♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - This week on Milk Street, we travel to Turkey and make gözleme.

It's a savory Turkish flatbread stuffed with spinach and cheese.

Then we make a tomato-onion salad from Southern Turkey that is dressed with pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, and herbs.

Finally, we finish up with one of my personal favorites, a steak marinated in a pomegranate molasses, Aleppo pepper, and rosemary.

Please stay tuned to Milk Street as we explore the cooking of Turkey.

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♪ ♪ - Ana, how are you?

- I'm great, Chris, thanks.

- I'm great because I'm here at Oleana.

It's a beautiful patio, where you serve dinner.

You're famous for your Turkish inspiration and your food, but you started at, I think, La Varenne.

- Yeah.

- The French chateau.

- That's right, right.

- In France.

And so how did you go from French training to Turkey?

- I really wanted to learn, understand, sort of, the technique and the rules of cooking in general.

So, obviously, when you want to do that, I mean, you got to go to France.

And then I came back from France.

I worked for Moncef Meddeb, who was a Tunisian chef.

After I worked with him, I went to a place called Casablanca.

The owner was Sari Abul-Jubein, and he was born in Palestine but raised in Syria.

And he was having dinner with a Turkish woman one day when I, when I was cooking.

She offered, "Hey, you should send your chef to Turkey and study with me and I'll teach her everything I know."

It would literally be a crossroads for me as far as changing the way I thought about food and eating food, and thinking about vegetables and things like that-- it really did change me.

- How did it change?

I mean, you have La Varenne.

You have the French methodology, which is, I think, you know, heat and technique, and time to develop flavor.

- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

- How did you find Turkish cooking?

It must have been different than what you'd been trained for.

- What I loved about it was, the food was rich but not heavy.

Ayfer, the woman who hosted me, she had a potluck: basically, she invited 30 of her friends to cook dishes that they really loved, flavors I'd never tasted before, and a lot of vegetable dishes, but then a lot of, some meat dishes, but that were heavy on vegetables.

So it was, like, the ratios were all different from what I'm used to.

It wasn't about this protein anymore.

It was about these flavors coming together.

When you'd take a bite, you'd go, "Oh-- oh!"

And then you'd take another bite and you'd go, "Oh!"

Like, there'd be something else you'd get from it, but also, tasting 35 things at lunchtime, like, usually, you'd feel terrible after that.

Like, that's just too much.

And I realized, "I don't feel bad," like, "This is, this is all food that I could, I can actually eat."

Whereas in a French restaurant, and you have a 35-course tasting menu, you feel terrible, right?

- $1,000 and four hours later... - Exactly!

- You have a stomachache.

Okay, so gözleme is yufka, a flatbread stuffed.

What do you put in it?

- So I like to do a mixture of cheeses.

You want to take that cheese and you want to just load it, load it with fresh herbs and lots of sautéed onions.

- So flatbreads, obviously, all around the world, are incredibly diverse and popular.

Not a big tradition in the United States, but they're simple, a lot of them don't even use yeast, and you can make them in ten or 15 minutes.

Why are flatbreads not tradition here?

Why is it always the big, yeasted European bread?

- It was a bread that would preserve, almost.

So you could dry it out and layer it up.

So if you go to areas in the north of Greece or in Turkey, they're literally, like, air-drying the flatbreads.

And then they use it almost like we would use, like, dried pasta, in a way.

Before they eat it, they can just spray it with a little water and reconstitute it, and then use it for whatever they're...

Whether they're making pies with it, making a flatbread sandwich, or a stuffed flatbread to eat as a street food or a snack.

So there's many different variations of it.

But I think the point is is that it preserves and they can carry it with them and then they can kind of reconstitute it.

The one we're gonna make today is called yufka, and it's an unleavened flatbread.

It's kind of...

I think there's a lot of debate about this, but in the north of Greece, they make the same dough and same preparation and they call it phyllo, so we think this is the origin of phyllo.

- Hm.

- And it's so, so easy to make.

I'm not a dough person or a pastry person at all, and I make this at home with my daughter.

It is so easy and non-fussy.

Sometimes, if you're tight on space, you can just knead it inside the bowl because it doesn't take much.

♪ ♪ Then it just goes right on a plancha or cast-iron pan or a non-stick pan.

I don't want to cook it until it's, like, brittle and dry, but I want to cook it until it starts to puff.

But if it's a little bit medium-rare on the dough side, it's okay, because we're gonna fill it and toast it again.

- Finish it.

- So, and I want them to be kind of soft and supple.

- So if you don't keep them moist, they're gonna get too stiff to fold up?

- Yes, but the beauty of these is, if they do dry out a little bit, you can just get your hands wet and moisten them back up.

♪ ♪ The spinach will kind of melt into the bread.

- Oh.

That's really good.

- Right?

You know, a little bit of the cheese, but then the mint comes through.

- I love it.

- Ana, thank you.

- Thanks, Chris.

♪ ♪ - You know, I really do love flatbreads.

Because North America, other than Mexico, of course, doesn't have a big tradition of flatbreads.

Pita, saj, for example, barbari from Iran, Somali pancakes, et cetera.

They're really easy to make, and some of them have no yeast and no baking powder.

As Ana Sortun said, yufka is one of those great flatbreads from Turkey that has no leavening at all.

And to get started, you have to make the dough.

The dough is very simple to make.

A couple of tablespoons of olive oil, a little salt, two cups of flour, and two-thirds a cup of warm water, around 110 degrees.

You mix that up for just a few minutes, take that out, put it in a lightly oiled bowl, cover it, and let it sit for about an hour-- and you get this.

Now, the beauty of this dough is, unlike many other flatbreads, it's so easy to work with, it's not gonna snap back on you.

And the first thing we need to do is to divide this into six pieces, because we're making six yufka and gözleme, and one way to do that, instead of just having a ball of dough and trying to divide it into six, which is hard, if you roll it out a little bit in a log, it's a little bit easier to see.

So we'll divide that in half, and then we'll do this in thirds.

♪ ♪ And then we'll roll into dough balls, like that.

This is a very pliable dough because of the olive oil.

So it's really easy to work with.

Okay.

So now we have six balls of dough, and we'll cover the ones we're not using with a towel to keep them moist.

You don't want to use too much flour.

Just a little bit on your work surface.

And now we're gonna roll it out.

Now, unlike pie pastry dough-- which is kind of hard to roll out because it kind of snaps back on you, it's got a lot of fat in it-- this is really easy to do.

And we can get it rolled out to eight or nine inches.

It's not that critical, but you want about eight inches.

I'd say that's about eight inches.

♪ ♪ And we'll just put that on a square of parchment paper.

A little more flour, and we'll do another one.

♪ ♪ Now the fun part: you get to actually cook the yufka.

They only take about 90 seconds.

You want to heat up a cast-iron pan slow and low, about ten minutes.

It takes a while for it to get up to speed, but the nice thing is, it retains heat, which means you can cook a bunch of these without losing heat in the pan.

If you just take a little bit of water, you can throw it in the pan like that.

It should immediately go up in steam, and then you know it's ready.

So we'll start with the first one.

Just lay that in the pan.

And what you're gonna want to see are two things.

You'll want to see a little bit of brown spotting on the bottom side, and it's gonna puff up just a little bit, as well.

We're only cooking these on one side.

And that's because later, we're gonna fill these and fold them over.

And now we're gonna take that out and put this into a bag.

And we'll let that sit.

That way, it'll remain pliable.

So let's do a second one.

♪ ♪ So you can see, it's starting to puff up, and if you look underneath, so there we go, that's number two.

And again, we'll put this in the bag right on top of the other one, and that'll keep it nice and soft, and we'll just keep going.

So now it's time for the filling, that starts with onion, which we've sautéed for a few minutes, and that's ready to go.

And now we have three types of cheese.

We have a cup of whole milk ricotta.

And we're sort of making up for kasseri cheese, which is the typical Turkish cheese, also from Greece.

It's a sheep's milk cheese, and that's what they would typically use for this filling.

But we're gonna do three cheeses to sort of approximate that flavor.

So we're starting, as I said, with whole milk ricotta, we're using three-quarter cup of feta, which is crumbled.

And then if you do have kasseri cheese, that's fine.

If not, gruyère seems to work pretty well, too.

Again, it has a similar flavor profile.

The other thing that we love about this recipe is the combination of herbs-- fresh herbs with cheese.

So we have dill, we have mint, which is really nice, typical in Turkish cooking, and also parsley-- we'll add that in.

Then a little bit of pepper goes in, as well.

I'll just mix that together.

So fresh herbs, three kinds of cheese, a little pepper.

And that's the basis for the filling for the gözleme.

Now, the last component of the filling is spinach.

We took a five-ounce package of spinach, we chopped it.

We're gonna add just a little bit of salt, about a quarter-teaspoon of salt, and just mix it in with our hands.

This will make it wilt a little bit.

You want to pretty finely chop it, as well.

And that's gonna go on top of the cheese-herb filling.

So let's make a little bit of room here, because now we have to assemble these.

So we're gonna start by taking one of them.

And again, they're cooked on one side.

They're still very pliable, because they've been in that gallon bag.

And now we're gonna start with the filling.

We're gonna divide it into thirds, essentially.

And just put it down the center third.

You want to leave about an inch around the edge of this.

So while we're doing this, we're heating up the skillet, the cast-iron skillet, again, to get it nice and hot.

And that's going to be used with some oil to finish cooking these on both sides to crisp up the exterior.

So that's pretty good, and put a, just a little bit of spinach right in the middle.

♪ ♪ Like that, and now we're just gonna fold it up.

The ends will be open-- we're just gonna fold it up over like that, and then fold it back.

Now, I like to use a little bit of water, seal the deal, and turn this over and seal it.

♪ ♪ So now we're gonna wait for the skillet to heat.

It's almost there, I like to put my hand about an inch or two above the skillet.

And if you do this a few times, you'll sort of get a sense of it.

You'll see a little bit of smoking.

I would say it's almost there.

And we'll put about a tablespoon of olive oil in the pan, because you really want to crisp up both sides of these.

So it's crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.

Okay, that's pretty good-- now we can do two at a time.

♪ ♪ And they'll take two, two-and-a-half minutes a side.

You want to check them-- you want it nice dark brown.

You want to get it crispy, but obviously, you don't want to burn them.

So we should check them.

It's been a little over two minutes.

Yeah, it's nicely browned on the other side.

♪ ♪ Cheese is melty.

♪ ♪ So that's two, and we'll finish up with the next four.

Again fill, fold, and two-and-a-half minutes a side.

So the last two are done, I'll just take them out.

That's number five and then, this one's for me.

♪ ♪ So that's our yufka flatbread, that thin flatbread we cooked on one side, filled it with three different kinds of cheese and herbs and spinach, which makes it the Turkish specialty gözleme, which is a filled yufka.

And a huge thank you, by the way, to Ana Sortun of Oleana restaurant in Cambridge.

♪ ♪ - Today, I'm going to be making a Turkish tomato and onion salad.

Now, this recipe is inspired by the Manzara restaurant in Sögüt, which is a city in Southeastern Turkey.

I love this salad because it's bright, it's bracing, it features a star ingredient, and it is super-simple to make.

So let's get to it.

These are white onions, thinly sliced, and here's an important point: we're going to macerate them.

That means we're going to quick-pickle them without cooking them, so that they mellow and lose their bite, but retain all their flavor.

To do this, I'm going to use some lemon juice as well as our star ingredient, pomegranate molasses.

It's important you buy very high-quality pomegranate molasses.

The low-grade ones tend to have added sugar, so be sure to look at the ingredients.

So I'm gonna add my onions to the bowl.

♪ ♪ And then in goes the lemon juice.

♪ ♪ And the pomegranate molasses.

To that, I'm going to add some salt and pepper.

And this gets stirred very well.

♪ ♪ That's it.

This is going to sit for ten minutes, and I'm going to prepare the rest of the ingredients in the meantime.

My onions are beautifully soft and mellow.

And I'm going to continue building the dressing in the bowl, adding olive oil.

♪ ♪ I'm going to mix this very well to make sure the dressing is emulsified.

♪ ♪ And now I'm going to add the tomatoes.

I'm using cocktail tomatoes, which are very easy to find all year round and stay flavorful.

They're small, they've been cut into wedges.

So those are going in now.

♪ ♪ And now I'm going to add the herbs.

I have here some fresh flat-leaf parsley.

I have chopped, fresh dill, and-- this is optional-- some dried mint.

♪ ♪ Now, this salad is typically served with a traditional Turkish mezze platter, but it's really good with grilled meats and kebabs, as well.

Before I serve this, I'm going to let it sit for about 15 minutes to make sure the tomatoes soften a little bit and the flavors meld.

So, my salad has been sitting for about 15 minutes.

The tomatoes have softened, the flavors should have all melded by now, and I've transferred it into this lovely serving bowl.

And I'm going to serve myself some.

♪ ♪ So here we have our beautiful, bright, and bracing Turkish tomato and onion salad.

It's perfect on its own, or also with grilled meats and kebabs, a great summer dish.

I'm super-excited to share this with you.

This pomegranate molasses are my favorite touch, and it's so, so, so easy.

♪ ♪ - Another recipe that we learned about in Sögüt in the southeastern part of Turkey was this rib-eye steak that was marinated in this delicious mixture of pomegranate molasses and rosemary.

We find that the nice tang that comes from the pomegranate molasses and the resinous notes from the rosemary really play well and complement the kind of richness and char of the rib-eye steak.

So the first thing that we have to do is marinate the steak.

And that requires grating down some onion.

So here I have a box grater set in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.

And we're gonna take our quartered white onion here, and we'll grate it on the largest side.

Now, as you're grating the onions, go ahead and have it at a nice 90-degree angle just to get it started.

And once you start seeing the onion start to break down, go ahead and switch your hand to an open palm motion.

So that way you don't cut any of your fingertips.

Now, there's no amount of flavor that's worth cutting your hand, so once you get to a nice, thin sliver part of it, go ahead and move on to the next piece.

♪ ♪ Okay, so now that all of our onion is grated, we could go ahead and mix in our pomegranate molasses.

Now, here I have a quarter of a cup, goes right into our baking dish.

And then to that, we'll also be adding in one teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of black pepper, as well as one teaspoon of Aleppo pepper.

It has this really vibrant, red color, as well as a nice, sweet peppery note, almost similar to that of raisins and sun-dried tomatoes.

If you don't have any Aleppo pepper on hand, go ahead and use a mixture of three quarter-teaspoons sweet paprika and one quarter-teaspoon of cayenne.

And finally, we're going to bring some herbaceousness to this marinade in the form of chopped rosemary.

We just give this all a stir.

And that is it-- that's the marinade.

All we gotta do is add in our rib-eye steaks.

Now, these rib-eye steaks are anywhere between 12 to 14 ounces.

But the important part is, they're only about an inch thick.

So we'll add our steaks to the baking dish.

So now that we have our steaks in the dish, we give them a quick little turn just to make sure that all of that marinade coats each and every side.

So once you give these a turn, all we gotta do is let them marinate for at least 30 minutes all the way up to 24 hours.

If you do go more than an hour, though, you'll want to flip these in their pan just to make sure that that marinade really sinks in.

♪ ♪ Our steaks here have been marinating in the fridge, but we pulled them out about 30 minutes ago just to let them come back to room temperature.

From here, we want to scrape off all of the marinade from these steaks, because the marinade has both moisture and sugar, which are going to be complete deterrents to forming a nice, seared crust on the outside of these steaks.

So now from here, we'll go ahead and pat them as dry as we can get them.

Now, while I pat these dry.

I'm going to have my grill pan here preheating.

♪ ♪ So with my grill pan preheated, we can go ahead and brush it with just a little bit of neutral oil just to prevent that sticking.

Now, if you are cooking this indoors, keep in mind, you definitely want to open up a window and turn the vent on, so that way any smoke can get vented out.

♪ ♪ My grill pan has come up to temp, and the reason I can tell is because the oil has begun to smoke.

So from here, we're going to add in our steaks.

(sizzling loudly) I like to give them a little squeeze with the tongs, just so that way, they can hold their form.

But once they hit the pan, cook them undisturbed for about five to seven minutes to really develop that crust on one side.

♪ ♪ That looks phenomenal, so these are ready to flip.

Now I'm going to let this cook for another five to six minutes until it's about 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's for medium-rare.

♪ ♪ And we'll give them a moment to rest for about ten minutes.

♪ ♪ We're also going to top this off with just a little bit of butter cut into smaller pieces, and give it a little rosemary, as well.

And the residual heat from these steaks will not only melt the butter, but also bloom the rosemary in that butter to get that nice, herbaceous flavor throughout.

We want to go ahead and tent this with a piece of aluminum foil.

♪ ♪ And from here, like I said, we'll let this rest for ten minutes and then we'll come back and give it a cut.

♪ ♪ My steaks have rested for ten minutes.

All that butter has melted and that rosemary flavor has started to distribute through.

I think it's time for us to cut, so...

Transfer our steaks over to a cutting board.

And I'll cut them one at a time for you.

And like any other meat, you want to be sure that you're cutting against the grain, not with it, so that way, each bite is nice and tender.

So the best way to look is just to see what direction the connective tissue is moving in and then cut perpendicular to that.

♪ ♪ All right, now all we gotta do is transfer over to our plates.

♪ ♪ Beautiful.

Just to give this a little bit more flavor, we'll top this off with just a pinch of salt.

♪ ♪ A little bit of black pepper.

♪ ♪ And a drizzle of pomegranate molasses, just to bring some brightness back to the game.

♪ ♪ And finally, a little sprinkle of fresh rosemary.

That is a rib-eye steak with pomegranate molasses and a little bit of fresh rosemary.

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- Funding for this series was provided by the following.

- That meal.

You sautéed, you seared, and you served, cooking with All-Clad, bonded cookware designed, engineered, and assembled in the U.S.A. for over 50 years.

All-Clad-- for all your kitchen adventures.

♪ ♪ (man speaking Hebrew) - (speaking world language) - Bonjour, je m'appelle Chris.

- We call it supa kanja.

It's the word for gumbo.

♪ ♪ - Christopher, you have to make the authentic, original cotoletta alla Bolognese for me.

♪ ♪ - So this is the Eduardo García blender.

- This is the no electricity.

♪ ♪ - Next is dessert.

- That is really good.

♪ ♪ I notice when you cook sometimes, you add a little bit of something, and then you just put the whole bowl in.

- I like to be generous with my food.

Generosity is important in cooking.

- That's true.

♪ ♪ - Can start building bridges, and food is definitely a perfect common ground.

♪ ♪ - This is a generational thing.

It's, it's something that you inherit.

♪ ♪ - Yeah, that was great.

(woman speaking Mandarin) - What was this for?

What did she say?

- You get one more chance.

- Salute.

- How is it?

He's speechless.

- I'm speechless.

That's so good.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪