Dandelion Soup - Otlu Çorba

This is a light delicous soup perfect to serve for a formal dinner.  This will be making an appearance at our Passover.


2 litres chicken stock
dandelion greens - 250gr or a couple of large handfuls
2 potatoes
2 carrots
garlic, minced
1 litre water
salt
lemon wedges


Wash the dandelion greens well and chop finely, put to one side.  Peel potatoes and carrots and dice, put to one side.  Put the chicken stock into a saucepan and add dandelion greens and diced veggies, garlic and salt.  Cook over a high heat for 10 minutes then taste, add extra water and seasonings as desired.  Turn down the heat to medium and continue to cook until the vegetables are cooked.


Serve with lemon wedges on the side and or add the juice of one lemon to the soup before serving.


Will post photo in a couple of days

Yayla Çorbası - Yogurt Soup

Yogurt Soup, bowl of pickled chilies and a glass of Şalgam

1kg yogurt - plain
1 egg yolk
2 cups water
1 small handful rice
1tbs dried mint
1tbsp butter
1tsp tomato paste


Put the yogurt into a saucepan and whisk, add in the egg yolk and water, whisk again.  Place on stove and heat on medium heat (do not let it boil) add in the rice and stir.  Leave on medium heat until rice is cooked, 10 minutes or more depending on rice. Add in the mint and stir, you want to add enough so it has green flecks all through it.  After the rice is cooked take of heat.  In a small saucepan or frypan melt the butter, add the tomato paste and stir well.  Once they have combined pour on top of the soup.


You want to keep a close eye on this soup when you make it, stirring frequently.  You don't want it to boil and then curdle.  Some people add salt to it but I don't as I think the yogurt has enough zing without it.  Add a pinch if you want salt.  Do not be tempted like I was once to add more rice, you only want a small handful in it or you will end up with mint flavored rice pudding.


I first had this soup when my MIL sent it to us in a metal pail.  I was hesitant at first as I didn't want to be eating hot yogurt.  It is quite a comforting soup and is given to small children, pregnant women, the aged and infirmed.  Yayla means tablelands or plateau so as you can guess this is a soup they say has come from the mountains.

Istanbul Sephardic Chicken Soup

Istanbul is a wonderful city, I lived there for a year and a half and loved it.  People from all over Turkey go there to find work and a better life.  The apartment I lived in had people from everywhere.  Sivas, Urfa, Bulgaria, Ankara and from various regions of the Black Sea.  A couple of ladies were from Istanbul, Kadikoy when they were younger, thier families still having the ancestral home there.  They were all a wealth of stories and recipes. Whilst the lady who gave me this recipe is not sephardic herself it was a family favorite and she passed it on to me. 


Turkey has a wealth of soup and yogurt recipes, many of which I have made myself.  This soup has yogurt in it, don't let that put you off.  I have enjoyed alot of yogurt soup dishes many of which I never thought I would have.  After moving to Antep it led me to discover a local dish made for one of the festivals, Yuvarlama.  Yuvarlama is made with meat and rice meal made into köftes then cooked in a meat and yogurt sauce.  If mixing meat and dairy is not your thing you can also make it with chicken and yogurt and which is equally delicious.  But here I'm getting away with myself, I will post that another day.

500 gr chicken thigh or legs
1tsp salt
1onion, sliced 
2 large leeks
3 Celery stalks
2 tbsp olive oil
chicken stock, 4 cups 
long grain white rice, one handful
2  egg yolks
1 ½ cups yogurt
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 ½ tsp butter
1 tbsp dried mint, 
chili powder to taste 


Put chicken thigh into a stock pot.  Cover with water just 2cm above chicken. Add salt. Bring water to boil. Skim foam from the top of water.  Cover pot and reduce heat to simmer.  Simmer for three minutes, remove from heat and allow to sit covered until cool.  Slice leeks in half and wash well.  Chop leeks and celery. Heat a second stock pot over medium heat. Add oil and vegetables (all).  Cover and cook until very tender.  Take the chicken from the pot and allow to cool on a plate. Pour water from the stock pot into the vegetables.  Add 4 cups of chicken stock.   Add rice. Stir, cover and cook for ½ hour.  Remove the skin and bones from chicken and tear into small pieces.  Add chicken back into the pot.  In another  smaller pot, heat ¼ cup water, cornflour, egg yolks and yogurt over low heat.  Stir constantly, after the mixture thickens, stir into soup.  In a small frypan melt the butter, add the mint and chili powder and fry for a minute.  Pour on top of the soup.


Do not let this boil after you have added the yogurt or it will curdle.


Listen to this great song and look at the shots they have put to the music.  Istanbul, not Constantinople!