Fava Bean Dip, Halloumi Salad, Iskender Kebap, and Sekerpare

We had friends over for this meal so I went a little crazy on the dishes. Normally I make one or two dishes, depending on the amount of time each one takes, but I was really ambitious and did four! It also helped that they came over on a Saturday night so I had all of Saturday to prepare instead of the usual one or two hours during weeknight dinners.

Since there are four different recipes, I'm just going to link to them because I'm expecting this post to be long. No one wants to scroll that much!

First up, Fava Bean Dip

*instert cheesy Hannibal Lecter joke* This was really easy to make, even with my Vitamix. I've had to play around with the setting on the Vitamix to get the right smooth consistency with dips, which is something I didn't have to do with my old food processor, but I work with what I have. I didn't have dill so I used a combination of oregano and parsley. I read on other sites that dill is what "makes" this dip so I'm sure it's even better than what I made but I still liked this a lot. It looks like hummus but a little grainier and a lot sweeter. The red pepper flakes add a nice kick to it, too! I actually just ate some so 1. it refrigerates well and 2. it's yummy even four days later!

Halloumi Salad with Peppers

Um, halloumi cheese is amazing! When reading over the recipe, I was particularly interested in that halloumi doesn't melt easily because of it's high heat index. A cheese that doesn't melt?! What is this sorcery???? All four of us were amazed by the cheese! It had a weird consistency that I have trouble describing, although one guest said it reminded him of string cheese. I can agree with that but the halloumi was still crunchier? That's not the right word. Go try it for yourself, you will love it! I used spinach with this salad and everything went together perfectly! The simple dressing of olive oil, oregano, and red pepper flakes is one I will use again for sure.

Iskender Kebab

Iskender Kebab made all that "Must Eat" lists. I was a little wary because, c'mon, it's kebab. Have you ever seen those rotating kebab grills? I don't have one of those! The recipe said to saute the meat but I used the broiler in my oven instead. If I make this again, I'll saute the peppers and tomatoes separately because I was afraid of drying the meat so I took everything out after seven minutes and the peppers weren't as soft as I would have preferred. I'll also toast the pita bread because it was kinda blah with the rest of the meal. The meat was super tender and juicy, though. When making the marinade, I made the mistake of sniffing the onion juice. Don't do that! Unless you want your eyes to full on cry for a couple of minutes, then go for it. I marinaded the meat for six hours instead of overnight and it was just as good.

Sekerpare

When I found this recipe involving semolina, I was really anxious to try it. I'd had such success with the Burmese semolina cake that I thought preparing it in a different manner would be fun. The cookies were so easy to make that my three year old literally did most of the work. They came out fantastic as well! They were really light and sweet and the lemony taste was very subtle.

I think this was a great dinner meal. Everyone liked it and yes, it was a little labor intensive, but that was expected given the amount of food. All four are keepers!