Anadolu Sofrası · The Anatolian Table

Anatolian Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Step into the village kitchens of Anatolia, where mantı simmers under mint butter, bread puffs on a hot sac griddle, and pilaf begins with a spoon of golden sadeyağ. Copper pots, honest fats, and flavors carried from grandmother to grandmother.

Explore the Recipes
Tereyağı✦ Sadeyağ✦ Kuyruk Yağı✦ Zeytinyağı
An elegantly plated Anatolian dish on a dark wooden table
✦ Hünkar Beğendi
From the recipe collection
Tereyağı

Butter First

Anatolia's kitchens were built on butter churned from highland milk. Every soup, pilaf, and pastry in this collection begins with it, never with a refined seed oil.

Sadeyağ & Kuyruk Yağı

The Old Fats

Sadeyağ, the clarified butter of the Anatolian larder, and kuyruk yağı, the prized tail fat of the kebab houses, give a depth of flavor no vegetable oil can imitate. By the Aegean, good olive oil does the same work.

Asla

Never Vegetable Oil

No seed oils, no shortcuts. Only the traditional fats that the lokantas and village kitchens of Anatolia have trusted for generations.

✦
From Our Kitchen

Turkish Anatolian Recipes

Six beloved dishes from the tables of Anatolia, each cooked with the honest fats that bring out the best in every ingredient.

Saray Hünkar Beğendi, tender braised lamb served over a creamy smoked eggplant purée

Hünkar Beğendi

Braised lamb over smoked eggplant

1 hr 30·4 servings·Medium

The Sultan's Delight of the old Ottoman palace kitchens. Lamb braised slowly in butter and tomato, spooned over a silken purée of fire-roasted eggplant and aged kaşar cheese.

Ingredients

  • 600 g lamb shoulder, cut into 3 cm cubes
  • 4 tbsp tereyağı (butter), divided
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 ripe tomatoes, grated, plus 1 tbsp pepper paste
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 large eggplants
  • 3 tbsp plain flour
  • 300 ml warm whole milk
  • 80 g aged kaşar cheese, grated, plus a squeeze of lemon

Instructions

  1. Melt 2 tbsp of the butter in a heavy pot and brown the lamb in batches until deeply colored on all sides.
  2. Add the onion and garlic and soften for 5 minutes, then stir in the grated tomato, pepper paste, salt, and pepper.
  3. Pour in water just to cover, put on the lid, and braise gently for about 1 hour until the lamb is spoon tender and the sauce has thickened.
  4. Meanwhile char the whole eggplants over a flame or under a hot grill until collapsed, then scoop the smoky flesh, toss with the lemon, and chop fine.
  5. Melt the remaining 2 tbsp butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour, and cook 2 minutes without coloring.
  6. Whisk in the warm milk, then beat in the eggplant and simmer 5 minutes until thick and silken. Stir in the kaşar and season.
  7. Spread the beğendi over warm plates, crown with the braised lamb and its sauce, and serve at once.
Karadeniz Hamsi Tava, golden cornmeal crusted fish served with lemon and herbs

Hamsi Tava

Black Sea anchovies in cornmeal

30 min·4 servings·Easy

The pride of the Black Sea coast. Fresh anchovies dredged in golden cornmeal, arranged like the petals of a sunflower, and pan-fried in sadeyağ until crisp at the edges.

Ingredients

  • 600 g fresh anchovies (hamsi), cleaned and butterflied
  • 150 g fine cornmeal
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • 4 tbsp sadeyağ (clarified butter)
  • 1 red onion, sliced into fine half moons
  • 1 tsp sumac
  • A handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
  • 1 lemon, in wedges
  • Fresh crusty bread, to serve

Instructions

  1. Pat the anchovies very dry and season them with the salt and pepper.
  2. Toss the fish in the cornmeal until every fillet wears a thin golden jacket, shaking off the excess.
  3. Arrange the fillets in a wide pan in slightly overlapping circles, like the petals of a flower.
  4. Spoon the sadeyağ over and around the fish and set the pan over medium heat.
  5. Fry 3 to 4 minutes until the underside is deep gold, then place a plate over the pan and flip the whole round in one confident motion.
  6. Slide it back and fry the second side 2 to 3 minutes more until crisp.
  7. Toss the onion with the sumac and parsley and serve the hamsi hot with the salad, lemon wedges, and bread.
Ege İmam Bayıldı, olive oil braised eggplant filled with onions, tomatoes, and herbs

İmam Bayıldı

Olive oil braised stuffed eggplant

1 hr 10·4 servings·Easy

The dish that made the imam swoon. Slender eggplants filled with sweet onions, tomato, and garlic, then braised slowly in good olive oil and served cool, the Aegean way.

Ingredients

  • 4 slender eggplants
  • 150 ml olive oil, divided
  • 2 large onions, sliced into thin half moons
  • 4 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 3 ripe tomatoes, 2 chopped and 1 sliced
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • A large handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
  • Juice of half a lemon

Instructions

  1. Peel the eggplants in stripes, leaving bands of skin, and salt them for 20 minutes, then pat dry.
  2. Warm half the olive oil in a wide pan and fry the eggplants gently on all sides until softened and lightly golden. Set them in a baking dish.
  3. In the same pan, cook the onions in the remaining oil until sweet and translucent, about 10 minutes.
  4. Add the garlic, chopped tomatoes, sugar, salt, and pepper and simmer 5 minutes, then fold in most of the parsley.
  5. Slit each eggplant lengthwise, open it like a boat, and pack it generously with the onion filling. Lay a tomato slice on top.
  6. Pour a small glass of hot water and the lemon juice around the eggplants, cover, and braise on low heat or in a 180°C (350°F) oven for 30 minutes.
  7. Cool to room temperature, shower with the remaining parsley, and serve with bread to catch the oil.
Yayla Yayla Çorbası, creamy yogurt and rice soup finished with mint butter

Yayla Çorbası

Highland yogurt soup with mint butter

40 min·4 servings·Easy

The soup of the high summer pastures. Thick yogurt and rice simmered into a gentle, warming bowl, finished with foaming butter stained red with pepper and fragrant with dried mint.

Ingredients

  • 1.2 litres chicken stock or water
  • 70 g short grain rice, rinsed
  • 400 g thick strained yogurt
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tbsp plain flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 60 g tereyağı (butter)
  • 1 tbsp dried mint
  • ½ tsp pul biber (Aleppo pepper)
  • White pepper, to taste

Instructions

  1. Bring the stock to a simmer, add the rice, and cook 15 minutes until tender.
  2. In a bowl, whisk the yogurt with the egg yolk and flour until completely smooth.
  3. Temper the yogurt by whisking in a ladle of the hot broth, then another, so it cannot split.
  4. Pour the yogurt mixture back into the pot in a thin stream, stirring constantly.
  5. Simmer very gently for 10 minutes, never letting it boil, and season with the salt and white pepper.
  6. Melt the butter in a small pan until it foams, pull it off the heat, and stir in the dried mint and pul biber.
  7. Ladle the soup into bowls and spoon the sizzling mint butter over each one at the table.
Köy Fırını Bazlama, golden griddle breads stacked on a floured bakery board

Bazlama

Village griddle bread with butter

2 hr 30·8 breads·Medium

The pillowy flatbread of the Anatolian village. A soft yogurt dough cooked on a hot sac griddle until it puffs like a cushion, then brushed generously with melted butter while still steaming.

Ingredients

  • 500 g bread flour
  • 7 g instant yeast
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1½ tsp salt
  • 150 ml warm whole milk
  • 200 ml warm water
  • 3 tbsp thick yogurt
  • 60 g tereyağı (butter), melted, for brushing
  • A little flour, for shaping
  • Honey or white cheese, to serve (optional)

Instructions

  1. Whisk the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt, then add the milk, water, and yogurt and knead 10 minutes to a soft, supple dough.
  2. Cover and let it rise about 1 hour until doubled.
  3. Divide into 8 pieces, roll into balls, and rest 20 minutes under a cloth.
  4. Pat each ball into a round about 1.5 cm thick, keeping the dough soft and lightly floured.
  5. Heat a dry cast iron pan or sac over medium heat and cook each bread 2 to 3 minutes per side until it puffs and takes on deep golden spots.
  6. Brush the hot breads generously with the melted butter and stack them under a cloth so they stay tender.
  7. Serve warm, torn by hand, with honey or white cheese if you like.
Bayram İrmik Helvası, warm golden semolina halva served in generous spoonfuls

İrmik Helvası

Toasted semolina halva with pine nuts

45 min·6 servings·Easy

The dessert of holidays and homecomings. Coarse semolina toasted patiently in butter with pine nuts until amber and nutty, then drunk full of warm sweetened milk and served in soft spoonfuls.

Ingredients

  • 250 g coarse semolina
  • 120 g tereyağı (butter)
  • 2 tbsp pine nuts
  • 200 g sugar
  • 250 ml whole milk
  • 250 ml water
  • A pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla sugar (optional)
  • Ground cinnamon, to dust
  • Kaymak (clotted cream), to serve (optional)

Instructions

  1. Warm the milk, water, sugar, and salt in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves, then keep the syrup hot.
  2. Melt the butter in a heavy pot over medium low heat and add the pine nuts and semolina.
  3. Toast patiently, stirring without pause, for 15 to 20 minutes until the semolina turns a deep amber and smells of roasted hazelnuts.
  4. Pull the pot half off the heat and pour in the hot syrup carefully, it will hiss and sputter.
  5. Stir until the liquid is absorbed, then cover and cook on the lowest heat for 5 minutes.
  6. Turn off the heat and let the halva rest, covered with a cloth under the lid, for 10 minutes.
  7. Fluff with a fork, shape into spoonfuls, dust with cinnamon, and serve warm with kaymak.
A cook working at a warm stove in a busy home kitchen
Our Kitchen

The Kitchen Behind Golmid Mutfağı

Golmid Mutfağı is a small home kitchen devoted to the cooking of Anatolia, the vast heartland where breakfast stretches into midmorning, soup opens every proper meal, and tea is poured before anyone thinks to ask. We write these recipes down the way they are still cooked in village houses and neighborhood lokantas, patiently, precisely, and always with a generous hand on the butter.

Our only house rule is an old one: tereyağı from highland milk, sadeyağ clarified slowly over a low flame, kuyruk yağı rendered the way the kebab masters insist, and olive oil pressed by 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.