A Kurdish feast

[Chufi]

u would probably like the kurdish kubbeh if u like doughy things as that is the consistency of the ones in the soup.  i can pm u the recipe if u like for u to try.  it is very easy to make.

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yes please, I'd love to try it!

[piazzola]

Interesting way of cooking boreks kurdish style

I guess yufka or yupka a whatever other names it may assume is well known from Turkey to Mongolia and from Eastern Europe to Iran.

[ludja]

Here's a recent Kurdish restaurant meal that Swisskaese recently described in her current foodblog from Israel: click

[Chufi]

here's another recipe my friend gave me: Mercimek Köfte (lentil köfte)

Boil 1/2 cup of red lentils in 2 cups of water until they are soft and mushy.

Put 1 cup of fine bulgur important to use fine bulgur, it should say "for kofte" on the package) in a large bowl and add the lentils (don't drain). Mix well. The heat and moisture from the lentils will soften the bulgur.

Meanwhile, fry 2 finely chopped onions in olive oil until soft. Add a tablespoon of tomatopaste and a tablespoon of red pepper paste. A pinch of red pepper flakes if you like. Add 1/2 cup of water and bring to the boil, cook briefly. Add salt and pepper. Add this mixture to the bowl with bulgur and lentils. Mix well. If the mix seems dry (it should end up a bit pasty, you're going to make balls out of it) add a bit of hot water.

Add lots of chopped parsley and chopped spring onion. Squeeze into torpedo shaped 'balls' (köfte) and serve in lettuce leaves.

[Pontormo]

Pantry food!

I was surprised to read that the last step of the recipe involved mushing the ingredients together without deep frying them. In the photograph they look like crisp golden fritters. This way, they are more healthful.

Edited August 25, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Chufi]

Oh no Pontormo now you're making me think that deep-frying them would make them even more delicious!

but no, they are really good the way they are. Really...

[sazji]

There's a bit of confusion about phyllo/yufka here.

Yufka is a catch-all term in Turkey for very thin pastry that may be made in a variety of ways. What it has in common is that it is generally used as a filling for something.

What Chufi's friend used for the börek is commonly known as "hazır yukfa" (readymade yufka) here. You can buy it at places that specialize in it, pre-packaged in grocery stores, or even sold in piles at neighborhood markets. It's a bit of a "shortcut" for people who don't want to open their own yufka. It's ideal for sigara börek and other things. It's rolled out and then cooked very briefly to stabilize it on a large slightly convex griddle.

There is also baklava yufkası, which is very very thin, and opening it is an art in itself. That is much more like what we know as phyllo. Some is much thinner, the thinness is achieved by rolling several sheets at once (up to 13) around an "oklava," a long thin rolling pin.

Many housewives roll their own yufka for their boreks, and depending on what they are doing, where they are from, and their own skill, it can be thinner or thicker.

The yufka that the börek places use is quite different. The dough has lots of oil in it, and it's opened not by rolling but by throwing. The dough is kneaded several times to develop the gluten, then rolled into rounds about half an inch thick. One round is spread with a butter/oil/margarine mixture within about an inch of the edge, then another round is put on top and they are sealed. The dough rests another hour or so, then is pulled out somewhat. It is very very relaxed at this point. The börekçi throws the dough several times in sort of a circular motion (imagine throwing a wet towel in a way that it will settle on the table in a circular motion). With each throw, it stretches and opens larger, and then is stretched out the rest of the way to the edge of the large marble table. It's then cut and stuffed (or in the case of "kurdish börek," layered plain and baked).

The thin bread that they wrap döner in is not yufka, it is lavash, although sometimes it's a very thin one, also known as katmer in some areas, where it is sometimes the main form of bread. This would never be done with "ready yufka" as that is not completely cooked. "Katmer" can also refer to what is also known as "gözleme," where a piece of dough is rolled out thin and stuffed with a filling, then cooked till crispy on a convex griddle.

[piazzola]

Nice lentils koftas chufi

Interesting discussion about doughs and yufkas sazji

In Central Asia yufka slightly changes to yupka

Now my question to you is can you identify this kind of dough made into a borek?

sometimes has potato , lamb or spinach it is almost like a kind of pide type dough but not quite.(will post a pic later)

What makes it distictive is the soft and airy crumb inside and crispy outside.

Thanks

Edited September 20, 2006 by piazzola (log)