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Çorbalık Kesme

Cut into small squares rather than strips, because it has to sit on a spoon.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (milk).

Ingredients

Method

  1. IT IS CUT INTO SMALL SQUARES RATHER THAN STRIPS, BECAUSE IT HAS TO SIT ON A SPOON. Half a centimetre each way, give or take. A long strip in a soup hangs off the spoon and has to be chased or bitten; a square stays where it is put, which is the entire reason this shape exists alongside the strips. The dough is the same dough. What changes is that it is cut TWICE -- across into narrow ribbons, then along those ribbons at the same spacing -- rather than once.
  2. THE SECOND CUT HAPPENS WITH THE RIBBONS SPREAD FLAT, NOT PLEATED. The sheet is cut into ribbons and those are separated and laid out side by side on the floured board before being cut across. Cut while still stacked, the squares arrive in welded columns and have to be prised apart one at a time.
  3. IT IS ROLLED SLIGHTLY THICKER THAN A STRIP NOODLE WOULD BE. Two and a half to three millimetres rather than two. A square has far less surface area holding it together than a ribbon does, and rolled too thin the squares curl and break up in the soup into flakes.
  4. THERE IS NO WATER IN IT, ONLY EGG AND MILK. Eighty millilitres of milk to two eggs and four hundred grams of flour, and nothing else wet. A drier, richer dough holds a small shape through a long simmer where a water dough softens and loses its edges.
  5. THE SQUARES ARE DRIED FLAT AND IN A SINGLE LAYER. On trays, not heaped. Piled up while still damp, the faces touching each other stay soft and the batch dries unevenly, so some disintegrate in the pot while others are still hard.
  6. The flour and salt mixed with the eggs and milk to a FIRM dough -- no water.
  7. Kneaded 12 MINUTES and rested 40 MINUTES.
  8. Rolled out to 2.5 or 3 mm -- slightly THICKER than a strip noodle.
  9. Left on a cloth 20 MINUTES until leathery, then dusted with flour.
  10. CUT ACROSS into narrow ribbons about 5 mm wide.
  11. The ribbons SEPARATED and laid out FLAT side by side on the floured board.
  12. CUT ACROSS THE RIBBONS at the same 5 mm spacing, giving small squares.
  13. Spread on trays in a SINGLE LAYER and dried 24 HOURS.
  14. TO SERVE: simmered in soup 8 MINUTES.
  15. TESTED: the squares should keep their corners after simmering. Flaking apart means the dough was rolled too thin.
  16. Stored dry; keeps months.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes