Turkish cuisine is a symphony of flavors where East meets West. Today we're making three gems: the most tender meat on eggplant purée, crispy meat flatbreads, and a honey semolina cake soaked in syrup.
🍆 Hünkâr Beğendi
The legendary dish of Ottoman sultans: braised lamb in its own juices on a pillow of silky eggplant purée with kaşar cheese. The eggplants acquire a smoky aroma, and the meat literally melts in your mouth.
Ingredients:
For the meat portion:
• Lamb (boneless) — 600 g
• Onions — 2 medium
• Tomato paste — 2 tbsp
• Sweet red pepper — 2 pcs
• Tomatoes — 3 medium
• Garlic — 3 cloves
• Butter — 40 g
• Sweet paprika — 1 tsp
• Ground black pepper — 0.5 tsp
• Salt — to taste
• Water — 200 ml
For the eggplant purée:
• Large eggplants — 4 pcs (about 1 kg)
• Kaşar cheese (or caciotta, sulguni) — 150 g
• Milk — 250 ml
• Butter — 60 g
• Flour — 2 tbsp
• Nutmeg — pinch
• Salt — to taste
Preparation:
Pierce the eggplants with a fork in 5-6 places and roast over an open flame of a gas burner (or under the oven broiler at 240°C), constantly turning with tongs, 15-20 minutes. The skin should be completely charred and covered with black blisters, and the flesh should become absolutely soft when pressed. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let cool 10 minutes — the skin will separate easily.
Remove the skin from the eggplants under a stream of cold water, remove the stems. Chop the flesh with a knife into a uniform purée (don't use a blender — the texture should remain slightly fibrous). Squeeze out excess liquid through cheesecloth.
In a saucepan, melt 60 g butter over medium heat, add the flour and fry, constantly stirring with a whisk, 2 minutes until golden and nutty-smelling. Pour in the milk in a thin stream, continuing to whisk — the sauce should thicken to the consistency of thin sour cream in 3-4 minutes.
Add the eggplant purée, grated cheese, nutmeg and salt to the sauce. Simmer over minimal heat, stirring, 5-7 minutes. The mixture should become uniform, thick (holds on the spoon in a mound) and stretch behind the spoon in thin cheese threads. Remove from heat, cover with a lid.
Cut the lamb into 2×2 cm cubes, removing membranes. Slice the onion into half-rings 3 mm thick, pepper into strips 5 mm, tomatoes into 1 cm cubes, crush the garlic with the flat side of a knife.
In a thick-bottomed pot or cauldron, melt 40 g butter over high heat. Sear the meat in batches until deep brown crust on all sides (3-4 minutes per batch) — don't flip until the pieces stop sticking to the bottom. Put all the meat back, add the onion and fry 5 minutes until translucent.
Add the tomato paste, paprika, fry 2 minutes. Add the pepper, tomatoes, garlic, spices, pour in the water. Bring to a boil, reduce to minimum, cover with a lid and braise 1.5 hours. The meat should fall apart with a fork into fibers, and the sauce should thicken and coat the spoon with a dense layer.
When serving, place the eggplant purée in a mound on a heated plate, top with the meat and sauce. Sprinkle with fresh parsley.
💡 Fact: The name of the dish translates as "The Pasha was pleased." According to legend, Sultan Murad IV was so delighted with this dish that the cook received a generous reward and a title.
🫓 Lahmacun
Turkish 'pizza' — the thinnest crispy flatbread with spiced meat filling, tomatoes and herbs. Baked at high temperature until crispy edges, rolled up with salad and drizzled with lemon.
Ingredients:
For the dough:
• Wheat flour — 400 g
• Warm water (38-40°C) — 240 ml
• Dry yeast — 7 g (1 packet)
• Sugar — 1 tsp
• Salt — 1 tsp
• Olive oil — 2 tbsp
For the filling:
• Beef mince (15-20% fat) — 500 g
• Onions — 2 large
• Ripe tomatoes — 3 medium
• Red bell pepper — 1 pc
• Garlic — 4 cloves
• Fresh parsley — large bunch (50 g)
• Tomato paste — 2 tbsp
• Sweet paprika — 2 tsp
• Ground cumin — 1 tsp
• Chili flakes (pul biber) — 1 tsp
• Black pepper — 0.5 tsp
• Salt — 1.5 tsp
For serving:
• Lettuce leaves, fresh parsley, onion, lemon
Preparation:
In a bowl, mix the warm water, yeast and sugar. Leave for 10 minutes — a thick foam cap 1 cm high should appear on the surface. Add the flour, salt, oil and knead elastic dough that doesn't stick to your hands (8-10 minutes of kneading). Cover with a damp towel, leave in a warm place for 1 hour — the dough should double in size.
Scald the tomatoes with boiling water for 30 seconds, remove the skin, remove the seeds and cut the flesh into fine 3 mm dice. Chop the onion and pepper into 2 mm dice (you can pulse in a blender 3-4 times). Finely chop the garlic and parsley with a knife.
In a large bowl, mix the mince, all the chopped vegetables, herbs, tomato paste and spices. Knead with your hands for 3-4 minutes — the mixture should become uniform, sticky and hold its shape when squeezed in a fist. If too dry, add 2 tbsp ice-cold water.
Preheat the oven to maximum (250-280°C) with a baking tray inside on the middle level. Prepare 6 sheets of parchment the size of the baking tray.
Divide the dough into 6 equal parts (110 g each). Roll each piece on parchment into the thinnest possible circle 25-28 cm in diameter — the dough should be translucent, no more than 2 mm thick. If it tears, let it rest for 5 minutes.
Distribute the filling in a thin layer (about 100 g per flatbread) from edge to edge, leaving 5 mm around the circumference. Press down with a spoon or hands — the layer should be even, 3-4 mm thick.
Transfer the flatbread with parchment onto the hot baking tray, bake 7-9 minutes. The edges should brown and curl upward, the filling should bake with brown spots, and the dough underneath should become crispy golden.
Place the finished flatbread on a plate, arrange lettuce leaves, parsley, thinly sliced onion in the center. Roll into a tight roll, drizzle with lemon juice. Eat immediately while it's crispy.
💡 Fact: Lahmacun is an ancient dish that was prepared back in Mesopotamia. In Turkish the name comes from the Arabic 'laḥm bi-'ajīn' (meat with dough), and in different regions of Turkey the filling recipe varies in spiciness level.
🍰 Revani
Moist semolina cake on yogurt, soaked in fragrant lemon syrup and decorated with almond flakes. The texture is porous and tender, the taste sweet with citrus notes — a classic of Turkish desserts.
Ingredients:
For the dough:
• Semolina — 250 g
• Plain yogurt — 200 g
• Eggs — 4 pcs
• Sugar — 180 g
• Melted butter — 100 g
• Baking powder — 10 g
• Vanilla extract — 1 tsp
• Lemon zest — from 1 lemon
• Salt — pinch
For the syrup:
• Sugar — 300 g
• Water — 300 ml
• Lemon juice — 60 ml (from 1.5 lemons)
• Lemon zest — from 0.5 lemon (long spiral)
For decoration:
• Almond flakes — 50 g
• Shredded coconut — optional
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Generously grease a 20×30 cm pan (or round 24 cm diameter) with butter, line the bottom with parchment.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs with sugar with a mixer on high speed 5-7 minutes — the mixture should triple in volume, turn white and when lifting the whisk leave a trail that doesn't disappear for 3-4 seconds ('ribbon' stage).
In a separate container, mix the semolina, baking powder and grated zest. In a third bowl, combine room-temperature yogurt, cooled melted butter and vanilla extract.
Carefully fold the yogurt mixture into the beaten eggs, mixing with a silicone spatula from bottom to top (not with a mixer!). Then add the dry mixture in portions, each time folding in with folding motions 15-20 times — the batter should be thick, flowing, uniform, without lumps of semolina.
Pour the batter into the pan, smooth out. Distribute the almond flakes over the surface, slightly pressing in. Bake 35-40 minutes on the middle level — the top should become golden brown, when pierced with a toothpick in the center it comes out dry, and the cake pulls away from the walls of the pan.
While the cake is baking, prepare the syrup: in a saucepan, mix the sugar and water, bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the zest spiral, boil exactly 10 minutes uncovered — the syrup should slightly thicken and coat the spoon with a thin layer. Remove from heat, pour in the lemon juice, stir. Cool completely to room temperature.
Cut the hot cake straight from the oven into portions in diamonds or squares (knife to the bottom of the pan), without removing. Evenly pour the cold syrup — pour slowly, allowing it to absorb. All the syrup should absorb in 2-3 minutes, the surface will become glossy and moist.
Leave the cake in the pan for at least 4 hours (better overnight) at room temperature — it will fully soak, the structure will stabilize. Before serving, sprinkle with shredded coconut if using.
💡 Fact: Revani got its name in honor of the 13th-century Persian poet Jalaluddin Rumi, whose nickname was Mevlana Revani. This dessert is so popular that it's prepared throughout the Eastern Mediterranean under different names: basbousa in Egypt, haris in Armenia, namura in Lebanon.