Zırh Tipi Acılı Ezme
(zuhr tee-pee ah-juh-luh ez-meh)
Baba'nın Mangalı (The Weekend Grill & Summer Nostalgia)
If your childhood weekends smelled like charcoal and roasting meat, you know this dish. It’s the fiercely tangy meze that hits the table with warm bread before the kebabs even land. Masters back home use a massive iron cleaver—a zırh—to mince the vegetables without bruising them. Don't insult the tradition by throwing this in a food processor to make a watery soup. The secret is just patience and a sharp knife. Hand-chop everything, gut the tomatoes of their wet seeds, and drain the vegetables. Ten minutes of honest knife work delivers a crisp, explosive condiment that tastes exactly like home.
Ingredients
- Roma tomatoes4 med
- yellow onion1 large
- red bell pepper1 large
- Anaheim peppers2 med
- Jalapeño pepper1 med
- garlic cloves3 large
- flat-leaf parsley leaves1 cup
- fresh mint leaves1/4 cup
- Turkish pepper paste1 tbsp
- tomato paste1 tsp
- 100% pomegranate molasses3 tbsp
- fresh lemon juice2 tbsp
- extra-virgin olive oil3 tbsp
- Isot1 tsp
- Pul Biber1 tsp
- ground sumac1 tsp
- dried mint1 tsp
- Kosher salt1 tsp
Method
- 01
Neutralize the onion's bitter juices.
Finely mince the onion into the smallest dice you can manage (a brunoise), place it in a fine-mesh sieve over the sink, and massage it with a generous pinch of kosher salt for ten seconds. Rinse briefly with cold water, squeeze it completely dry with your hands to remove the harsh sulfur, and transfer to a large mixing bowl.
- 02
Hand-chop the tomatoes to preserve their texture.
Discard the wet, gelatinous core and seeds of the peeled tomatoes so you are only left with the firm outer flesh. Finely dice this flesh into 1/8-inch cubes and place them into a clean fine-mesh strainer.
- 03
Mince the remaining produce and drain.
Finely dice the red bell pepper, Anaheim peppers, and jalapeño into the same uniform 1/8-inch cubes, then finely mince the garlic and shave the parsley and mint. Add these to the strainer with the tomatoes and let the entire mixture drain for 10 minutes to guarantee your ezme stays crisp, not watery.
- 04
Engineer the dressing.
In a separate bowl, combine the pepper paste, tomato paste, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, olive oil, Isot, Pul Biber, sumac, dried mint, and salt. Whisk vigorously until the pastes dissolve and the oil emulsifies into a thick, dark crimson dressing.
- 05
Marry the ingredients.
Add the drained vegetable mixture to the bowl with the sweet, squeezed onions. Pour the emulsified dressing over the top and gently fold everything together until every tiny piece of vegetable is coated.
- 06
Rest before serving.
Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to allow the spices to bloom and the pomegranate molasses to penetrate before serving.
Notes
Ingredient substitutions for the American pantry.
If you can't find Turkish pepper paste (biber salçası), substitute 1 tablespoon of roasted red pepper paste with a pinch of smoked paprika. For Isot (Urfa pepper), use 1/2 teaspoon of standard red pepper flakes mixed with 1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika. Ensure your pomegranate molasses is 100% pomegranate, not a glucose-thinned syrup.
From Cook Turkish in America.