Thimble Soup Video

Thimber Soup from zerrin gunaydin on Vimeo.

NOTE: Do not forget to turn on the volume to hear the music of a Turkish band, Bandista.

Yüksük Çorbası

This is another popular wedding dish in Turkey, but this time its region is different. It is called yüksük çorbası (thimble for yüksük, soup for çorba) as its shape is like a small thimble. This is a traditional wedding dish of  Southern region of Turkey, especially of Çukurova area. It is mostly made in villages there. Everyone knows that yüksük çorbası will be served whenever there is a wedding in these villages as it is the main dish of the ceremony. Weddings are generally held in large squares of the village where all guests gather. And during the wedding, this traditional soup keeps boiling in big cauldrons on wood fire. Making this soup is not easy, so not only the families of bride and groom, but also their neighbors gather before the wedding day and make it altogether. As you can see in the video, the step which requires the most time is the filling the squares step. That’s why this step is done by all the women there while the final cooking/boiling step is done by one or two talented old ladies.

As it’s a wedding ceremony, the number of guests is more than two hundred. Both people of that village and the people living in villages nearby are invited to this ceremony, and this number increases.  The number of guests increases a lot more if the host of the ceremony is well known around the area. The higher the number of people joining the ceremony, the more reputable the host is.

Yuksuk corbasi is served to these guests on a tray by young men of the village. A handkerchief is tied on their arms to show that these young people are voluntary waiters of the ceremony. If people have something to  ask for something, they call one of these voluntary young people.

Meanwhile, there are two men playing drum and horn (image source is here) and if people want, they dance. Generally the first people who start the dance are the groom and his friends. While they are dancing, generally the groom’s family members throw banknotes towards the dancing people. This is like a show of reputation and power. A little boy who is appointed by the drummer picks these banknotes and gives them to the drummer. They share the money at the end of the ceremony.

After having a bowl of yuksuk corbasi, the guests congratulate bride and groom or their parents and leave.

Besides its fame on wedding ceremonies, this dish is also made in cities in daily life as the city people have no chance of joining wedding ceremonies at villages. It is very similar to manti (another traditional Turkish dish which is famous in Central Anatolia), but their cooking styles are different.

Ingredients

Its dough
-    4 cups flour
-    3 eggs
-    2 cups water, increase if needed
-    2 tsp salt

Knead the dough well by mixing all the necessary ingredients. While kneading,, wet your hands occasionally and you can add more water if it doesn’t reach the right consistency. Knead it until it doesn’t stick to your hands. Divide this dough into big equal pieces. The dough we knead makes 4 equal balls and a small ball. Sprinkle some flour on them and cover them.

Its filling mixture
-    3 small onions, chopped
-    1lb ground beef
-    Half bunch of parsley, chopped
-    1 dessert spoon salt
-    1 dessert spoon paprika powder
-    1 dessert spoon ground blak pepper
-    1 dessert spoon pepper paste

Mix all these ingredients for the filling mixture.

Sprinkle some flour on the counter. the one you take on it and sprinkle flour on it, too. Then press on this dough and flatten it. Then roll it out in a circular way. (See the video above). While rolling, sprinkle little flour on it occasionally so that it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin. When it gets as thin as we want, sprinkle flour on it and fold it as you see n the video. And cut this first into stripes, then into squares. Take one square, put little filling mixture into it and combine its four corners to give it a thimble shape. If you like, you can combine its two corners to give it a triangular shape. Put the ones you finish on a large tray, do not overfill the tray, otherwise they all stick to each other.

Its final cooking
-    2 cups meat broth
-    2 cups chickpeas, boiled
-    1 lemon

Put water (about 4 cups) in a pot. Add meat broth and chickpeas, bring it to boil. when it boils pour lemon juice and add salt. Then put the dumplings in the boling water little by little. After about 10 minutes, they’ll start to float, which means it’s done. Take it from heat and pour 1 cup of cold water into the pot. This will help the dumplings not to stick to each other.

We generally put about 3 cups of dumplings to make this dish and we leave the rest to put into freezer to cook later. If you want to do the same, just cook the rest of the dumplings in oven until they are light brown. Let them cool and then put them in freezer in freezer bags.
Now we can prepare its sauce.

Its sauce
-    2 tbsp olive oil
-    1 dessert spoon pepper paste
-    1 dessert spoon dried mint
-    Paprika powder and ground black pepper for your taste
-    2 tomatoes, grated

Note: If you don’t have pepper paste for the sauce, you can substitute it with red pepper flakes or paprika powder.

Heat the oil, put the pepper paste in it and mix. Add grated tomato and spices. It’s ready after 3 minutes. Pour the sauce into the soup and stir. It is ready to serve.

You can also prepare a bowl of yogurt sauce to serve with it.

Yogurt sauce
-    1 cup yogurt
-    3 cloves garlic, mashed

Mix these together until smooth and serve in a seperate bowl. If you want, you can also drizzle some yogurt sauce on this soup and enjoy it more. Personally, I love both versions, so I have half of my soup plain and then I put some yogurt sauce on it and double my joy for the other half. I don’t exclude none of the versions in this way.

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High Society Manti

Sosyete Mantisi

I know I already have two different recipes of manti in my blog, but I tried this one for the first time and adore it. I learnt it from my second mom  (my mother- in-law), who is also a creative cook. She knows how much I love manti but also I don’t have much time to prepare an original manti. While talking on the phone, she suggested a manti recipe, which is totally new to me. I heard its name many times, but never tried. She told me that this time saving  recipe is just for me and added it is as tasty as traditional manti. It is time saving because 1)you don’t prepare the dough, you use phyllo sheets instead. 2)you don’t work on making small shapes, this one is pretty big when we compare it to traditional manti. For these two reasons it’s called High Society Manti (Sosyete Mantisi). You know people from high society don’t like working on effortful dishes. Altough I’m not a member of that society, I’ll make this hearty manti during my busy working term.

Ingredients
•    One phyllo sheet
•    ½ cup vegetable oil (for frying)

Filling:
•    150g mince (ground meat)
•    1 onion
•    1tsp salt
•    1tsp black pepper
•    1tsp red pepper flakes
•    A few leaves parsley
•    2 tbsp vegetable oil

For its Sauce:
•    A bowl of yogurt
•    4 cloves garlic, mashed
•    Red pepper flakes
•    Dried mint

Note: I made it from one phyllo sheet as we were just two at dinner and 8 pieces came out from it.

First let’s prepare its filling. Mince the onion and saute it in oil in a pan. Then add ground meat, salt and other spices. Stir while sauting. Don’t let the ground meat cook completely, 5 or 7 minutes sauting will be enough. Then let it cool.

Lay the phyllo sheet on the counter and cut into pieces of triangle shapes as you see in the picture. To cut it into 8 pieces, first make a plus on the phyllo sheet with a knife, then cut it again between each line.

After having 8 pieces, grab one of the triangles and put some filling mixture on the broad side of it. Do not put it much, otherwise it will be difficult for you to wrap it up.

Wrap the triangle as you see here, you can stick the end of the sheet by dipping a finger into a little water and touching on the end.

Then twist it as in the picture, the triangles turn into rose like shapes. To prevent any distortion in this shape, insert a toothpick attaching the end and the head of the sheet. Do the same until you finish all triangles.

Heat he vegetable oil in a pan. Then stir fry these rose like pastries. It doesn’t need to be too crispy, when it turns to brown, it’s OK. Take them on a serving plate.

For its sauce, mix yogurt and mashed garlic. Pour some on the fried pastries and sprinke some red pepper flakes. Unfortunately I forgot to sprinkle some dried mint on it, I realized it when I finished all. I was so impatient to eat them that’s why I forgot it. But I know it’ll be more hearty if you don’t forget to add it.

I’d like to thank to Mely from mexicoinmykitchen, who has delectable Mexican dishes in her blog. I’m always so curious about Mexican cuisine,  which takes my attention especially with its spices and special sauces with traditional flavors, so I learn a lot from Mely. Go visit it!

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Kirghiz Manti

Before my friend Jyldyz  Chynybekova, from Kyrgyzstan sent me this manti recipe, I thought that manti is just special for Turkey. When I saw this recipe from her, I realized again that Kyrgyzstan and Turkish cuisine are so similar, with some little differences. I think you’ll love this one more as these mantis are bigger than ours, so less tiring. Unlike ours, the sauce of this one is not yogurt with garlic. I couldn’t wait for trying it (I’m planning to try it on a day I don’t work), I went to a Kirghiz restaurant here to taste it. I was absolutely amazed with its taste. Do I need to tell that I returned home with a portion of prepared manti to cook it later?
Here is Jyldyz’s manti recipe:

Ingredients:
•    3 cups all purpose flour
•    1 cup water
•    1 large egg
•    1 tablespoon olive oil
•    1 teaspoon salt
For the filling:
•    250 gr. ground meat
•     100 gr. lamb fat
•    12 medium onion (chopped in a very small pieces)
•    Salt and black pepper

1.    In a large bowl, stir together the flour, water, egg, olive oil and salt.
2.    Knead them very well until the dough is formed. The dough should be smooth and not sticky. If you feel it is sticky, add a little bit more flour.
3.    Cover the bowl with some plastic wrap and let stand at cool room temperature for an hour.
4.    Meanwhile, prepare the filling. In a medium bowl, put onions, meat, lamb fat chopped into small pieces, (Adding fat to meat manty is essential, as fat makes the dumplings juicy) salt and black pepper. Knead them together for one minute (do not cook.)
5.    Lightly dust a work surface and a rolling pin with flour. Divide the dough into 4 equal balls. Roll out each ball into sheets as thin as you can roll out, but be careful don’t tear it.

6.    Cut each sheet into circle or squares of about 12″x12″ cm. Put filling at the center of each square. Continue until the dough is finished.

7.    As you see in the picture, bring the opposite corners together and make an envelope. Then bring other opposite corners together to make manty shape. Press the sides firmly.
8.    Bring two of the adjacent corners together as shown in the picture.

9.    In a large pot, boil the water and add a little bit salt, olive oil. Put in the bowl the steamer with manty and steam about 35-45 minutes in a medium heat. In my country we use a special pot (kaskan) for steaming manty.
10.    Manty are usually topped with butter and served with sour cream, special tomato sauce, or fresh onion rings (sprinkled with vinegar and black pepper). Also the sauce made by mixing vinegar and chilli powder is very common.
Note: Because the dish is so fatty, manty are always accompanied by hot tea and it is strongly advisable not to consume any cold or chilled beverages immediately after consumption of manty.

And I’d like to thank to two of my blogger friends who honored me with awards. They made me so excited!

One of them is from Danielle at somanycookbooks. Go visit her, she has fantastic recipes there.

Other one is from Gera at sweetsfoods. You always find a very sincere commentary in her posts. I recommend you especially the post here aromas exquisite touch to your food and sweet memories. I enjoyed it much.
I’d like to share these awards with all of my blog friends. Congrats to all of us!

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