Dolmê Kundiran

The place I spent my childhood was the East of this country with its spotless blue skies and cotton clouds. After a storm hitsor three feet of snow falls, the sky shimmers like a jewel. I saw neither smog nor haze nor gray clouds till I moved to Istanbul.

I have been closely following Istanbul’s forecast for a week now, hoping for at least one sunny day so that I could take a decent video of me making the next recipe on the list while the sun illuminated the inside of our apartment with good lighting. I thought I had at long last found my sunny day this Friday. I got up at 6 and set to work. I made all the necessary preparations for both the dish and the shoot, but I was not happy at all with the resulting footage (still too dark). So for now, I’m making do with photos.

Ingredients (serves 6 people)

• 2 lbs (1 kg.) pumpkin peeled and cleaned (with seeds and rind, it would be 3 or 4lbs)
• 1 cup bulgur wheat (200g)
• 2 tablespoon sugar (30 g)
• 3 cups water (600ml)
• 1 teaspoon salt

For the sauce

• 1 cup yogurt (200g)
• 1 cup water (200ml)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 tablespoons butter (50g)

1. Cut pumpkin into cubes. Place about half the pumpkin into a   wide, deep pot and spread around the bottom. Spread half the bulgur wheat over the top. Put the rest of the pumpkin into the pot, and again spread the remaining bulgur wheat on top.

2. Add the sugar and salt. Add the water and cover.

3. Cook on high heat for 15 minutes, then on a medium heat for 15 minutes more. Let sit for 5 minutes.

4. Mash the bulgur and pumpkin as you would potatoes. Pour into a wide, deep serving dish. Shape the pumpkin mixture into a small hill with a peak.

The sauce

 1. Crush the garlic and salt together in a mortar and pestle. Add the water and yoghurt and whip together.

2. Melt the butter

First, spread the melted butter over the top of the pumpkin and then the garlic yoghurt sauce. If you like, leave the middle part plain. Enjoy!

Keşke

My grandfather, the esteemed Memli Seven, is infamous among those close to him for being difficult to please. I’d say that for his whole life, whenever the discussion turns to food he actually enjoys eating, he becomes extremely finicky. So maybe you can guess how huge a step it was for me, but in the quest to give life to Kurdish cuisine, I had to pass a most difficult test.

Two weeks ago, we gathered over a meal of that quintessential Kurdish dish, keşke. I had gotten the recipe first from my mother and then my aunt, adding a few of my own flourishes. Dede was also over that evening for dinner. He devoured the first bites without comment or expression--and also, without cease. Then he said, ‘I want this, too.’ In other words, I would be allowed to come to his house and prepare it for him! As almost an afterthought, he said ‘It’s delicious!’

I nearly fell out of my chair.

I repeated the recipe this afternoon, taking careful measurements to make sure of everything, and decided to put it up on my blog. So here it is, the apparently miracle-working recipe for keşke.  

Keşke (Keshke)

Ingredients (serves 3)

·         1 cup bulgur wheat (200 g)

·         2 cups slightly plain sour yoghurt (400 g)

·         3 cups water (600 ml)

·         2 tablespoons wheat flour (40 g)

·         1 teaspoon salt (10 g)

·         4 tablespoons butter (50 g)

1. Whisk well the yoghurt, water, salt and flour and pour the mixture into a deep pot.

2.    Add the bulgur wheat and turn on the heat. Cook half-covered over a high heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3.  After a while, the mixture will assume the consistency of a soup and start to boil. Reduce flame to medium and continue cooking for another 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Turn off the flame, cover, and let sit for 5 minutes.

4.     Pour the keşke into a wide, deep serving bowl and open a large hole in the middle. Melt the butter and pour it into the hole.  Eat with a spoon, scooping some of the butter together with the keşke..

Bulgur

Note 1: The yoghurt should be slightly sour to soften the effects of the butter. If you are cooking in the West, I would buy a high quality yoghurt from a Greek or Turkish grocery.

Bulgur

Note 2: Dishes made with flour and bulgur stick easily to the bottom of the pot.  Be careful!