Vegetable Dishes

Green Almonds with Kavurma

Ingredients:

Green (unripe) almonds with their hulls
pepper paste
kavurma

Boil the green almonds till tender. In a pot, heat the kavurma with pepper paste. Add the boiled green almonds, add water to cover and simmer together.

Dilim Dolma (Sliced Dolma)

Ingredients:

500 gr lean ground meat
750 gr fine bulgur
1 onion, chopped
3 medium eggplants
3 green peppers
4 large tomatoes
2/3 c sumac
Butter, pepper paste, salt and black pepper

Melt half a pack (125 gr) butter in a pot, then stir in 1 T pepper paste and remove from heat. In a bowl, mix the meat, onion, red pepper, salt, bulgur and a bit of water.

Cut the eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers into cubes. Squeeze pieces of the filling in one hand to form into an oblong köfte, and arrange in a pan. Add a later of cut vegetables, then a layer of köfte and continue until all materials are used. Add water just to cover, cover and simmer till done.

Ekşili Işgın (Tart Rhubarb Dish)

Ingredients:

Turkish wild rhubarb (Rheum ribes)
Split chickpeas or regular chickpeas, cooked
Onion
Salt
Pepper paste

Peel and chop the rhubarb. Chop the onion and sauté in oil in a pot until transparent. Add the mung beans or the chıckpeas. Then add the rhubarb and some water, and leave to simmer on a low flame. When the water is almost all absorbed, remove from the heat and add as much lemon or other souring agent as you like.

Işkınlı Yumurta (Eggs with Rhubarb)

Ingredients:

500 gr wild rhubarb (Rheum ribes)
3 eggs
3 T butter
1 t salt

Peel the rhubarb stalks and dice finely. Melt butter in a pan and cook the rhubarb until it is soft. Beat the eggs and pour over the rhubarb, then add salt and cook till done.

Kabak Çıtması (Diced Zucchini)

Ingredients:

One onion
3 tomatoes
3 peppers
3 zucchini
Butter
One handful rice
Salt

Dice pepper and onions and saute in a pan with butter. Add the cubed tomatoes and zucchini and sautee a few minutes, then add the rice and enough water to cover by twice, simmer till rice is tender.

Kenger Yemeği (Stewed Thistle with Ground Meat)

Ingredients:

1 kg kenger (wild thistle)
3 stalks of wild rhubarb
250 gr ground meat
One onion, diced
1 T pepper paste
1 T butter
Salt

Remove the thorns from the thistle and wash well, and chop together with the peeled rhubarb. In a pot, sauté the onion in the butter, then add the meat and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the pepper paste, the cleaned thistles and the rhubarb and cook, stirring, for 15 minutes. Boil ½ lt water and pour over the vegetables in the pot, cover and simmer for around 40 minutes.

Kofik Dolması (Stuffed Dried Peppers)

Ingredients:

Dried peppers
Olive oil
Onion
Rice
Mint

Prepare the filling by sautéing the onion in the olive oil, and adding the rice, and mint and half the water to make a pilaf.

Soften the peppers by immersing them in boiling water. When softened, remove and stuff with the rice mixture. Then arrange the stuffed peppers in a pot in one or two layers, add water to cover, cover with a plate to keep them in place, and bring to a boil. When the water boils, reduce heat to a simmer and cook until done, about 35 or 40 minutes.

Mıhlama (Mıkla)

2 onions, minced
250 gr butter
5 eggs
Salt to taste

Melt butter in a pan, add the onions and sauté till transparent. Add the eggs and salt, and cook on medium heat till done.

Pestilli Yumurta (Eggs with mulberry leather)

Ingredients:

2 strips of mulberry leather
1 T butter (salted or unsalted)
3 eggs

Cut the mulberry leather into small pieces and allow to soak in warm water for five minutes, then strain, and remove the extra water with a clean cloth. Melt butter in a pan, add the fruit leather and sauté stirring constantly.  Then add the eggs, mix in and cook.

Pirpirim / Semizotu (Purslane)

Ingredients:

Purslane
Butter for sautéing
Pepper paste
Hulled wheat
Lentils
Chickpeas
Cubedmeat
Salt
Spices 
Tomatoes
Pepper

Soak chickpeas overnight.

Wash the purslane and chop finely, and sauté lightly in oil with some pepper paste added. Add the remaining ingredients and enough water to cover, and cook, adding water if necessary, till done.

Yoğurtlu Pirpirim (Purslane with Yogurt)

Take the desired amount of purslane and blanch very briefly in boiling water, then cut and sauté with butter and onion. Add salt to taste and mix with yogurt.

Süslü Fidoş

Ingredients:

500 gr ground meat
500 gr eggplant
250 gr green pepper
1 T butter or margarine
1 T pepper or tomato paste
1 onion
1 bunch parsley
Salt
Red flake pepper

Knead meat, chopped onion, red pepper, salt and chopped parsley. Take small pieces of these and form into balls, then fry in oil.  Cut the eggplants into circles, soak in salted water, drain and fry in hot oil till brown and arrange in a baking pan. Chop the peppers and tomatoes coarsely, and arrange the tomatoes, pepper and eggplant in the pan with the meatballs, in that order. Mix the pepper or tomato paste with enough water to cover and pour into the baking pan, then bake in the oven till the vegetables are all tender.

Köfteler – Meatballs / Croquettes

Ciğer Köftesi (Liver Croquettes)

Ingredients:

Liver
Fine bulgur
Parsley
Red basil
Salt
Spices (cumin, black pepper and others to taste)
Red pepper
butter

Grind the liver in a meat grinder. Mosten the bulgur and knead. Add the chopped parsley and basil, spices, red pepper and salt. Add the liver, shape and boil in water. Drain and drizzle with melted butter

Ekşili Köfte (Meatballs in a tart sauce)

Ingredients:

500 gr lean ground meat
300 gr fine bulgur
2 onions, chopped
2 t pepper paste
2 t salt
2 T sumac
1 T butter

Mix one onion, salt, ground meat, bulgur and 1 t pepper paste, and knead for 5 minutes. Take small pieces of this mixture and form into balls the size of hazelnuts or a bit larger.

Saute the remaining finely chopped onion in butter till transparent and add the remaining pepper paste, or more to taste. Add one lt water and bring to a boil. In another bowl, boil the sumac with half a liter of water, then strain. Add this to the other water, add the köfte and boil for 20 minutes till done.

Gıldırıklı Köfte (Köfte with yogurt)

Ingredients:

1 bowl fine bulgur
1 ½ bowl boiling water
3 T flour
Yogurt
Butter
Pepper paste
Salt

Wet the bulgur in almost an equal amount of water and let swell. Add salt and knead well. Take hazelnut-sized pieces and make small balls. When these are done, boil them in water. Place the boiled köfte on a serving dish and mix with yogurt, then top with butter heated with a bit of pepper paste.

Gindik Köfte

Ingredients:

1 bowl fine bulgur
1 bowl boiling water
Salt to taste
3 T flour
1 medium onion, chopped
Parsley
Butter
1 T tomato paste

Mix bulgur and salt and add the boiling water, let stand 5 minutes. When the bulgur has swelled, mix in the flour and knead well. Take hazelnut-sized pieces and form into balls, boil these in salted water for 10 minutes and strain.

Saute the onion in butter till transparent, and add the tomato paste. Add the köfte and stir well. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and serve.

Harput Köftesi / İri Köfte (Harput-style köfte / Large köfte)

Ingredients:

400 gr lean ground meat
250 gr fine bulgur
2 onions, grated
1 T red flake pepper
1 handful chopped red basil
Salt
1 t baking soda
Butter
Pepper paste

Knead the above ingredients, then make small “wheel shaped” köfte – i.e. flatten and pinch the center but not a ring.

In a pot, mix some butter and pepper paste and fry together, then add 5 c water and add the köfte. When they are done, about 10 minutes, strain the broth into a separate bowl so that they won’t fall apart. Add the broth when serving.

Sulu Köfte  (Köfte with broth)

Ingredients:

1 bowl fine bulgur
½ kg ground meat
Butter
Pepper paste
1 onion
Cumin
Black pepper
Salt
Potatoes (if desired)

Moisten the bulgur, add the spices and the meat and knead well. Take pieces of this mixture and make small köfte. Fry these in oil. Then heat some butter and pepper paste, add a few cups of water, and bring to a boil. Add the köfte and simmer till done. If desired, add cubed potatoes to the broth and cook till soft.

İçli Köfte (Stuffed Köfte)

Ingredients:

1 kg lean ground meat
500 gr fatty ground meat (for filling)
1 kg fine bulgur
1 onions
100 gr walnuts pounded fine
125 gr butter or margarine
1 bunch parsley
1 T pepper paste
1 egg
Black pepper
Salt

Prepare the filling the night before. Chop the onion finely and sauté in the butter with the fatty meat on medium heat. Add 1 T pepper paste and mix well. Add the chopped parsley, black pepper and walnuts, mix and remove from heat. Add more butter in small pieces and put in the refrigerator to solidify.

The next day prepare the shells:  Add the salt to the lean meat and mix. Lightly wet the bulgur, and add it all to the meat along with the egg, and knead it until it holds together well. Take egg-sized pieces of this mixture, make into a ball, then open by inserting a finger and pinching till you’ve formed an oblong thin shell, open on one end. Fill with the filling, and close the ends well. When you have finished making the köfte, heat some butter and pepper paste in a large pot and add a liter of water. Add the köfte to this water and simmer till done.

Yalancı İçli Köfte (Meatless stuffed köfte)

Ingredients:

1 kg fine bulgur
100 gr flour
2 onions
200 gr walnuts
250 gr ground meat
250 gr butter

This is “meatless” in that the shells have no meat in them. Meatless variations of dishes that normally have meat, or simplified versions, are often known as “yalancı,” or “liar” versions in Turkish. This is also simpler in that its filling is not cooked before the köfte are stuffed.

Wet the bulgur, add the flour and knead well. In another bowl, mix the meat, chopped onion, walnuts and butter to make a filling. Take egg size pieces of the bulgur mixture and form as for regular stuffed köfte, above, and fill with the meat/walnut mixture. Boil these till done in water and remove to a serving dish. Top with butter and red pepper.

Pilavlar - Pilafs

İç Pilav (Stuffing pilaf)

Ingredients:

250 gr rice
Pine nuts
Mint
Dried currants
Chopped onion
Black pepper

Saute onion in oil, and add the pine nuts. Saute till they brown a bit, then add the black pepper, rice and 1 ½ times the amount of water as rice.

Keşkek

Ingredients:

Hulled wheat
Onion
Pepper paste
Butter

Cook the hulled wheat in twice the amount of water until the water has absorbed. Saute onion in butter till transparent and mix in pepper paste to taste, add this to the cooked wheat.

Kormanlı Pilav (Pilaf with wild garlic)

Ingredients:

1 bowl coarse bulgur
1 onion, chopped
½ kg wild garlic
½ c muhaşer (split chickpeas) 
150 gr butter
Salt
Water

Saute the onion in butter till transparent. Add the cleaned and washed korman and mix. Add the bulgur and muhaşer. Add water equal to the bulgur. Add salt, cover and cook on medium low heat till done.

Muhaşerli Pilav – Pilaf with split chickpeas

Ingredients:

1 bowl coarse bulgur
2 T butter
Split chickpeas to taste
Black chickpeas
Salt
Water

Fry bulgur in the butter, add the split chickpeas and stir well. Then add the salt and water (1:1 with bulgur) and cook on low heat until the water is absorbed.

Sebzeli Bulgur Pilavı – Bulgur pilaf with vegetables

Ingredients:

4 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 large onion, chopped
3 sivri peppers (1 - 2 bell peppers), chopped
3 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
½ T tomato paste
300 g coarse bulgur
Salt

Saute the onion and pepper in the olive oil and butter till soft, then add the tomatoes. Then add the tomato paste, salt and bulgur. Stir this mixture in the oil for 5 minutes, then add water to cover and cook till the water is absorbed.

Batma / Banma / Bandirma

This is prepared like normal bulgur pilaf with vegetables, but eaten wrapped in vine leaves with lots of chopped scallions and parsley.

Sulu Pilav (Wet Pilaf)

Ingredients:

Pepper
Onion
Eggplant
Bulgur
Oil
Salt

Cut up the pepper, onion and eggplant and saute in the oil till soft. Add the bulgur and salt, and cook a few minutes more. Add water to cover by several centimeters. The main characteristic of this dish is that there is a lot of water; it is almost a bulgur gruel. Serve with isot pepper.

Tirit

Ingredients:

1 T butter
3 T olive oil
1 T pepper paste
Salt
3 c coarse bulgur
Meat broth
Salt

Saute butter, pepper paste and salt in a pot. Add the bulgur and cook, mixing well with the oil, for 10 minutes. Then add enough meat broth to cover (1:1 to bulgur) and cover. Cook on low heat till water is completely absorved.

Hamur İşleri – Dough-Based Dishes

a. Böreks and Çöreks

El Böreği – “Hand Börek”

Ingredients:

1 c yogurt or milk
1 c vegetable oil (for frying)
1.5 c vegetable (for dough)
2 eggs
Flour and salt
1 t baking soda
Cheese
Chopped parsley
1 T lemon juice

Mix the 1.5 c oil, yogurt or milk, eggs, lemon juice, salt and soda in a boil. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. Mix cheese and chopped parsley to make a filling.

Take walnut-sized pieces of the dough and roll out thin into a very thin (1-2 mm) circle. Spread the cheese mixture over half the yufka and fold to close. Fry these in hot oil.

Patila

Ingredients:

Flour
Water
Salt
Cheese water
Cheese
Parsley

Make a dough of flour, water, salt and cheese water. Make a filling of cheese and chopped parsley. Roll the dough out into circles, place filling on half the circle and fold to close. Fry on a sac (convex griddle). Patila fillings may be made from various combinations of cheese, potatoes, ground meat and purslane, grated zucchini, onion, and spices.

Peksimet

Ingredients:

1 small bowl salted butter
2 eggs (reserve 1 yolk for the tops)
1 small bowl yogurt
1 t baking soda
Flour
Suet if desired
Sesame

Mix the butter, yogurt, eggs, baking soda and enough flour to make a dough, and knead well. Take a large piece and flatten out with the palms of the hands. Cut into large pieces with a knife. Make designs with a fork and brush with egg yolk, sprinkle on sesame and bake on a greased cookie sheet.

Su Böreği – “Water Börek”

Ingredients:

1 medium bowl flour
Oak ash
Flour
Water
Butter

Desired filling (cheese, meat, spinach, purslane, etc.)

Mix a bit of oak ash into water. Sift the flour to remove the bran, pour the ash water over. Add some melted butter and add, and knead to a very stiff dough, like a pasta dough. Roll this dough out into 16 thin sheets.

Bring a pot of water to a boil, and have a pot of cold water at hand. Boil each sheet in hot water, then remove and put into the cold water. Lay a sheet into a baking dish, brush with melted butter, and repeat with seven layers, then add the desired filling. Top with remaining layers in the same way. When the baking pan is full, cut into squares and bake in a medium hot oven till well browned.

b. Breads

Fodula

This is made in professional ovens by a special process. When it comes out of the oven, a hole is made in the puffed up upper side and butter is poured in (Sunguroğlu 1968:272).

Peynirli Ekmek (Cheese bread)

Ingredients:

fresh cheese
sugar
bread dough

Bread dough is rolled out, topped with the sweetened cheese and baked.

Taş Ekmeği – Stone bread

Ingredients:

1 liter milk
Flour
Salt
2 eggs
1 pk (10 gr) baking powder
Butter
Sugar
Crushed walnuts

Mix the milk and flour to make a batter. Add the eggs, baking powder and a pinch of salt, and beat well. Take ladles of the batter and pour the batter over the top of a sac or other griddle. When all the batter is cooked, stack with butter, sugar and walnuts, cut into pieces and serve.

Yağlı Ekmek - Oiled bread

Ingredients:

1 kg flour
1 c butter
1 c yogurt
1 cup milk
Sourdough starter (a piece the size of a walnut)
Salt

Place the flour in a wide basin and open a well in the center. Into the well, put the butter, yogurt and milk, and knead into a dough. Spread into a greased baking pan and bake.

c. Sweets

Acele Baklava – Quick Baklava

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 ½ c milk
¼ c vegetable oil
1 T lemon juice
1 pinch salt
Flour

250 gr butter
1 kg cornstarch
Syrup made from 1 kg sugar and ½ kg water

Mix all the above ingredients except the butter, cornstarch and syrup to make a medium stiff dough, and knead well. Divide dough into seven parts, and divide these into walnut-sized pieces. Roll into thin disks the size of dinner plates, then stack around 10-15 at a time with plenty of cornstarch in between, and roll out all together. Stack them with walnuts in between in a baking pan, cut and pour over the melted butter. Cook in a medium hot oven till browned, the remove and pour the syrup over.

Hesüde

Ingredients:

7 T wheat or corn starch
1 lt water
125 gr margarine
125 gr unsalted butter
Granulated sugar
100 gr peanuts
Grated chocolate

Mix the starch with 1 cup of sugar, then gradually add 1 lt water and stir well. Melt the unsalted butter and margarine in a wide pan. Add the cornstarch mixture to the buter and cook until it attains a doughy consistency. Put into a plate and shape with a spoon, then decorate the top with peanuts and grated chocolate. Serve chilled.

Bağ Pekmezi ile Helva – Halvah with grape or mulberry molasses

Brown a couple cups of flour with butter and allow to cool. Later, heat  molasses and butter together, and allow to cool. Mix this with the flour mixture and knead well. Take small pieces of this and form in to köfte, and put into yufka bread. In the old days, this was served in villages at readings of the mevlit. Everyone who came would receive a piece of bread with several of these small pieces of halvah.

Dut Unu – “Mulberry Flour”

Dried mulberries are pounded together with a few blanched bitter almonds to a fine paste. Walnuts are pounded separately. One layer of mulberry with bitter almonds and a layer of walnuts are put into containers and stored in a dry place.

Eşbabiye Hoşafı – Dry apricot compote

Dried and seeded apricots (eşbabiye) are boiled in sugar water. Serve cold.

Karlama – Snow ice cream

This village sweet is made by mixing grape or mulberry molasses with freshly fallen “bead” snow/sleet.

Koruk Şerbeti – Green grape drink

Grapes are gathered before they ripen and crushed, then left in a bag for the juice to drain out. This juice is boiled. If pekmez is to be made, some clay is added and it is left in the sun to ripen. In the winter, it is mixed with water to drink.

Nişe Hevlası (Nişasta Helvası)

Malzemeler: Nişe (Nişasta), bir üsküre şeker, yağ.

Yapılışı: Nişasta suda eritilir. Bir tasta şeker, su ile karıştırılır. Tavada biraz yağ eritilerek nişastalı karışıma dökülür.

Miktarlar hiç verilmiyor

Pekmez Helvası – Mulberry molasses halvah

Ingredients:

250 gr butter
250 gr flour
2 c mulberry molasses
Walnuts
Hazelnuts
Peanuts
Coconut

Melt the butter and add the flour. Cook, stirring till the flour has browned. Add the molasses to the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Pour into a serving pan and top with whatever nuts you like.

Fişne Helvası – Morello cherry halvah

Cook a large bowl of morello cherries with 125 gr butter. Add 3 T corn starch and 4 T sugar, and cook until it reaches a pudding-like consistency. Pour into serving dishes and shape with a spoon if necessary.

Zerde – Rice and cornstarch pudding

Ingredients:

1 c rice
1 c sugar
5 c water
½ T wheat or corn starch
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 T rose water
Pine nuts
Currants
Coconut
1 packet (1 t liquid) vanilla

Let rice soak for 2 hours. Strain, then cook in 5 c water till very soft. Mix the cornstarch with half a cup of water, and add to the boiling rice. Cook for 5-6 minutes. Add vanilla, lemon zest and rose water. Allow to cool slightly, then pour into serving dishes and decorate with currants, pine nuts and coconuts.

Miscellaneous Dishes

Gömme

1 kg flour
Water
Salt
Kurut
Garlıc
300 gr butter

Mıx flour, salt and enough water to make a dough, and knead. Place the dough into a baking pan and bake till done. Cut the baked bread in half crosswise, and lift off the top. Remove the inner part and crumble into small pieces. Make ayran from the kurut, add crushed garlic to taste, and pour over the mixture. Pour over melted butter and serve.

Sırın

Ingredients: 
1 kg flour
2 c water
1 t salt
2 kg yogurt
6 cloves garlic
250 gr buter

Make a dough of the lour, water and salt. Roll out medium size yufka from the dough and cook on a sac, or convex griddle. Fold the yufka and cut into equal pieces, then arrange in a plate. Thin the yogurt slightly with water and add the garlic, and pour this over the yufka. Then melt butter in a pan and pour over the top.

Ufalama – “Crumble”

Ingredients:

250 gr butter
500 gr flour
Water
Salt
Sourdough starter

Mix flour, water and sourdough to make a dough, and allow to rest for 30 minutes. Place the dough in a greased pan and bake till done. When done, remove the top crust, remove the inner portion and crumble, then pour melted butter over the top.

Kış Hazırlıkları – Winter Preparations

Bulgur

Wheat is boiled in large kettles, and then spread out on sheets on the roofs of houses to dry in the sun. After picking over to remove weed seeds, stones etc., it is pounded/ground and separated into grades: fine, medium and coarse, and it is threshed of its bran. It is checked once more for stones.

Canned Vegetables

To make canned dry beans, the beans are tied in a cloth and boiled. They are then put into cold water and chilled. The cooked beans are then mixed with quartered tomatoes, peppers (raw) and placed into jars. The jars are then boiled, and the lids are screwed on tightly. Then the jars are inverted onto a dry cloth and allowed to cool. For canned eggplant, the eggplants are cut up and cooked lightly in oil along with tomatoes and peppers, and processes in the same way as the beans.

Orcik Şekeri – Walnut grape candy

Walnuts are strung on a thread, and dipped into a boiling mixture of grape juice or grape molasses and flour or starch. One hour later they are dipped again, then left to dry for one or two days in the sun.

Pekmez - Molasses

Pekmez ıs made from either white mulberries or grapes. The mulberries are crushed between two large stones with a pipe through which their juice will flow. This juice is boiled in kettles, with the addition of sütlügen otu (a type of fragrant Euphorbia), thyme, wild mint,turunç and fig leaves. It is boiled until it thickens, then divided among kettles and left in the sun to thicken further. For grape molasses, the grapes are first put into large nylon bags. These are put into a trough and crushed with the feet. The juice is poured into kettles. For improved sweetness, a handful or two of earth brought from the mountains is added, and boiled together. It is then divided among kettles and left in the sun to thicken.

Patlıcan Turşusu - Eggplant Pickles

Ingredients:

Eggplant
Tomatoes
Peppers
Parsley
Garlic
Salt

Boil eggplants, then cut in half with a knife. Cut up the tomatoes and peppers, chop the parsley, crush the garlic and mix with the salt. Fill the eggplant pieces with this mixture, then tie shut with the stems of the parsley. Add tomato juice and vinegar.

Pepper or Tomato Paste

For pepper paste, wash and seed the peppers. Then grind them and add salt, and leave in the sun, stirring occasionally. For tomato paste, the tomatoes are divided into quarters and left in the sun to sour. When they sour, they are strained of their seeds and skins by pressing through a sieve. This is then salted and placed in the sun to thicken, stirring occasionally.

Tarhana

Tarhana is a fermented wheat/flour product that is mainly used in soups. There are two different types of tarhana. One is made with döğme, or hulled wheat. The wheat is boiled in salted water until it is swollen. After it is cooked and cooled, it is placed in a basin and kneaded with a piece of sourdough starter. It is covered and left to ferment for three days. Tomatoes, peppers, parsley or beets may be chopped and added to the mixture. The mixture is then placed on a floured board in balls, flattened out and left in the sun to dry.

The other type is flour tarhana. The ingredients are 1 kg red peppers (the kind used for pepper paste), 1 kg onions, 1 kg strained yogurt, 1 kg tomatoes, 4-5 kg flour and 1 pack (10 gr) yeast. The onions, tomatoes and peppers are cooked the night before in a pressure cooker and left in their cooking water till morning. In the morning, the yogurt and yeast is added to this mixture and mixed well. Then the flour is added and left for three days, kneading occasionally. After three days, it’s put in pieces on a clean cloth. When it is just moist, it is passed through a coarse sieve and allowed to dry.

Turşu – Pickles

Ingredients:

Tomatoes
Peppers
Cabbage
Cucumber
Küte
Parsley
Garlic
Chickpeas
Vinegar
Salt
Water
One bunch of grapes
Citric acid
A bit of sugar

A handful of chickpeas, garlic, one bunch of grapes and parsley are placed in the bottom of the pickling jar. Then cucumbers are slit in a few places with a knife and arranged in a layer, followed by a layer of cabbage, peppers and tomatoes. Vinegar and salted water are then poured over, a stone is placed on the top to hold the pickles in the brine, and the top is sealed tightly. After a month it is opened to check the flavor.

Reçeller – Preserves

Morello cherries, peaches and strawberries are left to macerate in sugar over night; apricots, mulberries, blackberries and other fruits are boiled in sugar syrup without prior maceration. Some lemon juice is added to prevent crystallization.

Kuşburnu – Rose hip marmelade

Rose hips are gathered and boiled until they are soft and disintegrating. They are then put through a sieve and twice through cheesecloth in order to remove the hairs. Then sugar is added and the mixture is boiled down.

Pelverde

This is a type of preserve made from mulberries and apricots (Αydoğmuş, 1992:37).

As we examine the foods here, certain distinct characteristics become clear:

1. Most foods are based on meat and dough (Sırın, kellecoş etc.)
2. The most commonly used grain product is bulgur, upon which many food are based (kısır, tirit, içli köfte, çiğ köfte ve various types of soups)
3. Much butter and pepper/tomato paste is used in the local cooking.
4. Most of the foods start with a sofrito (soğaraç) made from butter/oil, onions and pepper or tomato paste.
5. According to season, many different wild greens and vegetables used in cooked dishes and at breakfast. (Acuce, mint, çelem, goatsbeard, rhubarb, purple basil, squash flowers, thyme, thistle, wild garlic, sorrel, chard, purslane, arugula, euphorbia, takdık, dill, turunç, wild mint, knotweed, clover and others.)
6. Butter is the most used oil, followed by rendered caul or tail fat. Olive oil, sunflower oil or corn oil are also sometimes used.
7. When making çörek and patila, the water left from making cheese is often added both for flavor and to avoid waste; as well as cream or caul fat.
8. Yogurt is a very important flavor in foods. (Söğürtme, fasulye yahnisi, sırın, gıldirikli köfte, ayranlı çorba etc.).
9. In winter, dried fruits and vegetables as well as canned vegetables are used.
10. Meals always include a soup, ayran and salad.
11. During the summer, meals are almost always finished with sour cherry juice, cornelian cherry syrup or compote; and in the winter with “mulberry flour,” orcik, or mulberry leather served with walnuts and almonds.
12. In the old days, lye made from oak ashes gave a special flavor to çörek, but is no longer used today.
13. Bread (tandır, sac, yufka, chickpea, çekme, flat, stone-cooked etc.) hold an important place.

Information on informants:

(Last name, first name, age, birthplace, who they learned from, education, profession.)