Pekmez

Most of the grape products in Turkey are in the form of pekmez and raisins, particularly sultanas.

There is also another kind of Pekmez, made from Carob, called Keçiboynuzu Pekmezi or Harnup Pekmezi in Turkish language.

Production

Grapes and figs reserved for production are squeezed by mortar or

presser to produce grape juice. The juice is cooked at 50-60° Celsius

for 10-15 minutes. A special kind of sterile white soil, used to purify

the juice from particles, should be added to the juice while it is

being cooked. Soil is also useful for balancing the taste. The Ministry

of Agriculture in Turkey advises producers to use 1-5 kilograms of soil

for 100 kilograms of grape juice.

Grape juice is stored in containers for 4-5 hours to ensure that all

particles in the juice sink to the bottom. The limpid part of the juice

is collected from the container and transferred to boilers for further

heating. This boiling process gives pekmez its dark color and high

viscosity. Pekmez has a dark color because of the caramelized sugar in

the boiled grape juice. The juice loses its fluidity due to water loss

by evaporation. Additionally, pekmez produces a special smell when

prepared in cooking.

Günbalı

‘Günbalı’ or ‘Balbaşı’ is a type of pekmez that waits some time under

direct sunlight after the process told above is achieved. It is the

cheapest kind of pekmez and can be consumed as a beverage.

Solid Pekmez

‘Solid Pekmez’ or ‘Çalma Pekmez’ is a combination Günbalı and a

specially prepeared leaven. The standard of the leaven is 5 egg whites,

500 g icing sugar, 500 g old pekmez — per 25 kilograms of pekmez.

Solid Pekmez can be eaten with Tahin.

Ayran

Ayran is so popular in Turkey that it is often regarded as a market

separate to that for the juice and soda industries. It is a challenge

for "modern" soft-drink companies such as Coca-Cola. International

fast-food companies such as McDonald’s include Ayran in their standard

menu as a local menu addition. In Azerbaijan, Iran, Syria, and Lebanon,

it is available in all restaurants and fast-food shops. In other

countries, it may be found at döner kebab outlets.

In rural areas of Turkey, ayran is offered as a "standard" drink to welcome guests.

Ayran is served cool, and is a common accompaniment to döner, kebab,

banitsa, gözleme, or pastry. Some forms of fresh ayran include foam.

Cezve

In Turkey, ‘ibrik’ has another meaning, it is again used for long

spouts but used for handling liquids like oil and wine, not for brewing

coffee.

Name

The "c" in Turkish is pronounced like a "J" in English, making the

pronunciation "Jez-veh.", meaning a burning log or coal (presumably

because the pot was heated on them).

Biber Salcasi

It is used mainly for flavoring main dishes, as well as to fill pide

and börek. Another common use is as a spread, typically on bread or

crackers.

Varieties

There are two main varieties of biber salçası:

    * Acı biber salçası (literally "hot pepper paste"), made from hot red chili peppers

    * Tatlı biber salçası (literally "sweet pepper paste"), made from sweet red peppers

Turkish Desserts

That was true in Ottoman times and is just as true today. Interestingly enough however, they also fulfill an important social and ritual function. Halvah, a confection made from semolina, is offered on the occasion of major changes in people’s lives: a birth, a death, induction into the army, return from pilgrimage, upon settling in a new home, enrolling and graduating school; and also on special occasions such as praying for rain.

One of the most important holidays in the traditional calendar is the one that marks the end of the 30-day period of daytime fasting during the month of Ramazan. A popular Turkish name for the Ramazan festival is "Seker Bayrami" (literally "Sugar Holiday’), which is a sort of caps-tone to the lavish desserts prepared for the sundown meals during the holy month. These desserts are elaborate not only in their ingredients but also in their visual impact and presentation.

The desserts and confections of Turkey bear witness to the rich history of its people’s cuisine and geography. The dessert known as "Tavukgogsu", made with the milk-white meat of chicken breast was introduced into ancient Rome from the Mediterranean and reintroduced into Anatolia by the Romans. The blanc mange made in Turkey and known as "Kazan dibi" must certainly be one of the loveliest parts of the mosaic that Turks have inherited from the ancient civilizations of Anatolia.

Then there’s "asure", a festive pudding of cereal grains, sugar, and raisins. According to a legend, it was originally concocted in the galley of Noah’s ark from whatever was left in the pantry. (Perhaps the recipe is what NASA was searching for on Agri Dagi; they needn’t have bothered, the Turks discovered what they needed to make good "Asure" ages ago.) The pudding is served traditionally on the tenth day of the month of Muharrem, when preparing a batch of "Asure" and distributing it to neighbors and acquaintances is still a common custom in many areas. The Ottoman palace kitchens produced a refined version of "Asure" that was blended and strained; more common folk had to chew through the grains. They still do, to great enjoyment. Many different parts of the Ottoman Empire contributed their own local specialties to the palace kitchens where they were refined and transformed into a distinctively Ottoman-Turkish cuisine

Turkish desserts usually fall into one of three categories.

Desserts made with fruits and vegetables

Many fresh and dried fruits are stewed into compotes in which the fluid is as important an element as is the fruit itself. Desserts made from apricots or figs are given a topping of fresh clotted cream and sometimes-crushed walnuts. The same topping is used on "Kabak tatlisi", an unusual dessert made by cooking pieces of pumpkin in syrup.

Milk-based desserts

These include a wide variety of puddings, some of which are baked. "Keskul" is a milk pudding made with coconut. "Gullac" is a lovely confection of thin sheets of pastry in a milk sauce to which rosewater is added. Mention has already been made of "Tavukgogsu" and "Kazandibi".

Pastry-based desserts

These include world-famous baklava, as well as "Kadayif’ (made from shredded pastry baked in syrup), "Revani" (a sweet made from semolina), "Hanim gobegi" and "Sekerpare" (two kinds of small sweet cake), "Yogurt tatlisi" (made with yogurt), "Badem tatlisi" (made with almonds), and "Lokma" (deep-fried lumps of batter served in syrup).

Altogether there are about 25-30 basic recipes for desserts known but with the addition of local variations the number becomes enormous. In 1539 Suleyman I gave a huge feast to celebrate the circumcision of his two sons Cihangir and Beyazid. Archival records tell us that fifty-three different desserts were offered to guests including different-flavored and colored puddings, a variety of halvahs, pastries and cakes, and a large assortment of jams and compotes.

We’ll close this article with an anecdote that brings together the elements of Turkish desserts and the Ottoman court. During a Ramazan in the early 19th century, Sultan Mahmud II decided to pay a surprise visit to the mansion of Durrizade Esseyid Abdullah Efendi just before the cannon-shot signaling the end of the fasting went off. By custom, he would have to be entertained there and Abdullah, a cultured intellectual as well as an accommodating and experienced host managed to take care of his unexpected imperial guest brilliantly, marshalling the kitchen of the women’s half of the mansion to the support of the men’s side. The individual courses were done to perfection and the service came off flawlessly all until it was time for dessert, fruit compote that arrived in a clumsy, illformed bowl. Appalled by the sight, the sultan asked those near him "So far everything has been served in crystal and porcelain and eaten with gold cutlery; what is that ugly-looking bowl doing here?" The host overheard this of course and immediately explained "Your majesty, my butler goes up to Camlica mountain every day to fetch drinking water from a particular spring. Rather than throw ice into the compote and risk spoiling its flavor, he fashioned a bowl of ice out of Camlica spring water."

The essence of traditional Turkish cuisine lies in the importance given to details be it an elaborate pastry or a simple stewed fruit.

Boyoz

The most widely preferred boyoz is plain, without addition of meat or

cheese or spinach stuffings, and as cooked by a handful of master boyoz

bakers in the  Izmir.

Virtually all sources agree on the Judeo-Spanish roots of boyoz. It is

a contribution to İzmir’s urban culture by Sephardic Jews evicted from

Spain after 1492 and who settled in large numbers in a number of

prominent Ottoman cities of the period, among which İzmir stood out as

one of the primary destinations. These explanations on the roots of

boyoz are confirmed by the presence of a pastry very similar to boyoz

in the culinary traditions of such other offshoots of Spanish culture

as Argentina, Chile, Peru and Mexico, where they are common especially

in the diet of Sephardic Jews, usually with cheese and spinach

fillings. In Spanish and Ladino languages, boyoz, spelled as bollos,

means "a bundle, a pack".

Finally, until recently, all master bakers who prepared boyoz in İzmir

were Jewish, and the present masters have all been trained by the late

Avram Usta, whose name is echoed to this day in the commercial

arguments adopted by some of these bakers, who market the "Boyoz of

Avram Usta".

Boyoz paste is a mixture of flour, sunflower oil and a small addition

of tahin. It is kneaded by hand and the ball of paste is left to repose

for 2- hours. The paste is then flattened to the width of a dish and

left to repose again. It is then kneaded and opened once more, before

being formed into a roll and left to repose as such for a further

period of several hours. When the tissue of the paste is still soft but

about to detach into pieces, it is cut into small balls and put in rows

of small pans and marinaded in vegetable oil between half an hour and

one hour. Their paste then takes an oval form and acquires the

consistence of a millefeuille. The small balls can then be put on a

tray into a very high-temperature oven either in plain form or with

fillings of cheese or spinach added inside.

The usual accompaniments for boyoz are dark tea and hard-boiled eggs

generously sprinkled with black pepper. Boyoz is generally consumed

outdoors, purchased from street vendors.

Kumpir

The potatoes are cut straight from the middle and the insides are mixed

with unsalted butter and puréed with kaşar cheese.However, all sorts of

foods can be added to the potato: mayonnaise, ketchup, pickles,

sweetcorn, sliced green and black olives, sausage slices, carrots,

steamed peas, mushrooms and Russian salad. The cafés in Ortaköy,

İstanbul make kumpir that are especially popular with the tourists and

offer even more ingredients.

Boza

In Turkey it is served with cinnamon and roasted chickpeas, and is

consumed mainly in the winter months. The Ottoman Empire was known to

feed its army with boza as it is rich in carbohydrates and vitamins.

History

Boza enjoyed its golden age under the Ottomans, and boza making became

one of the principal trades in towns and cities from the early Ottoman

period. Until the 16th century boza was drunk freely everywhere, but

the custom of making the so-called Tartar boza laced with opium brought

the wrath of the authorities down on the drink, and it was prohibited

by Sultan Selim II (1566-1574). He describes a type of non-alcoholic

sweet boza of a milk white color made for the most part by Albanians

In the 17th century Sultan Mehmed IV (1648-1687) prohibited alcoholic

drinks, in which category he included boza, and closed down all the

boza shops. The 17th century Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi tells us

that boza was widely drunk at this time, and that there were 300 boza

shops employing 1005 people in Istanbul alone. At this period boza was

widely drunk by janissaries in the army. Boza contained only a low

level of alcohol, so as long as it was not consumed in sufficient

quantities to cause drunkenness, it was tolerated on the grounds that

it was a warming and strengthening beverage for soldiers. As Evliya

Çelebi explained, ‘These boza makers are numerous in the army. To drink

sufficient boza to cause intoxication is sinful but, unlike wine, in

small quantities it is not condemned.’ In the 19th century the sweet

and non-alcoholic Albanian boza preferred at the Ottoman palace became

increasingly popular, while the sour and alcoholic type of boza that

had generally been produced by the Armenians went out of favor. In 1876

Haci Ibrahim and Haci Sadik brothers established a boza shop in the

Istanbul district of Vefa, close to the then center of entertainment,

Direklerarası. This boza, with its thick consistency and tart flavor,

became famous throughout the city, and is the only boza shop dating

from that period still in business today. The firm is now run by Haci

Sadik and Haci Ibrahim’s great- great-grandchildren.

"Vefa" shop, located in the Istanbul district of Vefa, is now a minor

tourist attraction. Karakedi Bozacısı of Eskişehir, Akman Boza Salonu

of Ankara and Soydan of Pazarcık, Bilecik are less famous but well

known other vendors in Turkey.

Production and storage

Boza is produced in the Balkans and most of the Turkic regions, but not

always using millet. The flavour varies according to the cereal which

is used. In a scientific study of boza carried out by the Turkish

Science and Technology Institute for Vefa Bozacisi, the drink was found

to be extremely healthy and nourishing. One litre of boza contains a

thousand calories, four types of vitamins A and B, and vitamin E.

During fermentation lactic acid, which is contained by few foods, is

formed, and this facilitates digestion.

As boza spoils if not kept in a cool place, boza fermenters in Turkey

(traditionally) don’t sell boza in summer months and sell alternative

beverages such as grape juice or lemonade. However, it is now available

in summer time due to demand and availability of refrigeration.

Cacik

Cacık is made of yogurt, salt, olive oil, crushed garlic, chopped

cucumber, dill, mint, and vinegar, diluted with water to a low

consistency, and garnished with sumac. Among these ingredients, olive

oil, vinegar, and sumac are optional. Dill and mint (fresh or dried)

may be used alternately. Cacık, when consumed as a meze, is prepared

without water but follows the same recipe. Ground paprika may also be

added when it is prepared as a meze. As a rarer recipe, when prepared

with lettuce or carrots instead of cucumber, it is named kış cacığı

(winter cacık).

Sarma

Etymology

Sarma is a verbal noun derived from the Turkish verb sarmak meaning

"wrapping" or "rolling" in Turkish. Sarma is similar to its cousin

dolma, and the two names for such rolls are used interchangeably in

many languages.

In Turkey, the word sarma can also refer to a type of sweet pastry,

similar to baklava. Saray sarma or fıstık sarma is prepared by wrapping

phyllo dough around a mixture of crushed nuts and syrup.

Preparation

Minced meat (usually beef, pork, veal, or a combination thereof, but

also lamb, goat, sausage and variuos bird meat such as duck and goose),

rice, onions, and various spices, including salt, pepper and various

local herbs are mixed together and then rolled into large plant leaves,

which may be cabbage (fresh or pickled), chard, patience, vine leaf

(fresh or pickled) or broadleaf plantain leaves. The combination is

then cooked together in boiling water for few hours. While specific

recipes vary across the region, it is uniformly recognized that the

best cooking method is slow boiling in large clay pots. A special

ingredient, flour browned in fat (called rântaş in Romania, where it

may also contain finely chopped onion), is often added at the end of

the process. Other fine-tuned flavors include cherry tree leaves in

some locations; other recipes require the use of pork fat—the number of

minor differences is virtually innumerable across the region.

Vegetarian variants as well as those made with fish exist.

In Turkey, the word "sarma" is used interchangeably with dolma for

stuffed vine leaves, cabbage or chard. Most of the time, the name of

the vegetable used is added to describe the dish such as lahana sarma

(cabbage) or yaprak sarma (grape leaves). However, as the term refers

to preparation ("to be wrapped"), some desserts are also called

"sarma", for instance, pistachio sarma and saray sarma. As with dolma,

sarma is combined with yoghurt when it contains minced meat (beef,

meal, lamb) and is served hot. The filling of sarma in Turkey usually

contains rice, herbs, onion, currants and pine nuts, herbs such as

parsley and dill, and several spices including cinnamon and black

pepper.