Çalkama Recipe
Çalkama (which means shaken or mixed and pronounces as chalkama) is an Aegean borek prepared with plenty of greens and without yufka. Especially in the spring months, if you are lucky, you can prepare it with the herbs you grow in your garden and if you are not so lucky, you can buy them from your local producers market.
Some of the herbs you can use for çalkama are parsley, spring onion, basil, dill, poppy leaves, nettle, spinach, and chard. The best feature of the çalkama is that no special ingredients are needed to prepare it. It has simple ingredients that are available in every house where food is cooked daily. Especially if there are pieces of greens left in the fridge, it is a perfect recipe to evaluate them.
You can use flour, whole wheat flour, or a mixture of flour and cornmeal, or a mixture of whole wheat flour and cornmeal for çalkama. You can even make the recipe gluten-free by making it all with just cornmeal. You can make it vegan without using cheese in the filling. Because there is no animal product in the dough itself.
Because of the name çalkama, it evokes a very simple, featureless recipe, and it actually is. But it is also a dish that can easily compete with quiche which is prepared with the same trio of dough, vegetables and cheese and which is seen as a heavy guest dish.
You can use feta cheese or home made lor peyniri or ekşimik for çalkama.
Enjoy ...
Ingredients
For the dough;
- 1.5 cups of flour,
- 1.5 cups of cornmeal,
- 1/2 cup of olive oil,
- 2 + 1/4 cups of water at room temperature,
- Salt.
For internal mortar;
- 500 g of greens,
- If there is no fresh onion in the greens, 1 onion, chopped,
- 250 g crumbled feta cheese / lor / ekşimik,
- Salt.
Preparation
- Finely chop the greens for the filling,
- Sprinkle salt on them and rub them until they lightly loose water,
- Add the cheese and mix,
- For the dough, mix the flour and cornmeal in a bowl,
- Add the olive oil and salt,
- Add 2 cups of water little by little and whisk,
- Spread 2/3 of the mixture in a 30 cm greased baking container,
- Spread the filling on it,
- Add 1/4 cup water to the remaining dough and beat,
- Spread the mixture on the filling,
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees until the top and bottom are golden.
Bon Appetit...