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  • Do you know how to make simit in Cappadocia, Turkey? [VIDEO]

Do you know how to make simit in Cappadocia, Turkey? [VIDEO]

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See how they make simit in Cappadocia, Turkey. Tell me the twist around the 2:00 mark is not super cool.

Few things say Turkey louder (sometimes literally) than simit.

What is simit, you ask?

Simit is a thin bagel-like bread covered in sesame seeds and baked to a golden brown. It has been part of Turkish cuisine for hundreds of years.

But this simple definition does not begin to describe the significant role simit plays in life here in Turkey.
In the big cities you can hear the cry from the street as you greet the morning – “Si-mit… Si-mit”. Outside your window a man (or boy) carefully walks by carrying 60 of the delicious circles upon his head.

As you make your way to the office from the bus stop you pull up to one of the many simit carts lining the streets for your breakfast.

In the afternoon, you have no time for lunch, so you quickly grab a simit from the corner bakery.

Young or old, city or country, rich or poor, makes no difference. Simit is the hunger killer here in Turkey.

Simit is a thin bagel-like bread covered in sesame seeds and baked to a golden brown. It has been part of Turkish cuisine for hundreds of years.

SIMIT IN CAPPADOCIA
But here in Cappadocia, we are well removed from the big city. And here in Avanos we don’t have simit sellers walking around our streets with trays of the delicious baked good poised on their heads. There are no carts lining the streets full of golden brown simit. There are no designated simit bakeries.

But there is a bakery that makes simit for the largest market in town (Dilek Market).

I’d like to introduce you to the manager and let him show us how to make simit! (See the video above.)

Meet Metin Çetin. Metin is from Kirşehir originally (a city an hour northwest of here) and still has family there. However, he has been in Avanos for 20 plus years.

He began working in a bakery in 1988 making him a bonafide specialist in his field not only due to the quality of his work, but because of the diversity. His experience as a baker began with selling bread to local markets, but when he moved to Avanos he went to work in four-star hotels making a variety of goodies: pastries, cookies, breads, cakes, simit and baklava.

His partnership with Dilek market started five years ago. Now he has three employees who start work at 4:30am and put in eleven hours to produce 3000 loaves of bread and 600 simit daily.

You can get two of his delicious simit for sixty cents.

Even though there are four other bakeries in town, the market buys only from Metin because all the other bakeries, bake only bread. None of them bake simit, pastries, and baklava, like Metin does.

When I asked Metin why simit was such a popular food item he said, “Because it’s delicious tasting and it’s very cheap.” You can get two of his delicious simit for sixty cents.

When you visit Avanos, stop by the Dilek Market and be sure to pick up some of Metin’s work. You’ll be glad you did!

SIMIT RECIPE
Some of you have asked for the recipe, so we asked Metin what he uses:
INGREDIENTS
* 1 kg Flour
* 50 g Yeast
* 25 g salt
* 50 g sugar
* 100g vegetable oil (sunflower he suggested)
* 500g sesame seeds (maybe more, maybe less to your liking)
* 200g Pekmez which in this case is fig molasses – and you could mix it 2:1 or 3:1 water to pekmez…it’s not so much for flavor but for color. So if it’s too thick it will affect the taste, too thin, it won’t color right…guess you gotta play with it a little.
DIRECTIONS
* Mix dough
* Roll out cut to useable pieces
* Roll pieces out to long thin strips
* Spin them into circles (for this you have to watch the video- really cool)
* Dip in pekmez/water mixture
* Coat with sesame seeds
* Bake at 180-100 for 15 minutes or until golden brown

What is your favorite Turkish food?
Turkish simit


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Christian Dedrick, an English teacher living in Avanos. He has lived in Turkey since 2008 with his wife and three sons and is excited to be sharing stories from his life in Cappadocia. He began writing for CaptivatingCappadocia spring 2012. Click here to read more about Christian.

May 25, 2012 — 11 Comments
In Food, Videos , , , ,
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