Metamorphosis

As some of you might know my in-laws are visiting right now. And one of the great things about it is that I get to witness my mother-in-law cooking some of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. I will try to go over the most interesting meals in my other posts but now I will tell you about something that is definitely the most unique dish I have ever eaten. It is a soup . It is called TARHANA and it takes about a week to make. The transformation that it undergoes on every stage is phenomenal. I am not going to give a recipe here - very few people in Turkey still know how to make it. In our fast paced life who has the time for it , right? So I consider myself lucky to say I have tried the real thing.

It all starts as a big pot of red bell peppers, tomatoes and onion. Nothing else. Whatever liquid you see on the photo are natural juices from the vegetables.

Then she added about a 2 pounds of yogurt and lots of flour and let it rise for a couple of days. Occasionally she would knead it to ensure proper rising.

Then when she felt like it was ready she torn it onto big pieces and spread them over the table to dry.

I helped her to break the big chunks into smaller pieces. And since the weather was still gorgeous the dough dried in a couple of days.

Then we brought it inside and with the help of my food processor we broke it down into almost dust. Still it had to dry even more.

Only after about 5 more days she was satisfied and was ready to put it away to store. As you can see we have much. And it would last for about a year. It becomes one of those very easy things to cook because all you do is dissolve 5-6 spoons in beef or chicken broth with some tomato paste. And of course some dry mint on top:)

I promise to update the post later with a picture of the soup itself. I can't really tell you what it tastes like but you definitely feel the sourness of the dough and the texture has some jellyness in it. Beautiful on a cold winter day.