Turkish Beyti Kebab

Kebabs are a common type of food for Turkish people. Kebabs are often grilled or baked on skewers, or sometimes they are just cooked as patties, with various meats, seafood or vegetables (or a combination of these). I couldn't find any good sources for the history of this type of kebab, "Beyti" (pronounced as if, "bay-ty"), with some saying it dates back to the days of the Ottoman Empire, but it then was revived in the 1960s, in Istanbul, while others seem to feel it was invented in the 1960s in Istanbul. Turkey's capital of Istanbul is certainly a common tie to the differing opinions. 

Ingredients (for 6 kebabs):

Kebabs:
1 1/2 pounds ground lamb
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon serrano or jalapeño chili, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
6 flour tortillas, the 6 inch type
melted butter for brushing
bell pepper (red, orange, yellow or green), baked, grilled or fried, cut into strips (or you can use store bought roasted peppers) 
Greek-style plain yogurt (about 1 cup)

Tomato Sauce:
1  15 ounce can tomato sauce
1/4 cup fresh tomato, chopped
2 tablespoons onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried mint
1 tablespoon olive oil

In a bowl, mix the lamb, onion, chili pepper, black pepper, cumin, coriander, breadcrumbs, salt and milk. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours. For the sauce: In a sauce pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and let cook about about 2 minutes, then add the garlic and chopped tomatoes. Cook another 2 to 3 minutes, then stir in the tomato sauce and cook until the mixtures begins to bubble. Reduce heat to low and add the dried mint. Cook for about 2 minutes. For the meat: Roll the meat mixture into sausages of about 1 inch wide, 5 1/2 inches long and one inch deep. If you want to put the meat on skewers for grilling, you can soak wooden skewers in water for about 20 minutes, or use metal skewers, and put the meat onto the skewers. Grill, turning occasionally to make sure the meat cooks evenly. Otherwise, heat the oven to 350 F, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Arrange the meat on the sheet (no skewers needed). Bake until totally cooked through, about 40 to 45 minutes.

Wrap each kebab in a tortilla, and brush with melted butter. Place seam side down and cut each wrapped kabab into three  pieces. On a platter, put about a cup of plain Greek-style yogurt in the center. Arrange the kebab pieces around the yogurt. Spoon the tomato sauce over the kebab pieces. Scatter the pepper strips over the top of the kebabs, or serve in a separate dish on the side. For individual servings, place pieces of kebab on a plate, add a couple tablespoons of yogurt to one side and spoon some tomato sauce over the kebabs. Add the pepper strips.


I made an individual serving, with a few pieces of kebab covered in sauce, and with some pepper strips and yogurt to the side of the plate

WORD HISTORY:
Kebab-This word, also spelled, "kabob," "kebob," along with some others, has an uncertain distant history. It seems to go back to transliterated Afro-Asiatic "kahbah," which meant, "to burn, to roast, to cook." This "apparently" gave a similar form to its offspring, "Semitic," ^ which was passed to Aramaic, one of the Semitic languages, which was a common language long ago, as transliterated  "kahbaba" (?), meaning "burn(ing), (roast(ing), char(ring)." This gave Arabic transliterated "kabab," meaning, "cooked/roasted meat," which was borrowed into Turkish as "kebap." Borrowed by English in the latter part of the 1700s from Arabic, with reinforcement from Turkish.  

^ Semitic is a language family centered in the Middle East. The most common modern Semitic languages are Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew and Tigrinya. Arabic and Hebrew are commonly known in much of Europe and North America, but Amharic is spoken in a large part of Ethiopia. Tigrinya is also spoken in parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, another East African nation. Aramaic, also a Semitic language, was once fairly widespread in part of the Middle East, but it receded with the spread of  Arabic.