An olive oil dressed salad of tomato, pepper, onion and parsley with 'kesik' or 'lor' cheese curd. A speciality of Aegean cuisine and feature heavily on Aydın's breakfast and picnic tables.
Çingene pılavı, pronounced 'ChinGeneh' or 'jingen' if your Aydunlı, translates literally as Gypsy pilaf/rice but contains no grains at all!
Confounding not just when you first come across it but every time you have it, which if you live in Aydın is almost every week of the summer month.
I've asked several people, 1. why gipsy and 2. why pilaf?! and to date not one person has been able to give an explanation, or I should ask care much about it. It's just a salad that's been on their table every year since day dot.
Probably because it's so darn easy to pull together and possibly because it's a fabulous way to use up the by-products of butter, yoghurt or cheese making.
The feature ingredient of Aydın's Gypsy salad is (usually) kesik but can be made from lor or çökolek.
Kesik, which means cut is yoghurt cheese. The yoghurt is literally cut into small curds by using an acid such as lemon or vinegar and then placed in cheesecloth to sperate it.
It's a light almost fluffy cheese with a sour taste.
Some people use çökelek a curd made from either buttermilk, ayran or the whey of yoghurt in their salad and some a whole milk/whey version.
I personally don't like kesik cheese and we always make two with mine made from either from homemade lor (Homemade Lor Peyniri / Turkish Cheese Curd recipe) or çökelek from my favourite peynirci.
Pulling together the salad is ridiculously easy and has little ingredients, in-season tomato and green peppers are a must for the best flavour and onion, which can be spring or white and plenty of flat-leaf parsley.
They're simply chopped up and mixed together with the cheese and plenty of good quality olive oil.
If your using shop-bought cheese, check out if it's salted or not, it likely won't be if it's kesik from the market, or if it's 'tatlı' (sweet) lor.
If it is salted you won't need to add any extra
If you don't have access to those cheeses, I'm sure a cottage cheese, ricotta or even a crumbling of feta would work just as great.
Need more Lor ideas? Check out 5 Ways With Lor.
An olive oil dressed salad of tomato, pepper, onion and parsley with 'kesik' or 'lor' cheese curd. A speciality of Aegean cuisine and feature heavily on Aydın's breakfast and picnic tables.
'Gypsy' Turkish Cheese Salad Çingene pilavı
Category:
Mezes & Appetizers Breakfast Dishes Salads & Light Bites
Seasons
Cuisine Type
Turkish
Ingredients
Aydın Cheese Salad
4 Large Long green peppers 'Sivri biber' 2 Small Tomatoes 1 White onion 50 Millimeter Extra Virgin Olive oil 1 Handful Fresh flat leaf parsley 150 Grams Turkish cheese curd 'Kesik' / 'Çökolek' /'Lor' 1/4 Teaspoon Salt* 'Gypsy' Turkish Cheese Salad Çingene pilavı Directions
Recipe notes
