Recipes of Turkish cuisine from meat. What to try in Turkey from food: the best dishes of Turkish cuisine

Turkish cuisine is known for its endless breadth of flavors that herbs and spices give it. It is a legacy of Ottoman cuisine.

The Ottomans combined the culinary traditions of their kingdom with the Levantine and Turkic ones. Turkish national dishes are diverse. Each has a unique taste that can satisfy or even surprise any gourmet.

What to try in Turkey from food: the best dishes of Turkish cuisine

It is believed that there are only 3 types of cuisine in the world: French, Chinese and Turkish. The latter has long and deservedly enjoyed worldwide recognition. The country is located between Europe and Asia, this is reflected in gastronomy. Thanks to the rich fauna and flora, the cuisine is very diverse.

The food is balanced, most meals, even desserts, include vegetables and herbs. The variety and simplicity of the recipes, as well as the quality of the products, guarantee the enjoyment of food.

Turkish national vegetable dishes

Lentil cutlets

Vegetable stews are the pride of oriental cuisine. A wide variety of crops are used: cabbage, eggplant, green and red peppers, tomatoes, leeks. A spoonful of tomato paste, rice or lemon juice is often added to vegetables. The stew is usually cooked in its own juice, colloquially called sulu yemek, which translates as "dish with juice."

• Dolma- stuffed leaves of grapes, chard (a subspecies of beets), cabbage. Eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, pumpkin, rice are used as fillings.
• Mercimek köfte (Marchmek kofte)- lentil cutlets or meatballs. Cooking does not require much effort. Cutlets are made from minced lentils with the addition of bulgur or couscous. Serve wrapped in lettuce leaves and sprinkled with lemon juice.
• murgver- pancakes from zucchini, herbs and cheese. Zucchini can replace other vegetables. Fritters have a delicate milky taste that cheese gives them.
• . The name itself is interesting, in translation meaning "the imam fainted." An oriental appetizer is a baked eggplant stuffed with tomatoes, bell peppers, and garlic.
• Piyaz- a salad of boiled white beans, fresh tomatoes, bell peppers and seasoned with salt, sumac. Dress the salad with lemon juice or vegetable oil.

Vegetarian food, in addition to vegetables, contains cereals, seafood, mushrooms, and fish.

Turkish meat dishes

Eastern people love meat - the vast majority of soups, stews, salads include this product.

• Kebab- barbecue or fried (usually grilled) meat. There are a lot of varieties, the most famous doner kebab is sliced ​​lamb, beef or chicken fried on a vertically rotating spit.
• Shepherd- air-dried beef jerky. The preparation process takes about 1.5 months.
• Kokorech- fried (traditionally on a skewer) offal sausages. They are served sliced ​​and sprinkled with oregano. Garnish with pickled peppers or cucumbers.
• Pilaf- the basis of the oriental table. It is made from rice, bulgur, shehriye (vermicelli) and, of course, lamb or chicken.
• Kuru kefte- meatballs from minced meat or minced meat of beef, chicken, lamb. The meat is mixed with rice, bulgur, eggs are fried, baked. Ready for a couple.

Fragrant smells of food from meat provoke tasting even the most incorrigible vegetarians.

Sweet Popular Turkish Desserts

Turkey has always been famous for sweets. Desserts are endowed with a special taste. The recipes, at first glance, are simple, but rarely does anyone manage to cook at least approximately similar delicacies at home.

Many sweets have long been prepared in different countries on an industrial scale. Often only the name remains of a real dessert. At home, desserts are also prepared in confectionery factories, but products made by housewives or in small private bakeries are in great demand.

• Baklava- one of the world famous desserts. The classic version is several layers of sweet phyto dough, abundantly sprinkled with pistachios or walnuts, fastened with sugar syrup, honey. The city of Gaziantep is famous for its pistachio baklava. It is believed that the recipe was brought by Lebelebi Güll from Damascus in 1871.
• Halva. There are several types of this dessert, but only two are well known. The first is prepared from grain flour or semolina with the addition of ghee and sugar. The second is crumbly halva made from tahini (sesame paste), walnut oil, sunflower oil and sugar. Also, beans, pumpkin, yams, lentils can be used as ingredients.
• Gullach. The dessert is reminiscent of baklava. Thin layers of dough made from corn starch and wheat flour, sprinkled with pomegranate, walnuts, soaked in milk.
• caeserie- rectangular sweet products made from caramelized carrots, grated coconut, roasted nuts, hazelnuts. Instead of carrots, there can be figs, dates. The homeland is the province of Mersin. Caeserière is only served on special occasions.

There are a lot of recipes for sweets, it is unrealistic to try everything.

TOP 10 Turkish dishes you must try

Oriental recipes are diverse, it is difficult to single out something. I'll tell you about the most popular.

• Gözleme- a tortilla with a filling, usually with white cheese and parsley. They are eaten with soup, salad, as a snack with ayran or sweet tea.
• Jevisli sujuk- a type of Turkish delight. A product in the form of an oblong sausage - almonds, hazelnuts or peanuts are covered with condensed grape or fig tree juice. Add chocolate, raisins, dried fruits.
• Kavurma- a variety of Çoban kavurma (Shepherd's kavurma). Prepared from diced lamb fried in a pan (sahan) with tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, onions and herbs (parsley, kekek). In some areas in the north and west of the country, kavurma is made exclusively from vegetables, including pickled ones. Kavurma is always cooked in Ramadan.
• Alinazik is a specialty of the province of Gaziantel. Alinazik - smoked spicy eggplant, topped with slices of roasted lamb, pre-seasoned and marinated. Served with rice or yogurt.
• - puff pastry pie (phyto or yufka) with filling. The most common option with minced meat. Popular cigar borek - the dough is rolled into a cigar, minced meat, cheese, potatoes are put inside.
• Lahmacun- a mandatory attribute of an oriental breakfast. A kind of pizza, consisting of a thin crust stuffed with minced meat, tomatoes, sweet peppers. Lahmajun is generously sprinkled with herbs on top.
• Künefe- thin dough soaked in sweet syrup with the addition of cheese, whipped cream, nuts, baked in the oven.
• Sorrel soup (Kuzukulağı çorbası)- prepared from sorrel leaves, corn, beans, onions. Soup with sourness, served cold, it is good to eat in hot weather.
• Bushulama- steamed fish with lemon and parsley.
• Baty- grilled lamb on a spit. Served in pita bread with tomato sauce or yogurt.

Even if there are two new dishes every day, you won’t be able to try everything.

Conclusion

Turkish cuisine can be safely called a national treasure. It reflects the customs and traditions of the people, their customs, gastronomic habits.

National dishes are not just food, they are a part of the eastern state. What have you tried from Turkish cuisine? Share your feedback in the comments.

Turkish cuisine is attractive because it intertwines Mediterranean, Arabic, Indian, Caucasian and Middle Eastern culinary traditions. In the Ottoman Empire, food was a cult, and now it is given a lot of attention. In this amazing country, breakfasts, lunches and dinners are an important part of life, so the Turks eat slowly, savoring every bite. A family lunch or dinner in honor of some event can last for hours. The table is full of delicious dishes, and the topics for unhurried conversations are inexhaustible.

But you and I do not have to cook dozens of dishes to surprise loved ones with Turkish delicacies. It is enough to make a kebab in the oven, bake eggplant with spices or cook baklava, and you can already expect applause for your culinary talent! What traditional Turkish dishes can we cook at home without spending all day in the kitchen?

Meze - a delicious start to lunch

Turkish cuisine was formed under the influence of Islamic traditions, so the cooking process is clearly regulated by certain rules. All food is divided into permitted (halal) and forbidden (haram), which includes, for example, pork.

A typical Turkish meal begins with cold and hot meze appetizers, the task of which is to increase the appetite. Meze includes salads, pickles, pickled vegetables, eggplant appetizers, vegetable caviar, olives, cheese, hummus, yoghurt cream with feta cheese and herbs, falafel, fish, shrimp and bereki - small puff pastries that fit several fillings between thin layers of dough. Meze is served in restaurants, cafes, eateries and entertainment establishments as a mandatory addition to alcohol.

Mutabal eggplant appetizer

This appetizing appetizer is spread on unleavened cakes and sprinkled with herbs. For its preparation you will need 2 eggplants. Wash vegetables well and pat dry with paper towels. Brush the eggplants with olive oil and pierce in several places with a fork.

Preheat the oven to 180 ° C and bake the eggplant for half an hour until soft. Cool, remove the skin, mix in a blender with 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp. l. sesame paste (tahini) and 1.5 tsp. lemon juice. In the process of grinding, add to the blender gradually 2 tbsp. l. Greek yogurt. Salt the resulting puree and season it to taste with extra virgin olive oil.

Serve the appetizer in a bowl, sprinkled with herbs and drizzled with oil - it looks very beautiful and, as a rule, is eaten first!

Soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner

First courses in Turkish cuisine are so delicious that if you try at least one of them, you will immediately understand why Turkish gourmets are ready to enjoy soups from morning to evening.

In winter, they usually cook hot lentil soup merdzhimek chorbasy, tomato stew, garlic soup made from beef or sheep giblets ishkembe chorbasy. In the summer in Turkey, you can’t do without a refreshing cajik stew made from ayran, cucumbers and greens, which, in fact, is served with pilaf in winter. Shekhrieli yesil merdzhimek chorbasy - green lentil soup with noodles - and yayla - rice-mint soup with a sour-spicy taste are very popular. Turks love unusual combinations and often season their soups with lemon juice, egg and mint.

Tarkhana is very popular - a preparation for soup, which is made from sun-dried and powdered tomatoes, red or green pepper powder, onions and flour. In winter, just add this mixture to water, season with tomato paste, and the soup is ready!

Turkish Lentil Soup

Each Turkish hostess prepares lentil puree soup in her own way, and all options are good. We will share with you one of the recipes.

Place 1.5 cups of well-rinsed red lentils, 2 diced potatoes and carrots, and a finely grated onion in a saucepan. Pour the ingredients with cold water and cook for about 30 minutes over medium heat - by this time the products should be soft.

Now add 1 tbsp. l. tomato paste, 1 tsp. butter, a pinch of cumin and salt, 2 pinches of thyme and dried mint. Beat the mixture well with a blender, put on fire again, bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes over low heat.

Drizzle this delicious soup with lemon juice and season with fresh herbs. you can cook in meat broth and add pre-fried meatballs to it at the end of cooking.

Country of meat abundance

Turkish cuisine is diverse and very bright, it is not for nothing that it is one of the three most popular and delicious cuisines in the world. Stunning combinations of different tastes, an abundance of fresh vegetables and fruits, methods of heat treatment in which products do not lose their beneficial qualities, make Turkish cuisine dishes not only incredibly tasty, but also beneficial to our body.
We present you the top 10 Turkish dishes that you should definitely try when you come to Turkey. Without tasting these products of national cuisine, acquaintance with Turkey will be incomplete, because cooking traditions are just as important for understanding the essence of the country as its historical sights.

Let's start our acquaintance with Turkish cuisine with kebabs. This is a traditional oriental kebab made from minced meat. The main meat in the preparation of kebab is lamb. A prerequisite will be the addition of fat tail fat, which gives the kebab a characteristic taste, and also makes the minced meat fatter. One of the most famous kebabs in Turkey is Adana kebab. In this dish, minced meat is strung on special wide skewers and fried over an open fire. Adana kebab is served with pickled onion and herb salad, thin pita bread and a slice of lemon.

Doner kebab is no less popular. This is a peculiar way of cooking meat, in which large pieces of beef are strung on a vertical skewer, slowly rotating around its axis. The fried meat is cut into very thin strips and served in freshly baked bread. A variant of Doner kebab is Iskender doner - a favorite dish of both the Turks themselves and numerous tourists. For Iskender doner, strips of meat are placed on pre-prepared bread, soaked in oil and fat flowing from the prepared doner. The dish is topped with tomato sauce and served with Turkish yogurt.

Another very common meat dish in Turkey is kefte. These are national cutlets made from a mixture of lamb and ground beef. In addition to meat, ground onion and a large amount of spices are added to minced meat for kefte. Minced meat is formed into small flat cutlets, which are fried on the grill. Kefte is served with a salad of pickled sweet onions and herbs.

A pastry dish often served for breakfast. The thinnest layers of dough are stacked in layers, and minced meat from salted cottage cheese, spinach or fried meat is added between them. All this is poured with a sauce of milk and eggs. Borek is baked in the oven until crispy and served hot. A sweet version of the borek is also possible, when ordinary sugar is placed inside instead of the filling. Sweet borek is especially loved by children, eating crispy cakes with pleasure. A variant of this dish called Cigara Borek is very popular. In this case, the dough is rolled up in the form of cigars, putting the filling inside: feta cheese, potatoes or minced meat. Borek cigar is fried in a pan in olive oil.

Flour dishes, without which the Turks cannot imagine their life. Simit is the most common street food and a must for Turkish breakfast. Early in the morning in any city you can hear the calls of the seller of Turkish simit bagels, offering his goods. Fresh hot simit sprinkled with sesame is sold right on the street from special wagons. Here, they offer melted cheese and tea.
Lahmacun is a kind of Turkish pizza. The main difference between this dish and traditional pizza is the thinly rolled dough. As a filling for lahmacun, minced meat with tomatoes, herbs and bell peppers is used. Lahmacun is served with lots of parsley and lemon. The product is so thin that it can be rolled up, putting greens and sweet onion salad in the middle.

Unlike the traditional pilaf in our understanding, in Turkey, pilaf (or pilaf, as it is called here) is prepared not from rice, but from wheat groats. Often, chickpeas are added to the dish, and then you get Knowlu Pilyav; eggplant - Patlyjan Pilyav; tomatoes - Domates Pilyav and even fish - Hamsi Pilyav. Basically, pilaf in Turkish cuisine serves as a side dish to the main course. Pilaf is usually served with yogurt.

Bean stew is a dish that is eaten with equal pleasure in the homes of the rich and in the poorest families. The beans are soaked overnight and then stewed with tomato paste, onions and spices for about two hours. Chicken beans are served most often with boiled rice and yogurt.

Turkish manti, unlike the Central Asian ones we are used to, are small lumps of dough with minced meat. The size of Turkish manti should not exceed the size of a fingernail. Now manti is made with the help of machinery, and earlier the entire female part of the family gathered to sculpt this dish. Up to a thousand small dumplings were prepared at one time! Manti is served with yoghurt sauce with garlic, and topped with melted butter and spices.

One of the most popular and delicious Turkish snacks. Minced rice and meat are wrapped in grape leaves. The shape of the sarma is remarkable - in the form of female fingers. As they say in Turkey, the thickness of the sarma should not exceed the size of the "little finger of a young girl." Sarma is a rather spicy and spicy dish, as befits an appetizer, the main purpose of which is to stimulate a good appetite.

Baklava is the visiting card of the East. It is impossible to leave Turkey without taking a box of this amazingly delicious sweet with you. The thinnest weightless dough is stacked in numerous layers, sprinkled with various types of nuts and poured with sweet syrup. The calorie content of this dish is simply over the top, but there is no way to resist tasting at least a piece of dessert that melts in your mouth.

Another dessert that belongs to the category of the most delicious dishes of Turkish cuisine. Soft goat cheese is placed between layers of special dough in the form of vermicelli. All this is fried in a large amount of oil and served hot.

Turkish recipes can be found

Turkish cuisine is replete with all sorts of dishes with unique flavors and can make even the most fastidious gourmet hungry. An abundance of meat dishes, recipes from seafood and vegetables, sweets and pastries for every taste win the hearts (or rather, stomachs) of travelers who find themselves in the country every year. Many Turkish dishes are quite high in calories, because meat, olive and butter, flour and rice are often among their main ingredients. Food is fried and baked in the oven, and many desserts are deep-fried.

Of course, there are national dishes in the country for adherents of a healthy diet, which are prepared on the basis of vegetables, legumes and dietary meat. To learn all the subtleties and secrets of Turkish cuisine, we decided to conduct our own gastronomic investigation.

Turkish breakfast

Kahvaltı is what breakfast sounds like in Turkish. The name comes from the words "kahve" (coffee) and "altı" (before), which can be roughly interpreted as "food before coffee". A real Turkish breakfast can truly be called royal, because it is more like a buffet than a standard set of morning dishes. Food in Turkey on the morning table is beautifully arranged into special dishes, where there are:

Although the word Kahvaltı suggests drinking coffee, as a rule, Turkish people drink several glasses of freshly brewed black tea with breakfast, which has a high invigorating effect. And a couple of hours after a morning meal, you can enjoy a cup of strong Turkish coffee.

First meal

Turkish national cuisine offers a rich selection of first courses, among which there are various soups. Soup in Turkey is a slightly different food than we used to think: it is usually a thick substance of ground ingredients and more like a puree soup. And in Turkish there is no expression “eat soup”, because here they “drink” it, so don’t be surprised if a barker from a local restaurant offers you to “drink excellent soup”. The most popular in Turkey are such first courses as:

Lentil soup

Many types of legumes are grown in the country, among which lentils (red, yellow, green) have won great love. It was red lentils that became the main component of the famous national soup, which, according to various recipes, can be supplemented with onions, carrots and potatoes. This dish is necessarily seasoned with red pepper flakes and lemon juice.

Shifa Chorbasy

Translated from Turkish, the name of this dish means "healing soup", and there is a reasonable explanation for this. Chowder consists of ingredients rich in vitamins, and it is customary to use it in winter to prevent and treat colds. The main components of chorbysy schiff are red lentils, celery, onions, carrots, parsley, red and black peppers.

In traditional Turkish cuisine, a special dried mixture of flour, yogurt, red peppers, onions and tomatoes is often used to prepare first courses. This ingredient gives the soup an original taste and density. Tarkhana milk soup is especially respected here, in which, in addition to the mixture, tomato paste, garlic and butter are added.

Meat dishes

Although red meat is quite expensive in Turkey, the Turks simply adore it, which is why many national dishes of Turkish cuisine are prepared from meat products. The abundance of such foods allows you to diversify the daily diet with food from beef, lamb, veal and lamb, as well as chicken and turkey. Among the culinary delights that you should definitely try when visiting the country, you can highlight:

We all know such a dish of oriental cuisine as kebab, which means fried meat. In Turkey, there are many versions of this dish, each with its own unique recipe. Perhaps the most famous type of kebab is doner kebab, for the preparation of which the meat is fried on a spit, and then cut into thin pieces and mixed with onions, lettuce and tomatoes, after which it is flavored with seasonings and dressings and twisted into pita bread. In fact, this is the same as shawarma, but in Turkey this concept is not used.

Among other versions of kebab it is worth noting:

1. Adana kebab. The recipe for this dish comes from the city of Adana, and its main ingredient is minced meat, which is grilled and served with rice, vegetables, greens and thick lavash.
2. Iskander kebab. The thinnest slices of red meat fried on a spit are served on pieces of thick pita bread laid out on a plate and complemented with vegetables and herbs. Such a meal necessarily includes yogurt, a special tomato sauce, and, if desired, can be poured with melted butter.
3. Shish kebab. This Turkish dish is a kebab served with rice and roasted peppers.

In Turkish cuisine, pilaf is often referred to as plain white rice boiled in water or chicken broth with the addition of butter or olive oil. Such a dish is not always served with meat and may contain chickpeas, vegetables, or small noodles. Of course, pilaf is often served with chicken, lamb or beef, whose pieces are separately fried along with onions.

If you are a fan of non-standard cuisine and do not know what to try in Turkey, then be sure to order kokorech at the restaurant. Such food is prepared from the intestines of young sheep, in which the offal of the animal is wrapped - the liver, heart, kidneys and lungs. All these ingredients are roasted on a spit, seasoned with spices, then finely chopped and laid out on a crispy bun.

Sujuk is a Turkish sausage with lard made from beef or mutton meat, the main difference of which from other sausages is the method of its preparation. Sujuk is not smoked or boiled, but dried and seasoned abundantly with various spices. You can’t eat such sausage raw, so it is always fried in a pan. Sujuk is often added to scrambled eggs, toast or spread on white bread.

Fish dishes

The country is washed by the waters of the Mediterranean, Black, Marmara and Aegean seas, rich in various types of fish and marine life. Of course, this fact had a great influence on the national cuisine of Turkey, where seafood dishes such as:

vegetable dishes

If you think that the national dishes of Turkish cuisine cannot do without meat or fish, then you are mistaken. There are many different dishes, the main components of which are vegetables. An example of this is the famous Turkish dish dolma, which is an analogue of the Greek sarma. It is prepared from grape leaves stuffed with rice and vegetables. You can try it in almost any restaurant.

Among the vegetarian food in Turkey there is also the imam bayaldi dish, which is eggplant stuffed with vegetables. Eggplant dressing is prepared from onions, green peppers, tomatoes, garlic and herbs, richly seasoned with spices and tomato paste. All this is baked in the oven and served with bread and yogurt.

Unsweetened pastries

Most of the national dishes of Turkey are consumed with pastries: bread, pita bread, all kinds of buns and cakes. In the restaurant, before the main meal is brought to you, a basket of fresh baked goods and sauces will be put on the table, both of which are offered absolutely free. Many types of pastries are full-fledged individual dishes.

Simit is a sesame round bun, hard and soft, usually eaten for breakfast. You can eat it both in its pure form, and cut it in half and fill it with cheese, vegetables and sausage. This inexpensive national pastry is in great demand and is sold in special stalls and bakeries.

Borek is a delicious Turkish pastry with different fillings, which is presented in three versions:

• Su beregi, made from thinly rolled unleavened dough (yufka) with cheese fillings; oily
• Kol beregi, baked from puff pastry stuffed with potatoes or minced meat
• Homemade berek is made from yufka with lor cheese, chicken, minced meat, potatoes and vegetables

If you don't know what to eat in Turkey, then Börek is undoubtedly the No. 1 candidate.

Often, soups and meat dishes in Turkish cuisine are served with pita - a piping hot cake that literally melts in your mouth. Sometimes pita is supplemented with cheese, vegetables, sausage, chicken and cutlet fillings, in which case it becomes a separate dish.

Another national culinary delight, which is simply a crime not to try, was gozleme cake made from the thinnest dough, in which various fillers are wrapped in the form of minced meat, potatoes, hard cheese and lor cheese (an analogue of cottage cheese). As a rule, gozleme is fried on both sides in butter and served with tomatoes and lettuce.

Snacks

Cold and hot appetizers in Turkey are called meze and are served on the table before the main courses. Among these foods, special attention should be paid to:

This cold appetizer is a thick sauce based on yogurt and white cheese, garlic, olive oil, mint and walnuts are added to the mixture. The sauce goes well with freshly baked tortillas, but is also suitable for dressing vegetables and meat.

Hummus is quite popular not only in Turkey, but also in Europe, but here an additional specific ingredient is used in the recipe. This food has the consistency of pâté, which in the Turkish version is made from chickpeas with tahini paste obtained from sesame seeds. Such an appetizer is flavored with garlic, olive oil, lemon and served cold.

One of the features of Turkish cuisine is the fact that the Turks use unusual products to prepare salads. It can be pasta, peas and beans. Piyaz is a national salad, the main components of which are beans and eggs, complemented by herbs, olives, onions, tomatoes, tahina and olive oil. The salad is rather unusual in taste, but worth a try.

Ajily ezme

Vegetable spicy sauce made from garlic, tomatoes, peppers, onions, tomato paste and lemon is the most delicious Turkish appetizer that can be eaten simply with bread or complement it with meat dishes.

Sweets

Among the national food of Turkey, there are many sweet desserts made both from dough and based on sugar or honey syrup. The undisputed leaders here are:

A delicacy made on the basis of sugar syrup originated in Turkey several centuries ago, when the cooks at the court of the Sultan decided to impress their owner with a new gourmet dish. So the first Turkish Delight with rose petals was born. Today, this dessert is presented in a variety of fruit variations with the addition of pistachios, walnuts, peanuts, coconut flakes and other ingredients.

No less popular Turkish sweet, which is made from puff pastry, soaked in honey syrup and complemented with a variety of nuts. In Turkey, you can find baklava in boxes, but it is better to try the product in pastry shops, where freshly prepared dessert is sold by weight.

Lokma - sweet balls of dough, fried in oil and sprinkled with sugar or honey syrup. Quite simple to prepare, but very tasty national food, which all guests of Turkey should try. Like baklava, this is a very sweet, sugary dessert, so you won’t be able to eat a lot of it.

Tulumba is a sweet that largely repeats lokma in its preparation method, but differs from it in an oblong corrugated shape.

Soft drinks

Turkey has its own national drinks, which have a unique taste and intricate way of preparation.

Turks drink black tea always and everywhere. This drink is usually consumed one hour after a meal. In Turkey, they usually drink locally produced tea, which is concentrated on the shores of the Black Sea coast. To prepare Turkish tea, a special two-tier teapot is used, in the upper section of which tea leaves are poured, subsequently poured with boiling water, and the lower section is diverted under hot water.

In this state, the kettle stays on low heat for 20-25 minutes, after which the tea is poured into small tulip glasses. At one sitting, the Turks drink at least 5 glasses of this strong invigorating drink, which is always served hot: after all, the kettle remains on the gas throughout the entire tea party.

Coffee is the second most popular soft drink in Turkey. The inhabitants of this country like to drink finely ground boiled coffee, which is prepared in a Turk or cezve (in Turkish). Such a fairly strong drink is served in miniature cups. After the coffee is drunk, it is customary to wash off the bitter aftertaste with a sip of cool liquid. Therefore, in restaurants, next to a cup of coffee, you will definitely be given a glass of water.

This healthy fermented milk product is consumed in Turkey during lunch and dinner. It is made on the basis of yogurt with the addition of water and salt and is not subjected to the gasification process. Rustic ayran with foam is especially appreciated here. The drink is an excellent addition to meat dishes and easily replaces the notorious soda and packaged juices for Turks.

Alcoholic drinks

Despite the fact that Turkey is a Muslim state, the country has its own national alcoholic beverages.

A common Turkish drink is raki vodka, which is made from anise. The drink has a specific grassy taste and may vary in alcohol content (from 40 to 50% pure alcohol). Before drinking, raki is diluted with water, after which the transparent drink acquires a milky hue. As a rule, vodka is drunk in small sips and eaten with spicy food.

Sharap in Turkish means wine. Turkish winemakers today offer a wide range of white, red and rosé wines. It is noteworthy that in Turkey this drink has to enter into fierce competition with Chilean manufacturers, who are gaining more and more popularity in the local market. Among Turkish brands you will not find sweet and semi-sweet versions, all drinks are dry. The top quality wine brands here are Doluca, Sevilen Premium and Kayra.

Fruit and berry wines are very popular in Turkey - from pomegranate, mulberry, cherry, melon, etc. Such drinks are characterized by a weak strength, and in their assortment there can be both sweet and semi-sweet versions. In any tourist wine shop, you will definitely be allowed to try various types of wine, but the price tag is also indecent, so it is best to buy wines in city supermarkets.

Street food in Turkey

It is very popular in the country to eat in small cafes and buy takeaway food, so eateries here are found literally at every step. Street food in Turkey is represented by national dishes, which do not take much time to prepare:

pide and lahmacun

Lahmacun is a large round cake made of thin dough, on which minced meat with finely chopped vegetables is laid out. It is cooked in a special clay oven and served with lemon and salad. One lahmajun flatbread costs about $1-1.5. Pide is also cooked in clay ovens from a strip of already thicker dough, and the filling here can be either minced meat or pieces of meat, hard cheese or an egg. The portions are huge, so one pide can be quite enough for two. The cost of this street food, depending on the filling, ranges from $ 2-4.

Doner kebab

We have already described this dish above, it remains only to say that doner kebab is sold on almost every corner and is inexpensive. One serving of this national dish with chicken will cost $1.5, with beef - $2.5-3.

What is really worth trying in Turkey is chi kofte. You will hardly find such food in other countries. This dish looks like minced meat patties, but in fact it is made from small bulgur, olive oil, tomato paste and spices. The chef mixes these ingredients, rubs the resulting mass by hand for several hours until it cooks from the heat of the hands. Cutlets are served on pita bread or in lettuce, necessarily sprinkled with lemon and seasoned with pomegranate sauce. The price of this pleasure is only $ 1 per serving.

Finding fish among Turkey's street food is not so easy: dishes like balyk-ekmek are usually sold in coastal areas, and not on city streets. And if you want to try fresh seafood, then it's better to go to trusted restaurants.

Conclusion

Turkish cuisine can rightfully be considered a national treasure. The abundance of its dishes allows not only to taste various dishes, but also to get acquainted with original, previously unknown recipes. And the taste qualities of seemingly familiar food will completely change your idea of ​​​​the culinary possibilities of the Turkish people.

Appetizing video: street food in Turkey.

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Modern Turkish cuisine is very diverse, as it was formed under the influence of the culinary traditions of various peoples. So, Turkish cuisine has a lot in common with the cuisines of other Islamic nations, with Caucasian, Balkan cuisines. Many features of Turkish cuisine are also characteristic of Greek cuisine. The peak of the development of Turkish cuisine was the time of the Ottoman Empire: the Ottomans paid great attention to cooking, more than a thousand cooks worked in the Sultan's palace at the same time, and the national cuisine absorbed all the best from the cuisines of the peoples who inhabited the territories that were part of the Ottoman Empire - North Africa, Middle East, Balkans. Many Turkish dishes spread throughout the world during the wars of the Turks with other nations - in particular, it was during the Russian-Turkish war in Russia that they learned to cook well-known cabbage rolls.

In the twentieth century, after the formation of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman culinary heritage became the Turkish national cuisine.

Turks traditionally eat many grains, the most popular of which is wheat. Turks bake bread from wheat (bazlama, pita, katmer) and all kinds of flour products. One of the most important types of dough pastries is burek - pastries with filling. So, the word "cheburek" from the Turkish language is translated as "pastry with minced meat." Other popular pastry dishes are gozleme (stuffed flatbread), lahmacun (Turkish pizza), manti (Turkish dumplings).

Cereals are also used as cereals, from which bulgur is prepared. Rice and couscous are also popular. The Turks pay great attention to all kinds of legumes - they cook peas, chickpeas, lentils, white beans. As in other Islamic countries, hummus is very popular.

Turkish traditional cuisine is famous for its wide selection of dairy products, a tradition that has been preserved since the time of the nomadic Turks. Turkish yogurt is served with a variety of dishes, it is also used to prepare airan (a cold salty drink, which is a mixture of yogurt and water) and cold cucumber soup tzatzik (tzadzik). Cheeses made from sheep's milk are popular.

Turkish cuisine, like many others, is characterized by its seasonality. So, in the hot season, the Turks can perfectly do without meat and eat mostly fresh vegetables. The most important vegetables in Turkish cuisine are onion, garlic, tomato, pepper and eggplant. Turks prepare both fresh salads and hot dishes from vegetables. A separate category of dishes is dolma - a dish that is considered the progenitor of the well-known cabbage rolls. However, the Turks are not limited to folding the filling into cabbage leaves - they also stuff zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, pumpkin, paprika, beet leaves and grapes. Interestingly, minced meat is usually not added to the filling - the right dolma should be stuffed with rice, spices, nuts and dried fruits.

In the winter season, the Turks with great pleasure prepare various meat and fish dishes of the Turkish national cuisine. Pork is traditionally not eaten here, but lamb and chicken are popular. Minced meat is most often used, however, there are other groups of dishes that differ little from dishes of other Islamic cuisines - in particular, kebab and kofta.

The stereotype that Turks don't eat soups is not true. On the contrary, soups are an important element of every Turk's diet. However, liquid soups are really unpopular here - thicker soups are usually prepared from legumes, dairy products, and cereals.

The pride of Turkish cuisine is confectionery. In the variety of confectionery products, hardly anyone can compare with the Turks - there are hundreds of varieties of cookies, sweets and other sweets. For their preparation, mainly sugar, honey, dried fruits, nuts and various spices are used.

Any Turkish meal is impossible without drinks. In summer, the number one drink is refreshing ayran, compotes and sherbets, and in winter - warm and high-calorie drinks boza and sakhlep. In addition, all year round and around the clock, the Turks drink tea and coffee - in this country, the culture of drinking both of these drinks is very well developed. Alcoholic drinks are unpopular (Muslims are forbidden to drink alcohol), but traditional Turkish alcoholic drinks still exist - these are various fruit and berry wines, as well as a strong alcoholic drink rakia.