PEDA BURGERS or SHISH KEBAB ON PEDA BREAD

The fruits of your labor! Here is the burger for 8 that you get with one large loaf of Peda bread.

 Yummy view #2.

 Simple family dinner with the star being that big, gorgeous, yummy burger.

For the Peda burger:

Shape 3 pounds of lean ground beef (you could use ground turkey, chicken, lamb or buffalo) in 8 wedge-shaped patties about 3/4 inch thick, or if you have a basket grill, make a 12 inch diameter patty. Cook 3 inches from heat, 5 minutes to a side for rare, 8 for medium and 10 for well done. Salt and pepper only on the meat.

Split a loaf of Peda bread horizontally, making bottom crust at least 3/4 inch thick. Cover bottom with the hot meat, then 1/2 pound sliced jack cheese. Place the burger under the broiler to melt the cheese. Top with 2 thinly sliced tomatoes, 1 thinly sliced red onion, 1 cup shredded lettuce, and 1 to 2 thinly sliced dill pickles. Cover with bread top, cut in sections with individual patties or cut patty-filled loaf in wedges. Serves 8

Note: I like to take a mixture of low-fat mayo and some mustard and put on the bottom of the bread top to add some moisture.

If you prefer to have Shish Kebab on your Peda bread here is a recipe for marinade & instructions:

In a large bowl mix 2 pounds lean boneless lamb (in 2" cubes) with one large onion (cut into large chunks), 1/4 cup chopped parsley, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/2 cup dry red wine, and 1/4 cup olive oil. Let meat marinade 6 hours to overnight, toss the meat occasionally. Lamb is the classic Armenian meat for this dish but beef or chicken may be substituted.  Then thread onto skewers an barbecue five minutes per side for medium rare. Serve the meat on a split loaf of the Peda bread, adding grilled veggies (peppers & onions) or grilled onions with the meat.

Coleslaw Recipe - KFC Copycat recipe

  Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup light mayo
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/3 cup sugar or your favorite substitute I like Whey Low
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp celery seed
• 16 oz shredded bagged coleslaw mix

Whisk together all the ingredients except for the shredded coleslaw mix.

Instructions

1. Add the bag and mix until nicely blended with the dressing (good idea to first give the mix a little chop to avoid big chunks of cabbage)
2. Refrigerate 2-3 hours (or longer).
3. Mix well again just before serving.

I just use frozen fries and store bought frozen yogurt for this fun summer dinner. Clean and cut the strawberries and mix with a little sugar to macerate them, I use the Whey Sugar here too and serve the froyo in dessert glasses drizzled with the strawberries.

Bon appetit!

Resource

Peda bread, burger & Shis Kebab recipe, Sunset Magazine, 
Recipe to make the bread: Peda Bread Recipe
Copycat KFC coleslaw, Mom on Timeout 
Whey Low Sugar, Whole Foods

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ARMENIAN PEDA BREAD

I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley of California and had the privileged of knowing many Armenian families as neighbors, school friends and in the population in general. Wonderful people and great food that they brought from the old country. I clearly remember the day, as a little girl, that I ate some yummy baklava found on the dessert section of a school pot luck. My first taste of this sweet treat and it seemed very exotic to me. 

You can find Peda (do not confuse with the popular and easy to find pita bread) in restaurants and specialty stores in the Fresno area. Thank you George for our visit to George's Shish Kebab in Fresno. Oh and don't let me forget to mention pilaf, all so good.

When my boys were growing up I made two kinds of bread (because they were easy) Sally Lunn and Peda bread. You can make this bread in large rounds or smaller rounds.  We make a BIG Peda burger using one big round of bread.

It really is quite simple, just a few ingredients, olive oil, salt, milk, water, flour and yeast.

 The recipe calls for mixing the first few ingredients in the mixer and then adding the rest of the flour and mixing by hand but I use the dough hook on my mixer instead of by hand and find that much easier.

 After kneading the bread for five minutes you just wrap in plastic and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Once it has rested then you make two loaves and put in the fridge for 2-24 hours.  That's it except for an egg wash on the top, some sesame seeds and ready to bake.

Recipe:
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 3/4 cups warm milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 cups unsifted A/P flour

Olive oil
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
4 tablespoons sesame seeds

In the large bowl of your electric mixer, combine yeast and warm water, stirring to blend: let soften about 5 minutes, then stir in milk, sugar, salt, and three tablespoons olive oil.  Add 3 cups of flour and beat at medium speed for five minutes. Remove beaters, and with a heavy spoon work in 2 1/2 cups more flour (at this point I use my dough hook).  Spread the remaining 1/2 cup flour on a board; turn dough onto it. Knead for about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic feeling.

If you want to make the dough by hand, stir in 5 1/2 cups flour; knead dough, in the remaining 1/2 cup flour, for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.

Cover dough with clear plastic film and let rest 20 minutes. Knead on lightly floured board to collapse air bubbles, then pinch off 2 small portions of dough, each 1/2 cup size, and divide large piece of dough in half. Knead each portion into a smooth ball.

To make each loaf, flatten the large piece of dough on a greased baking sheet into a flat found cake; poke a hole in the center, and with your fingers pulling in opposition, make a 4 inch-diameter hole; flatten the dough rim to make it 10 inches in diameter.  Place one of the small balls of dough in the center and flatten gently to fill the hole. Brush lightly with olive oil; repeat to make the second loaf. 

Cover dough with clear plastic film and refrigerate 2 to 24 hours.  When ready to bake, remove loaf or loaves from refrigerator, uncover, and let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes.  Brush each loaf with beaten egg and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sesame seed. (To bake freshly made dough, shape, oil and let stand room temperature, lightly covered, for 20 minutes, then glaze with egg and top with sesame seed).

Bake in a 350° oven for 35 minutes or until crust is a deep golden color and a thin wooden skewer comes out clean.  Cool on wire racks slightly before cutting. Makes 2 loaves each about 11 inches in diameter.

For the Peda burger:

Shape 3 pounds of lean ground beef (you could use ground turkey, chicken, lamb or buffalo) in 8 wedge-shaped patties about 3/4 inch thick, or if you have a basket grill, make a 12 inch diameter patty. Cook 3 inches from heat, 5 minutes to a side for rare, 8 for medium and 10 for well done. Salt and pepper only on the meat.

Split a loaf of Peda bread horizontally, making bottom crust at least 3/4 inch thick. Cover bottom with the hot meat, then 1/2 pound sliced jack cheese. Place the burger under the broiler to melt the cheese. Top with 2 thinly sliced tomatoes, 1 thinly sliced red onion, 1 cup shredded lettuce, and 1 to 2 thinly sliced dill pickles. Cover with bread top, cut in sections with individual patties or cut patty-filled loaf in wedges. Serves 8

Note: I like to take a mixture of low-fat mayo and some mustard and put on the bottom of the bread top.


Resource

Recipe source, Sunset Magazine, April 1970
Link to Sally Lunn bread recipe: Recipe 
Large white metal tray, IKEA

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ST. PADDY'S DAY IS IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR

Well St. Paddy's Day 2014 is in the can.  Now for a little truth in advertising.  I was attempting to make it a more healthy dinner by making sure that the corned beef was trimmed of all fat before serving, making a lower calorie and lower fat dessert and using a Dr. Oz recipe for the leek soup.  It was a wonderful dinner with one glaring exception - my Grandma always told me if I could not say something nice to not say anything at all.....therefore just let me say that next St. Paddy's Day I will go back to my old leek soup recipe and say for one day of the year I will not worry about healthy.

 I think I mentioned before that Sally Lunn bread is a sure thing in the bread department and the easiest yeast bread to make as you do not have to knead this bread.  It turned out perfect and filled the kitchen with that wonderful homemade bread smell.  The other bread that I make that is super easy is Armenian Peda bread and as soon as the barbeque gets fired up again we will make Peda burgers and I will post the recipe of this easy and oh-so-good bread.

 Homemade horseradish sauce with corned beef is really the icing on the cake and this is such good sauce.  I guess I should mention something about my cooking.  When I bake I am diligent about accurate measuring but if it is not baking for me all bets are off and any recipe I consider a "suggestion" and I tend to add this and that and make changes as I please.  I tried that with the Dr. Oz soup and no amount of kitchen magic could salvage the soup, not even my secret ingredient, which is Green Tabasco sauce, not the red (I use it too but not in this way) but the mild green sauce can give a flat sauce, soup or stew just the little richness that is needed, not too much just a little, if you did not know it was added you would not know it was there.  This horsey sauce calls for Dijon but if you look closely at the photo above you can see the grains - I only use Edmond Fallot Dijon or his grainy mustard and I substituted the grainy in this recipe, just like it better.

New England boiled dinner, so good for St. Paddy's Day. While on a recent vacation Trader Joe's opened their first store in Idaho (woohoo) and so I moseyed in for a few things including my corned beef.  This was the first time I had ever cooked corned beef that was not cured - this was fresh.  Well, I have to say the best corned beef we have ever had, hands down.  It was so tender and the flavor was wonderful, just enough seasoning and was not salty at all, just right.  Thank you Trader Joe's!

The best part, dessert.  The little individual raspberry trifles turned out perfect and the recipe makes either (2) big ones (we shared one and put the other in the freezer for another time) or (4) small ones.  Great  recipe.

All the recipes are on a previous post.

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