However, the methods that the locals of different places apply in preparation usually vary from region to region. Although each difference is a new and exciting taste, in this blog, we try to prioritize, at least to start with, the most authentic--usually means simpler--way of cooking. We will concentrate on the main ingredients of the ancient dishes, and see their function and meaning both for the plate, and for the people bounded by their own natural sources, economics and ways of living. Trying the variations will be our following challenge after realizing the "authentic taste" in our contemporary Midwest.
Let's start with tirit. A Persian word tirit could mean broth or be referred to the old dish we just cooked. Tirit is cooked parts of the Blacks Sea, Marmara and Aegean regions, as well as the inland Anatolia. When I searched for the recipe, although the mentality of the dish is the same everywhere, I found several ways of cooking it, with different, or more and less ingredients. We decided to go with the plain one which is cooked in the Kastamonu city of Turkey for centuries. Our priority is to understand the taste and function of the main ingredients of tirit. Since every single ingredient has a great importance in the dishes we will cook, as it is the way in the villages they were made, we constantly look for the most natural food available in our town.
The ingredients of tirit are quite limited, and the recipe is more than simple.
Ingredients (for two people):
* 2 plain bagel (original is "Kastamonu bagel" which is made in the local bakeries)
* Broth (out of 1 pound of soup bone)
* Garlic (2 big 3 normal size cloves of garlic)
* Plain yogurt (1 cup)
* Ground beef (1/2 pound)
* 3 tablespoons of butter
* Paprika, red chilly pepper, cumin, black pepper, salt (depending on the taste)
Discussion of ingredients:
First of all, I believe that for this particular dish, the amounts of the ingredients used should be left to the individual taste. Some could like it with more broth, or some could like it with less yogurt, etc..
Among the ingredients above, the only thing that we really do not have here is the Kastamonu bagel. I considered cooking it myself, but still, since we do not have a proper bakery oven as they do, it is never going to be the same. So, I looked for the alternatives. Usual bagels seemed a good substitute. As another alternative, I also tried Italian ciabatta bread.
Broth is maybe the most important ingredient of tirit. It gives the major flavor itself and by mixing with the other ingredients, yields to different tastes. So, we went to our once in a week farmers market on Saturday, and purchased a pound of "soup bone" and same amount of ground beef from our usual farmer. The soup bone is a whole with the morrow inside, the bone in the middle and the meat outside. When something is both organic and local at the same time, you should expect a better taste besides a healthy nutrition. Well, you could use the artificial broths from the markets, too, but it will never be the same.
As for the yogurt, we always prefer organic whole milk yogurts. I actually cannot have the taste of yogurt with the low fat or fat free ones. I think that to have the taste, I usually eat more from those light products, so nothing changes in terms of calories. Our favorite brands are Stonyfield and Brown Cow. I loved Stonyfield more when it had the one inch thick cream on the top. Unfortunately, it is not like that, anymore. Nowadays, I go with Brown Cow for the cream.
Finally, please use real butter. Margarine is a processed, artificial food. It is not good for your health; it is not tasty, either. There is basically no need to have such unnecessary stuff at home. See the following page for a simple but coherent comparison between the two: http://dailydietitian.com/2010/08/25/butter-vs-margarine/
Here, I am able to find a Turkish brand butter from a Middle Eastern market in the town, and this is what I used in this dish. Even the big markets have real and organic butter, so it should not be a concern to find it here.
How to cook tirit:
Cooking tirit is really very easy. We even thought that tirit could be consumed as a fast food--maybe this was a little too ambitious, I accept.
Well, you should start with boiling the soup bone. You really have to boil it so much, maybe 2 or 3 hours, that the meat must separate from the bone automatically by itself. Now, one could say that how then it is a fast food after boiling some ingredient for 3 hours, but consider you boiled a lot of soup bone and have enough broth in the fridge for 6 more tirit! So you can make it as a one time thing. Also you do not need to be taking care of the dish while it is being boiled. Just check for the water once in an hour. For tirit, we only need the broth. This time, we used the meats from the soup bone for the keşkek, but you can consume it anyway you wish.
The local people cooking tirit and many other dishes do not really use spices. I think the reason lies in the fact that first, locals tend to prefer simple ways of preparing dishes, and second, they are not in the need of a favor from the spices, since the ingredients they use are extremely delicious anyway. They probably do not need cumin for the meat of the grass-fed animal, eating probably the most delicious thyme leaves in the world. Still, as a spice-lover, it was so hard for me to not to add anything except salt into the broth.
Having hot and lightly salted broth, now that you could make small pieces from the bagel/or ciabatta and put them into the oven until the time they get really dry.
Once they are dry--be careful, not burned--put them into a plate and add some broth up until the pieces bagels are almost all wet. Do not hesitate to put more if you are a broth lover.
On a separate bowl, mix the yogurt with finely diced garlic, and pour it on the top of the bagels.
On a pan, cook the ground beef without adding any additional oil. I just could not help myself to put some cumin and black pepper, along with just a little salt. Hence, put the totally cooked ground beef on the top of the plate.
Finally, melt the butter in a small pan with some paprika and red chilly pepper, and add it to your plate.
Your original, ancient Kastamonu tirit is ready to eat. Enjoy!
Some final remarks:
* I loved the tirit we cooked. I think that I will cook more soup bones next time to refrigerate the left over broth.
* The bagel/bread in the bottom should be somewhat hard. I actually loved the ciabatta version more than the bagel version, but not the soft parts of ciabatta which became so soft and wet with the broth and yogurt. So the next time, I could try it only with the crusty part of the ciabatta. Melih liked bagel more, though. Both plates were very delicious, anyway.
* In some places, they make tirit with chicken broth which is also worth trying.
* Again, in some places, they also use onions, tomatoes, and several other veggies for the topping, as well as cooked stew meat instead of the ground beef. Why not?
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