Turkish Cooking Class with Deniz

We are proud to offer you the opportunity to cook along with us online, following instruction and a recipe with our member Deniz.

She will be guiding you through the preparation of a Turkish dish: The Sultan Liked It – Hünkar Beğendi – serves 4.

This is a classic Turkish dish that was served at the Ottoman Imperial Palace on special days / feasts. Basically, it is an eggplant/aubergine bechamel with a type of meat stew on top. Traditionally, it is made with lamb, but can also be made with beef, chicken or meatballs (Polpette). Other than meatballs, the rest needs to be marinated (ideally from the night before). For those of you who don’t like the idea of marinating in milk, you can marinade in olive oil.

I got the recipe from ZeeZoo in the kitchen instagram account. She is a super duper Turkish woman that lives in London and posts super delicious Turkish recipes in detail in English, with beautiful photos and videos. I strongly recommend that you follow her on instagram.

Shopping List:
– 3 Eggplants/Aubergines (The Long kind, if you cant find the long ones, get 2 fat ones)
– 1 can Tomato puree, or 3 Tomatoes that you make a puree by yourself
– 600/700 grams Lamb cubes (or beef, or chicken or polpette)
– 2 white onions
– 3 bay leaves
– 3 stems fresh Thyme (if not dried thyme will also do)
– 1 litre milk
– normal white flour
– 120 grams of Cheddar cheese (or grana padana, parmigiano, provolone)
– garlic
– black pepper
– oregano
– salt
– sweet (or spicy) paprika
– 60 grams butter
– some olive oil

Kitchen Utensils needed: 1 deep pot, 1 oven tray & parchment paper (and an oven), pasta drainer (to drain the eggplants), 2 shallow pans, a larger one (for the eggplant puree), and a normal size one (preferably with grill lining for sealing the meat before cooking in the stew), 1 whisker and any blender (that can quickly chop the onion for the stew), 1 cheese grater, cutting board. 

The class is expected to last 1 hour 30 minutes. We hope you enjoy the class… buon appetito!