Making Turkish Etli Kereviz Dolması (Meat-Stuffed Celeriac) at Home

Two nights ago, I was the perfect Turkish housewife and cooked up a storm.

I made a herbed salad topped with nar (a version of Claudia’s toros salatası), a creamy celeriac soup, zeytinyağlı pırasa (leeks in olive oil) and finally Turkish etli kereviz dolması (meat-stuffed celeriac). I told my husband he better enjoy all this now before I start my Polish lessons because I doubt I’ll be cooking much then!

Last week, I fondly recalled the etli kereviz dolması that my friend enjoyed at Çiya when I wrote that blog post. I couldn’t stop thinking about that dish! I had some leftover ground lamb in the freezer, and I can easily find celeriac at the markets here in Warsaw. With that in mind, I bought a kilo of celeriac at the BioBazar this past weekend.

The only problem is that celeriac is a pain in the butt to clean, hollow out and stuff! I found this article on how to easily clean celeriac, which helped immensely. Then, I used a melon baller to hollow out the insides of my celeriac once they were cut in half. Be sure to use lots of lemon juice with the cleaned celeriac halves to prevent browning.

I chatted with my girlfriend in NYC via Skype for nearly an hour while I cleaned the celeriac! If anyone has an easier way to do so, please let me know.

Once the celeriac was cleaned, I had about 2 cups worth of celeriac pieces, so I decided to make a quick soup. I sautéd onion and garlic, added the celeriac pieces and cooked with about 1 quart of chicken broth. Later, I pureed the soup and seasoned with salt and pepper. Perfect first course to go with the salad!

Once the celeriac were stuffed and baking, I moved onto the next dish – zeytinyağlı pırasa. For this recipe, I used my handy Sultan’s Kitchen: A Turkish Cookbook. I often turn to this cookbook for inspiration when I’m at home.

While the etli kereviz dolması turned out delicious, I doubt I’ll be making this recipe anytime soon. I found it very tiresome scooping out the insides of the celeriac. But if you have the time someday, please do try my recipe and let me know how it turns out!

Afiyet olsun!

Turkish Etli Kereviz Dolması (Meat-Stuffed Celeriac)

Ingredients:
1          kilo                  celeriac (Note: mine were quite small, about 8 total)

200      grams               ground lamb or beef

1          ea.                    medium onion, chopped small or grated

½         cup                  flat-leaf parsley, chopped small

1          teaspoon          dried dill

50        grams               long-grain rice (about ¼ cup)

1          Tablespoon      nar ekşisi (pomegranate molasses)

To taste                       salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 ½      ea.                    lemon

As needed: butter and olive oil

Clean, peel and cut in half each celeriac. Using a melon baller or paring knife, hollow out the inside of each celeriac half. Immediately, place the celeriac in cold water with the lemon juice to prevent discoloration.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the ground meat, onion, herbs, rice, nar ekşisi, salt and pepper together for the stuffing.

Fill each celeriac with the stuffing mixture. Place in a large oven-safe cooking dish. Then, top a few with dollops of butter and drizzle with a little olive oil. Fill the dish with water about one-third of the way up the celeriac.

Cover and bake in a 350 F/175 C oven for 45 minutes or until the celeriac are tender. If you have larger celeriac, then you will need to increase your cooking time too. Alternatively, you could cook the celeriac in a pot fitted with a lid on your stovetop.

Note: we enjoyed this celeriac dish even more the next day when topped with a bit of garlicky yogurt.

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Everyone Eats at Çiya in Istanbul

When we lived in Istanbul, I loved taking our visitors from the European side to the Anatolian part of the city.

Not only could our friends enjoy a vapur ride on the Bosphorus, but they also could say they had been to “Asia.” I would even time our visit so we could eat at one of my favorite and one-of-a-kind places in the city – Çiya located in the Kadıköy neighborhood.

In the last few years, Çiya has earned the recognition as one of the city’s foodie hotspots, as mentioned by IstanbulEats, DeliciousIstanbul and Parla Food. Çiya's owner/chef, Musa Dağdeviren, from Gaziantep in southern Turkey, has travelled all over Turkey as well as the Balkans and neighboring countries collecting his recipes. The result is some of the most distinctive dishes you’ll find in Istanbul such as candied vegetables, meats cooked with seasonal fruits and wild herbs and greens. Dağdeviren’s menu is always changing at his three locations located on the same pedestrian-only street in Kadıköy.

On my initial visit to Çiya with Selin of Turkish Flavours in 2011, Dağdeviren was making Turkish pide and kindly hung out with our group for a bit. Of course, I had to ask if I could get my photo taken with the chef, and he obliged.

As soon as you walk into Çiya, you’ll notice its fantastic salad bar that’s always filled with unique wild herbs and greens, hummus and other seasonal nibbles. This is where I start. Grab a plate, select your favorite dishes and then be sure to get your plate weighed by the helpful staff. You could make a meal just out of this salad bar!

The main dishes always change, depending on the season, but you’ll usually find a few soups as well as several meat-based dishes such as kuzu etli ayva dolması (lamb cooked with quince), celeriac stuffed with rice and ground beef, vişneli köfte (meatballs cooked in a tangy sour cherry sauce) or a tasty meat stew with baby okra. I find it difficult not to order one of everything especially if it’s a dish I haven’t tried before. These dishes aren't fancy, just honest, homecooked food, and the flavors are outstanding.

One of my favorite dishes when it's in season - kuzu etli ayva dolması.

Conclude your delightful meal with a refreshing şerbet, a sweet, fruit-based beverage popular during the Ottoman era.

For dessert, I always have a hard time deciding between künefe or katmer, both desserts hail from southeast Turkey. However, if you would like a unique dessert, order Çiya’s plate of candied fruits and vegetables. Who knew candied olives could be so tasty?

Dessert time at Çiya.

During my next visit to Istanbul this spring, I might have to include a stop at Çiya as well!

Location:

Çiya Sofrası and Çiya Kebab (right across the street from each other)

Güneşlibahçe Sokak 43

Kadıköy, Istanbul

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Making More Dolmas

As recipes usually go, I make adaptations the more I make a dish.

I’ve cooked dolmas several times now with either kabak (zucchini) or yeşil biber (green peppers). If you plan ahead, the recipe does come together fairly quickly.

Last week, I stuffed green peppers, a few long, red peppers and two small eggplants with a well-seasoned spicy and herbaceous meat mixture. This is the part that I modified from previous times. I figured I might as well use up the different vegetables I had in the fridge from the pazar before they went bad. Plus, I wanted to season the ground beef more this time, so I added some spices and a lot more fresh herbs.

Since it’s just the two of us, the dolmas lasted three meals, but hubby didn’t complain. The stuffed vegetables reheat well.

So, this is my new and improved dolma recipe compared to my previous one here. My friend, Claudia, at A Seasonal Cook in Turkey recently had a great recipe too.

Afiyet Olsun!

Here you can see the stuffed red and green peppers as well as the eggplant.

Etli Sebze Dolmasi: Meat-Stuffed Vegetables

Ingredients:
10 small-medium Turkish green peppers, red peppers, zucchini or eggplant
1         lb.        (500 g.) kontrfile yağsız kıyma (lean ground beef)
1         ea.                     large onion, diced small
6         ea.                   garlic cloves, finely chopped
¼         c.         (50 g.) long-grain rice, uncooked
½ c. fresh parsley, finely chopped
½ c. fresh dill, finely chopped    
2 T. tomato paste
3 T. olive oil
1 T. nar ekşili sos (pomegranate molasses) (This addition was recommended by my expat friend, Julia, whom has been married to a Turk for 10+ years.)
TT salt and freshly ground black pepper
Optional: 1 ½ tsp. spicy red chili flakes

Garnish:
2 ea. medium tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped
As needed fresh yogurt

1. If using zucchini, cut each one in half and scoop out most of the inside, leaving a ¼-inch shell. For green or red peppers, cut off the tops and scrape out the seeds and inside membrane.
2. In a large bowl, combine the meat, onion, garlic, rice, herbs, tomato paste, olive oil, pomegranate molasses, salt and pepper. Mix well and knead with your hands (as if you were making meatloaf). Let the mixture rest for about 10 minutes so the flavors can mingle.

I also mixed in some chopped green onions with the regular onions
just because I had it on hand.

3. Stuff the vegetables with the meat mixture.

4. Place the stuffed vegetables in a large saucepan, stockpot or Le Creuset pot. Place a piece of tomato on top of each vegetable and drizzle each one with a little olive oil.

5. Add about 1 to 1 ½ cups (240-355 ml.) of water to the pot. (***Alternatively, add a tomato sauce around the vegetables. Make by whisking together 1 T. tomato paste and 1 T. pepper paste (or acı biber salçası) with 1 cup of hot water.) Bring the water to a boil, reduce heat and then let simmer, covered with a lid, approximately 20 to 30 minutes. You want the vegetables to be tender but not falling apart. Remove from the heat and let rest for a few minutes before serving.

6. Garnish each serving with fresh yogurt.

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Stuffed - Turkish Kabak Dolmasi!

I haven’t learned many traditional Turkish recipes yet, and I realized one of the reasons why is that many dishes take time - often lots of time - to prepare.

Not that I don’t have plenty of time on my hands and often spend it in the kitchen.

Take for example, kabak dolmasi (stuffed squash) requires the time-consuming process of hollowing out each squash, making the filling, stuffing the squash and then cooking them.

The other day I finally decided to give the recipe a go at home, especially when I decided to use these cute, spherical squashes I often see at the pazar.

I treated these squashes almost as if I were hollowing out a pumpkin for Halloween. Take a paring knife and cut around the stem, remove stem/lid and then use a spoon to remove most of the insides so you create a vessel of sorts for the filling. This process takes time.

The traditional Turkish way to make this dolma is to use the pale green kabak that looks similar to a zucchini. And of course, you could substitute the dark-green zucchinis you usually find in North America, Italy, Germany, etc.

Although this dish does take time to prepare, it is delicious. I just told hubby don’t expect to have it too often for dinner.

Afiyet olsun!

Kabak Dolmasi: Stuffed Squash

Adapted from “A Taste of Turkish Cuisine” by Nur Ilkin and Sheilah Kaufman

Ingredients:
6-8          round                 kabak (or about 10 small-medium zucchini)
1         lb.         (500 g.)      ground beef
1         ea.                        large onion, diced small
6         ea.                        garlic cloves, finely chopped
¼         c.         (50 g.) long-grain rice, uncooked
2 T. fresh parsley or dill, finely chopped                
2 T. tomato paste
To Taste salt and freshly ground black pepper

Garnish:
2 ea. medium tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped
As needed fresh yogurt

1. If using zucchini, cut each one in half and scoop out most of the inside, leaving a ¼-inch shell. If using the round squash, core out as described above.
2. In a large bowl, combine the meat, onion, garlic, rice, herbs, tomato paste, salt and pepper. Mix well and knead with your hands (as if you were making meatloaf). Let the mixture rest for about 10 minutes so the flavors can mingle.
3. Stuff the squash with the meat mixture.
4. Place the squash in a large saucepan or stockpot. Sprinkle the tomatoes over the squash and drizzle each one with a little olive oil.
5. Add about 1 to 1 ½ cups (240-355 ml.) of water to the pot. Bring the water to a boil, reduce heat and then let simmer, covered with a lid, approximately 20 to 25 minutes. You want the squash to be tender but not falling apart. Remove from the heat and let rest for a few minutes before serving.
6. Garnish each serving with fresh yogurt.

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