|  Traditional cooking in Mustafapasa, Cappadocia |  The recipes below were collected in Mustafapasa, a charming and historical village of Cappadocia. Like many towns in Cappadocia, Mustafapasa had a largely Greek Orthodox population in Ottoman times. Muslim Turks and Orthodox Greeks lived side by side, and the sound of church bells mingled with the call to prayer from the mosque. Called Sinasos by its Ottoman Greek residents, it is still called that today by many local people.
After the exchange of Greek and Turkish populations in 1924 (in accordance with the Treaty of Lausanne), the displaced people came to Mustafapasa. They were mostly Macedonian people from Thessaloniki and they brought with them these recipes which are handed down from generation to generation and still cooked today in Mustafapasa. These recipes are known as "muahcir" or refugee recipes and are part of Mustafapasa's rich cultural heritage.
A special thank you to Birol Malçok for letting us use his superb photos.
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How to cook bread in a traditional stone oven (tandir) | |
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Stewed Apricots |  2 cups apricots
2 cups pekmez (grape molasses)
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon black pepper
100g crushed walnuts
1 cup water.
Put all ingredients except the walnuts into a saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Sprinke with the crushed walnuts. Serve hot or cold. |
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Koripoparani (Chicken & walnut bake) |  1 kg yufka (filo pastry)
1 chicken
1 cup crushed walnuts
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper.
Boil the chicken in plenty of water. Separate the yufka sheets and shred both the yufka and the chicken. Place in an oiled baking pan. Sprinkle the walnuts and pour 2 cups of boiling water over the chicken and yufka. Spread more chicken pieces over the top. Finally, pour the melted butter over the top, sprinkle with Cayenne pepper. Bake and serve. |
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Mileçnik (dessert) |  Mix together 8 cups flour, 8 cups sugar, 8 eggs, 8 cups of milk. Bring to the boil and pour into an oiled tray. Cook in the oven at 200°C until nicely browned. Serve hot for special family occasions. |
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Muhacir Boregi |  Measure out 8 cups of flour, make a well and add a small piece of yeast dissolved in warm water. Knead the dough well and leave to rise to 1 to 1,5 hours.
For the filling, sauté 500g of finely chopped pickled cabbage and 1 tablespoon paprika in 2 tablespoons olive oil. Allow to cool.
Divide the dough in half. Divide the first half into 7 pieces. Roll out each piece thinly to the size of a large plate. Place the rounds on a well-oiled round metal tray, spreading each each layer with olive oil. Spread the filling on top of the rounds. Repeat the same process with the second half of the dough. Mix 2 tablespoons of yoghurt with 2 tablespoons of oil and spread over the top. Traditionally this is baked in a wood-fired stone oven but you can bake it in a modern oven pre-heated to 250°C. After baking, remove from the oven, pour over a cup of warm water and cover. Leave to rest for 5 minutes. Serve hot.
Instead of the pickled cabbage filling you can fill it with spinach, mince (ground beef), cheese, walnuts, pumpkins or leeks).
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Maznik / Fasülnik |  1 kg of yufka (filo pastry)
1 egg
250 g yoghurt
250g cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil.
Mix the yoghurt, cheese and egg. On a well-oiled baking baking-tray place the sheets of pastry one by one alternating a sheet of pastry and a layer of egg, yoghurt and cheese mixture. Brush with oil and bake at 250°C for 40-45 minutes.
If a cheese filling is used, this dish is known as Maznik, if white beans are used it is called Fasulnik and if lentils are used it is called Lejçalnik. |
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Tranenik (dessert) |  This dish is prepared with 500g of cornflour and 1 kilo of wheat flour. Mix the flour and some salt with ayran (buttermilk) until it is the texture of small beads. Leave to dry on an oiled tray. Mix with 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 cups hot water, 1 cup of ayran (buttermilk). Bake in a traditional oven on a round metal baking-tray or in a modern oven pre-heated to 250°C for 40 minutes. Serve warm with pekmez (grape molasses). |
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Mamliga (dessert) |  Make a beaded dough preparation as in the above recipe for Tranenik. In a heavy well-oiled pan, mix the dough with boiling water and 2 tablespoons of butter. Sprinke with sugar and serve very hot. |
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