CHICKEN DISHES

In Anatolian villages, as a rule, people wake up not to the ringing of alarm clocks, but to the crowing of a rooster that is heard at sunrise. The gardens and yards of Anatolian villages are filled with the hubbub of children who compete with the rooster brethren and the clucking of numerous hens. In the morning, fresh chicken eggs are served for breakfast. In suburban areas, chickens and roosters are bred in almost every house, from which dishes are prepared for guests and household members. Chicken dishes have a special place in Turkish cuisine. But at the same time, the queen of New Year’s meals is a turkey seasoned with pilaf with chestnuts. Less often preferred duck, quail, goose.

In Turkish cuisine, chicken kusun has a large variety. From chicken meat they prepare: gyuvech (clay pot for cooking), okra gyuvech, vegetable gyuvech, roast, yakhni, kebab, rich soups, pies, pilaf and even dishes for dessert. And the most common and delicious chicken dish is “Cherkez tavugu” (Circassian chicken) richly seasoned with walnuts and spices, as well as chicken cabbage rolls stuffed with pilaf with pistachios.

The most shocking chicken dish is the chicken breast dessert: the brisket is carefully puréed, added to the mushy mixture. Unless the secret of cooking is revealed to you, you will never guess that this sweet dish is made from chicken breast.

MEAT DISHES

The Turks, who chose a nomadic lifestyle in the Central Asian region, naturally enriched their cuisine with animal food.

Since the main feature of the nomadic culture was hunting, therefore, meat dishes in Turkish cuisine have a large place. Freedom-loving and impatient Turks in everyday life, in the kitchen, at the stove turn into sedate ones, they sort everything out carefully, pay special attention and patience and prepare delicious dishes from meat and meat products. Even after the resettlement of nomadic tribes in Anatolia, meat dishes, despite the high cost and inaccessibility, take the first place. The clearest example and proof of this is the numerous meat restaurants, special taverns where only offal and other meat dishes are served.

At dinner parties and festivities, cook delicious food on special braziers, skewers, but along with meat dishes for special days and ceremonies, thrifty and economical housewives create miracles from diced meat or minced meat. Meat dishes have a huge number of varieties: meat on a spit, on a brazier, roast, kavurma, yakhni, gyuvech, on sakhana, boiled, kapama (a meat dish with fresh onions and salad). Meat dishes are seasoned with fruits, vegetables, or even milk; sometimes marinated before cooking. The best and most common meat dishes are doner, kebab, cutlets of various kinds, cabbage rolls, meat on a brazier. In Turkish cuisine, traditional meat dishes were mostly prepared from lamb and goat meat. In recent years, preference has also been given to veal.

According to religious beliefs, pork is not consumed at all.

According to a2zdirectory, wild boars, if caught by hunters and hunting enthusiasts, do not consume its meat. Along with lamb, goat and veal meat, Islam does not prohibit camel meat. However, a camel can often be found in tourist areas along with posing photographers, guests of the country.

As a side dish, onion is served or added to the meat, deliciously seasoned with spices, spices, herbs, thyme, mint, black and red pepper, cumin, parsley, bay leaf.

FOOD COOKED WITH OLIVE OIL

Olives, one of the most common food and ingredients in Turkish cuisine, grow on the favorable soil of the Mediterranean region. However, this product performs the most important function as an integral part of Turkish dishes prepared with olive oil.

The best dishes cooked in olive oil, with the spread of vegetarian food, have gained worldwide fame. Olive oil dishes have a special flavor and piquancy and are the best dishes of the summer season.

The Turks, who are very offended by the secondary attitude to vegetables and vegetable dishes, prepare independent dishes from the freshest vegetables grown on the productive lands of their homeland, but not side dishes and salads. Olive oil dishes are served both hot and cold. In some special cases, lemon, yogurt, tomato puree are served as a condiment or sauce. From summer vegetables, such as: fresh beans, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, artichokes, legumes, all kinds of dishes are prepared.

Among the best dishes of world cuisine, Turkish dishes with olive oil have not yet taken their rightful place, although the day is not far off when dishes with olive oil from Turkish cuisine will take a special, worthy place among vegetarian dishes.

The culinary fantasy of our ancestors developed mainly on the preparation of cabbage rolls from vegetables and grape leaves. It would seem that such incompatible ingredients as, say, grape leaf, raisins, pistachios, rice, dill and cinnamon combine and form an aesthetic wholeness in a shocking disparity.

Olive oil is used not only in the preparation of these dishes. Olive oil is an essential ingredient for salad dressings and seasonings, and also a decoration for morning breakfasts, so revered by the Turks, who love to dip the toasted crust of their bread in it.

If you want to really get to know modest zucchini, passionate eggplant, ticklish legumes, then be sure to try cooking them in olive oil. Only then, you will know the real taste of these vegetables and appreciate them.