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It was an early morning we hit the road from Yalıkavak, for Milas, for the local open market, the famous Milas pazarı. It was a bright sunny day, despite the February weather we have been witnessing at the end of … Continue reading
It has been a very long time for me since my grandmother has left me, endless… She was the one who thought me a lot of things about food like the first time I put my hands on a big tripe to wash it on a big kitchen sink under the hand freezing running cold water. Those trotter, tripe soups simmering all night long, the smell of the kitchen after a pot full of strawberry jam made, scratching the bottom of the pan with my small fingers, eating the unbaked cake batter…
Tarhana soup was one of her things, which she used to prepare during summer months, when the ingredients like pepper and tomatoes are at their best and let it dry on a thin tea towel under the sun. Soon to be a rich, thick, floury soup, tarhana was loved by the whole family and scooped down on the winter days.
Tarhana is a very common soup all around Turkey, being prepared at almost every region, city, villages, with different ingredients, techniques. As I don’t have my grandmother with me anymore neither her magic hands, tarhana I consume on winter months is prepared by Yurdagül, our long faithful helper at where my mom lives in Yalıkavak. As is cooking, no tarhana she sends me is the same every year, which I love.
She uses döğme (wheat), flour, home made drained yogurt, red peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, mint and of course Yalıkavak’s parching sun and lovely breeze. She first brings to boil the onion, tomatoes, peppers in little water, after a little cooled down she adds wheat, flour, garlic, mint, yogurt and mix them together, forming a thick batter. Then she covers this big pot with a piece of tülbent, a see through cotton cheesecloth, to avoid the flies. She punches and kneads this mixture, every now and then for 3 to 5 days. After this yeasting process she tears little pieces size of meatballs and lays them under the sun for a couple of days, when the texture is dried out -but not completely- then she crumbles them through a sieve and let this dry a couple of days more. Portions it to her family, me, my mom, the other lucky ones, this has been one of my favorite shipments along with the other home made goodies.
Turning tarhana into a soup with some stock, maybe adding some mince meat or not, some pepper paste or not, drizzling it with butter and chilies… or not…
Sometimes all it takes is just a bowl of soup, to remind our most loved ones, most happy times hence they are never forgotten.
Note from Tuba: I wrote this piece to my granny, missing her everyday and to all the loving grandmothers of our world!
A sweet autumn noon, I took a bus to Oğuzeli to capture the the preparations for winter, wondering what is left out. After a bus drive for 40 minutes, I arrived the tiny town, without knowing it was such a small town… A little roundabout, baker, butcher, little grocery shop also selling fruit and vegetables outside, the streets deserted, some town people hanging around the butcher, no children around I guess they were at school.
Soon I started my walk with Hüseyin, who is in the vegetable drying business, vegetables like cucumber, aubergines, Antep pepper, zucchini which are all staple for Antep locals during winter months. Those beautiful dry vegetables, needled on a thin string and hung up on the roofs. There were not much left though… But you have the idea.
After the walk made us hungry, I politely asked lahmacun for lunch. Knowing that lahmacun is made from scratch here in Oğuzeli, like old times, like when there was no lahmacun and kebab restaurants all around. You buy your vegetables, take it to butcher, he makes the topping of lahmacun, then take it to the bakery where it is finished.
Hüseyin got his little tray and we went to the grocer to buy the zerzevat, meaning vegetables, and spices. Then to the butcher, feeling happy as a school girl waiting for candies only this is better than candy! He told the butcher how many lahmacun we would want, then left the tray to him. The butcher of Oğuzeli… I think he is everyone’s favorite person in this small town, when you think about the meat consumption on every meal.
Cut some meat from ribs, some fat, and some from the brisket of a mutton carcass, then started cutting all the ingredients with zırk. Everything is getting smaller and the tiny shop started to fill with the fragrance of garlic, Antep pepper, tomatoes, pepper paste then the fatty mutton meat. All you need a loaf of bread or a pide, to swipe all the escaping juices.
I was not the only one there, we were sharing the tiny shop with this small boy, standing quietly, waiting for his turn to come, for him to tell his mother’s order. On the counter waited biber dolma, peppers filled with mince meat and hot pepper paste, waiting for its owner, they soon will be baked in the neighbourhood bakery as well. A humble lunch for a local. Jealous!
After all slurping, waiting, and praying he finished cutting everything with zırk, he put the mixture in the tray. While hopping to the baker, right across the butcher and grocer I was testing my patient. This was too good to wait! At least I had my photo machine to stall me…
A little flour on the counter, the baker started playing with the lahmacun dough, stretching it, then topping it with our mixture, passing on to the shovel, soon they will be cooked in the wood burning oven. While I was there chatting, more trays arrived and lined up on the counter, waiting for their turns.
The taste… Well, there is nothing like a freshly made from scratch lahmacun in the world!
The mutton, the spices, the aroma, the taste of the wood, eating on the newspapers, the friendship over the table, everyone around stopping by for a bite, tucking in with your hands and the fat is dripping from your elbows…
There are no restaurants in Oğuzeli, but friends and a butcher, a baker, a grocer…
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The coal smelling little village Ürgüp… The narrow small streets, old people, like a dead city actually, you see nobody, almost, till we get to pazar, the open air market. It was the late autumn and early winter, the stalls … Continue reading
The thin flaky piece, so simple it is a true sin.
A mini tiny ball of dough, pulled and pulled by hand, thrown on the air like a pizza disk, when it reaches its paper thin form, it is sprinkled with pinches of süt kaymağı or kaymak (a stuffing made from milk and a little semolina), pistachio and sugar, folded like an envelope, then butter, sade yağ, ghee is brushed on top and hop in the hot oven.
I present you katmer.
The taste is quite unlike any other pistachio, dough based sweet. The warmed pistachio leaves its oil out and kaymak unites it to perfection, while the sugar touches your mouth and leaves without any trace. So thin, so full, so…
Akşam Simit Fırını is one of the best places to taste this, melt in the mouth experience.
The taste worths more than a plane ticket.
One way please!
This gallery contains 10 photos.
5.00am, first buzz, snooze. 5.15am again then jumped out of bed around 5.30am remembering why! I was on my way to Ali Haydar for morning liver kebab! How could I forget! I took a taxi and at 6.00am and one … Continue reading
When I open my fridge for breakfast, I found myself in the typical stuff, shining at me, cheese of all kinds, olives, sucuk, you name it… But all I wanted to have was beyran like I was in Gaziantep. Beyran to sooth me down, to heal me, to make me feel whole again.
I stopped two mornings at Metanet Beyran Salonu, to devour the meaty, silky, fatty, delicious dish, getting amazed by the Mustafa Usta and his great staff.
Taking the shortcut to reach Metanet, crossing the tiny passage to the mosque’s garden, then out to the small street, I found myself in front of the old fashioned big local restaurant. The moment I sat in foot, welcomed by smiling faces, me saying good mornings and kolay gelsin.
I choose a table, where you share with whomever, I was asked immediately, I said an original beyran, meaning with garlic, loads of chilies, how Mustafa Usta prepares it. Served with the silky green Antep pepper, wedges of lemon and hot tırnaklı ekmek, you now it as pide, just out from the oven.Yes, hey have an oven to serve tırnaklı ekmek hot, crusty.
Beyran is a dish made from mutton broth, mutton meat, rice and suet. Sounds easy yet the preparation time is slightly above 12 hours. The mutton is simmered like a typical broth, first water to throw away, second the scum cleared et all, the bones setting loose their fragrance in the water, for a good 12 hours. The meat turns out melt-in-your-mouth with any unwanted parts trimmed off.
The rice cooked to perfection, so does the suet. The fat surrounding the kidney, simmered for hours, turns into a margarine form, yum.
Each dish is prepared by Mustafa Usta himself, finished by his staff. First he spreads some suet on the bottom of the bowl, topped with cooked rice and cooked mutton meat. Then it is topped with garlic, chili flakes, put on top of the furiously burning special stove, and poured some of that 12 hour simmered mutton broth. The moment it warms up, which is instantly, poured another ladle full broth, the oil in the broth causing a flambeé effect. It is taken out of the fire with pincers, served bubbling hot, literally. The result, you guess!
It is either beyran, ciğer or katmer (wait for the upcoming posts) for breakfast in Gaziantep. Yours to pick. Oh, by the way, breakfast in Gaziantep starts at 5.00am till 9.00 am or 11.00am depending on the establishment.
I had them all, all with the locals, sharing their tables, sharing their jokes, they shared their lives with me and I am glad I was in Gaziantep, not for the first nor for the last time.
Mustafa Usta, ellerinin tadı hiç eksilmesin… *
*(something like, May the taste of your hands never go away, Mustafa Usta.)
Address: Kozluca Mah, Kozluca Cad No.11, Gaziantep
Phone: (0342)231 46 66
Pistachio, fıstık, is a true delicacy and one main ingredient for baklava, in Gaziantep. The pink smooth skin covers the shelled pistachio inside which still has a softer skin then the usual roasted one.
The ones which have already cracked, growing their way outside he skin, pressuring it to open its mouth, called çıtlak and preferred by the locals. There are many street seller in the city, walking around heaped carts, with the eye catching contrast of blue nylon and pink pistachios.
The fruit is hidden inside the pink skin, then the semi soft outer skin. It has a taste like any other, mellow, moist and a little fatty taste, but bursting you with its flavor, the fruit inside has all the tones of green. The more vivid green, the more it has a unique taste, yellower green the taste becomes lighter. As I told these are the fresh ones, not roasted, so they are not salted and I prefer this other than the roasted ones. The fıstık season has ended so, these are the last ones I could catch in Gaziantep.
Now, this particular gadget is for cracking open the pistachio shells rather then trying to break you teeth, trying to get the delicious fıstık out from its skin, if the shell is closed, or you do not want to ruin your nails. As seen, it has many kinds made from brass, metal and covered with hand decorated figures, motives…
Will be back for more delicious Gaziantep.
