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History of "Adana" Technique
An ancient technique practiced in its purist form at few restaurants outside of Turkey, the "Adana" preparation starts with a surgically precise cleaning of a menu of meat cuts, leaving no bone, tendon, silverskin, muscle or organ residue whatsoever. The fat is likewise removed; then it and the meat are hand chopped with a pala, a curved knife indigenous to Turkey. The fat and meat are combined to re-marble the meat at a specific ratio to assure maximum flavor and then massaged with red pepper flakes (and chopped bell peppers in the case of Chicken Adana). After marinating for six hours the meat is hand pressed onto flat wide skewers and salted. While cooking, the majority of the fat burns off (having imparted its distinct taste characteristics), resulting in kebabs with a sensual, almost velvety mouth feel and a seductively seasoned flavor. In a restaurant, Adana kebab is prepared as a long, charcoal grilled, minced meat brochette mounted on a long (about 3 feet) wide (about 1 inch) skewer. Whereas at Pera Mediterranean Brasserie we prepare the Adana as 10 ounces of meat on a single such skewer, our package contains 2 shorter bamboo skewer with 5 ounces of meat on each skewer, 10 ounces total in the package. Adana is named after the fifth largest city of Turkey, in the Mediterranean region. It is also known as kıyma kebabı (minced meat kebab) or simply as kıyma in Adana. After the meat has browned, it is slid off the skewer onto a bed of lavash bread slices and is served with an accompaniment of chopped parsley, onion and sumac garnish salad (diced tomatoes, peppers and mint may also be added). Lemon juice may be added to further balance the meat – garnish salad equation. An alternative is to serve the Adana as a roll (i.e. dürüm); the meat and the garnish salad are rolled in a flatbread (flat pita, lavash or flour tortilla). This is more of a on-the-go style of serving this dish, although the garnish salad and meat are all prepared fresh. - To view the various home cooking methods for the Adana and to see how the garnish salad is prepared, please click here to view a short video.
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