Turkish Cuisine

Dishes from the countries of the Middle East distinguished by spiciness, abundance of spices and spices. Turkish cuisine is no exception. Among its features, in addition to the richest choice of meat dishes, it is necessary to mention desserts and pastries.

Distinctive features of Turkish cuisine

The ritual of cooking in each country has its own peculiarities. The cuisine of Turkey today is a synthesis of European and Oriental dishes, combining the culinary traditions of many countries.

^{Dishes of Turkish cuisine are very diverse.}

Its features are:

1. Most meat dishes cooked over an open fire. Barbecues, stoves with a grill or outdoor fireplaces used.
2. Turkey is an Islamic country. Therefore, on its territory there is a division into forbidden food (haram) and allowed (halal). So, pork strictly prohibited, but alcohol, prohibited in Islam, found on sale.
3. Bread called one of the main dishes. It prepared directly for the meal – no house in Turkey will serve yesterday’s lavash or flatbread.
4. An abundance of vegetarian dishes. A favorite vegetable is eggplant. There are several hundred recipes for salads, appetizers and soups from dark-fruited nightshades.
5. Widespread street food in Turkey. In some provinces, right on the go you can buy not only buns, shawarma or kebab, but also tea, and freshly brewed.
6. An unusual combination of different seasonings for Europeans. Among them various types of spices that give both a burning taste and a mild aftertaste (Isot pepper), curry and saffron, which sold both separately and in a mixture with turmeric and safflower.
7. Mandatory serving of accompanying dishes to the table to stimulate appetite. These include all kinds of vegetable and cheese yogurts, meze, salads, meat balls.
8. Among the meals, breakfast is most appreciated. In Turkey, there are special cafes and restaurants specializing only in morning meals.

According to Eastern traditions, the main thing in any dish is the natural taste of the main product. Hot spices used only if they complement the dish with their aroma.

Strict adherence to the balance between spices is also a distinctive feature of Turkish cuisine.

History

Turkey owes its abundance and variety of food products to its rich fauna, flora and geographical position – the country washed by 4 seas. The origin of many ancient recipes attributed to the times of the Byzantine Empire. By the time of the adoption of Islam (IX century), Turkey represented many Turkic tribes (Seljuks, Persians, Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians), each of which had its own traditions (including in the field of cooking).

Some ancient methods of cooking have survived to this day:

• cooking meat on a spit (borrowed from nomadic peoples who satisfied their hunger mainly by the fire after hunting or raiding);
• cooking soups in large soup cauldrons made of baked clay or porcelain.
• the technology of cooking dishes from rice, millet, buckwheat and beans has not changed much over the past centuries.

Starting from the end of the XVII century, when trade with Spain and America established, Turkish cuisine began to gain independence from the influence of Arab countries. In the diet of the Turks outlandish vegetables brought from afar: red sweet peppers, tomatoes and potatoes. The cult of bread that existed in the Ottoman Empire is intensifying in its successor Turkey. In addition to cooking, table setting is of particular importance.

In addition to the traditions of respect for food, the culinary preferences of this country formed by the so-called institute of palace cuisine. Until now, the giant premises of the Topkany Palace in Istanbul, which prepared food for more than 10,000 people daily, preserved. By the XVIII century. in such kitchens worked about 12,000 employees (cooks, confectioners, bakers, etc.).

Popular cooking methods

For cooking in Turkey, almost all existing methods of processing food and bringing it to readiness used. The choice of one or another method depends on the preferences of the chef, the type of products and the wishes of customers (guests).

The most used cooking technologies include:

1. Frying. Meat cooked in all possible ways – on an open fire, in a frying pan, in a deep fryer, in the oven or on the stove.
2. Baking. Innumerable types of bread, flatbreads, both with and without filling, cooked in a special oven or on coals.
3. Quenching. The main side dish of Turkish cuisine vegetables cooked in special dishes (cauldron or pan with a thick bottom).
4. Blanching. This method most often used for eggplants or for dishes with an abundance of onions and spicy seasonings. Vegetables first briefly boiled in boiling water, then they cooled in ice water to get rid of bitterness or an unpleasant taste.
5. Cooking. It used mainly for rice, cereals. To prepare Turkish hummus, peas boiled for a long time until it softens as much as possible and turns into a creamy mass.

The main products of Turkish cuisine

All meat dishes prepared, in accordance with the prescription of Islam, only from “pure” animals.

These include most artiodactyls (sheep, sheep, camels, cows, goats), all kinds of fish and poultry.

Products that used by Turkish chefs:

1. Legumes. These include beans, chickpeas, peas, and lentils, the main ingredient in most soups and salads.
2. Cheeses, especially cheese. Often used both as independent dishes (snacks) and for mixing with other products. Especially popular are bread products with cheese filling.
3. Spices. In Turkey itself, flakes of red pepper, cumin and cumin invariably loved. This list supplemented with mint, thyme, sumac, ginger and anise.
4. Olive oil. An indispensable product for the preparation of not only salads and cold dishes, but also confectionery (added to the dough).
5. Sesame and cereals most commonly used for baking.

What Turks eat

In Turkey, eating is almost a sacred ritual, which is unacceptable to hold in a hurry. The number of meals per day can reach 5, and the dishes will vary from time to time. In addition, the menu on holidays is different from that on weekdays.

Snacks

Each breakfast, lunch or dinner preceded by a snack served 20-30 minutes before the main course. They should excite the appetite and prepare the stomach for a leisurely and plentiful meal.

^{In Turkey, all kinds of cold snacks are very popular.}

In total, there are several varieties of Turkish meze (a generalized name for snacks):

1. Cold. Eggplants, tomatoes and peppers stuffed with rice, cheese or meat filling, salads, pickles, olives and sarma (cabbage rolls in the Turkish manner). In most cases, cold mezes are acute.
2. Hot. Chylbyr (poached eggs with herbs and spices), baked mushrooms with cheese, karidesh güvech (boiled shrimp with tomatoes and garlic).
3. Yoghurts. Served in small cups. The composition of the cream mass may include mint, olive oil, lemon juice, cheese and greens.

Breakfast

The first thing that a tourist or foreigner in Turkey pays attention to the number of dishes served for the morning meal. Unlike Europeans, Turks prefer the most hearty breakfast, sometimes consisting of 8 or even 10 dishes.

Almost all gastronomic delights are easily digested and do not leave a feeling of heaviness in the stomach.

Depending on the city, a Turkish breakfast may include the following dishes and products:

• baking: freshly baked bread with various additives, bagels, loaves, puffs, flat cakes and ekmek (bread on a lush dough);
• cheeses and cottage cheese products: goat cheese, cheddar, moldy Konya cheese, etc .;
• olives: black, green, soaked in a marinade or stuffed, salted or soaked in lemon oil;
• mandatory item – egg dishes, which include both scrambled eggs familiar to europeans, and many types of omelet, glaze;
• jams and preserves: from mulberries, currants, cherries, figs, apricots and other types of berries and fruits.

As a drink, Turks like to drink black tea, which brewed in a special kettle. By the end of breakfast, sweet dishes served – halva, baklava and other desserts. At the end of the meal, a cup of Turkish coffee brought. Most often, the serving supplemented with a glass of ice water: local residents after a few sips of coffee take a sip of water to feel the taste of an aromatic drink.

Dinner

A common lunch dish is doner kebab , a steak fried on a shampole and cut into thin slices. As a side dish, Turks choose pilaf, rice or stewed vegetables.

^{Turks like to have a hearty and hearty lunch.}

An incomplete list of possible dishes served for lunch includes:

1. First courses. Soups in Turkey not eaten, but drunk, so most often they brought in cups, and in consistency they more like mashed potatoes or cream soups. Among them are shifa chorbasy soup from red lentils, milk tarkhan soup, corn and bulgur soups with sheep giblets.
2. Main courses. These include sausages and sausages, sujuk (a smoked product of beef or lamb meat with lard), kebabs, kefte and roasts.
3. Manti is a national Turkish dish that is definitely worth a try. In appearance, they look like large dumplings, but they not cooked in water, but strictly steamed. Yogurt seasoned with pepper and tomato paste served as a sauce.
4. Pastries stuffed with minced meat, vegetables, cheeses or other products. Of particular demand is the Turkish pizza lahmajun, cooked on a thin yeast cake.
5. Salads. The salads served for lunch are different from those for breakfast. The pride of the chefs is the piyaz salad, consisting of beans, olives, tomatoes, tahini and greens.
6. Fish. Stuffed mullet baked in foil, swordfish kebabs, roasted bluefish and many other dishes.

Lunch washed down with soft drinks, most often tea or ayran – salted yogurt mixed with cold water. However, guests or tourists may offer a glass of wine or a glass of Turkish vodka.

Supper

An evening meal is a lighter version of lunch.

Dinner for the Turks is a time to enjoy desserts and coffee.

However, traditional snacks and full meals are also present on the table:

1. Jajik (cucumber cream), haidari (analogue of garlic sauce) and other types of yogurt.
2. Chickpea puree and dishes from it – masabaha or crushed beans.
3. Ribs, fricasse in a clay pot, beef fried in the oven and any other meat dish.
4. Pilaf or pilaf, in which peas, bulgur, tomatoes, and sometimes pistachios or dried fruits added.

A hearty but light meal sure to be completed by the last cup of coffee of the day. Along with it, confectionery also brought, whose diversity one of the hallmarks of Turkish cuisine.

Desserts

In some cafes and restaurants in Turkey, after the main dishes, the waiter brings a plate of baklava. These small pieces of layer cake soaked in syrup and honey, stuffed with nuts or cardamom, best prepared in their historic homeland.

Lovers of sweet delicacies recommend that you try such desserts:

1. Qadaif. The finest “vermicelli” of unleavened dough, soaked in caramel syrup. They can differ in both shape and filling.
2. Shekerpare. Almond biscuits decorated with berry marmalade or nuts.
3. Ekmek Kadaif. Porous cake with cream and cream.
4. Jezerye. Turkish pastille from pomegranate juice, carrots, sprinkled with coconut chips.
5. Writing. In appearance, it resembles a ball of white woolen threads. The dessert tastes like cotton candy with a pronounced fruity aftertaste.

This list can be supplemented with Turkish delight (cubic, two-layer, whole and sliced), lokma (sweet dough balls, deep-fried and covered with caramel film), nuga and halva.

Festive food

Each event in Turkey corresponds to a special table with a unique serving. So, the festival of sacrifice Kurban Bayram promises numerous meat treats, and on the holiday of sweets Sheker Bayram cafes and restaurants regale visitors with exquisite desserts. The main dish of the spring festival, celebrated on March 21-22, is baking – these days it baked so much that some shops and cafes distribute cakes and bread for free to everyone.

Street food

The number of cafes, restaurants and food stalls located on the street can impress someone who visits this country for the first time. Most often they sell bakery products, which explained by the many bakeries.

In street eateries you can try such dishes and drinks:

• freshly squeezed juice;
• dondurma (viscous ice cream) and kizarmis dondurma (breaded fried ice cream);
• fried chestnuts;
• iskender is a fatty meat dish in open pita bread;
• mussels with lemon;
• borecs – puff pastry pies with different fillings;
• kumpir – baked stuffed potatoes;
• various types of kebabs and meat dishes.

Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages

The range of alcohol in Turkey is small in comparison with European countries, which is due to the religious characteristics of the country. There is aniseed vodka raki (before use it diluted with water), wines based on grapes, pomegranate, melon, mulberries and beer.

In recent years, buza has become popular – a sweet beer drink with a low alcohol content (4-6% alcohol).

Soft drinks are much more popular among the population:

• tea;
• ayran;
• soda and mineral water (turks prefer to drink non-carbonated);
• gazoz – sweet carbonated drinks;
• salep – milk warming drink;
• salgam is a juice from fodder turnips, served with spicy dishes.

What to try from the national dishes of Turkey

If possible, it best to try Turkish dishes in places where it directly prepared. Meat lovers may like the carrot in the sandwich. The filling prepared from the finely chopped entrails of a ram or lamb (heart, lungs, kidneys, liver), which stuffed with lamb intestines. Chilled brine or ayran served to the kokorech. Those with a sweet tooth will appreciate the fresh Turkish sherbet and syutlach – pudding from rice porridge with the addition of milk and eggs.

Cajvalti

The name of the Turkish breakfast (kahvalti) translates as “before coffee” (i.e. the first meal). Among all the culinary diversity served to the morning table, first of all it is worth trying such dishes:

1. Sahanda yumurt scrambled eggs in a frying pan. It prepared with spices, so the dish is very different in taste from the usual scrambled eggs.
2. Kaymak – fatty cream for spreading on bread.
3. Olives in any form.
4. Cheeses.
5. Honey and jam.

Menemen

One of the types of scrambled eggs, which served with stewed vegetables and herbs. Externally, the dish resembles an omelet. Menemen very popular and one of the national dishes of Turkey – it prepared in all restaurants and cafes. They eat it directly from the frying pan.

Simit

Sesame bun with a crispy crust, rolled into a circle and sprinkled with sesame seeds. It is the most common street food in Turkey. Simit bought on almost every corner – not only in stores, but also in food stalls standing on the street. Sometimes jelly, jam or cheese sold along with pastries, and some merchants will offer a cup of tea to the bun.

Imam Baildi

Stewed vegetable mixture based on eggplant and sweet peppers. The main ingredient – eggplant – stuffed with a mixture of tomatoes, garlic, onions and meat fillings. Imam baildi cooked only in olive oil. Serve on the table slightly cooled as an appetizer or as an independent dish.

Dolma

One of the favorite snacks of tourists. Dolma an analogue of cabbage rolls, but instead of cabbage leaves, grape leaves used, and vegetables, lemon juice and currants are added to the minced meat. The leaves rolled into small tubes and in this form are carried to the table.

There is also a vegetarian version of the dish – sarma.

Kebab

This family of dishes includes many varieties of kebab and meat cooked on an open fire (the word itself is translated as “fry”). Kebab most often prepared from lamb, calf or ram meat; less often – from chicken or turkey. A dish with vegetables, rice or bulgur served.

In eateries and restaurants you can find the following species:

• iskender kebab – chopped lamb soaked in tomato sauce and ghee;
• adana – meat, crushed into minced meat and abundantly seasoned with spicy spices;
• jag – lamb kebab with the addition of chicken fat, basil and white pepper;
• doner kebab is lamb or lamb cooked on a vertically standing spit (analogue of shawarma).

Chi kefte

This is the name of raw meatballs or small cutlets. However, due to the ban on cooking dishes from raw meat in public institutions, real chi kefte tasted only in non-tourist areas. Restaurants and cafes serve its vegetarian variety – cutlets of bulgur and wheat, seasoned with Tabasco sauce.

Gesleme

A flatbread of thin unleavened dough with a filling inside often served as a cold snack before breakfast or lunch, and in some cases, with beer. Fillings can be very different – spinach with cheese, minced meat, mashed potatoes, fish, chopped vegetables.

Customs of Turkish cuisine

Meals in Turkey can last up to 5-6 hours, when the end of breakfast flows into preparation for lunch. In this slowness, an important purpose of meals is revealed: in addition to saturation, it communication with each other, maintaining social contacts with your friends and relatives.

The customs of Turkish cuisine include other features:

1. A special attitude to bread. It not thrown away if it is stale, but put in special containers, from where it taken to animal shelters.
2. The main drink is tea, not coffee. It prepared in a two-story teapot (chaidanlyk), poured into tulip-shaped glasses. Tea drinking in Turkey is often no less long than breakfast or lunch.
3. Food not washed down. This also applies to confectionery products – tea drunk either between dishes or at the end of a meal.
4. The range of dishes in restaurants and cafes depends on the province. In the east of the country, they love meat, honey – in local eateries you can find the greatest variety of these products. And in Anatolia, preference given to sweet delicacies – especially chestnut candied fruits and halva.

Recipes for home cooking

Many gastronomic masterpieces from Turkey prepared at home.

Halva

Dessert from semolina made even by a novice cook.

Required ingredients:

1. Semolina – 200-250 g.
2. Butter – 200 g.
3. Milk – 500 ml.
4. Nuts – 50 g.
5. Sugar – 200 g.

Melt the butter in a frying pan, add the nuts and fry them a little. Then pour in semolina, add sugar, and then pour the mixture with milk, stirring constantly with a spoon. Cover the pan with a lid and wait for the milk to soak into the semolina. As soon as the consistency becomes thicker, mix the mass again, then allow it to cool and spread the finished halva on plates.

Menemen

Turkish omelet cooked for 15 minutes.

Of the products you need to have:

• tomatoes – 200 g;
• eggs – 2 pcs.;
• bulgarian pepper – 200 g;
• butter and vegetable oil – 25 g each;
• black pepper to taste.

Pour boiling water over the tomatoes, peel them and cut them into cubes. Chop the bell peppers. Heat the pan, add two types of oil, in which lightly fry the resulting vegetable mixture, salt and pepper it.

As soon as the vegetables softened, add the eggs and constantly stir the contents of the pan with a spoon. It necessary to ensure that the omelet remains moist at the time of turning off the fire – it should not be fried. The dish served with fresh bread, which the Turks dip in hot menemen.

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