Turkish cigarette börek with minced meat - Kıymalı Sigara Böregi

Before bringing my newest Turkish recipe, I would like to introduce the world of börek to everyone. 

Börek

The origin of börek as many other traditional Turkish dishes goes back to the Ottoman Empire. Whithersoever the ottomans wandered and settled, the local people still prepares their foods during the centuries, moreover the Turkish kitchen gave inspiration to new dishes as well. The pastry-based dishes are dominant in our days too, exceptionally various and numerous of cooking techniques exist.  

We can follow easily the way of Turks in the history, when we see where börek or similar foods are eaten today as well. The word börek comes from the Turkish word "börbör" which means cover and wrap and is still very common from the Caucasus to the Balkans. Although the West cuisins have many fantastic baked goods and pastry dishes, we can rarely find anything  resembling börek.

By Ottoman sources especially in the 15th and 16th centuries the diversification of börek started,  since  many new recipes origins from this period.

Traditionally it's made in large oven pan and after baking cut into smaller portions. The börek prepared and served in big pans was an important entartaining element of the Ottoman holidays. Contrarily nowadays it's prepared in smaller portions. One of the specialities of börek is that its top is sprinkled with sesam seeds. The börek (which is known by many as burek) is a baked or fried filled pastry, made of very thin, flaky dough, which notorious name is yufka dough. In these days it's filled with cheese, mainly with feta, beyaz peynir (special Turkish white cheese - salty white cheese made from unpasteurized sheep milk - or with kaşar - a medium-hard pale yellow cheese, unpasteurized sheep milk mixed with a little goat milk). Besides the cheesy filling the börek filled with minced meat and vegetables are also very popular. 

By the known Ottoman sources the börek's sweet version was very famous and beloved by all in the old times but in our days rather the salty börek is common.  

Turkish cigarette börek with minced meat, a.k.a Kıymalı Sigara Böreği

Okay I own that its name is not hanging together with its looks, this doesn't look as the real sigara böreği but at the breakfast place Simit in Istanbul it's sold like this and its taste compensate for the vision. :)

Ingredients:
1 package yufka dough (in default of it: phyllo dough)
1 egg
2 tablespoon yoghurt
1/2 cup olive oil
2-3 tablespoon sesame seeds (this time I used lenseeds)

For the filling:
40 dkg minced meat
1 small onion
2 garlic gloves
1 coffee spoon cinnamon
3 teaspoon oregano
1/2 banch of parsley
salt, pepper by taste
olive oil

1. For the filling chop the onion, garlic, parsley. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and simmer the onion then add the minced garlic, the minced meat. After simmering for a few minutes, season with the spices, the cinnamon, oregano, salt and pepper. When the filling is ready, set aside and let it cool for a while.

2. In a smaller bowl mix the yoghurt, egg and olive oil. We will use this mixture for greasing the phyllo doughs.

3. For filling the börek, take a sheet of phyllo dough in front of you on a clean surface with the longer side facing you. The left side of the dough grease with the eggy mixture, then lift the right side on left part. Brush also its top with the egg mixture then take 2-3 tablespoon filling and place it 2 cm from the  nearest edge of the dough, 1-1 cm from the both other sides. Fold in each side of the long sides by 1 cm. Fold the closest edge on the meat and keep rolling away from you to form a cigarette shapeed roll.

4. Place the rolled-up böreks on a baking paper-lined oven pan. Before baking, grease all with some eggy mixture and sprinkle with some sesame seeds. Bake them in the 180°C preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes until goldenbrown.

The best is when it's lukewarm but on the following day it can be a perfect breakfast....if some is left :)

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Turkish stuffed pepper - Etli biber dolması + a little Turkish cuisine science

On Saturday walking in the Big Market I was thinking about the weekend menu when I saw that beautiful bell peppers are sold at one vendor. They had just perfect size for the Turkish stuffed peppers so I bought four pieces immediately.

Dolma

The Turkish word dolma (means "stuffed, filled") comes from the Turkish verb dolmak which means "to be filled". The dolma word is used for stuffed dished, for instance vegetables, meat, fish, fruits and even desserts.

The dolma's tipical filling is rice, minced meat, onion, tomato or tomate sauce, pine nut, olive oil, mint, dill, salt, pepper, sugar and raisin (if it's olive oiled). It can be served as meze, cooked in olive oil or as warm dish filled with minced meat.

The neigbour countries of Turkey took over the use of the word dolma, dolmadaki in Greece, t'olma in Georgia, tolma in Armenia, dolmeh on Persian areas, dolme in Arabian countries, sarmi in Bulgaria, sarma in Macedonia, sarma, which is known more as "stuffed cabbage" in Hungary and Romania.

When the dolma doesn't contain minced meat, it's often called yalancı dolma which means "fake" dolma.

The most popular dolma dishes are:

Vegetable dishes:

- Yaprak dolması vagy sarma - stuffed grape leaves

- Biber dolması - stuffed pepper (generally green or red peppers are used)

- Kabak dolması - stuffed zucchini, squash, pumpkin

- Kabak çiçeği dolması - töltött zucchini blossom

- Lahana dolması - stuffed cabbage

Besides the above dishes in the Turkish kitchen stuffed tomato, eggplant, leek, quince and onions are prepared.

Fish and seafood

Midye - mussel

Hamsi dolması - stuffed anchovy (Anchovy is a type of black sea fish and very popular in Istanbul)

Uskumru dolması - stuffed mackarel

Desserts

Kadayıf dolması - This is the only one Turkish dessert which is called dolma. (Clicking on the link you will see how it looks.)

But let's turn back to my small Turkish stuffed peppers, we say Etli biber dolması in Turkish. The word etli means "meaty".

Ingredients:

4 db middle size bell pepper (red or green)

For the filling:

20 dkg minced beef meat

1 small onion or 4 fresh onion (finely chopped)

1/4 cup parsley (finely chopped)

2 bigger or 4 smaller tomato (inner part)

1/4 cup rice

olive oil

2-3 tablespoon water

salt, pepper (to taste)

+ 1-2 tablespoon tomato sauce mixed with 3 tablespoon olive oil and 2 dl water

1. Wash the peppers, then cut off their tops but don't throw them away. We will need them later, since we will put them back after we fill our peppers. Clean out the seeds from the peppers.

2. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

3. For the filling mix the ingredients with a spoon and your hand. Fill the peppers with the ready-made mixture, but don't push the filling hard from the top only pat softly. At the end put the "hats' back on the peppers.

4. Lay the peppers in a big oven-proof pot sideways then pour the tomato sauce-olive oil-water mixture next to them. Bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes with a lid half covered. If the rice get soft in the filling, we can be sure that the peppers are ready too.

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Turkish stuffed eggplant - Karnıyarık

At the weekend I was in Turkish mood again. Almost for a week I haven't prepare any Turkish food, I started to have withdrawal symptoms. 

On Sunday I undertook to cook the lunch. This is interesting only because once in a month when I go to my hometown to visit my parents, I enjoy that I'm a kid again, mum cooks, so I can get rest a bit as well. However on Fridays and Saturdays I always bake together with mum. We chat meanwhile something stupendous is born in the oven. 

Regarding the Sunday lunch, because there was minced meat, fresh eggplant at home and mum hasn't eaten karnıyarık yet, I prepared this for her.

The Turkish word karnıyarık means originally "split belly". This dish is made and as beloved by all in every part of Turkey  as the eggplant itself too. At least 100 different kind of Turkish recipes exist for the use of eggplant. By going over the ingredients and cooking metohd, most probably it springs from southeastern and eastern part of Turkey. The filling is made from onion, garlic, tomato, fresh parsley and minced meat (originally with lamb meat).

One of the well-known version of karnıyarık is imam bayaldı with a small difference. Imam bayaldı is made without meat and served as cold appetizer, meze but the karnıyarık is served generally warm.

Ingredients:

3 small eggplant

30 dkg minced lamb meat (or beef. This time I used minced chicken breast)

1 medium onion (finely chopped)

3 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

40 dkg tomato (peeled and chopped)

2 tablespoon tomato paste 

1 green paprika (finely chopped)

1 bunch of parsely

1-2 tablespoon olive oil

salt, pepper

+ for topping: 1 tomato (divide into 6 thin slices)

                           6 thin slices green paprika

1. Wash the eggplants, cut down their green ends, cut in half lengthwise and salt. Set aside for 10 minutes then wash them again with clean water, put them next to each other in an ovenproof pan. Place in the 200°C preheated oven for 20-30 minutes covered with aluminium foil until they get almost totally soft. You can prod with a fork and check when they are ready. 

2. Meanwhile simmer the onion with some olive oil. Add the minced meat, the garlic and the chopped paprika. When the meat is simmered, add the tomato, the tomate paste and season to taste. Cook it ready within approx. half an hour, stirring it from time to time. Remove from the heat and stir in most of the chopped parsley.

3. When the eggplants are ready, take out from the oven (but don't switch it off), with the help of two spoon take out the inner part of the eggplant but without cutting through to the skin on the opposite side and leaving 13 mm uncut at either end and let them cool for a while. Stuffed the epplants with the meat, decorate with the tomato and paprika slices and put it back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes. 

Serve warm. You can eat with bulgur or garlic yoghurt sauce as well, but it can be a main dish  in itself too. This is one of my favorite Turkish eggplant dish.

Afiyet olsun!

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Turkish Fried Zucchini Salad - Gazientep style (Kızarmıs Kabak Pıyazı)

And here is another Turkish appetizer for the hot summer days. It can be prepared as appetizer, meze or as a light lunch.

Where is Gazientep and what is its cuisine famous for? 

Gazientep is a city in south-east Turkey and one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. The city's local dishes are many and very various which is the result of besides the history, the geography. The Gazientep kitchen includes a lot of meat, yoghurt, vegetables, red pepper, garlic, baked goods. The city is also famous for its special cooking techniques and utensils and also for the spices they use. Such as saffron (hasbir), tarragon (tarhın) stb.

The area's popular dishes which are counted here:

- lahmacun (a.k.a Turkish pizza, a thin dough topped with minced meat, generally lamb or beef. It's sprinkled with lemon juice, wrapped up with lettuce)

- çiğ köfte (meatball made with raw meat)

- zerde (Turkish dessert, sort of sweet pudding made from rice and coloured with saffron)

- firik pilav

- sarma and dolma (stuffed vegetables, stuffed cabbage and grape leave) 

Ingredients:
small zucchini(s) 
olive oil
boiled egg(s)
tomato(s)
red pepper flakes (if you like hot, you can use chili flakes as well)
salt, pepper to taste

Put a saucepan of water to boil on medium heat. When it boils, place the eggs in it and after reboiling cook them for 10-12 minutes.

While the eggs cook, wash the zucchini, cut in round slices. Heat up a pan with some olive oil and fry the zucchini slices until both sides take a light golden colour.

When everything is ready, place the zucchini slices in the middle of a plate, cut the eggs and tomatos into slices and arrange them around the zucchinis on the plate as well. Sprinkle with some salt, pepper and red pepper (or chili) flakes. In the end pour some olive oil on everything.

Afiyet olsun!

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Gastro experiences at the weekend - 3. station: Szeráj Turkish Restaurant

Szeráj!

With this one word I could end my post here since everyone knows the Szeráj in Budapest. I believe I don't need glorify their kitchen in long blog entry because my boyfriend told me (and I don't dare to argue with him in this topic) that this is the best Turkish restaurant in Budapest. Punktum. He knows. :)

Okay, who has already been in Turkey, knows that  the real Turkish cuisine is much more various, colourful and delicious compared to the assortment of the Turkish fast food restaurant here in Hungary, but in Budapest still this stands the closest to the Turkish reality.

I have to admit that during our Turkey trip last year I hadn't eaten anything what is available in Hungary but when the hunger after Turkish food comes upon on me but I don't feel like cooking, I always go to Szeráj. Furthermore this weekend mum specifically asked me to go here. Who could and gonna say no for this? The Turkish cuisine is my favorite.

This time izgara köfte got on my plate.

Dessert couldn't be cancelled either of course. Besides the queen of desserts, the baklava I make my mum taste the şekerpare for the very first time. She was back and forth from it. Since Saturday that's her new big favorite. :) (I remark in brackets that it's very easy, quick and cheap to prepare. You can find the recipe here.)

Szeráj Turkish Restaurant 
Address: 1055 Budapest, Szent István krt. 13.
Open: every day 9:00 - 4:00

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Pamuk pogaça

As I mentioned in my last post, for our big Turkish dinner in Stockholm I prepared besides meze and desserts, pamuk poğaça as well. This time I chose Edina's recipe.

When it was ready, M. tasted it and he said: "It's like that my grandma made!" I think this is the biggest honorable mention. 

Ingredients (15-20 pieces):

1/2 cup of lukewarm milk

1/2 cup of lukewarm water

1/2 cup of oil

2-3 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cube of fresh yeast (2,5 dkg)

about 40 dkg flour

+ 1 egg yolk to grease

+ for the top: sesame seeds, linseeds, poppy seeds etc.

For the filling:

10 dkg feta or white cheese

a bunch of fresh parsley

Crumb the yeast into a lukewarm milk, add a tablsepoon sugar to it and let stand about 5-10 minutes in a warm place until the yeast doubles its size.


Place about 20 dkg flour to a big bowl and mix with the salt. Make a pit in the middle of the flour then stream the water, oil in it, add rest of the sugar and the yeast-milky mixture.


You can start to mix the ingredients with a wood spoon then after a while you can knead the dough with your hands and add as much flour as the dough needs until it gets but not sticky. 

When it is ready, blanket the bowl with a clean dish towel and set aside for about 30 minutes.

While the dough rises we can prepare the filling for our poğaça. Crush the cheese with a fork in a bowl, add the finely chopped parsley and mix them properly.

Preheat the oven into 180°C.

When the dough is ready too, divide into bigger ping-pong ball-sized pieces. Roll out the balls then fill with the cheesy filling then closing the dough try to form small packs, place them upside down on a baking paper.

Grease the poğaça's top with the egg yolk, sprinkle some seeds on it then in the preheated oven bake them golden brown within 15.20 minutes.

Afiyet olsun!

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Mücver - Turkish Zucchini Fritters

I know I was disappeared for a long time. Since my last post I spent a perfect week in Stockholm, the African summer arrived to Budapest as well and now I'm planning our holiday. I count the days, only 16 days left!! Wuhuuu!! :)

In Stockholm we cooked-baked a lot of delicious food, Turkish, Mexican, Italian etc and we had an awesome Turkish dinner with M's Turkish friends. First of all we wanted to entertain them at our place but in the end we were 8-10 of us so we organized it at our friends' place.

Everyone prepared something for the dinner. We brought baklava, Şekerpare, hummus, Pamuk poğaça, carrot salad with yoghurt and we made freshly the adanda kebab too. The guys made mücver, eggplant cream, green salad, bulgur and we drank Rakı (It is the Turkish national drink, an unsweetened, anise-flavoured alcoholic drink what is traditionally drunk with chilled water. More about  rakı in a later post.)  like we were in Istanbul. Meze with rakı... this combination reminds me always of our Turkey trip last year!


Meze is small plates of appetizers, served hot or cold, served for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Endless kind of meze are known, can be vegetarian, with beef, chicken or fish.


I bring now one of the popular Turkish meze-s, the mücver.

Ingredients:
1 piece of big zucchini
1/2 onion or 4 green onion
4 tablespoon parsley
4 tabelspoon dill
2 eggs
200 gr feta cheese or white cheese
1 cup spelt flour (I used half cup of wheat flour and half cup of spelt flour)
salt
pepper
+ olive oil for frying

Peel then grate the zucchini into a big bowl, sprinkle with salt and let drain for 5-10 minutes. After 10 minutes squeeze the zucchini with your hands to remove the unnecessary liquid from the bowl.




Add the finely chopped dill, parsley, onion, salt, pepper, feta cheese and eggs to the grated zucchini and mix well. Add the flour slowly to the mixture.


Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Take a big tablespoon of mixture, place on the frying pan and flatten it with the spoon.


Fry them on each side until golden brown, 3-5 minutes.When they are ready, place the fritters on a paper towel to remove of the excess of the olive oil.


You can serve it hot or cold as meze, as you prefer, with garlicy Turkish yoghurt or cacik (Turkish cucumber salad with yoghurt and garlic).


Afiyet olsun!

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Sekerpare - Turkish dessert

Şekerpare is one of the several popular and traditional Turkish desserts besides baklava, künefe, sütlaç, tulumba, aşure, lokma etc.

It is prepared by baking soft balls of pastry, then dipped in thick lemon sugar syrup. Because of the butter, semolina and syrup it is so soft, almost melts in your mouth. In spite of the syrup it's not too luscious.

It is easy, quick to prepare şekerpare so do not hesitate to try it, bring some Turkish atmosphere with it to your home. 

My first base was Binnur's recipe.

Ingredients:

125 g butter (room temperature)

1/2 cup castor sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/6 cup semolina

1 cup plain flour

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

+ almonds, hazelnuts on the top

For the syrup:

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

2 tablespoon lemon juice

In a large bowl combine the butter and the castor sugar with a spoon or a wooden spoon, add the egg yolk and mix well with the butter. Strew the semolina to this mixture, then slowly the flour also and mix all with your hands. Knead until you get a medium-hard dough, if it's needed add some more flour to it.

Preheat the oven to 190°C and grease a pan or a heat-resistant glass dish with butter or oil. Divide the dough into 8 same-sized part, first make balls with your hands, lay in the dish, keep their ball forms or shape them into oval form (as I did), gently press their tops and place some nuts on the center of each. 

Bake them in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

While the şekerpare bakes in the oven, prepare the syrup. Mix the syrup ingredients in a pan and start to bring to full boil for about 5-10 minutes. Let it cool for a while.

When the şekerpare is ready, take it out from the oven and when it is still warm, pour the lukewarm syrup on it with a spoon. Repeat this a few times and let them soak in the syrup for about 10-15 minutes before remove them from the syrup and lay them on a service plate. Let them cool in the fridge.

Şekerpare is best served cold.

Afiyet olsun!

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Menemen

Menemen is one of the most popular breakfast dish in the Turkish cuisine, it's the mix of tomatos, peppers, eggs and onion, similar to the Hungarian lecsó (thick vegetable stew which also features peppers, tomato, onion, paprika), the French ratatouille Traditionally it is eaten for breakfast, served with bread but you can eat any time of the day for instance for lunch or a light dinner. 

Menemen has also many variation, sucuk (spicy Turkish sausage) or pastırma (dried cured beef) can be added.

I learned this menemen recipe from our Turkish friend, during our stay in Istanbul. One day we cooked dinner at home, called over M.'s brother also. It's one of my favorite Turkish food, easy, simple, perfect!

Ingredients (for 2 persons):

4 green pepper

4 bigger tomato

2 eggs

1 big onion

3 cloves of garlic

salt, pepper, sweet (or hot) paprika, thyme

olive oil

parsley

Wash, chop the pepper and tomato, peel and chop the onion and garlic. 

Place the olive oil and onion in a large pan. Cook for about 2-3 minutes until the onion is glassy then add the pepper. Simmer it with the onion on medium-low heat then add the garlic, tomato, about 1 dl water and the spices.

Cook for another 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Whisk the eggs in another bowl and pour into the pan. Stir it constantly until the eggs are done.

Serve with fresh bread.

Our Turkish friend's menemen

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Simit

Simit, one of the most popular street food in Turkey is a circular shaped bread with sesame seeds, often eaten plain or with jam or joghurt for breakfast and commonly is sold by vendors along streets (almost every corner of the city, especially in Istanbul) who sell it from their trolleys or from their trays what they carry on their heads.

  

You can meet many different types of simit, all which are at least as tasty as the famous Istanbul version. The rich variety is sometimes due to different ingredients, sometimes due to the baking technique and sometimes due just to a special shape.

In Turkish culture people generally drink tea with simit, some prefer it with ayran as well. 

My favorite and most popular simit - breakfast place is Simit Sarayı ın Turkey. Simit Sarayı (means: Simit Palace) is a fast food restaurant where many kind of simit products, pastry and baked gooda are sold freshly all day long. For instance plain simit, simit with cheese, tomato, olives, sucuk (Turkish spıcy sausage), börek, açma, poğaça, wraps, pita bread sandwiches and of course sweet products also such as baklava, sütlaç (Turkish rice pudding), muffins and other cakes.

Simitçi in Istanbul

I love reading Elif's blog since his husband also comes from Kayseri as M. Yesterday she was a big help for me when I decided to bake simit.

These cute simits will be my and my colleagues' breakfast today.

Ingredients (6 pieces):
50 dkg flour
1/2 package dry yeast (3,5 g) or 1/4 package fresh yeast (1,25 dkg)
0,25 dl milk
1/2 teaspoon sugar
0,25 dl oil
2 dl water
2 teaspoon salt

+ pekmez (It's available in every Turkish supermarket. If you don't have at home you can use water also as I did yesterday.)
+ sesame seeds (yesterday I used linseed)

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm milk and let stand about 10 minutes in a warm place until frothy.

In a big bowl mix the flour, salt, oil and add the yeast mix. Start to knead adding water constantly to it. Knead at least 15 minutes by hand (or hand mixer) until the dough is very smooth and springy. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and set aside for 15-20 minutes.

Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Split each pieces in two, roll each of these small balls into a 35-40 cm long rope. Lay the two ropes next to each other on the counter. Press their upper ends then braid them carefully and form this braided rope into ring.

Preheat the oven to 250°C.

Put water in a smaller plate, sesame seeds in another one. Dip each simit rings first in the water then in the sesame seeds. Lay the ready simits on a baking paper.

Bake them in the oven for 20-25 minutes until rich golden brown.

The best is eating simit freshly, immediately taking out from the oven but you can also put in the freezer and when you wanna eat fresh simit again you just need to take out from the freezer and warm it up in the oven within a few minutes.

Afiyet olsun!

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Turkish red lentil soup (Kırmızı mercimek çorbası)

The rich and varied Turkish cuisine which is beloved by many people around the world is mainly the heritage of Ottoman Empire's cuisine. Turkish kitchen influenced not only the neighbour countries' kitchen but the whole European one, one after the other.

Turkish cuisine varies all across the country but the soups play an important part everywhere every time, they have traditional importance. Before the popularisation of the typical Turkish breakfast, soup was the current morning meal for most households. 

Soups are as varied as the whole Turkish gastronomy. Soups can be light or rich, substantial and nourishing but a Turkish meal generally starts with it. They are usually named after their main ingredient. 

The most common and best loved is kırmızı mercimek çorbası (red lentil soup), but yayla çorbası (yoghurt soup), tarhana çorbası (tarhana consists of cracked wheat, yoghurt and vegetables - fermented then dried) are also very popular, and for instance one of M.'s and my favorite soup is domates çorbası (tomato soup).

I had eaten kırmızı mercimek çorbası in Turkey and Hungary many times but like everything else this soup is the best if it is home-made. As far as I remember in the history of my kitchen activity this was also my first Turkish dish I cooked at home. 

When I prepare a Turkish food, I always use nothing but Turkish people's authentic recipes, this time Hayriye's. 

Ingredients:
1 cup red lentil
1 medium size onion 
1 potato
1 carrot
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon mint
1 tablespoon crushed pepper
6-7 cups of water (you can add a cube of beef bouillon)

For the sauce: 
2 tablespoon butter (or olive oil)
1 tablespoon sweet or spicy paprika
A pinch of salt

Peel and chop the vegetables. 

Put the oil and chopped onion into a medium sized saucepan and sauté them at medium heat. When the onion is glassy, add the tomato paste, carrots, potatoes and sauté them with the onion for other 2-3 minutes.

Add the washed and drained red lentils, hot water (mixed with the cube of beef bouillon before) and mint to the vegetable mixture, then salt it and stir well. Cook until the carrots and potatoes soften. It takes approximately 10-15 minutes in medium-low heat then mix the soup thoroughly with a blender . If you find it too thick, you can add some more water.

For the sauce in a small frying pan place the butter and melt it over low heat. When it starts boiling and spitting, stir in the red pepper and salt. 

Serve the red lentil soup while still hot, pour the melted butter and pepper mixture over it. You can add some dry mint on top as well. Next to the plate you can serve some slice of lemon too and squeeze a little bit of lemon juice on top like Turks do.

Afiyet olsun!

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Turkish Ramadan pide (Ramazan pidesi)

I fell in love with Turkish bread (ekmek) last year during our holiday. I don't remember how many different kind of breads we had a chance to taste. Anywhere we ate, it doesn't matter we stopped at a smaller local restaurant next to the road or we had dinner in a fancy restaurant in Istanbul, bread was served (mostly with butter) everywhere while we waited for our order.

Ekmek is a main necessity of Turkish cuisine and households.It is usually made by bakeries two or three times  a day, in the morning and in the evening, therefore you can buy fresh crispy bread all day.

I am sure you haven't seen and tasted such a thing as Turkish ekmek. It is loved by everyone, rich and poor, simple and sophisticated, one and all. You can find a bread bakery at every neighborhood that produces the famous golden, crispy breads, filling the streets with their irresistible flavour. In Istanbul we stayed at our friend's place where right under the flat a bread bakery was found. During our stay we were waken up by the fresh bread's aroma every morning, I can not imagine more amazing thing.

The history of ekmek
During the Ottoman period people believed that bread, as the earliest form of cuisine, dates back to the time of Prophet Adam, the Patron Saint of Bakers who learned how to make bread from the Archangel Gabriel after his explusion from the Garden of Eden. The secret is still held by present-day Turkish bakers and hold it as one of the simplest and honorable things to eat.

The types of Turkish bread
There are so many types of Turkish breads but the most well-known besides ekmek, the ordinary white bread is:

• Tas Firin Ekmegi (this type of bread is the most common in Turkey, baked in stone oven)
• Simit (is a ring shaped bread with sesame seeds on the top.It's one of the most widely consumed foods in Turkey, you can find a simit vendor almost at every corner.)
• Tandır Ekmegi (This is also a very known bread type. It is baked in a round oven " Tandır" in Turkish. I met Tandır - in English: tandoor - at the first time in India where they use it not only for baking flatbreads, the Indian naan but for cooking certain meat dishes as well. I will write more about tandoor later.)
• Mısır ekmek (corn bread, not used very much)

This time I bring for you this special type of flat bread, called Ramazan pidesi which refers to that it is baked during the month of Ramazan.

Ramazan pidesi

For the first try I used Binnur's recipe as base. Let's see how it turned out!

Ingredients:
4 cup of flour (all purpose)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 and 3/4 cup milk
7 gr instant yeast (I prefer fresh yeast but this time I followed the original recipe)

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

Glaze:

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon milk

Ramazan pidesi

Mix the instant yeast, sugar and 1/4 cup warm milk in a small bowl. Stir well to the yeast to dissolve. Cover the bowl with a towel, set aside and let it rest for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, add the flour and salt in a larger bowl, put the bubbly yeast mixture  and 1 1/2 cup warm milk to the flour. Mix and put the dough on the lightly floured table and knead well for about 10 minutes until it becomes smooth (I used hand mixer at the beginning then continued kneading by hand). 

When the dough is ready, slush a clean bowl with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and place the dough in it and spread another tablespoon of olive oil with your hands all over the dough. Then cover it with a clean and damp dish towel. Set aside for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours at room temperature until the dough rises to double its size.

Place the dough on the lightly floured table again. Press all over it with your hands to get rid of air bubbles. Cut the dough in two pieces with a knife. Knead and give a ball shape to each, cover with a damp towel, and put aside for other 15 minutes. 

Place baking paper on an oven tray, then set the doughs on it. Use your palm to flatten each ball into a flatter rounded shape and dip your finger tips in it and press all over the dough. Lightly beat the glaze ingredients in a small bowl then sprinkle some black or regular sesame seeds all over and cover with a clean damp towel. Leave for about 35-40 minutes to rise at a warm place.

Finally preheat the oven to 230°C and put some water in an oven-safe bowl. Place it on the bottom of the oven and the tray on the middle rack. Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes until the colour becomes light golden. Place the pide on the clean towel to cool it down a bit. Serve warm.

Afiyet olsun!

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