Remember the lines from the poem by Sergei Yesenin: "I've never been to the Bosphorus ..."? So many of our compatriots - still can not get together in Turkey, in wonderful Istanbul. But you can get used to Turkish food right at home, having prepared something tasty and authentic. Have you ever eaten gozleme cakes? The recipe for this dish is quite simple. Until recently, we did not even hear the name of such a thing. But such cakes can be baked at least every week. Typically, Turkish cooks roll out the dough using a long rolling pin (a similar rolling method is good when preparing, for example, Carpathian home-made noodles or Italian pasta - wheelchairs are practically the same). A gozleme is baked (see the recipe from the photo below) on a wonderful device that resembles an inverted frying pan. Well, and we will try?
Gesleme cakes. The recipe is basic
It is said that in the midst of the tourist season in Turkey, any of the self-respecting seaside hotels hires a cook who bakes gozleme daily, almost in 7/24 mode. The recipe here is about the same, but each “cake maker” may have its own nuances. And tourists from around the world with great pleasure gobble up this simple food. So where do you start? Of course, with the preparation of the dough!
Dough recipe for gozleme
For cooking, we need only something: a glass of flour, about half a glass of water (how much will it take), a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil (preferably olive "Virgin"), a pinch of salt.
- Sift the flour into a bowl, add salt, oil, water.
- Knead the dough. It should turn out soft, but not spread. We give it the shape of a ball.
- We wrap the dough with food wrap and send it to the cold for at least an hour.
- We take out the dough and unfold the film. Divide the ball into several equal parts.
- Each ball obtained is rolled out with a long rolling pin in a round shape (wound on a gurney, making movements from the middle to the edges - with both hands).
- We turn 90 degrees and repeat the movement. If necessary, add a little flour.
What result should result
We should get a thin circle with a diameter of about 30 centimeters (from each ball of divided dough). For those home cooks and cooks who already know how to roll any dough of an exhaust character, this will probably not be a big deal. And in order to stretch a circle of a product of the required thickness, it is necessary to simultaneously scroll the layer, stretching it first from the middle to the edges, and then pay attention to thickened places: pull them, and most of the circle is on the forearm. In general, nothing secret and complicated. As they say, everything with experience comes. Well, there’s already a dough for the Gezleme recipe - flat cakes from Turkey, now we proceed to further actions. What does that require?
Cheese plus greens
We will try to prepare a classic recipe - gozleme with cheese and herbs. As the first ingredient, let’s take Brynza (you can have Adyghe or feta). As the second - parsley and / or cilantro, basil will also work great.
- Sprinkle the cheese with a large and generous layer over the dough layer.
- Cut greens and also scatter.
- We wrap each of the layers with an envelope (a couple of such items are usually placed in a large frying pan. We make sure that there are no open places - cheese can wake up and leak into the pan.
- We bake “pies” for three to five minutes on each side over medium heat (a golden crust should appear).
- So Turkish gözleme cakes are ready. The recipe, as we see, is not particularly difficult, but it turns out everything is tasty and authentic, as it is fashionable to say now.
Little secret
Putting our cakes on a large plate, you need to grease each (while still hot) with butter. Then the dish is tender and aromatic. You can “store” pies with cheese and herbs one on top of the other in random order. It’s better to serve warm.
Something about toppings: with meat
Turkish gesleme recipe can have different variations. It concerns mainly fillings. Since the dough remains basic and indisputable. So, you can cook such a dish with minced meat (for not too ardent fans of vegetarianism). We take the meat (preferably assorted or, for example, calf) minced meat - about a pound. We take onions. Finely chop it and lightly fry in vegetable oil. Then add minced meat to the same container and continue to fry until cooked. Then let the filling cool down (as the very hot melt the dough, causing it to "leak"). And after - we repeat the actions described in the original version of the recipe for gesleme. As you recall, we prepare the dough in the same way as in the first version.
With cottage cheese
The recipe for gozleme with cottage cheese differs little in the way of cooking from a dish with cheese. Just take grainy curd instead of this ingredient and decompose it according to the format of the layer. Next, we repeat all the steps. The result: a great breakfast cake!
More options
You can cook gozleme with braised spinach. To do this, break off the leaves from the stems and simmer them with a slightly fried chopped onion. We use this mixture as a filling.
Sometimes vegetables are used as such. For example, finely fried eggplant slices of tomatoes until cooked.
Or here's another great option - with mushrooms and chicken. Boil the meat and parse it into fibers. Mushrooms (you can take the same mushrooms), chop finely and fry in a pan with meat.
Cinnamon. Just sprinkle with ground cinnamon each of the rolled layers of dough. And then we wrap the envelope with the filling inside.
And even with boiled potatoes! It needs to be boiled beforehand (it is possible in uniforms). Peel and dice the tubers. Or use as mashed potatoes.
Like in turkey
There is no doubt that the etymological component of the word “gözleme” includes “göze” (phonetically more correctly - “göz”), which means “eye” in translation. For the same reason, in some home restaurants and other eateries, the dish is prepared in the form of a cheburek or a kind of crescent. At the same time, the edges of the test layer can be fastened with a fork, as if forming eyelashes. And this variety is served on a plate in two pieces - outwardly, in fact, it is quite similar to the eyes. Or a dish in Turkey is prepared in the form of a semicircle, which also resembles the human eye in its shapes. Such a wonderful story.
In Bulgarian
The influence of Turkish cuisine on Bulgarian is very great. Either because of the millennium-old yoke, or for some other reason. But the fact remains: in Bulgaria they also prepare gozleme. But, unlike the Turkish dish, they mainly use stuffing from sheep’s cheese, feta cheese. Yes, and the cakes themselves can be larger (fits into a large pan one at a time). And the feta cheese is crumbled in small pieces over the entire plane of the dough layer, gradually tucking the envelope. Moreover, greens, as a rule, are not added.
A few more tips for beginners
- Fillings need not be put too much. This is still a cake, not a pie in our traditional sense. Therefore, it should not be torn from what is inside. And it must be flat rather than convex.
- You can try the Gesleme furnace with a hot metal sheet. Especially this option is suitable for lovers of picnics in nature and any "yard" barbecue. You can directly plan this for the next weekend, of course, if the weather allows us to cook, so to speak, in the fresh air and without rain.
- It has been noticed and verified experimentally that it is quite possible to exchange brynza in a cheese and greens filling (or just cheese) for, say, feta or Adyghe cheese, as well as ricotta, hard cheese or salted cottage cheese. In principle, all these products are sour-milk, differing only in the method of preparation. Therefore, probably, they are interchangeable. So we advise you to try, for example, today fetu. And after a few days - cottage cheese (just do not forget to salt it before cooking), the so-called grainy, and not as a paste!
Well, now you know how to cook this beautiful, satisfying and mouth-watering Turkish dish - Gozleme. It remains simple (of course, in an ironic sense) to get down to business, which, we hope, some of the novice home cooks-lovers of national cuisines will certainly do in the near future. And enjoy your meal!