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NATURE’S GIFT
YOGHURT
A staple of the
Anatolian diet, yoghurt is both tasty and heathful. |
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In order to survive in the wild,
the first thing man had to do was find something to eat. Until
the invention of agriculture, he hunted and eventually learned
to domesticate animals. The sheep and the goat were the first,
with roots going back to Central Asia. The sheep's suckling of
her young led to the discovery of milk. Fragile in structure,
milk begins to change the minute it is exposed to the air.
Accelerated by bacteria peculiar to the climate of Central Asia
and the Caucasus, fermentation turns the liquid into
a
solid. This chemical change produces the physical change that
the Turks call 'yoghurt'. |
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Yoghurt is
soft, smooth, and slightly sour in taste, refreshing to the
palate as to the brain. More than an invention of man it is
a
gift produced from nature's own raw materials. As old as
human history, it is perhaps the first example of food
production. Yoghurt remains important today among the
time-honored nutritional techniques of Central Asian, Middle
Eastern and Anatolian societies.
HEALTHY
AND TASTY
The first person to carry out scientific studies on yoghurt
was Pasteur's assistant, the Russian biologist Metchnikoff,
who discovered that it was the product of
a chemical
reaction caused by two bacteria, 'Streptococcus thermopilus'
and 'Thermobacterium bulgaricum '. Yoghurt is made at home
by adding a little old yoghurt to milk as a culture.
According to the Larousse Gastronomique, however, the
ancient Turks made their yoghurt by boiling milk and then
storing it for 2-3 days in closed containers made of leather
or clay. |
Yoghurt is also used in soups and other hot dishes. Adding
an egg white or yok, or a little cornstarch, prevents it
from separating. Green beans with yoghurt |
Again
from Larousse Gastronomique we learn that yoghurt first
arrived in France in the time of Francois ,. During the
Ottoman period an Istanbul Jewish doctor is known to
have used yoghurt to treat this French king's intestinal
complaint and to have returned to Istanbul without
divulging the secret formula. Yoghurt is not only rich
in vitamin B, protein' and calcium, it is also easy to
digest. Medically, it is believed to be very useful for
promoting development of the flora needed by the
intestines. Although yoghurt spread throughout the
world, more precisely to the West, thanks to the First
World War, it has still not caught on in western
cuisine.
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The delicious taste
of orman
kebab with yoghurt, lies in the local saffron that is
sprinkled over it |
THE
WORLD'S FIRST SOUP MIX
Yoghurt is an integral part of everyday life in
Anatolia. Under the conditions of nomadic life, the
Turks developed yoghurt into
a
virtual fast food. Techniques for drying yoghurt to a
powder, for example, storing it in cloth bags and
reconstituting it with water when needed were passed
from nomadic to sedentary culture.
The best of example of this is tarhana, the world's
first soup mix, which was made in Anatolia. Tarhana
arose from the need to be able to preserve yoghurt.
Tarhana soup is believed to have originated from
a
process of reducing wheat to flour and mixing it with
milk in the form of yoghurt and then drying it to a
powder that could be stored for years. There are an
estimated 150 varieties of this soup in Anatolia.
DISHES
MADE WITH YOGHURT
Turks use yoghurt in the preparation of hot soups and
other dishes. In fact, yoghurt separates when heated.
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But
this can be prevented by mixing it with a little egg
white or yolk or a small amount of cornstarch. As well
as aiding digestion, the yoghurt used in hot dishes
leaves a refreshing taste on the palate, unlike the
cream used in the West, which is very filling. Gaziantep
specialties like yuvalama, alinazik, Şiveydiz and garlic
soup all testify to the miracle that the addition of
yoghurt can work.
'BURNT
YOGHURT OF DENİZLİ'
Several varieties of yoghurt are encountered in
Anatolia. Among them I would only like to describe the
'burnt yoghurt' peculiar to the Denizli region, which
has an extraordinary smoky flavor. The producer, Tekin
Bey, describes the making of this yoghurt as follows:
"Pour some milk into a copper kettle and heat very hot.
To this burnt milk, add the milk that is to be made into
yoghurt and boil. When it reaches 41 degrees, the
culture will 'work'. Remove from the heat and wait for
the yoghurt to form." The smoky taste produced by
burning the milk is, to my mind, an extraordinary
gastronomic invention.
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RECIPES
ŞİVEYDİZ
4 servings
Ingredients:
150 g lean Iamb stew meat
250 g chickpeas
400 g strained yoghurt
250 g green onions (only the white portion, cut into 4
em lengths)
250 g fresh garlic
1 tablespoon flour
1 egg
1 tablespoon dried mint
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
Preparation:
Boil a liter of water. in a pot. Add the garlic and cook
for 5 minutes
over a low fire. Then add the onions. Boil two minutes
more and turn off the heat. Place the Iamb in a small
pot with 1.5 liter of water. Add salt and cover. Bring
to a boil. When the meat is cooked, add the previously
boiled chickpeas.
Preparing the sauce:
Break an egg into the strained yoghurt in a small pot
and beat over a low fire. When the egg and yoghurt are
mixed, add flour and continue beating. When the yoghurt
is warm, add the
broth from the cooked Iamb and beat with a whisk. Pour
the sauce over the meat. Heat the oil very hot in a
small skillet and add the mint. Dribble the sizzling oil
over the sauce.
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RECIPES
ALİNAZİK
4 servings
Ingredients:
1 kg long, thin eggplant 300 g minced meat
1 cup strained yoghurt 3-4 cloves garlic
salt, pepper, red pepper oil
Preparation:
Score the eggplants with
a knife and roast
over a fire or in the oven. When they are roasted,
peel off the skins and chop finely. Drain well, then
add oil and salt. Turn off the fire and add red and
black pepper. In a separate bowl prepare the garlic
yoghurt. Add the crushed garlic to the strained
yoghurt and mix until creamy. Then mix in the
chopped eggplant. Spread the yoghurt-eggplant
mixture on a serving platter. Distribute the browned
meat over it evenly, covering it completely. This
may also be served with fresh green peppers.
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Source: Skylife 01/04 |
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Vedat
Başaran&Mehmet Akgül |
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