Mosiac

We are saying farewell to Gaziantep and to Turkey for awhile returning to Australia.  Before we left Antep I had to see the new Mosiac Museum.  It was fantastic and well priced at 5 lira per person.  New modern buildings with a fantastic amount of mosiacs.  They found these mosiacs on the banks of the Euphrates River and took most whole and put them into this museum.  If you have a chance to see it it is worth the trip.  Todays Zaman had this to say about it.

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

Yağlı Köfte - Bulgur Köfte

Life can be interesting if you are open for it and sometimes even if your not.  I go to the Bazaar on Sundays and on the way there and back there is a woman.  She would look at me and talk to whoever was next to  her and even pointed.  I felt uncomfortable but kept going.  This continued for over 6 months then one day she finally approached me.  I was unsure at first because of the whispering, sideway glances and outright staring.  I decided to smile and brave it.  I was pleasently surprised when the contact was friendly.  She asked me a few questions as only the Turks can do and then proceeded to ask me to her place for coffee at some time in the future.  I smiled politely and moved on.  Yesterday I decided to take up her offer and went to her house.  She was very gracious and hospitable and very happy we came.  We had coffee, fruit, tea, biscuits and we stayed for lunch.  She was even happier when I asked if I could take photos.  This is what she made for us.  Yağli Köfte is a köfte recipe famous in Gaziantep and made from the fine form of Bulgur.

Simit Bulur - Fine Bulgur

2 cups Fine Bulgur
2 tbsp pepper paste/tomato paste
2 tomatoes
1 cup of parsley
3 onions
1 head of garlic
1 cup of oil
chilli powder


This köfte is kneaded and takes about 15 mintues of good kneading to get the desired consistency.  (you can of course use your food processor to get the same results). She took the bulgur, chilli and pepper paste and started kneading that together then the onions and garlic.  Once you have that all kneaded in add in the tomatoes until they have been absorbed in.  Add in the parsley and continue kneading.  With all the kneading the ingredients disappear into the bulgur mix.  Add in the oil at this stage, she heated it up and added it in.  Continue kneading for another 5 minutes.  Hand form and serve.  


To make this in your food processor just put everything in together but not all the oil.  Process this with the metal blade until it is a paste.  If it is too dry add in all the oil or if it is too wet add in more bulgur.  You need to be able to form this in your hands with it staying in shape and not falling apart.  Take a small handful amount and shape into an oblong form.

Getting ready

Daughter cutting the veggies

Kneading

More Kneading

Forming the köfte

I enjoyed the köfte and made a new friend.  What adventures will you discover yourselves in today?

http://verygoodrecipes.com/turkish

Baklava

When you think about Turkey what is one of the first things that comes to mind? 

Camel wrestling?
Oil wrestling?
Yogurt festivals?


If your like me Baklava would have to be one of the first things.  


Now here Baklava can be a labour of love because we make the pastry sheets by hand, rolling it out as thin as possible so that it is transparent.  For the baklava purists they say it isnt baklava unless you use 77 sheets of pastry. I am not a Turkish woman so I havent grown up making it from the age of 7.  For me to make 77 sheets would take all day.  I make mine with 30 sheets and that still takes quite along time.  If I wanted to cheat I could go to the pastry shops and buy the sheets from there.  They sell them at a very reasonable price, in fact the other day my husband came rushing home from work telling me that there is a pastry shop near his work selling 20 sheets for 4 lira (thats a good price) and then in the same breath said do you want me to buy 60? While I enjoy making the sheets myself I think this weekend I will surprise him.  


Making baklava is very easy and if you make it people will rave.  

Yufka

1pkt phyllo pastry-defrosted
2 cups crushed walnuts
250gr butter/margarine


3 cups water
3 cups sugar
few drops lemon juice


Try and use a baking tray that is about the same sheet as they phyllo or you will have to break it up making it all a bit messy.  Melt the butter in a small saucepan.  Oil your baking tray first then lay your first sheet of phyllo onto it.  Using a pastry brush, brush the sheet with the melted butter.  Lay on the next sheet and continue until you have used half the pkt.  Take the walnuts and spread evenly over the pastry.  Then start by layering the rest of the phyllo sheets.  Dont forget, pastry then butter then continue. Taking a sharp knife cut into squares or diamonds.  You want to cook this in a moderate to hot oven for 15 minutes until it is a golden brown.  Keep a check on it you might have to turn the temp down depending on your oven.  While that is cooking make the syrup.


Put all the ingredients for the syrup and bring to the boil then boil for about 10 minutes until it has thickened.


Take the baklava out of the oven and pour the syrup over it slowly.  You want both the syrup and baklava to be hot when you pour.


Let it sit until they syrup has soaked up.  Then you can serve.  It looks nice if you have some crushed walnuts sprinkled ontop.  If you want a higher baklava just use more phyllo sheets.  Will you go as high as 77?

Tray of Baklava

Because this is a Turkish food blog I am giving you the typical recipes.  The baklava is made just like this all over Turkey.  I am living in Gaziantep and it is very famous for its baklava, they make it just like I have described.  There are many recipes out there saying you can include cinnamon in with the walnuts or cinnamon sticks with the syrup.  You can add honey in with the sugar syrup and you can even layer the walnuts in with the phyllo layers.  All of those are very nice so it is really up to you on how you make it.


Having said I am living in Gaziantep and that Antep is world famous for its baklava I also have to mention that they make it with Pistachios.  Everywhere else they use walnuts but here Pistachios are favoured because they are grown  locally in the mountain heat.

This is green from the pistachios, my favorite - Sarma and it is absolutely divine

http://verygoodrecipes.com/turkish

FOOD FROM GAZİANTEP

Look at this great video showing all the wonderful dishes from Gaziantep.