Today, as I was leaving my home, I saw in our front garden a process that I had heard about but never witnessed: the drying of tarhana dough. As far as I understand, the main ingredient of the dough is yoghurt mixed with red peppers, tomatoes and various seasonings and some carbohydrate such as flour or wheat. I think it is leavened with yeast and left to ferment for a few days. After it has completed rising it is patted into flat patties to dry, preferrably in the sun.
After a few hours, the tarhana looks like this:
When the tarhana is dry it can be stored and used as a kind of instant soup, by adding it to water. I have been promised some tarhana when it is ready so I am looking forward to trying to make soup with it.
Ayşe Teyze poses with her tarhana that she has set outside her house, where she has lived for nearly fifty years. The flower garden behind her is all her work as well. She also dons jogging clothes and goes for a brisk walk along the seafront at 6:30 each morning before returning to a typical Turkish breakfast of feta cheese and salad. She is in her mid-eighties and a good advert for the benefits of a Turkish diet.
