Name: Mercimek çorbası review by ekinakbiyik at Maçka İşkembe, İzmit/Kocaeli, Türkiye
Item: Mercimek çorbası
Rating: 4
Author: ekinakbiyik

Türkiye

Red lentils simmered with onion, carrot and sometimes potato until they collapse, blended smooth, and served with lemon wedges, a drizzle of butter coloured with red pepper, and bread: mercimek çorbası is the soup on every Turkish lokanta menu, the one ordered before a kebab, at breakfast after a night out, and at home when someone is ill. It is the most common soup in the country and the one most often made badly, because it is cheap and assumed to be simple. The southern version, ezogelin, adds bulgur, rice, mint and tomato paste and keeps some texture; the plain mercimek is the western and central standard, pale orange and velvet-smooth. Every region and most kitchens have a version, and the differences come down to the fat, the thickness and whether the lemon is squeezed in the pot or at the table.

Finely chopped onion is sweetened in butter or oil, sometimes with a spoon of flour cooked in to give body, then red lentils, rinsed, go in with diced carrot and potato if used, and water or stock, roughly five parts liquid to one of lentils. It simmers for twenty-five to thirty-five minutes, skimmed, until everything is soft, then it is blended until completely smooth and thinned to a pouring consistency; it should coat a spoon but not stand up on it. Seasoning is salt and black pepper, cumin in many kitchens, and the soup is finished at the table with the three things that make it: a squeeze of lemon, a spoon of butter heated with pul biber or sweet paprika poured over the surface, and dried mint rubbed between the fingers. Croutons or crispy fried bread are common in restaurants. The soup thickens as it stands and is loosened with water when reheated.

Taste it before the lemon: it should already have flavour, of lentil and onion and butter, with the salt right; a bland base that depends entirely on the lemon and the pepper butter has been made with water and no care. It should be smooth, with no graininess or skins, and the colour should be a warm orange, not grey or brown. The butter should arrive hot on top, red with pepper, not stirred in beforehand and lost. Mark down a soup that is thin and watery, one that has been held so long it has set into a paste, a flour-heavy version that tastes of roux, a scorched bottom-of-the-pot note, and a bowl served lukewarm. Lemon should be fresh and offered as a wedge, not pre-squeezed. A good mercimek çorbası costs almost nothing to make, which is why a bad one is inexcusable.

Mercimek çorbası

Maçka İşkembe

Sımsıcak bir çorba, ilk yutuşta içinizi ısıtıyor. İlk kaşığı içerken üflemeden yemeyin. Mekan kalabalık çünkü çorba iyi. Dengeli bir çorba 

Mercimek çorbası review by ekinakbiyik at Maçka İşkembe, İzmit/Kocaeli, Türkiye

Mercimek çorbası

Maçka İşkembe

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