Kisir, Turkish dish

Kisir is a Turkish version of Tabbouleh.  In Turkey, it is served at afternoon tea or as a mezze, small dishes of Middle Eastern cuisine.  The tomatoes were not mixed into the salad as they tend to get mushy but were served with the salad.  Pomegranate molasses was used in this recipe as was tomato ketchup and hot sauce when the Bulgar was made. 

The bulgar wheat was made following the recipe on the box; to the hot water, ketchup and hot chili sauce was added. 

To the Bulgar; 

• 1 bunch green onion, finely chopped
• 1 small onion, sliced thinly
• 1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
• Fresh mint, finely chopped 
• 1 cucumber, finely chopped
• 1 bell pepper or banana pepper, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp pomegranate syrup
• 1  lemon, juice  
•  freshly ground pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4- 1/2c Olive oil

To the bulgur; add pepper flakes, freshly ground pepper, cumin, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice and olive oil.  



Add the vegetables: Bell pepper or banana peppers, spring onion, cucumber, fresh mint and parsley. Adjust to taste lemon juice and Olive Oil.  

The kisir was served with chopped tomatoes and wrapped in Romaine Lettuce Leaves

This was a delicious way to serve the Kisir and a perfect lenten or summer dish!

Piyaz- Turkish Bean Salad

Piyak is a Turkish Bean Salad 

Cook white beans, when tender, add one onion sliced thinly into semicircles. Add lemon juice, vinegar and olive oil to the beans. Season to taste.  Chill for a couple of hours.

The interesting part of this salad is the presentation as it is assembled in layers.

First mix in chopped parsley into bean mix. Using a large plate spread the bean mixture into it.  Layers of black olives, quarters of tomatoes and hard boiled eggs are added. Drizzle Olive oil on top and season with pepper. I added a hot chile to the salad. 

  

A perfect way to enjoy a hot summer night with some crusty bread!

Lahmacun- Turkish Pizza

Like any good pizza, you need basic bread dough. In this case, I used about 4-5 cups of flour. Thank goodness as the number of guests was at first 3 and by evening went up to 10!   

 My Turkish Friend had prepared the lamb topping for the Lahmacun.  Interesting this was the first time she had made Turkish pizzas or any other pizza!

Ground lamb was used!  One recipe used tomato paste along with such spices as cayenne pepper, cumin, sweet paprika,  cinnamon along with garlic, plum tomatoes, small onion and serrano chile and parsley.  Another recipe used a can of tomatoes, onions, fresh parsley, garlic and paprika.  The recipe for this pizza used was

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tomato, diced
1 Jalapeño, chopped
paprika and cayenne pepper
fresh Mint and fresh parsley
juice of one lemon




The traditional way is to roll out the dough is into very thin discs.  In this case we divided the dough into about 12 balls.

The meat was spread evenly to the edges.  In some recipes, olive oil is brushed on, while others brushed milk before spreading the topping, one recipe spread caramelized onions before the meat topping was added.

My husband made has become quite proficient in making Dirty Banana Cocktail which was a refreshing end to this Turkish meal