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foundation of Turkish food is, if anything, the
dough made of wheat flour. Besides "Ekmek"
- the ordinary white bread, "Pide"
- flat bread, "Simit"
- sesame seed rings, and "Mantı"
- dumplings, a whole family of food, called "Börek,"
made up of thin sheets of pastry falls into this
category. There is one food without which no meal
is complete, in Turkey at any rate. That is bread,
a food we know so well yet never tire of. Bread is
delicious all by itself when it comes steaming hot
and crusty from the oven, and comes in innumerable
varieties. We all have our favourites.Bread is the
symbol of all food, as demonstrated by the saying
to earn one’s daily bread, and held sacred as a
source of life and gift of God.
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We thank God
for our daily bread, but also say in Turkish that "bread
is in the lion’s mouth"
meaning that to earn a living involves a struggle. Oaths
can be sworn over bread and wasting it or letting it be
trodden underfoot is a sin.
Over most of the world bread is a staple food, its shape,
method of preparation, and the cereal grains it contains
varying widely from country to country and region to
region.
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| "Börek"
is a special-occasion food which requires great
skill and patience, unless you have thin sheets of
dough already rolled out from your corner grocery
store. Anyone who can accomplish this delicate
task using the rolling pin, becomes the most
sought-out person in their circle of family and
friends. The sheets are then layered or folded
into various shapes before being filled with
cheese or meat mixes and baked or fried. Every
household enjoys at least five different varieties
of börek as a regular part of its menu.
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"Mantı"
dumplings of dough filled with a special meat mix,
are eaten with generous servings of garlic yoğurt
and a dash of melted butter with paprika. This is a
meal in itself as a Sunday lunch affair for the
whole family to be followed by an afternoon nap.
Along
with bread, "pilav"
is another staple in the Turkish kitchen. The most
common versions are the cracked-wheat pilaf and the
rice pilaf. A good cracked-wheat pilaf made with
whole onions, sliced tomatoes, green peppers
sautéed in butter, and boiled in beef stock is a
meal in itself. Many versions of the rice pilaf
accompany vegetable and meat dishes.
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Wheat is
the only cereal containing sufficient gluten to rise
significantly and give a spongy consistency. To a much
lesser extent rye has the ability to form a leavened bread,
but other grains like maize, barley, and millet can only
be used to form flat cakes rather than bread proper unless
mixed with a high proportion of wheat flour.Wheat bread
made with wheat flour, yeast and water contains 35% water,
53% starch, 8% protein, and 1.4% fat, and each 100 g
contains 240 calories. In addition bread contains
significant quantities of B and B2 vitamins, niacin and
iron. In all bread is a valuable foodstuff in its own
right.Kneading is an important part of bread making since
it ensures that the yeast is evenly distributed. The dough
is then left in a warm place to rise, a process by which
the yeast liberates carbon dioxide gas. The bubbles of gas
are prevented from escaping by the elastic gluten in the
flour. Rising may take anything up to 4 hours. The dough
is then divided and shaped into loaves and left to rise
for a second time. Just before going into the oven cuts
are made with a knife in the top, and it is baked at
temperatures of 230-280 degrees Centigrade. Bread made by
this classical kneading method has more flavour. The bread
was first made twelve thousand years ago by mixing
coarsely ground grain with water and baking it on hot
stones in hot ashes. Yeast, which is a microscopic fungus,
was discovered after dough was affected by the fungus by
accident, and its favourable effect on the bread observed.Although
most Turkish bread is made of wheat flour, some regions
also use barley, rye, or in the Black Sea region maize
flour. Roughly speaking Turkish breads fall into three
categories: very thin rolled sheets known as "yufka",
flat leavened breads such as "pide",
and loaves known as "somun".
"Yufka",
the most usual type of bread among nomadic communities, is
cooked on a griddle and then dried, in which state it will
keep for a long time. "Pide" is cooked in an
oven. Shaped into flat circles or ovals it may be
sprinkled with sesame seeds or black cumin, and brushed
with beaten egg. In the month of Ramazan the evening meal
is not complete without pide, and queues form outside the
bakeries as the hour of breaking fast approaches.
The round loaves known as somun used to be made of flour
with a high bran content, usually by public bakeries.
Their equivalent in most Turkish cities today is known as
francala, and made of highly refined white flour.
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