Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Turkish Cooking Pots

About Turkish Cooking Pots


Turkey is a country known for its natural resources. From apricots to copper, "made in Turkey" is appearing more and more frequently on specialty items throughout the world. Some of the most unique items, however are the cookware. When walking through a Turkish market, one encounters items like nothing ever seen before.


Egg Pan


A Turkish breakfast is comprised of bread, soft-boiled eggs, fruit and chocolate spreads, cheeses and olives. To better facilitate cooking the morning eggs, Turks have created a special egg pan. The bottom of the pan contains spaces for the eggs to sit while cooking. This helps to minimize the amount of cracked eggs during the boiling process, ensuring the whole family has whole eggs for their morning egg cups.


Coffee Pot


Turkish coffee is an unforgettable experience for anyone traveling through the area. Unlike modern brewing methods consisting of a drip system, Turkish coffee is slow-cooked over hot coals in a copper pot. The grounds, water and sugar are all combined in the pot for a truly blended flavor. Adding further to its simplicity is the means of serving the coffee with the grounds poured directly into the cups with the coffee. After drinking the liquid, Turks will place the cup upside down on the saucer, letting grounds form patterns on the sides on the cup. These patterns are then read by a member of the family to determine one's future.


Frying Pan


Used for everything from melting butter to frying mujiver, a type of zucchini hash brown, this frying pan is a daily must in the Turkish kitchen. The large circumference of this pan provides enough space for most Turkish dishes, and being made out of copper it distributes heat exquisitely. These pots are so central to Turkish life that restaurant chefs will bring out sizzling butter in them to pour over fresh iskender kebab.


Tea Pot


At first glance one wonders if this Turkish delight is not taken directly from "Alice in Wonderland." Used each morning to create the family tea, this double tea pot is of great convenience in the kitchen. Instead of brewing tea in a single pot and serving the same amount and concentration to all guests as in Western societies, this teapot allows for customization. The top pot will contain a tea bag for each member of the family and a small amount of water, creating a heavily brewed tea. The bottom pot contains additional water for diluting the tea as per each member's preference.


Lokma Pots


In a country that both loves to celebrate and cook, there is one type of caterer that is a daily event on Turkish street corners. Lokma cooks prepare pastry dough at the request of families and travel to sites with large frying pots and pans to make fresh lokma for the entire neighborhood. It is believed that serving lokma to the public at the opening of a new store will bring success to the business. Turks also hire lokma chefs to bring to the attention of the neighborhood a successful college graduate, a new home, or even the death of a loved one.







Tags: bottom contains, Cooking Pots, each member, member family, Turkish coffee