Yuvarlama

Yuvarlama is a regional special of where I am at the moment - Gaziantep.  It is delicous and has variations.  Today is the day it is eaten ( the day after Ramazan has finished) so this morning at 8am a neighbour came and gave us a generous amount for our breakfast. A bowl of rice pilav also came.

Neighbour 1

After eating this another neigbour came and gave us thier offerings.  Neighbour 1 had the tiny köftes made without meat and had a couple of pieces of meat in the yogurt soup.  Neighbour 2 had the köftes made with meat and some chicken in with the yogurt.  Neither had used a meat stock to thin out the yogurt.  As you can see even though the recipe is standard people do whatever they like or whatever they can to suit the budget.

Neigbour 2 yuvarlama with rice pilav

Making the köfte

What is Yuvarlama when it is broken down? It is a dish made with little rice bubble sized meatballs made usually with fat free mince(ground beef)and coarsely ground rice flour.(Neighbour 1 had just made the köftes out of rice)  These are then steamed and added to a yogurt soup that has a very small amount of beef or chicken and chickpeas.  Then on top of that they have a bright green mint sauce.

This is a time consuming job as you can imagine, most people make a kilos worth of meat and 500gr of rice flour and then make tiny tiny meatballs.  All the neigbours will sit with each other and get them all done over the period of a couple of days.

Here is the recipe.

1 kilo of fat free beef mince

500gr of rice flour

1 egg

Knead all this together until it is a dough.  Using oiled hands take tiny pieces of this mix and make rice bubble sized pieces. Set aside.  Steam over hot water in a colander until they are cooked (they usually change colour)

1 kilo yogurt

250gr of either cooked meat or chicken, diced or shredded

1 cup of cooked chickpeas

salt

meat stock if wanted or water

oil

mint

Take the yogurt and put into a saucepan add in 1 cup of water or stock and whisk together.  You dont want this too thin or too thick.  Should be the same consistency of a tinned tomato soup.  Put the saucepan on the stove and heat slowly wisking well, dont bring it to the boil.  Add in the cooked meat and chickpeas and then 4 cups of prepared köftes.  Add in more water to cover and cook on a medium heat until everything has come together nicely which will take about 15 minutes.  Take off the heat and make the mint sauce.  Using about half a cup of olive oil and 4 tablespoons of mint put into a small saucepan and mix well, keep on the heat for a couple of minutes.       Pour ontop of the Yuvarlama and serve.

A couple of things to remember - you can make the meatballs with just the rice flour - you can use chicken mince to make the meatballs - you can omit the egg if you are making the meatballs with meat or chicken - if you dont like mixing meat and dairy do a chicken version or a meat version with rice meatballs.

http://verygoodrecipes.com/turkish

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!