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Good morning my friends, today I got for you a special recipe coming straight from turkey but cooked with a Greek different way , let’s see

Ingredients

1,200 g beef (olive or scallop comb) cut into bite or lamb size
1/4 cup olive oil
2 chopped onions
1 sc. garlic
1 tbsp pulp
3/4 cup Red wine
1 pack of chopped tomatoes
1 bay leaf
2-3 spices
1 piece cinnamon stick
2-3 sprigs of parsley
salt
freshly ground pepper
For the eggplant puree
6 roasted or smoked aubergines peeled
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
3 cups fresh hot milk
salt
pepper
1/2 cup ripe grated cheese

Preparation and serving

For the hounkiar beyenti, first heat the olive oil and brown the pieces of meat over a high heat little by little so that the temperature of the oil does not drop. We do not constantly turn the pieces so that they manage to shield and brown well.

After shielding all the pieces of beef, add the chopped onion and the broken garlic clove and sauté for a few minutes until it becomes transparent. Stir the onion regularly. Add the pulp and rub it on the base of the pot for 1 ′. Quench with the wine and let it evaporate in half.

Add the tomatoes, parsley, bay leaf, spices and cinnamon. Remove the cinnamon after 10 ′. Grate pepper and add a little hot water just enough to cover the ingredients. Lower the heat and simmer with the pot covered for 1 hour and 30 minutes until the meat is well softened and the sauce binds well.

Season with salt and pepper and if necessary add a little sugar. Be careful, the fire must be low because we do not have much liquid in the pot.

For the eggplant puree
Preheat the oven to 200ºC. If we want to give a smoky aroma to the eggplant, the easiest way is to pierce it with a fork all around and nail it to the fork. Use it as tweezers and burn for 5-10 ′ on an open flame.

If you do not like the smoking process or the aroma of tobacco, just put the aubergines in a pan and cook them until they soften well for about 30 minutes. After they become lukewarm, we drill down to drain their liquids. Carve lengthwise and with a spoon remove their flesh which is now very soft. Finely chop it with a knife or melt it with a fork.

At the same time we prepare the cream. Heat the butter to melt. Add the flour and, stirring with a whisk, bake the rou for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour in the hot milk, stirring with a whisk until the cream is smooth. We are salting. Let the cream set and thicken for a few minutes.

Then, add the melted smoked eggplant and check the salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and finally add the cheese.

Serve the eggplant puree on a plate, make a puddle in the middle, fill it with the kebabs and pour over it with a little knitted wonderful sauce.

Secrets for the perfect hunkiar beyenti
• Dry the meat well on absorbent paper.

• Brown the meat in portions so that it is properly shielded all around to make a nice crust. If you put many pieces in the hot pot, the temperature of the oil will drop sharply and instead of browning the meat will start to boil. The result will be to lose half the flavor of the braised beef.

• Do not constantly stir the browned meat, nor pull it if it has caught in the pot. Once it is ready and browned, it comes off on its own.

• When we extinguish the food with the wine, we let the volume of the wine decrease by 2/3. That is, we will concentrate all the aromas of the wine and we will imprison them in the food.

• The braised beef should soften well and almost melt. The sauce must bind well and be melted, that is, thickened.

• Cook the aubergines in any way you prefer, from the ones I describe in detail in my secrets.

• What to watch out for is this: Eggplant should not have any moisture when it enters the béchamel.

• For a more beautiful texture in the hounkiar, chop the aubergines.

• Serve plenty of eggplant puree and garnish with plenty of meat and sauce

I hope you enjoy this as well

Stay safe and healthy my friends and take care of your people

My best wishes from Greece