Kartolên Pîvazan (Kurdish Potato-Onion Sauté)

 I was thinking. If I had named this blog ‘Mother’s Hidden Recipes!’ or better yet, ‘Flavors From My Aunt’s Village’, I would have had a much easier time of things. Okay, so you’re asking why my job is so difficult? These recipes come with actual birth pains. This is the image that always looms before my eyes--my sister Zelal or cousin Ebru invites some friends over for dinner and has prepared a Kurdish meal. They’ve gotten the recipes from my website, ‘Just to be sure’ they think. And so I must spend my time readying these recipes, splitting the atom, so that they may set that table with pride. On a different note, I’ve decided that, as a ‘director’, I am rather frightening, one of those types infamous for her foul temper, who spews terror and strife until she gets just what she wants….

For today’s recipe, we’ve had to cross through many hidden perils, but finally the photo shoot went without a hitch. The hands in the photographs belong to my dear Jeff, with whom I joined my life some 8.5 months ago. He remained relatively calm and forbearing through all my capricious demands (despite wielding the knife!) and witnessed me trying to rip my hair out by the roots as I tried to take those last uncooperative pictures of the finished project, finally snatching the camera out of my hand and in one frame taking the very picture that you see displayed above.

Yes, after so much struggle, after wearing my fingers down to the bone, you deserve a recipe worthy of the effort. The evening before the shoot, our dear friends Ekrem and his wife Yasemin (the plate in the picture is a present from them) came over for a dinner of black bean burritos and we had two tortillas left over.  When the photo shoot was finally over, I put some melted cheese over the potatoes, rolled them up in the leftover tortilla and we downed two rather tasty wraps. Then, we hit the road looking for some of those spring flowers and colors now popping up everywhere outside that we had forgotten about after the long winter. 

Ingredients:

5 medium sized potatoes (1 kg/2 lbs.)

1 large onion (1/3 pound, 200 g)

2 chunks of thinly sliced kavurma, matchbox sized (50 g)*

4 tablespoons vegetable oil (50 g)

1 tablepoon tomato paste or red pepper paste (40 g)

1 ½ teaspoon salt (put the ½  into water for the potatoes)

½ tablespoon butter

2 ½ cups water (600 ml)

1.     Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut them into quarters and put them in a pot. Pour the water over them, add half a teaspoon salt and boil for 25-30 minutes. With a fork, check to see if the middle is cooked through. Once done, drain and set aside to cool.

2.     Peel the onion and slice thinly. In a wide pot, heat the oil and add the onions, cooking for about five minutes until they are transparent.

3.     Add the tomato paste and stir-fry for 2 minutes.

4.     Add the kavurma into the onion/tomato paste mixture and stir fry for another 2 minutes. Add the salt and butter.

5.     Chop the warm potatoes into cubes and stir gently into the onion-tomato paste mixture and continue to cook. Do not mix too much. Lift gently from the bottom of the pot to the top, taking care not to break or crush the potato cubes.

This is the original recipe but if you would like, you can add a little cumin or red pepper, or, like we did, top it with cheese before you serve, or add to a tortilla for a delicious wrap. It makes the perfect accompaniment to a cup of hot tea.

Bon appetite and noşi can be!

*kavurma is a dried beef cured with salt that we used for meat during the long winters in the village. (It is not the Turkish dish of the same name) It has a very rich flavor, and when cooked has the texture of pulled pork or beef hash. Substitutes outside of Turkey might include bacon (though it isn’t kosher!), or any beef hash. Or you can leave it out altogether.

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!

Lobiyên Çêkirî (Kurdish Stewed Beans)

Ingredients

• 1 kg (2 pounds) fresh green beans
• 6 cloves garlic
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 level tablespoon salt

1. Take the strings out of the beans and cut the ends off.  Wash them thoroughly in plenty of water and drain. Cut beans into two or three pieces. Place the beans in a wide, deep pot and fill with water until it just covers the beans. Boil for 35 to 40 minutes on medium heat. Drain the cooked beans. (I highly recommend reserving a bit of the water)
2. Crush the garlic and salt together thoroughly with a mortar and pestle. Add a few teaspoons of the reserved water from the beans and mix well.
3. Pour the oil into the pot.  When the oil is lightly heated, add the beans, then the garlic mixture. Stir gently, taking care not to break the beans.
4. Last, add the eggs and gently stir into the beans as they cook so that they are distributed evenly throughout.

Noşî can be (Bon Appetit)!