I’m addicted to Turkish food, its such simple cooking but with great flavours . These are best cooked on a bbq with a couple hands full of wood chips to get that smoke into the meat, if your cooking them indoors a solid griddle will be fine or a grill for them healthier times. If your bbq game is strong, you’ll be out there no matter the season. Bbq’ing by torch light in the middle of winter is common occurrence in my garden.

Ingredients 

• 400g lamb mince – (non lean) if mincing yourself try at least 20% fat)
• 3 cloves garlic (finely chopped or grated) – remove the hard bit in the middle
• 1 whole chilli – incl. seeds
• 1 medium onion
• 2 tbsp flat leaf parsley
• 1 tbsp fresh mint
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 & 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper

Method

1. Finely chop the onion & garlic into a small bowl mix with a little oil and microwave for a minute or until the soft but no colour. Allow to cool and then mix with the mince and all the other ingredients.
2. Mix by hand, there is no need for egg or breadcrumbs.
3. Once mixed split into 6 equal amounts and make patty shapes by hand. Theres not right or wrong here just try and keep them equal as possible and I prefer them flat so cooking is more even and you won’t over cook. Place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes so they firm up a bit.
4. Get them out the fridge a good 30 minutes before cooking, place on the bbq, if smoking make sure you cover them for a good few minutes then turn and cover again to keep them surrounded by the smoke. After four minutes of smoking just bbq until cooked through and there is no pink. Leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Tips .

• For a bit more meat flavour sub 200 grams of the lamb mince for a high quality beef mince, try to stay away from lean mince though.
• If your heating a flat bread up do it on the same grill and let the patties rest on the bread, you’ll get nice smokey bread with the meat juices .
• Wrap them up in a any wrap you prefer with a garlic / water cress mayo , chilli sauce , fresh parsley and salad.