GOZLEME (Gözleme)

Gozleme is best done by professional gozleme cook, located in various holiday spots in Turkey. They make it on a sac (heated metal plate), continuously engaged in flattening the pastries. Then we enjoy our gozleme with cold ayran in a hot summer day. Homesick? Me? Yes! Well, good news: we can make our own gozleme in our humble kitchen. I attached a video, featuring Fatma Ergul, making us the delicious gozleme with cheese. There are stuffing varieties to this recipe, so I added three; with cheese, meat or potato.

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

• 1/2 kg flour
• Salt, 1 teaspoon
• Cold water

For cheese stuffing:

• 1/2 cottage cheese (lor peynir)
• 5 spring onions
• 1/2 pack parsley
• Paprika, 1/2 teaspoon
• Blackpepper

For meat stuffing:

• 1/2 kg minced meat
• 1 onion
• 1/2 pack parsley
• 50 mL vegetable oil
• Paprika
• Blackpepper
• Salt

For potato stuffing:

• 2 potatoes
• 1 onion
• 1/2 pack parsley
• 40 mL vegetable oil
• Paprika
• Black pepper
• Salt

Preparation:

For the pastry:

• Sieve the flour in a deep bowl, add salt. Start kneading by adding water by palm fulls. The flour should come into a soft dough to an earlobe consistency as in most well known expression. If you add too much water, do add a little bit more flour.
• Make balls a bit larger than an egg, roll in your hand and then flatten into a pastry. Please see the video below for a detailed description.

• Fill in with the desired stuffing and close like an envelope. You may trim the edges for a professional finish.
• Cook on a heated pan without oil first, then switch sides and spread butter. Switch sides again, in 2 minutes and spread butter. Whole gozleme should be cooked in under 10 minutes on a high heat.

For the cheese stuffing:

• Slice the spring onions, chop all the parsley.
• In a bowl mix with cheese and add spices to your taste.

For meat stuffing:

• Add minced meat, diced onions and oil in a pan and cook until the meat is done.
• Add spices and salt, give it a whirl.
• Turn the heat off and add chopped parsley.

For potato stuffing:

• Dice the potatoes in small cubes.
• In a pan, fry briefly with the oil.
• Add diced onions, salt and spices, give it a whirl.
• Turn the heat off and add chopped parsley.

♬ Music attached to the video is Bach, BWV 846 by Edwin Fischer. It can be reached here.