Week 46 - Sweden and Turkenistan

Never heard of Turkenistan before, and I am not afraid to say that. There are so many countries in the world, that it has been nice to discover new ones and the locations of different places. To quote Lonely Planet's website "....plenty of visitors still think of Turkmenistan as a sort of totalitarian theme park. But the least-visited of Central Asia’s countries is far more than this – it's an ancient land of great spirituality, tradition and natural beauty" (accessed Nov2017). The images I found of Yangykala Canyon where amazing and it seems that gas and electricity are free! Another historic place is Ancient Merv, one of the most important cities along the Silk Roads of Central Asia. Founded around the 6th century BCE, it flourished as an administrative, trading, military& religious centre – becoming perhaps the third largest city in the world in the 10th century CE. Although some sites also say that it was in 330 BC, that Alexander the Great founded the city of Alexandria, which later became Merv. Regardless, it is an historic site, worthy of being a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We had Turkmen Shepheds pie! A specialty of Turkmen shepherds, ichlekli (pronounced ishlekli) is a meat pie that was traditionally baked by burying it in hot sand and embers. Nowadays, ichlekli is baked in the oven but the traditional technique is still kept alive by local enthusiasts.

Içlekli – Turkmen Shepherd’s Pie

Serves 4
For the filling:
500 g beef or lamb
1 tomato, diced
1 onion, finely chopped
½ bell pepper, diced
1 teaspoon salt
Pinch of ground black pepper
Pinch of ground red pepper
8 tablespoons water
For the dough:
50 g butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt
300 ml lukewarm water
500 g flour

1. Begin by partially freezing the meat for easier slicing. Then cut the meat into thin slices. Stack the slices, cut them into thin strips, then cut the strips crosswise into tiny pieces. Mix all the filling ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. In another large bowl, mix all the dough ingredients together and work to a soft dough. Divide the dough in half and roll each half between your palms into a ball. Cover the dough balls with a kitchen towel and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
3. Take one ball of dough, sprinkle some flour on it and roll it out to a circle of about 30 cm in diameter. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread the filling evenly over the dough, leaving a 1 cm border.
4. Roll out the remaining ball of dough to the same size as the first and place it over the filling. Fold the edge over itself and press down firmly to seal.
5. Cut a small hole in the center of the pie to allow steam to escape, and prick the rest of the surface with a fork. Brush the top of the pie with water. Bake at 250°C (482°F) on the middle rack until the top is light brown, about 25 minutes. Serve right away.
Source: http://turkmenkitchen.com/en/2012/09/07/turkmen-shepherds-pie/ (accessed Nov2017)

We also had some delicious biscuits from Sweden, to make a change. The recipe did make quite a few and I did some thin, which is the traditional way and some thicker, which is our preferred way. To be fair, we liked them thick or thin; A picture of both options!

Pepparkakor (Swedish Cookies)

Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter, softened
150g castor suger
1 egg
1 tbsp. treacle
1 tbsp. syrup
250g plain flour (although I seemed to need much more, maybe too much syrup!)
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice

Method
1. With an electric whisk, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, syrup and treacle. Sift together the flour, salt and spices. Add the flour mixture to the biscuit batter and bring it all together to form a dough.
2. Knead briefly until smooth, place in a plastic bag and chill for 1 hour.
3. Pre heat the oven to 180C 350F Gas4. Roll the dough out to a thickness of 3mm, and cut out shapes with pastry cutters.
4. transfer the biscuits to several non stick baking sheets and bake in the top third of the oven for 10mins, until the edges darken slightly. Leave on the tray a few minutes to cool and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. ( I did my thins ones for 7 mins and the thicker for 10)

Source: 'Step by Step Baking' Caroline Bretherton, DK Books, 2011.