I was arranging the photos of this post this morning when I heard a peddler’s voice outside. I couldn’t undesrtand what he was selling at first. In fact, street peddlers are famous for their special style of calling out. Each of them has his own style and people don’t understand what they are saying or selling just by listening to them. The only way to understand what they are selling is looking through the window, so I opened the window and saw that it was the voice of a second hand dealer. He was like a person passing by my childhood. With all the dust on his clothes, he was ready to take me to those old days. There used to be more peddlers like him 20 years ago, you could hear at least three different voices in a day, I remember that one of them used to visit our neighborhood every morning, one used to visit at noons and one in the afternoons. And I was always so curious about the things they bought. Although their number is not as many as it was, it’s still possible today to hear or see second hand dealers.
What do these second hand dealers do? Eventhough the things they deal with may change, they simply exchange old things with a very small amount of money or with something housewives need. As a child, I found them more interesting and special than other peddlers selling vegetables and fruits. They’ve become even more interesting and valuable for me today.I’m not sure how much they are aware of their value in history with their role of reintroducing the old things to modern life. They are like messengers between the past and the present. (I took the photo of these second hand dealers below a few years ago).
In big cities, they generally buy old stamps, old medals, old postcards, old discs, gramophones, radios, oil lamps and pay little money in return. Most people don’t care the amount of money much as they just want to get clear of these dusty old things. So interestingly, while these people see these things as rubbish, there are some people waiting for buying these rubbish from antique shops with a god deal of money. After buying them from their owners, second hand dealers sell these to such antique shops.
In smaller cities and towns, second hand dealers buy things just made of iron or metal, they weigh it with scales and pay its money to the owner. So it is sometimes so funny to see an old oven or a stove on the scales. And I guess they take these scraps to a recycling place and sell them there.
In some regions, in small villages, these peddlers buy anything old from dishes to shoes and they give some plastic bowls or clothes pins in return.
This morning, when I heard the the peddler’s voice, I realized the value of second hand dealers once more. If there weren’t any people buying and selling old things, we wouldn’t know what kind of things our grand grandparents used, so we owe the second hand dealers a lot.
I finished arranging the photos of the dish with these thoughts in my mind. This is one of the special dishes my husband knows. He said that he learnt it from one of his friends when he was single. And whenever he sees that I can’t decide what to cook, he sets up to the plate and cooks this tasty dish. I think my hesitation suits him more as he is a big fan of meat. Otherwise, I may cook something with spinach, leek, okra, zucchini, etc. If you’re looking for an easy and tasty meat dish, here is the recipe.
Kasarli Sarma Kofte
Ingredients
-500g minced meat
-1 cup bread crumbs
-3 tbsp olive oil
- salt
- black pepper
- dried thyme
- 2 tbsp water
- 150g yellow cheese (kasar peyniri)*
- 2 red bell peppers
- 2 green peppers
- 2 potatoes
- 2 tbsp olive oil
*Yellow cheese is a kind of sheep milk. It is light yellow in color and has a hard texture. This is the cheese generally used in toasted sandwich or in such dishes as it melts when cooked. If you don’t have kasar peyniri, use a cheese which melts in the dishes.
Combine minced meat, bread crumbs, water, oil, salt and spices. Knead it well until the right consistency. It must be like a dough so that you can shape it. Add more bread crumbs if necessary.
Preheat the oven at 200C.
Oil an oven tray and spread the kneaded minced meat in it. The thickness must be about one inch. It doesn’t have to cover all its bottom.
Cut the yellow cheese in strips. And place them on one side of the meat.
Chop one of the red peppers and one of the green peppers in small cubes. Put some of them on the cheese.
Then fold the right and left ends of the meat to prevent any cheese leakage.
Then wrap the cheese with meat gently. Do not hurry while doing this. Do it as if you’re shaping clay. If any distortion happens, correct it with your hands.
Slice the potatoes and the rest of the peppers and place them around the meat. Sprinkle salt on potatoes and drizzle 2tbsp oil on them.
Cook it for about 50 minutes and serve it hot. You can serve rice pilaf and tomato salad near it.
20 Comments on "Meat Wrapped Cheese"
MMMMMMMMMMMM,…must taste fab, Zerrin!! A very rich & wonderful meat bread like we say!!
Yum Yum Yum!
wow that looks great, I definitely have to make this for dinner sometime
Nice. It’s like meatloaf with a surprise inside. Yum!! hehe…
The second hand peddlers are like pawn shops here in the US, except that they are mobile. That’s pretty neat.
That looks awesome. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Stuffed meatloaf! How delicious! Very interesting – those peddlers. I think I would be scared of them outside my house!
Oh, cheese inside the meat loaf. How can I not going to like this?
Those second hand peddlers sound really interesting.
Reminds me a bit of the days when such peddlers brought their wares to housewives in isolated pockets of the U.S.
Agreed, reminds me of a stuffed meatloaf, I like the use of cheese and peppers in the center.
Oh my this dish does indeed look very tasty. I’d be indecisive a lot if it resulted in something like that =) I love the story about the peddlers, we do not have them here, but the exchange and connection would be a lot of fun.
I see, I have been away too long. Now I am hungry and have so much reading to catch up on here! My Dad used to tell me about the second hand dealers!
This looks wonderful!!
yum! I love that you call it a meat-wrapped cheese and not a meat stuffed with cheese. Cheese is definitely a highlight here!
A cheese meat combination is a wonderful mix. Beside the colors all together with peppers are spectaculars
Cheers!
Gera
This is like a meatloaf with cheese. Sounds great! I know what you mean about the value of antique shops. I love browsing through them and imagining how the antiques were once used.
Sophie- Meat bread is a very nice name as it looks like a loaf of bread. And yes, it was fabulous!
Jessie- I’m sure you’ll love it. And the best, it’s so easy to make.
Jenn- Meatloaf is another nice name for this dish. I didn’t know it has a name in English. Thanks. As the second hand peddlers are mobile here, people don’t have to take their old things to anywhere, they just give it outside of their house, not so far.
Divina- Thank you. Hope you love it when you try.
Reeni- Lol! Scared? Why? Second hand peddlers are not bad people my dear. But as you’re not familiar with them, it may sound weird.
Elra- I think noone can refuse such a cheese-meat combination.
Hugging the Coast- They sound similar. I do respect these second hand dealers.
Cajun Chef Ryan- Cheese and peppers inside added a wonderful flavor to it. And peppers didn’t lose their moisture as they were inside.
Oyster- sometimes I suddenly can’t decide what to cook when I know what hubby has as a solution
Vanessa- It’s so nice to see you here again. Hope everything is fine. I think second hand dealers are one of the invisible values of our country.
Natasha- So happy to hear you loved the name. I thought on it a lot as its English translation would be too long. Then I thought I must point out the importance of cheese in it.
Gera- I do love the colors as well. It realy serves my eyes first.
Lisa- Isn’t it like travelling through history? I love it!
This is a really beautiful dish! I love all the pretty colors. I loved reading about the street peddlers…very fascinating! Thanks for sharing!
I really enjoyed reading your story about the street peddlers.
Your meat dish ( in the U.S. we referred to these loaves as “meat loaf”) looks quite good. The added cheese makes it even more delicious. Thanks for sharing.
We have a similar recipe in Colombia we called it “Albondigón”. We stuff it with cooked egg and vegetables. Your recipe looks delicious.
This is such a neat idea. Here, in California I once tried these burgers stuffed with cheese and they were pretty good. Your roulade looks even better!
My husband would love this recipe also, and also maybe my son. They love meatloaf, and other ground beef recipes.
The title got my attention. I love meat and cheese. Combining them is genius! Looks delicious and I will have to try it – with lots of vegetables to make it somewhat healthy.