato combo served quite often and decided to improvise with it. I noticed while in that sun-scorched land that the special ingredient in their salad was dill. So, for the dressing, I used an olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and dill mixture. It was so tasty!

Rice pilaf is another recipe I looked up online. I noticed Turkish rice was much more moist and salty than the Asian rice I'm used to. I learned this is because it's often toasted and seasoned before being cooked in chicken broth. Flavor is delivered plentifully with these added steps.

I shall not pretend to be an expert on Turkish food at all...as you can see, I didn't really teach you many tricks. I would, again, recommend looking up recipes for these (and other!) Turkish dishes online. The keys to Turkish food are: fresh ingredients and snuck-in flavor whenever possible. Though I may not be an expert in the kitchen, I can sure school you in the dining room when it comes to this Mediterranean cuisine! I'm great at eating.

Afiyet Olsun!