Turkish cuisine has a range of savory and sweet pastries. These pastries are mostly made of dough and a large variety of fillings between layers. They take place widely in traditional Turkish cuisine.
The use of layered dough is rooted in the early Central Asian Turks. The traditional way of making layers was not so easy. It took longer time and a lot of efforts to make it. The women used long, rod style rolling pins to make dough large and thinner. They used their stove called “kuzine” to bake them. They also used a metal frying pan called “sac” to bake the pastry called “gözleme”. Most of traditional people still enjoy making these pastries in old ways other than using ready-made phyllo dough. When I have more time I prefer making my pastries as in the way my mom and my grandmothers made because I add my joy and love into dough and the layers of my pastries and they come up very delicious.
Börek is the general name for salty pastries made with yufka. It is a thicker version of phyllo dough which consists of thin layers of dough. Su böreği, made with boiled yufka or phyllo layers, cheese and parsley, is generally eaten on special occasions such Ramadan or Sacrifice Holidays. Çiğ börek and also called as Tatar böreği isstuffed with minced meat and cooked in hot oil. Kol böreği is another type of börek that takes its name from its shape in the tray. Gül böreği or Sigara böreği are the other names of boreks which take their names from their shapes. You can give to these böreks any shape you like, either round, just regular layered ones, or you can make circles around each other and so on. It is up to your desire and creativity. Other traditional Turkish böreks include “Talaş böreği” which is made of phyllo dough filled with vegetables and minced meat. Puf böreği is another well- known one which eaqten savory or sweet according to the region. The sweet one is eaten especially in Black Sea area.
“Poğaça” is the name for dough based salty pastries. Likewise, çörek is another name used for both sweet and salty pastries.
Gözleme is a typical pastry of rural areas, made of lavash bread or phyllo dough folded around a variety of fillings such as spinach, cheese and parsley, minced meat or potatoes and cooked on a large griddle called “sac”.
“Katmer” is another traditional pastry made of rolled out dough and chopped walnuts. It can be salty or sweet according to the filling. For the sweet ones you can use tahini, sugar or molasses instead of sugar as filling.
“Lahmacun” is a thin flatbread covered with a layer of spiced minced meat, tomato, pepper, onion or garlic.
“Pide”has several types and each of them gets its name from the filling. “Kıymalı Pide” is made with minced meat , onion, chopped tomatoes, parsley and spices. “Cheese Pide” is made with cheddar cheese or white cheese, spinach or parsley.” Mixed pide” has a little bit everything, white cheese, pieces of meat, sausage and eggs. The most common traditional and the most delicious pide is the one cooked slowly in a traditional wood oven.
“Açma” is a soft bread found in most pastry shops or bakeries. Simit is similar to a pretzel in shape but the taste is different because simit is cooked in a completely different way. Simit dough is soaked into the molasses mixed with water before sesame is sprinkled on it. A different type of flour is used to make simit and it also needs a good oven to cook it at the right temperature to make it crunchy and tasty enough. Simit, poaça or açma are the popular ones for Sunday breakfasts eaten altogether as a family or you can grab one of them while going to work.
When I was working in Istanbul my apartment was close to my work place so I was walking to work. It was fun to smell wonderful pastries while passing by a few pastry stores. Each time I was fighting with myself not to buy one but the smell was so great that I could not stop buying one and eating on my way to work. Whenever I come and live in United States I miss eating simit. Ene though there are different fun foods in the United States simit makes me remember of my childhood and my happy memories in my past. When I was a student our cafeteria had a binch of tasty pastries and simit was my and my friends’ favorite ones. Eating simit and drinking sprite during breaks was bringing us together to talk and share. That’s why, simit has been my favorite snack.
Mom was a great cook and she was making very delicious pastries, all the ones I mentioned above. My favorite pastry mom was making is called “kars çöreği” because mom was making the dough very fluffy and the filling always contained the best white cheese and fresh parsley. She was spending hours and hours to make and bake them but I and my brothers were eating all quickly. As you know pastries has been fun food for all kids and we were enjoying eating fun food, as well without thinking of mom’s efforts to make them. Whenever I started cooking I understood how much time and energy mom used for us and I could appreciate her efforts more than I was a kid.
As a kid I was lucky I have a mother who loved cooking and eating. I ate wonderful food which either my grandmother or mom cooked, which made me a bit picky when I eat out. I try to enjoy the food when I dine out but I still miss the real taste of food cooked in a traditional way, I mean from scratch.
You will find all kinds of cooking, from the easy and practical ones to the traditional ones in my cookbook called ‘FROM MY HEART TO YOUR KITCHEN”. You can use anyone you like. If you want to play with cooking and want to meditate while cooking go ahead pick the ones which you do everything from scratch. If you have less time you can pick the easy and practical recipes. I wanted to give you a large variety so that you will not stress out with a bunch of instructions and the ingredients.
May you enjoy making pastries by shining on each of them with your love, peace and joy!
