Name: Reseña de Kuymak por Yehanoha en Damla Pastanesi, Çankaya/Ankara, Turquía
Item: Kuymak
Rating: 4.3
Author: Yehanoha

Cornmeal cooked in butter and then beaten with a stringy local cheese until the whole pan pulls into long elastic threads: kuymak is the Black Sea breakfast dish of Trabzon and Rize, eaten from the pan with bread torn off a loaf. Inland and in Erzurum the same preparation is called mıhlama, and the two names are used loosely, with locals arguing about whether the difference is the flour, the cheese or nothing at all. It is a shepherd's and farmer's food, built from three things the region has in abundance, maize, butter and cheese, and it has become the dish visitors to the eastern Black Sea are told to try first. Its closest relative abroad is the aligot of the Auvergne, which does the same thing with potato instead of corn.

The cheese is the whole argument. The traditional choice is kolot or minci, fresh unsalted or lightly salted Black Sea cheeses with a high melting stretch, or the aged Trabzon kaşarı; outside the region cooks substitute young kaşar, mozzarella or a mix, which stretches but tastes of less. Plenty of butter, ideally the region's tereyağı, is melted in a shallow copper or steel pan, a few spoonfuls of fine cornmeal are stirred in and toasted for a minute until it smells nutty, then hot water is added and the mixture cooked to a thick porridge. The cheese goes in grated or crumbled, off the boil, and is beaten continuously with a wooden spoon over low heat for several minutes until it has melted into the corn and the pan is one glossy mass that lifts off the base in a sheet and stretches when pulled. It is served in the pan it was made in, still bubbling, with a pool of butter on top.

The stretch is the test: a spoon lifted from the pan should pull a long, unbroken thread, and the mass should be smooth, not grainy or separated. Taste for butter and for cheese with some character; a bland, rubbery stretch means mozzarella, and an oily puddle means the cheese was overheated and split. The corn should be cooked through, with no raw floury taste, and the dish should be salted by the cheese rather than by hand. Mark down kuymak that has set into a solid block by the time it reaches the table, a thin, soupy version, flour instead of cornmeal, and any plate that arrives lukewarm, because this is a dish with a life of about five minutes. Bread should be plentiful and fresh, and a glass of tea is the only thing that follows.

Kuymak

Türkiye

Damla Pastanesi

Kuymakla mekanı cok eşleştiremiyorsunuz ama mekanın sahibi karadenizli, kahvaltı saatlerinde kendi peynirlerinden kuymak da yapıyorlar. Kuymak tamamen soğuyana kadar uzamaya ve esnemeye devam ediyor. Peynirin ağır bir tadı yok. Tereyağı lezzetli. Yine gidilir yine ekmek bandırılır.

Reseña de Kuymak por Yehanoha en Damla Pastanesi, Çankaya/Ankara, Turquía

Kuymak

Damla Pastanesi

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