Turkish Meal Mondays: Mantı

Turkish Meal Mondays are a glimpse into the food we enjoy here in Turkey, accompanied by a recipe.  Mondays are one of our favourite days, because they're Market Days. Ever since our first market day a year and a half ago we have only missed two, due to torrential down pour a few weeks ago.  Our trips to the market will continue to focus on selecting fresh and delish produce to use in our weekly Turkish recipes.  Get ready... This blog just became appealing to foodies. 

Early in our Turkish lives, I fell in love with Mantı, a ravioli or tortellini style pasta with a tangy yogurt sauce.  I started asking friends to teach me to make it, (meaning the sauce, because Americans don't make pasta, we buy it dried).  

All of my friends shook their heads and said "Oh it's too hard. You can't learn."

When I explained that I just needed the sauce recipe, because I could buy the dried mantı at the store, they refused again. "Don't eat that. It's not good.  Only eat home-made."

We were at an impasse. 

Well two years later, we found a patient and knowledgeable teacher. Our neighbor Hacar, who's been there all along, offered to teach me in exchange for Alan's babysitting services. 

"Oh no! Don't make me hold your ridiculously cute baby!"

As you can see in the picture, Ege wasn't too happy about nap time.  And he was a fighter.  Alan started the rocking, and singing 20 minutes before the cooking started... I'll point out the point that he finally won the nap-battle. 

So we started with the noodles.  If you're really Turkish you won't measure a thing.  You'll just use your eyeball. 

So use this much flour (3 cups?), scoop it into a little donut shape, and crack an egg into the middle. Sprinkle salt around the donut two or three times.  

Un, yumurta, tuz

Use your fingers (possibly with disposable gloves on) to break the yoke, and then mix it into the flour starting at the center and slowly mixing around the middle of the donut, incorporating more and more flour in each time you go around.  This mixing process took about 10 minutes with Hacar adding small amounts of water a few times. Once the dough comes together in a flaky ball, move it to a clean floured surface, and kneed, kneed, kneed.  

Separate into two even balls, flour the tops, and allow it to "rest" while you make the filling.

Filling: One fist full, or approximately 200grams, of ground meat. (We used lamb, I've had beef, and Hacar said we could use ground chicken or Turkey for my non-red-meat-eating-mom.)

One small onion finely chopped.

Salt and pepper

And one finger-full (not joking about the measurements here, folks) of pepper paste. 

Mix with hands.

kıyma, soğan, tuz, kara biber, aci biber salçası

Now comes the fun part.  Rolling it out. If you don't have a super skinny Turkish rolling pin, use your American one, although you may not be able to do this crazy trick where you roll it all the way around your pin like magic.  Bummer.

Turkish people use this rolling method to make Gözleme as well. Before this lesson, neither Alan or I had succeeded in making anything other than something resembling a large corn dog with this method. 

But Hacar shared the magic. 

Start by rolling it into a smallish personal-pan-pizza size. 

Sprinkle flour all over the top. 

Place pin near the end of the dough, and flip the end over the pin.

Roll slowly towards the center, pushing down gently and spreading hands towards the edge as you roll.  The outward movement is key, without it you'll end up with the corn-dog. 

Do this multiple times, spinning the dough 90 degrees between each rolling, and adding another sprinkle of flour every few times. 

This is how thin your ball-o-dough should be when you finish. Hacar kept saying "See? Not too thin."  Looked mighty thin to me. 

Use a sharp, floured knife to cut long one inch strips. use the rolling pin as a straight edge. 

Cut again, perpendicularly, making little one inch squares.

Add super small portions of the filling, using your finger tip.  Don't add too much, or it will squeeze out the sides.  Don't add too little, or Hacar will ask if you're poor.

Fold into adorable little triangles pinching the edges shut.

Or fold into fancy purse shapes by making a hod-dog fold, pinching the corners, and then squeezing the corners towards the center.

By the way, this is where Ege finally gave up the fight. 

As it turns out, this isn't difficult. It's just time consuming.  Hacar warned that it isn't a task to take on by yourself, but rather with a group of friends or family members.

After all was said and done, we made enough for two large servings of mantı that night, a large pot of yüzük corbası or ring soup for the next night, and and a freezer full for when Diana visits. 

To freeze, set mantı out on the balcony for a few hours to dry it (it was evening, please don't try setting it in the sun). Then pack into Tupperware, and pop it into the freezer.

Boil the mantı for about 15 minutes, spoon into a bowl and cover with the best sauce ever. 

Directions below:

Unfortunately this is where we stopped taking photos because I was busy with this guy.  Shortest napper ever.  Lucky me. 

The sauce has two parts: 

Yogurt sauce: 2 cups of yogurt mixed with 5 cloves of crushed garlic (cold). 

Topping: Heat 3-4 TBSP olive oil in a pan, stir in 1TBSP of tomato paste. Add a tsp of dried mint, and a 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper. 

Layer the yogurt sauce first with a small amount of the red sauce on top.

yoğurt, sarımsak, zeytin yağ, domates salçası, nane, pul kırımızı biber 

Eat with a baby on your lap for maximum enjoyment.

Afiyet Olsun!

What the Heck Wednesdays: Baby Time!

"What the Heck?! Wednesdays" focus on the heart-warming, ridiculous, and sometimes frustrating stories from our school days.  Teaching in Turkey is trying and difficult.  We come home exhausted,  and our days off are nothing short of precious. That being said, we love our students.  Most of the time. They are creative, silly, smart, obnoxious, loud, affectionate and adorable.  And they make for some delightful stories. Enjoy... 

A few days ago, I was hanging out in the corridor supervising break time when a group of second graders ran over to me in a frenzy.  

Miss Erin! Miss Erin! Miss Erin! Miss Erin! Miss Erin! Miss Erin! Miss Erin! Miss Erin! Miss Erin! Miss Erin! Miss Erin! 

Ayşe Melek took over:

"Miss Erin! Nurdan..." 

(gestures frantically towards their classroom in case I wasn't aware that she was referring to her class teacher. Who I have worked with for two years now).

 

"Her's baby..."

 (Continues the charades game in case I don't understand English.)

"It's COMING!"

Best charades ever.

Congratulations on your new baby Nurdan!  And welcome to the world Umut!

Alan the Performer

Let me start with this...Turkish people are very accepting and encouraging of people who try to speak their language and learn about their culture. They are also very accepting of people who get on stage and sing. This is how I ended up doing this:

Although my playing is very basic and my singing is off key the audience still applauded and I received many compliments later. 

The bağlama, a traditional Turkish instrument has 7 strings grouped into 3 groups. There are 2 strings tuned to A, 2 tuned to G, and 3 tuned to D. When I play I actually have it tuned up a few steps to C, A#, F. Mostly Turkish players use the bağlama to play the melody, not so many chords. 

Turkish Meal Mondays: Sutan's Delight

Sultan's Delight (Hünkar Beğendi) is one of my absolute favourite dishes to order at restaurants that serve it. We've made it a few times at home, but it's never lived up to the name. We are still playing around with the ingredients, hoping to get it right some day. Read all the way to the end to find out about possible alterations.   For all of you who are eggplant avoiders, the eggplant doesn't have much flavor, it just adds a nice creamy texture to the dish.  If you still don't want to try it consider substituting zucchini for the eggplant. My friend Sam says it's just as good that way.

This recipe has two parts: A meat stew, and an eggplant cream. 

Start by cleaning and fork-piercing the eggplant. Broil on an oven rack for 30 minutes, or until they lose their lovely colour and get super wrinkly.

 

 Patlican

While the eggplant is roasting, start the meat stew:  Bring a few cups of water to a boil. Add cubes of meat (we used lamb, but we have also used chicken, and I imagine beef would work as well).  Reduce heat to a simmer. After about 10 minutes add an onion, a tomato, some sweet peppers, and garlic, all chopped.  Add a spoonful each of tomato and pepper paste, and salt and pepper. Simmer until the sauce has reduced to a gravy-ish consistency.   

 

Kuzu, soğan, domates, tatlı biber, saramsak, domates ve aci biber soslu, tuz, kara biber.

Eggplant Cream
Step 1: Let eggplant cool lest you burn the crap out of your tender fingers. 

Step 2: Once they are cool enough to handle, cut the tops, peel the skin off, and chop into small cubes. Submerge in water with a little salt and lemon juice, to keep them from browning.

In a pan, melt butter (we used 3 TBSP, but I don't think that was enough). Add 1 TBSP of flour. Mix until it thickens. Squeeze water out of eggplant, and add to the butter mixture. Add 1 cup of milk and puree with an egg beater, until smooth. Add the juice of one lemon. Mix in a 1/2 cup of shredded white cheese (like mozzarella) and stir until melted.

Tereyağı, un, patlican, süt, limon, peynir

 Plate the meal by making a donut shape out of the egg plant cream, and adding the stew to the center.

Result:  The stew was SUPER! I was worried that the meat would be tough, but it was perfect. Eggplant cream: Meh... The overwhelming flavor was flour. Boo. But the stew saved it. And the amount was perfect for the two of us.

Alterations we will try next time:  We'll up the amount of butter, and cheese, as well as adding a bullion cube to the butter and flour mix. Hopefully it will be more flavorful and less floury.