Dinner · 60 min · middle-eastern

Iskender

Lamb leg does the heavy lifting here, with pide bread rounding it out. A Middle Eastern dinner that takes 60 minutes, start to finish. The macros do the talking: 48g protein, 52g carbs, and 52g fat in every 900-calorie serving. Simple enough for a Tuesday, good enough to serve to guests — that is the whole idea.

Ingredients

• 2 lb Lamb leg
• 4 pieces Pide bread
• 2 cups Tomato sauce
• 2 cups Plain yogurt
• 6 tbsp Butter
• 1 tbsp Aleppo pepper
• 1 Onion
• 1/2 cup Milk

Steps

1. Freeze the lamb 1 hour until firm, then slice paper-thin against the grain — thin slices are the whole architecture of döner-style meat.
2. Marinate the slices in grated onion, milk, and spices 30 minutes.
3. Sear in batches in a screaming-hot pan 3 minutes until browned at the edges; keep warm.
4. Toast the pide until crisp at the edges and arrange on warm plates.
5. Ladle the hot tomato sauce over the bread, pile on the lamb, and spoon yogurt alongside — never on top.
6. Finish by pouring sizzling butter over everything at the table; the hiss is part of the ceremony.
7. Invented in Bursa in the 1860s and still served with theatrical pride; eat immediately, while the butter sings.

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