The Turkish cuisine is famous everywhere for its mix of fresh ingredients, mediteranean flavours, various spices which renders the unforgettable taste. In the presentation you can see recipes about starters, main dishes and deserts.
2. Food & Drinks
• Visitors who are not familiar with Turkish cuisine have a
delightful surprise in store for them: stemming partly from
the spectacular variety of ingredients and partly from the
influence of the numerous civilizations which have
inhabited Anatolia throughout history, Turkish cuisine is
simply delicious.
• Regional Specialities
• As you visit different areas of Turkey, there are local
specialities which must be eaten in their home region
to be fully appreciated. Thus Kanlica in Istanbul is
famous for its yoghurt, Bursa for its Iskendar Kebab,
Gaziantep for its pistachio nuts, the Black Sea for
hamsi (fried anchovies) and corn bread and the
Syrian borderlands (Urfa and Adana) for spicy shish
kebabs.
4. • Ingredients: (6 servings)
· 1 glass red lentils
· 4 glasses of broth
· 1 glass water
· 1 tablespoon flour
· 1 onion
· 1 carrot
· 1 tablespoon margarine
· 4 slices of white bread
· 3 tablespoons margarine
· 2 egg yolks
· 1 glass of milk
· Salt to taste
Chop the onion, put into a saucepan with 1 tablespoon of margarine and
sauté. When onion is semi-sautéed add the flour and mix well. Wash the
lentils, chop the carrot and put them in the saucepan. Pour the broth and
water into the saucepan, add salt as desired and cook the soup for 30
minutes until the lentils are pasty. Strain the soup and pour it back into the
same saucepan. Bring to the boil. Meanwhile blend egg yolks with milk well in
a bowl and mix this into the soup. Remove saucepan from heat after 2
minutes. The soup is now ready to be served.
Cut 4 slices of white bread into cubes. Fry bread in a pan with 2 tablespoons
of margarine. Drain off the margarine and put the bread cubes (croutons) on
the soup
Lentil Soup
5. Wedding Soup (Düğün Çorbası)
• Ingredients Measure Amount
• Lamb meat with bone ---- ½ kg.
Water 4 cups 960 g
Salt 2 teaspoons 12g
Egg 1 medium size 50g
Lemon Juice 1 ½ tablespoons 20g
All- purpose flour ¼ cup 30g
Water 1 cup 240g
Butter or margarine 1 tablespoon 15g
Red Pepper ½ teaspoon 1g
• Instructions:
Simmer meat in 4 cups of water in a large saucepan until tender. Remove from liquid;
drain. Bone and dice stir in liquid. Add 1 cup of hot water. Season with salt, cover and
simmer gently. Combine beaten egg, yolk, lemon juice and flour, mixing well. Add 1
cup of cold water; stir Blend in broth gradually stirring constantly. Simmer gently for 2-
3 minutes. Remove from heat. Melt margarine in a skillet. Add red pepper; stir.
Sprinkle over soup. Serve hot.
• (In the past, this dish was served to guests during wedding ceremonies. For this
reason it is called “Wedding Soup”)
6. • Tarhana Soup
• Ingredients:
· 100 gr. yeast
· 300 gr. onions
· 1000 gr very ripe tomatoes
· 250 gr. big red peppers (may be hot or sweet
according to taste)
· 250 gr. natural yoghurt (unsweetened and
unflavored)
· 2000 gr flour
· 1 glass of water
Mix yeast with water and make it into a paste.
Peel and strain tomatoes. Chop the peppers
thinly. Grate the onions. Mix the yeast, yoghurt,
tomatoes, peppers and onions in a bowl until they
turn into a thick liquid. Start kneading the mixture
by adding flour gradually. Knead the dough until it
becomes very thick.
Flour a tray, put the thick dough on the tray and
cover it with a piece of cloth. If the dough is in a
warm place it will puff up in 1 hour, if it is in a cool
place it will puff up in 5-6 hours. When the dough
has puffed up, remove it from the tray and knead
well. Then put it on the tray as before and cover
it. Go on with the same procedure until the dough
no longer puffs up. Now that your tarhana is
ready, you can take a piece of the dough and see
that it breaks without stretching. Form the dough
into small pieces, place pieces on a cloth and let
them dry. Check the pieces as often as possible
for drying. Crumble the dried pieces. (It is
necessary to check the dough often, because if
the dough dries too much, crumbling gets more
difficult.)
7. Olive Salad• Ingredients:
1. Chick Peas - 1 can
2. Chopped Cucumber, Onion, Celery,
Coriander, Tomatoes, Lettuce - can also include
Peppers, Romaine, Broccoli, Carrots and other
veggies.
3. Salt - to taste
For Dressing:
1. Olive Oil
2. Lemon - 1
3. Garlic - 2 cloves
4. Black Pepper - 1/2 tbsp
To make salad: Drain and wash the chick peas
and layer them in a salad bowl. Then add all the
veggies and salt. Mix well.
To make the dressing: Mix olive oil, lime juice,
garlic and pepper.
Drizzle the dressing over the salad. This can
also be substituted with any kind of ready-made
dressing available in the market. Also, I
garnished the salad with few nuts to make it
more exciting.
8. Potato Salad
• POTATO PUREE SALAD (Patates Püresi) (Salatası)
• 4 large white potatoes
1 finely chopped onion
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tblsp vinegar
2 tsp lemon juice
2 hard boiled eggs
1 large tomato
1/2 cup chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste
8-10 black olivesBoil and peel the potatoes and mash well with a
fork in a bowl. Add chopped onions, parsley, salt and pepper,
vinegar, oil and lemon juice and mix well. Cut hard boiled eggs and
tomato into wedges and garnish the smoothed top of the puree
salad with them. Black olives are part of the garnish as well as some
wedges or slices of fresh hard tomatoes.
10. Turkish Döner
*Short for dönerkebab,
from the Turkish for
rotating grilled meat,
and closely related to
the Greek gyros or the
arab schawarma, it is
hard to think of a döner
without thinking meat.
11. • Lahmacun (Turkish pizza)
• Ingredients
A pack of pitas
1 lb ground beef
1 lb white onion
1 or 2 tomatoes
Salt, black pepper to taste
If you can't find tomatoes, you can replace it with
2 table spoons of tomatoe puree.
• Preparation:
Peel, wash, place onions with tomatoes in a food
processor and ground.
Add salt, black pepper and meat, ground 30
seconds more.
With the help of a spoon spread this mixture over
pitas.
Put them in oven and bake at 400F about 20-30
minutes.
Check to see whether meat is cooked. Serve hot.
12. • Menemencan be used in a couple of different ways
such as Turkish breakfast specialty or lazy dinner option or
great summer dish. Must-have traditional ingredients for
menemen are eggs, tomato, onion, peppers (preferably banana
peppers), and parsley. I modify the traditional recipe by
replacing onions with green onions and adding feta cheese.
menemen for four:
6 eggs, well-beaten
4 juicy tomatoes, diced (you can also use canned diced
tomatoes; prefer petite diced ones or put regular one in blender
for a couple of seconds)
3 green onions with tops, finely chopped
4 fresh peppers, finely chopped (I used red and orange Italian
sweet peppers and 2 green chilies)
1/2 cup crumbled feta
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 tsp spicy pepper flakes
1 tsp black pepper
salt
1-2 tbsp oil or butter
• -In a frying pan heat oil and add onion. Cook on medium until
they're soft and then add fresh peppers.
-Once they're cooked, pour in tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Wait
until tomatoes cook down a little. -Stir in beaten eggs and feta.
Stir constantly.
-Right before eggs are cooked, add chopped parsley.
-Serve with bread.
13. SHISH KEBAB - Sis Kebab
•
5 Servings
1 kilo of lamb meat (from the
thigh or shoulder) cut into
small pieces.
2 green peppers
4 tomatoes
Peel and seed the tomatoes
and cut them into large pieces.
Cut the green peppers in half,
remove the seeds and cut into
smaller pieces, Skewer a piece
of meat, tomato, green pepper
successively. Boil on a
barbecue, 3 to 4 minutes per
side.
14. Kebap With Eggplant
(Patlicanli Kebap)
•
5 Servings
1 kilo lamb meat
2 glasses of water
2 onions
2 soup spoons butter
2 tomatoes (or 1/2 coffee cup tomato sauce)
4 small eggplants
salt, pepper
Peel and cut the eggplants lengthwise into 4 pieces, then each
quarter in 3 cm. long pieces. Soak the eggplant pieces in well
salted water for 1/2 hour. Then squeeze them and fry them in a
frying pan where the butter and some oil have been heated.
Remove them from the frying pan and put aside.
• Then, in the same frying pan, partially cook the meat for 3 or 4
minutes, then put it all in a saucepan where the kebab will be
cooked. In the frying pan, brown the onion that has been
halved and cut into fine slices. Add the peeled, diced tomatoes
(or the tomato sauce diluted in a half glass of water). Stir for
one minute. Add a coffee spoon of pepper, a soup spoon of
salt, 2 glasses of hot water, the tomatoes and onions to the
meat in the saucepan. Cook for about 1 and 1/2 hours until the
meat becomes soft. Add the previously cooked eggplant to the
saucepan and cook 30 to 40 minutes more.
15. Fırında Pilic Kızartması
(Roasted Chicken)
•
4 Servings
1 small coffee cup of yoghurt
1 tablespoon margarine
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 chickens
Salt
Put the chickens into a saucepan, cover
them with water, add salt and cook them
only as much as they do not fall apart.
• Put the chickens into a large pan. Cover
with a sauce of well beaten yoghurt, tomato
paste and melted margarine. Put the pan
into the oven to roast until brown.
• Meanwhile make a delicious "ic pilav"
described in this series with the chicken
broth to serve with the meal. You can use
the sauce of yoghurt, tomato paste and
melted margarine with roasted meat, poultry
and game. It's always a success.
16. Dry White Bear Pilaki
( Kuru Fasulya Pilakisi)
•
6 Servings
1 and 1/2 coffee spoons salt
1 and 1/2 coffee spoons sugar
1 carrot
1 celery, 1 potato, 1 tomato
1 clove of garlic
1 coffee cup water
1 finely chopped onion
2 and 1/2 cups olive oil
250 grams dry beans
Soak the beans in water overnight. Place them
in a saucepan of water, heat on low flame for 45
minutes and then drain. Peel and dice the
vegetables, and cut the garlic into thin slices.
• Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the onion and
garlic and brown for 2 minutes. Then add the
carrot and brown for 2 minutes, then add the
celery and potato and brown them for 2 minutes
as well. Finally add the beans, the grated
tomato, water, salt and sugar and cook on a
very low heat for 1 hour. Serve when cool.
17. Eggplant with Olive Oil
(İmam Bayıldı)
• 5 Servings
1 and 1/2 tea cups water
1 medium tomato
3 cloves of garlic
3/4 glass of olive oil
5 medium eggplants
5 not too large onions
chopped parsley, salt to taste
Remove the stems of the eggplants leaving 2 cm
remaining. Peel the eggplant leaving length-wise
bands 2 cm wide (to prevent the eggplant from
crumbling while cooking). Cook them in olive oil,
turning them on all sides. (They may be previously
treated with salt to prevent them from absorbing too
much oil while being cooked).
• In a frying pan, brown the onion which has been cut
into very fine rings, and the garlic cut into small pieces.
When the onion and garlic begin to turn brown, add the
chopped parsley. Place the eggplants side by side in a
baking dish or in. a large cake mold. Split the
eggplants lengthwise and remove some of the seeds if
necessary, spreading the two halves apart. In the
cavity, put the mixture of garlic, onion and cooked
parsley. Garnish each eggplant with a tomato ring.
• Place the remaining oil on the bottom of the dish or
mold, (if none remains, make a sauce with 2 or 3
tomatoes). Place in a warm oven for 20 minutes. Serve
when cool.
18. Etli Yaprak Dolması
Stuffed Grape Leaves
• To Prepare the Filling: Icin hazirlanisi
500 grams ground meat
150 grams rice
1/2 soup spoon salt, a little pepper
Chopped dill, parsley and mint 5 (1/2 bunch each)
5-6 finely chopped onions
Place the onion on a soup plate, sprinkle with salt, and
knead until the onion becomes transparent. Add water
and drain. Repeat this procedure twice.
Place the prepared onion and all the other ingredients in
a bowl, and mix very well. The filling is ready.
6 Servings
1 soup spoon butter
500 grams grape leaves (fresh or preserved in salt)
the juice of one lemon
• Chose small, finely veined leaves. Remove the stems.
Boil the leaves for 5 minutes in 10 glasses of water to
which the lemon juice has been added. Remove them
from the water, drain and let cool. Put the firmest leaves
with the most veins on the bottom of the saucepan.
Place the stuffed leaves in a saucepan. Add 2 and 1/2
glasses of water, and the butter and cook on a low heat
for. 35 or 40 minutes.
19. Mantı
• RECIPE
1 and 1/2 coffee spoons red pepper
12 glasses water
200 grams ground meat
3 onions
5 cloves of garlic
5 soup spoons butter
500 grams bowtie noodles
500 grams yoghurt
In a saucepan, brown the onions in 3 and 1/2 soup spoons of butter. Add the ground meat
and a coffee spoon of salt. Mix and cook on a low heat, then put aside.
• In another saucepan, boil the noodles for 15 minutes in salted water. Drain. Pour the
noodles into the sauce pan containing the meat. Mix and reheat.
• Beat the yoghurt and crushed. garlic. Pour the noodles onto a serving dish and pour the
yoghurt sauce over them. Finally sprinkle the dish with a soup spoon of melted butter to
which red pepper is added.
For the Sauce:
1 and 1/2 coffee spoons red pepper
100 grams butter
400 grams yoghurt
• For Boiling:
6 glasses meat broth
Make a hollow place in the center of the flour. Put an egg yolk and a whole egg, 1/2 soup
spoon salt and a coffee cup of water into it. Make a dough. Roll it into a ball and cover with
a damp cloth. Let stand 1 hour.
• Sprinkle the dough and rolling pin with flour and roll out the dough as thin as possible. Cut
the dough into 5 cm. squares.
• To Prepare the Filling:
• Brown the finely chopped onions and ground meat for 3 minutes. Add salt, pepper and stir.
Place a small portion of this mixture, the size of a large hazelnut, in the center of each
square of dough, Fold each corner to the center, sealing the sides so that the small
package will not become undone. Some people find it easier to make a single fold triangle
shape manti. Close the sides well.
• Place the "manti" in a large, round, buttered cake mold and bake for about 25 minutes,
until they are brown.
• Pour the broth over the "manti", then either return them to the oven, or cook over a low
heat, until they have absorbed all the liquid. Place the "manti" in a serving dish. First pour
50 grams of melted butter over them, then 400 grams of beaten yoghurt, and finally 50
grams of butter mixed with a coffee spoon of red pepper.
20. Börekler
• Sigara Boregi, Muska Boregi
•
For approximately 12 borek:
1 yufka
1/2 bunch dill
1/2 bunch parsley
1/2 glass oil
150-200 grams white cheese
Spread out one "Yufka" and fold it in half. Cut along the
diameter, producing 2 half-circles, one on the other.
• To make the "cigarettes" trace 5 to 7 lines from the center of
the straight side, forming sharp triangles. Place a little
mixture of white cheese, parsley and dill at the base of the
triangle. Roll toward the point while folding in the 2 sides to
prevent the filling from leaking out. To make the point stick to
the dough, dip it in a saucer of water before finishing the last
roll.
• When made, the "amulet borek" has a triangular shape. Fold
the "yufka" in two and cut along the diameter to obtain the 2
half-circles, one over the other. Cut each "yufka" with a knife
in 10 cm. wide lengths perpendicular to the diameter, giving
you long strips of dough.
• Place a small portion of mashed white cheese, parsley and
dill mixture at the base of each strip. Take the small side of
the strip and fold it to the large side, and then take the point
and fold it to the next side. Continue until the end of the
strip. (See diagram).
• Stick the last point to the dough by dipping it in water first.
When the borek are thus prepared, fry them in oil until
golden brown in color.
21. Puf Boregi – Puf Börek•
1 egg
1 soup spoon olive oil
1 to 1 and 1/2 glasses of oil for cooking
250 grams flour
250 grams white cheese or, 250 grams ground
meat mixed with grated onion
3/4 coffee cup water
75 grams butter
Make a dough with the flour, water, egg and oil.
Wait 15 minutes. Separate the dough into 5
equal pieces. Roll the 5 pieces with a pastry
rolling pin. Spread melted butter on each surface
and place one on the other. Let stand 1/2 hour.
• Now roll out the dough as fine as possible into a
large disk. On one half of the disk, place small
portions of the filling, be it white cheese or meat
mixed with onion. The small portions should be
spaced about 10 cm. apart. Fold the empty half
over the filled half. Around the base of each
portion of filling cut a half-moon with an
aluminum saucer or something similar. Press
around the circumference of each mound with
your fingers to close it well, then fry the borek in
oil.
22. Köfteler
• Dry Köfte - Kuru Kofte
5 Servings
1 soup spoon butter
1/2 coffee cup water
100 grams bread (without crust)
2 eggs
2 small onions, grated.
4 soup spoons flour
750 grams of ground lamb, or a mixture of
ground beef and lamb
little pepper and cumin
Salt to taste
Soak the bread in water, and when thoroughly
soaked, remove from the water and sponge
by hand.
• Place the bread in a salad bowl. Add 2 eggs,
salt, pepper, cumin, onions, water and the
ground meat. Knead and roll in the palm of
your hand until they have the thickness and
shape of a finger. Roll the kofte in flour, then
fry them in butter for 4 or 5 minutes.
23. Woman Thigh Meatball
(Kadin Budu Köfte)•
5 Servings
500 grams ground meat (preferably lamb}
2 egg whites
1 small coffee cup of rice
1 finely chopped onion
1/2 soup spoon salt
• For frying:
2 egg yolks
a glass of oil
Mix all the ingredients, except the oil and egg
whites. Knead. Make flattened ovals 5 cm. long.
Place these meat patties side by side in a large
frying pan and cover with water. Cook on medium
heat. As soon as the water is absorbed place the
enlarged patties on a plate.
• Beat the yolks in a bowl. Heat the oil in a small
frying pan. Place each patty in the egg yolk, then
in the oil. Brown each side for 3 minutes and serve
at once.
24. Humus
. Humus have received the highest demand, so I
wanted to start with the humus recipe. Below the
ingredients you’ll need for preparation :
• Tahini (1 tablespoon)
• one can of chickpeas
• one garlic clove
• some vegetable oil
• some water
• salt
• lemon juice
You can find tahini at asian shops, it is sesame
seed paste. for convenience, to be more
economical get your dried chickpeas, soak
overnight, skim off any froth, and boil for two
hours. Now you have the ingredients ready
chuck the chickpeas, water, salt, lemon, garlic,
Tahini and some of the oil in an electric blender,
blend away, adding the oil, slowly, until the paste
is just as chunky or as smooth as you like it.
Taste as you go, adjusting the ingredients as
required.
• That’s all, and your humus is ready, What
makes different a humus from another it the
amount used for each ingredient, it is not very
detailed here but you can try a little of tahini and
adjust ingredients until you get the best humus !
25. Desserts
• In restaurants, dessert is often a beautifully presented
selection of seasonal fruits. In spring this may be green
almonds and plums, generally an acquired taste for foreigners.
There are strawberries in May, cherries in June, melons in July
and August and apples, pears and pomegranates in autumn.
Winter is the time for Turkish-grown citrus fruits and bananas.
• For a wider selection of sweets try the pastane, or pudding
shop, where you'll find all the traditional Turkish sweets such
as lokum, or Turkish delight, baklava, kadayif, halva and asure
(traditionally held to contain the forty different ingredients left
in the Ark's kitchen when Noah sighted Ararat). Sutlac, or rice
pudding, is also popular, as are profiteroles, best tried at Inci
Pastanesi on Istanbul's Istiklal Caddesi.
26. Turkish Delight
• Turkish Delight, lokum, or
loukoum is a confection made
from starch and sugar. It is often
flavored with rosewater and lemon
, the former giving it a
characteristic pale pink color. It
has a soft, jelly-like and
sometimes sticky consistency, and
is often packaged and eaten in
small cubes that are dusted with
sugar or copra to prevent sticking.
Some types contain small nut
pieces, usually pistachio, hazelnut
or walnuts. Other common types
include flavors such as cinnamon
or mint.
27. How To Make Baklava
• İngredients
1 glass melted margarine
1 glass of ground walnuts
1 lemon
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
250 g flour
750 g sugar
Starch
Knead flour, salt and a glass of water to a dough. Fold dough and knead
again. Cover with a damp cloth and leave for some time.
• Divide dough into 8-10 pieces. Spread starch on it and roll out as thin as
possible. Place half of it into a pan, pouring margarine on each layer.
Spread walnuts evenly on it and place the remaining layers with margarine
between one upon the other. Cut into squares. Pour the remaining
margarine evenly on the baklava. Bake in medium hot oven for about an
hour.
• In the meantime put sugar in a saucepan, cover with water, add one
tablespoon lemon juice and boil to a heavy syrup. Pour it upon the lukewarm
baklava, a little at a time, so that baklava absorbs the entire syrup. Serve
cold.
29. Sutlatch - Sutlac
•
100 grams rice
2 and 1/2 litres milk
200 grams powdered sugar
50 grams potato starch mixed with
a glass of milk.
Wash the rice and let it soak 1
hour in warm water. Drain. Boil the
rice in the milk while stirring
constantly with a spoon. Continue
to boil it for 30 minutes on a low
heat, stirring occasionally. Add the
sugar and continue to cook the
"sutlatch" for 5 more minutes. Add
the starch with milk and stir until
the mixture thickens. Pour into
dessert bowls and serve cold.
30. Ashure- Aşure
• 600 grams sugar
1 glass milk
3 and 1/2 litres water
1/2 tea cup rose water
1/2 tea cup potato starch
• To Soak Overnight:
150 grams chick peas
200 grams dry beans
200 grams rice
200 grams wheat
• To Have in Reserve:
12 dried apricots
12 dried figs
125 grams raisins
150 grams walnuts
50 grams butter
50 grams pistachio nuts
75 grams pinenuts
Cook the soaked chick peas and beans separately.
Drain. Boil the rice in half the water, the wheat in the
other half. Cook the rice for 30 minutes and blend it in
the water in which it was cooked. Add this puree to the
wheat and continue to cook for approximately 3/4 hour.
Add the chick peas and beans. Mix and remove from
the heat.
• Boil the figs, walnuts, raisins, apricots, pine nuts in a
large quantity of water. Cut the figs and apricots in four.
Put aside 10 pieces each of apricots and figs, 20
pieces of walnuts and half the pine nuts. These will be
used for decoration.
• Pour the rest of the ingredients, including the butter,
but not the milk, rosewater or starch, into the saucepan
where the wheat is cooking. Boil for 15 minutes. Add
the milk, the starch mixed with rose water, and boil for
3 minutes. Pour into dessert bowls, decorate with the
nuts and fruit and serve cool.
31. Tulumba
Tatlısı
•
1 soup spoon sugar
100 grams butter
250 grams flour
400 grams water
50 grams potato starch
6 eggs
• For the Syrup:
1 kilo sugar
2 soup spoons lemon juice
500 grams water
• For Frying:
2 glasses olive oil
a pinch of salt
Prepare the syrup with the ingredients shown above by
boiling them for 2 minutes. Put it aside. Melt the butter in
a saucepan. Add the water, salt and sugar and bring to a
boil. Add the flour while beating the mixture vigorously
with a whisk. Cook for 10 minutes while continually
beating it. Remove from the heat.
• When the mixture has cooled, add the eggs one by one,
then the starch while mixing constantly. Warm the oil in
a frying pan. Make a horn with heavy cloth (or use a
pastry bag). Leave the end open and fill the horn with
the dough. Squeeze out pieces of dough into the oil,
each one being 4 or 5 cm. wide. Move the pan back and
forth occasionally while the cakes are cooking. Cook for
10 - 15 minutes until the cakes are golden brown.
• Put them into the cooled syrup and let stand 15 minutes,
then place them on a serving dish. Serve when the
tulumba have completely cooled off.
32. Fig Jam (Incir Receli)
•
1 kg sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
10 cloves
100 wild figs for jam
Skin the green figs using gloves in
order to avoid your hands from getting
dark. Cook them in plenty of water for
some time. Rinse in cold water.
Squeeze each fig gently.
• Boil sugar with about three glasses of
water to a thick syrup. When ready
add figs and cook on medium heat
until figs let go water and absorb it
again. Add 1 tablespoon of lemon
juice, boil for one minute and take off
fire.
• You may add cloves or vanilla to give
more flavour.
33. Cezerye (
• Name of dish:
Cezerye
Main
Ingredients:
Carrot, walnut
(crushed), tea
biscuits, sugar,
crushed coconut
34. Breakfast
• Turkish breakfasts are dominated by
freshly baked bread, eaten with salty
white cheese, olives, tomatoes,
cucumbers, butter, honey, jam, and
often a boiled egg. Deliciously creamy
yoghurt is an optional extra. Other
breakfast alternatives include pastry
shops which serve a variety of flaky
pastries with cheese or meat fillings.
36. Drinks
• Turkey produces some excellent dry wines, both red and white, which go
well with a variety of foods. Names to look out for include Villa Doluca,
Kavakladere Cankaya, Yakut and Dikmen. Efes and Tuborg beers are
almost always the only beers available, and both are good. A must is the
local aniseed-based drink, raki, drunk with water added and called "lion's
milk" by Turks. But heed this tried and tested warning well: “you must
drink the raki and not let it drink you!” A meal is often followed by an
espresso sized cup of Turkish coffee, though Italian coffees are
becoming increasingly popular.
• For day-time and non-alcoholic alternatives, try ayran, a yogurt, salt and
water mix. Freshly-squeezed juices are also widely available and cheap,
but best in winter when the citrus season is in full force in the South.
There is also carrot juice, banana milk and sour apple juice. Strong black
tea in tulip shaped glasses will be served any time you are asked to sit
and wait, or go visiting, but there is also a strong tradition of herbal teas,
some of which (like sage) are unusual to the western palate but very
good.
• Boza and sahlep are popular drinks in winter. The former is made from
mildly fermented millet and tastes rather like eggnog. Sahlep, on the
other hand, is served hot on ferry boats and other public places and is
made from the pulverized tubers of the wild orchid. It is very sweet and
comes sprinkled with cinnamon, and is the perfect companion on a cold
winter’s day.
37. Turkish Tea (Türk Çayı)
Although there are some different tea
brewing styles in Turkey, this one is
almost common among Turkish
people:First put the water into a kettle,
put enough tea into a teapot and put the
teapot on the kettle.
When the water boils in the kettle, pour
some on tea into the teapot. Wait 15
minutes. The tea in the teapot mustn't
be boiled but the water in the kettle
must be hot. Then pour brewed tea into
teacup (or tea glass), half of the cups
must be brewed tea and other half the
hot water.
Brewing time is longer in Turkey, but
they add water to brew and they
generally use sugar.
38. Ayran1 pt. low-fat or non-fat yogurt (if
you are in Southern California try
using "Trader Joe's non-fat
yogurt" found at Trader Joe's
speacialty food stores.)
1 cup cold water,
Salt to taste,
1 cup ice cubes.
Mix the yogurt with the water,ice
and salt in an electric blender, or
beat well together using a
wooden spoon. Serve well
chilled.
Mixture whould be thick
39. Turkish Coffee (Türk Kahvesi)
• Centuries ago, when people devoted more time to attend to the demands of their earthly pleasures
and less time to the demands of business and corporate life, coffee making developed some rituals
that exist in ‘lite’ versions in our days. In old times, connoisseurs expected their coffee to be heated
slowly over charcoal embers for 15 to 20 minutes, the copper coffee pot being frequently taken away
from the fire to prevent overheating.
• A connoisseur can easily tell the difference between a properly made Turkish coffee and one
prepared the way cheap restaurants would do, basically boiling the coffee quickly, degrading thus the
taste and producing little if any froth that needs to cover the cup of coffee.
• Although to this day there are still a few people who either do or at least know the days when coffee
was heated on charcoal, for all practical purposes modern electric or gas stove tops became the
heating equipment of choice. To make proper Turkish coffee you need Turkish coffee beans, a
Turkish coffee pot (“cezve”), and Turkish coffee cups (“fincan”), and optionally, if you want to grind
the beans, a Turkish coffee grinder (“kahve degirmeni”). Note that Turkish coffee requires extra fine
ground coffee which some electrical grinders fail to produce. To make Turkish coffee:
• 1. Pour in cold water in the coffee pot. You should use one cup of cold water for each cup you are
making and then add an extra half cup “for the pot”. Add a teaspoonful of the ground Turkish coffee
per cup in the water while the water is cold and stir. The amount of coffee may be varied to taste, but
do not forget, there will be a thick layer of coffee grounds left at the bottom of your cup for properly
made Turkish coffee. Don’t fill the pot too much. If you need to add sugar this is the time to do it.
• 2. Heat the pot as slowly as you can. The slower the heat the better it is. Make sure you watch it to
prevent overflowing when the water boils.
• 3. When the water boils pour some (not all) of the coffee equally between the cups, filling each cup
about a quarter to a third of the way. This will make sure that everybody gets a fair share of the foam
forming on top of the pot, without which coffee loses much of its taste. Continue heating until coffee
boils again (which will be very short now that it has already boiled). Then distribute the rest of the
coffee between the cups.
• Since there is no filtering of coffee at any time during this process, you should wait for a few minutes
before drinking your delicious Turkish coffee while the coffee grounds settle at the bottom of the cup.
41. Sahlep
• Ingredients:
4 cups milk
1 cup sugar
1 Teaspoon sahlep powder (also sold in supermarkets)
• Preparation:
Mix sugar and sahlep powder (dried powdered roots of a
mountain orchid - Orchis Latifolia or Orchis Anatolica in Latin) in
a pan. Add the cold milk and some sugar stirring constantly. Heat
the mixture until it boils again stirring constantly. Let it boil for 2-3
minutes and remove from heat. Serve it warm and garnished with
powdered cinnamon.
• Tips:
The thicker the sahlep is, the better it gets, it's a hot and creamy
drink. Sometimes addition of a little bit of starch might help to get
the desired consistency. It is a remedy for sore throats and colds,
therefore it's mainly consumed in the winter months for cold
climate. Because the real sahlep powder is expensive, on the
streets they make it with more cornstarch than the real thing,
that's why it would be better to do it at home or go to reputable
pudding shops in Beyoglu district or along the Bosphorus for
example.
• Usually the mountain orchids have tuberous roots rich of starch-
like substance. These tubers are gathered while the plant is in
flower, then washed, boiled in water or milk and then dried.
These dry tubers are grinded. This grinded powder is called
sahlep.
• Sahlep can also be added to ice-creams in the city of
Kahramanmaras, it's the famous Maras Ice-Cream. In Maras ice-
creams, sahlep gives its great taste and strong mixture with goat
milk being the first and the most important element of Maras ice-
cream, and the second one is real goat milk.
42. Salgam
• Ingredients:
• Water, violet carrot, turnip, salt, pounded wheat or
bulgur flour.
• A traditional Turkish drink (pronounced shal-gum)
made from dark turnips and violet carrots and sira.
It's served cold with pickles and available in Hot and
Mild formulas. It's a very traditional drink in Adana
province and in the GAP and South Eastern Anatolia,
especially served with Kebab dishes. Some people
drink it with Raki saying that it removes or softens the
effects of alcohol. It has a dark red or purple color
and a very strong soar taste.
• Because it's a juice full of minerals and vitamin C, it's
one of the most preferred drinks in the winter time for
colder climates. It also contains Thiamin (B1) and
Riboflavin (B2) vitamins, and is rich in Calcium,
Potassium and iron.
• Preparation:
it's made of the essence of violet carrots. First,
bulgur rice flour is left for lactic acid fermentation for
a week until it gets very soar, than put in wooden
barrels made of mulberry tree. After well cleaning
and boiling violet carrots, it's put in these barrels
together with dark turnips (Brassica Napus in Latin).
After another week in these barrels salt is added.
When Salgam gets mature in these barrels like a
wine does, at the end the fermentation period it's
filtered and ready to drink. For people who prefer it
hot and spicy, hot sauce obtained from red paprika is
added in as well. The total processing time to
prepare it is between 2-4 weeks.
45. As you see here, she is
rolling a dry flour ball into a
big circle. This is similar to
a pide, but it will be cooked
over heat and not a charcoal
grill.