Anadolu Sofrası · The Anatolian Table

Turkish Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Step into the kitchens of Anatolia, where lamb meets butter poured foaming from a copper pan, lentil soup is finished with mint bloomed in tereyağı, and the vegetables of the Aegean rest quietly in good olive oil. Honest ingredients, patient heat, and nothing refined in between.

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Tereyağı✦ Sadeyağ✦ Zeytinyağı
An elegantly plated Turkish dish on a dark restaurant table
❖ İskender Kebap
From the recipe collection
Tereyağı

Butter First

Anatolian cooking was built on butter churned from sheep and cow milk. In this collection it browns the kebap, blooms the spices, and finishes the soup, never a refined seed oil.

Sadeyağ

Clarified Sadeyağ

Sadeyağ, the clarified butter of the Turkish pantry, takes a high heat without burning. It gives fried fish and pastry a colour and a scent that no vegetable oil can imitate.

Asla

Never Vegetable Oil

No seed oils, no shortcuts. Only butter, sadeyağ, tail fat, and cold pressed olive oil, the fats that the lokantas and village kitchens of Turkey have trusted for generations.

❖
From Our Kitchen

Turkish Recipes

Six beloved dishes carried from Bursa to the Black Sea coast, each cooked with the honest fats that bring out the best in every ingredient.

Bursa Iskender Kebap, sliced lamb over bread with tomato sauce and yogurt

İskender Kebap

Lamb over pide with foaming butter

1 hr 10 min·4 servings·Medium

The great dish of Bursa. Thin slices of lamb laid over torn pide, warmed through with tomato, crowned with cool yogurt, and finished at the table with butter poured foaming from a small pan.

Ingredients

  • 800 g boneless lamb leg, sliced very thin
  • 2 tbsp full fat yogurt, for the marinade
  • 1 tsp dried oregano and 1 tsp sweet pul biber
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 pide flatbreads, torn into bite sized pieces
  • 400 g passata or grated ripe tomatoes
  • 110 g butter (tereyağı), divided
  • 1 tsp pul biber, for the finishing butter
  • 300 g strained yogurt (süzme), at room temperature
  • 2 long green peppers and 2 tomatoes, to char alongside

Instructions

  1. Toss the lamb with the yogurt, oregano, pul biber, salt, and pepper and leave it 30 minutes at room temperature.
  2. Warm 30 g of the butter in a heavy pan and sear the lamb in batches over a high heat, 2 to 3 minutes a batch, so it colours rather than steams. Set aside.
  3. In the same pan simmer the passata with a pinch of salt and sugar for 10 minutes until it loses its raw edge.
  4. Toast the torn pide in a dry pan until the edges crisp, then spread it over a warm platter and spoon over half the tomato sauce.
  5. Pile the lamb on top and cover with the rest of the sauce.
  6. Char the peppers and tomatoes in the pan and lay them at the side. Spoon the strained yogurt in a wide band across the plate.
  7. Melt the remaining butter with the pul biber until it foams and turns a light nut brown, then pour it sizzling over the lamb and serve at once.
Karadeniz Hamsi Tava, cornmeal crusted anchovies fried golden and served with lemon

Hamsi Tava

Black Sea anchovies in cornmeal

30 min·4 servings·Easy

Winter on the Black Sea coast in one pan. Small silver anchovies rolled in coarse cornmeal and fried in clarified butter until the crust crackles, served with sumac onions and a hard squeeze of lemon.

Ingredients

  • 800 g fresh anchovies (hamsi), heads removed and cleaned
  • 1 tsp fine salt
  • 200 g coarse cornmeal (mısır unu)
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 150 g sadeyağ (clarified butter), for frying
  • 1 red onion, sliced paper thin
  • 1 tsp sumac
  • A large handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
  • 1 lemon, in wedges
  • Rocket leaves (roka), to serve

Instructions

  1. Rinse the anchovies in cold water, drain well, and pat them very dry. Season with the salt and leave 10 minutes.
  2. Mix the cornmeal with black pepper in a wide dish and roll each fish through it, pressing lightly so the crust holds.
  3. Heat the sadeyağ in a wide heavy pan until a pinch of cornmeal sizzles at once.
  4. Lay the anchovies in a single layer, tails to the centre like a fan, and fry 2 to 3 minutes without moving them.
  5. Turn once and fry a further 2 minutes until deep gold and crisp, then lift onto a rack rather than paper so the crust stays dry.
  6. Toss the onion with the sumac and parsley and pile it beside the fish with the rocket and lemon. Eat while very hot.
Ege Zeytinyagli Enginar, artichokes braised with broad beans and carrots in olive oil

Zeytinyağlı Enginar

Aegean artichokes in olive oil

55 min·4 servings·Medium

The calm centre of an Aegean table. Artichoke hearts braised gently with broad beans, carrot, and spring onion in plenty of olive oil, then cooled to room temperature so the flavours settle and the dill comes forward.

Ingredients

  • 6 artichoke hearts, fresh or frozen
  • Juice of 2 lemons, divided
  • 120 ml good cold pressed olive oil (zeytinyağı)
  • 4 spring onions, sliced
  • 2 carrots, cut into small dice
  • 200 g broad beans, fresh or frozen
  • 2 waxy potatoes, cut into small dice
  • 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp salt
  • 250 ml hot water
  • A large bunch of dill, finely chopped

Instructions

  1. Keep the artichoke hearts in a bowl of cold water with the juice of one lemon so they stay pale.
  2. Warm the olive oil in a wide pan over a low heat and soften the spring onions for 4 minutes without letting them colour.
  3. Add the carrot, potato, and broad beans, turn them through the oil, and cook 5 minutes.
  4. Set the artichokes hollow side up on top, sprinkle over the sugar and salt, and pour in the hot water with the remaining lemon juice.
  5. Cover and braise on the lowest heat for 30 to 35 minutes, until a knife slips easily into an artichoke base.
  6. Take the pan off the heat, scatter over half the dill, and leave it covered until it reaches room temperature.
  7. Spoon the vegetables into the artichoke cups, pour the pan juices over, and finish with the rest of the dill.
Lokanta Mercimek Corbasi, a smooth red lentil soup finished with mint butter

Mercimek Çorbası

Red lentil soup with mint butter

40 min·6 servings·Easy

The soup every lokanta in the country keeps on the stove. Red lentils cooked soft with carrot and potato, blended velvet smooth, and finished with butter bloomed with dried mint and pul biber.

Ingredients

  • 300 g red lentils, rinsed until the water runs clear
  • 60 g butter, divided
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1 potato, diced
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste (salça)
  • 1.5 litres water or light chicken stock
  • 1 tsp salt and plenty of black pepper
  • 1 tsp dried mint (nane)
  • 1 tsp pul biber, plus lemon wedges to serve

Instructions

  1. Melt 30 g of the butter in a heavy pot and soften the onion over a medium heat for 6 minutes until glassy.
  2. Add the carrot and potato and cook 3 minutes, then stir in the tomato paste and let it fry for a minute so it darkens.
  3. Tip in the lentils, pour over the water, and bring to the boil, skimming any foam that rises.
  4. Lower the heat, cover, and simmer 25 minutes until the lentils have collapsed completely.
  5. Blend until perfectly smooth, then season with the salt and pepper and loosen with a little hot water if needed.
  6. Melt the remaining butter in a small pan, take it off the heat, and stir in the dried mint and pul biber so they bloom without burning.
  7. Ladle the soup into warm bowls, swirl the red mint butter over each one, and serve with lemon.
Fırın Simit, golden sesame crusted bread rings resting on a bakery board

Simit

Sesame rings dipped in pekmez

2 hr 30 min·8 rings·Medium

The bread of every Turkish morning, sold from carts before the city is fully awake. Twisted rings dipped in grape molasses, rolled thick in sesame, and baked until the crust shatters and the crumb stays soft.

Ingredients

  • 500 g strong bread flour
  • 7 g instant yeast
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1.5 tsp fine salt
  • 300 ml warm water
  • 30 g soft butter
  • 150 ml grape molasses (pekmez)
  • 150 ml warm water, for the dipping bath
  • 250 g toasted sesame seeds
  • White cheese and black tea, to serve

Instructions

  1. Whisk the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt, then add the warm water and soft butter and knead 10 minutes to a smooth elastic dough.
  2. Cover and let it rise about 1 hour until doubled.
  3. Divide into 8 pieces, then halve each piece and roll two ropes about 55 cm long.
  4. Twist the two ropes around each other, bring the ends together, and press firmly to seal a ring.
  5. Stir the pekmez into the warm water in a shallow bowl. Dip each ring, let the excess drip away, then press it into the sesame on both sides.
  6. Rest the rings on lined trays for 20 minutes while the oven heats to 220°C (430°F).
  7. Bake 15 to 18 minutes until deep chestnut brown, and cool on a rack just long enough to handle.
Hatay Kunefe, a golden syrup soaked pastry topped with crushed pistachios

Künefe

Cheese pastry in clarified butter

45 min·6 servings·Medium

The pride of Hatay, and the reason for the small copper pans. Shredded kadayıf worked through clarified butter, packed around fresh cheese, browned on both sides, and soaked in cool syrup the moment it leaves the fire.

Ingredients

  • 400 g kadayıf (shredded filo pastry)
  • 150 g sadeyağ (clarified butter), warm and liquid
  • 400 g fresh unsalted stretching cheese, sliced and soaked 20 minutes in cold water
  • 400 g sugar
  • 300 ml water
  • A few drops of lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp crushed pistachios, plus more to finish
  • A pinch of salt
  • Clotted cream (kaymak), to serve
  • Strong black tea, to serve

Instructions

  1. Make the syrup first: boil the sugar, water, and lemon juice for 10 minutes, then leave it to cool completely.
  2. Chop the kadayıf roughly, then rub the warm clarified butter through it with your hands until every strand is glossy.
  3. Press half the kadayıf firmly into a wide shallow pan, right to the edges.
  4. Drain and pat the cheese dry, lay it over the base leaving a clear border, then cover with the rest of the kadayıf and press down hard.
  5. Cook over a medium low heat for 12 to 15 minutes, turning the pan often, until the underside is deep gold.
  6. Slide it onto a plate, invert it back into the pan, and cook the second side 8 to 10 minutes.
  7. Pour the cool syrup evenly over the hot pastry, scatter with pistachios, and serve at once with kaymak and tea.
A cook working at a warm stove in a busy home kitchen
Our Kitchen

The Kitchen Behind Gamrik Mutfak

Gamrik Mutfak is a small home kitchen devoted to the cooking of Turkey, a country where a meal is never one plate but a table, where soup opens the day as often as it closes it, and where nobody is allowed to leave hungry. We write these recipes down the way they are still cooked in family kitchens and neighbourhood lokantas, patiently, precisely, and always with a generous hand on the butter.

Our only house rule is an old one: butter churned properly, sadeyağ clarified slowly over a low flame, and olive oil pressed cold from the groves of the Aegean. Vegetable oil never comes through our door, because it never sat on the tables we learned from.

Afiyet olsun, may it feed you well.