Here is a salad from Gaziantep that is very intriguing. I saw it being made at the home of Belgin, a wonderful cook, and a friend of my great friend Filiz who is an authority on the foods of Gaziantep. She introduced me to Belgin.

It starts out by looking like it’s going to be a normal salad, with beautifully chopped ingredients, arranged neatly in a tray as you can see above, waiting to be tossed together. But instead of mixing the ingredients lightly, Belgin kneads them together, and quite roughly towards the end until they are blended enough for her to shape the mixture into balls, which you can then pick up with your hand and bite into. Absolutely delicious but not quite a salad as I or you would understand it.

Here is how Belgin makes omaç. She arranges all the finely chopped ingredients (parsley, green and red peppers, onion, tomatoes and diced white cheese which is a little softer than halloum but not as soft as fresh cheese) in a tray, leaving space in the middle for the seasonings which are red pepper paste, red pepper and black pepper, and olive oil.

She then brings the ingredients together and starts mixing them, gently at first, then more quickly and with a little more strength.

As you can see in the clip below, she then breaks up pieces of lavash over the mixed salad and carries on mixing and kneading  until she has a cohesive enough mixture which she then shapes into balls which are great fun to eat, and which make a wonderful picnic dish.

Here is a picture of my fattûsh below together with a recipe. I am sorry but I didn’t get an accurate enough recipe for omaç from Belgin. Next time I am in Gaziantep although the pictures should give you a fairly good idea of how to make it. One word of advice though, the lavash bread needs to be very thin otherwise it won’t mix well with the rest of the ingredients. Let me know how it comes out if you try making it.

Fattûsh

1 medium pita bread, opened up at the seam to have two disks, toasted until golden brown and broken into bite-sized pieces

3 tablespoons sumac

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

400 g gem lettuce, outer damaged leaves discarded, cut across in 1 cm strips

100 g spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced

300 g mini cucumbers, sliced in medium-thin half circles

300 g firm red tomatoes, chopped into bite-sized pieces

200 g flat-leaf parsley, most of the stalks discarded, coarsely chopped

100 g mint, leaves only, coarsely chopped

100 g purslane, leaves only

sea salt

Put the broken up toasted bread in a medium bowl. Sprinkle the sumac all over. Add the oil and mix well. This should stop the bread from sogging up quickly once it is mixed with the salad.

Put the salad ingredients in a large salad bowl. Add salt to taste. Add the seasoned bread. Mix well. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve immediately.

©Anissa Helou from Modern Mezze

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Here is a salad from Gaziantep that is very intriguing. I saw it being made at the home of Belgin, a wonderful cook, and a friend of my great friend Filiz who is an authority on the foods of Gaziantep. She introduced me to Belgin.

It starts out by looking like it’s going to be a normal salad, with beautifully chopped ingredients, arranged neatly in a tray as you can see above, waiting to be tossed together. But instead of mixing the ingredients lightly, Belgin kneads them together, and quite roughly towards the end until they are blended enough for her to shape the mixture into balls, which you can then pick up with your hand and bite into. Absolutely delicious but not quite a salad as I or you would understand it.

Here is how Belgin makes omaç. She arranges all the finely chopped ingredients (parsley, green and red peppers, onion, tomatoes and diced white cheese which is a little softer than halloum but not as soft as fresh cheese) in a tray, leaving space in the middle for the seasonings which are red pepper paste, red pepper and black pepper, and olive oil.

She then brings the ingredients together and starts mixing them, gently at first, then more quickly and with a little more strength.

As you can see in the clip below, she then breaks up pieces of lavash over the mixed salad and carries on mixing and kneading  until she has a cohesive enough mixture which she then shapes into balls which are great fun to eat, and which make a wonderful picnic dish.

Here is a picture of my fattûsh below together with a recipe. I am sorry but I didn’t get an accurate enough recipe for omaç from Belgin. Next time I am in Gaziantep although the pictures should give you a fairly good idea of how to make it. One word of advice though, the lavash bread needs to be very thin otherwise it won’t mix well with the rest of the ingredients. Let me know how it comes out if you try making it.

Fattûsh

1 medium pita bread, opened up at the seam to have two disks, toasted until golden brown and broken into bite-sized pieces

3 tablespoons sumac

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

400 g gem lettuce, outer damaged leaves discarded, cut across in 1 cm strips

100 g spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced

300 g mini cucumbers, sliced in medium-thin half circles

300 g firm red tomatoes, chopped into bite-sized pieces

200 g flat-leaf parsley, most of the stalks discarded, coarsely chopped

100 g mint, leaves only, coarsely chopped

100 g purslane, leaves only

sea salt

Put the broken up toasted bread in a medium bowl. Sprinkle the sumac all over. Add the oil and mix well. This should stop the bread from sogging up quickly once it is mixed with the salad.

Put the salad ingredients in a large salad bowl. Add salt to taste. Add the seasoned bread. Mix well. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve immediately.

©Anissa Helou from Modern Mezze

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