Gagauz cuisine includes around 100 types of dishes.
Traditional Gagauz cuisine is a reflection of the nomadic past of Gagauzians. The secrets of Gagauz cuisine are the spices and the cooking techniques peculiar to the Gagauz. A key ingredient never missing in the Gagauz kitchen is mashed red pepper providing for a specific flavour to their dishes.
Gagauz festive dishes include lamb kaurma, bulgur, sarma, gözleme, kivirma, as well as snacks made of sweet pepper, tomatoes, eggplant and sheep cheese.
Kaurma is a traditional slowly cooked lamb stew. It is served hot, as a main course, or cold as a starter. In the past, the cold kaurma with sheep cheese was the staple food taken by the shepherds when they took the sheep to pasture.
The Gagauz cook different traditional dishes of lamb meat. For example, Kurban bulguru is cooked from lamb meat and liver – it takes slow cooking in an oven following a special recipe. Traditionally, kurban bulguru is cooked when a newly-married are moving to their new home after the wedding.
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The Gagauz are orthodox Christians, and they thoroughly respect preligious traditions. During the religious fasting periods, Gagauz housewives cook fermented cabbage mixed with bulgur and vegetables.
Pastry has a special place in Gagauz cuisine: gözleme and kivirma are a business-card of the Gagauz people.
Gözleme is cooked from thin layers of dough, most often stuffed with cottage cheese or apple and fried in a pan.
Kivirma is also made of dough, stuffed with sour cheese with cream, baked in an oven.
Kabakli is another variety of sweet pastry stuffed with pumpkin.
Another delicacy of Gagauz cuisine is stuffed walnuts.
Recipe for “Gözleme”
Ingredients for the dough:
– 2 cups of wheat flour;
– 1 cup of water;
– 1 teaspoon of salt;
– sunflower oil.
Ingredients for the dressing:
– 300 g sheep cheese;
– 1 egg.
The dough is spread into thin layers, stuffed with cheese and fried on the stove.
This material was developed in the framework of the project “Supporting institutionalized and sustainable dialogue on Gagauzia Autonomy”, implemented by CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation and financed by Sweden. The opinions expressed in this material pertain to the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of CMI or of Sweden.