The Levant and Anatolia · Volume 01, The Oil Coast, the Anchovy Coast and the Court Between Them
Karalahana Çorbası
The Black Sea coast, Rize
Illustration
- Time
- Hands on 1 hour 30 · Waiting 8 hours
- Researched
- 20 sources cited
A cavolo-nero-type cabbage soup with cracked corn and beans, the region's structural everyday dish rather than a special-occasion one.
As tradition built it
Serves 4 to 6. About 1.5 hours, plus overnight soaking.
Ingredients
- 1 bunch karalahana (or cavolo nero, see Sourcing)
- 1 tea-glass cracked corn, soaked overnight
- 1 slice pumpkin or squash
- 1 cup cooked dried beans
- 6 cups hot water
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- to taste salt, red pepper, black pepper
Method
- Boil the soaked corn with the cooked beans in the hot water until tender.
- Add the finely chopped karalahana, simmer until softening.
- Add the diced squash.
- Near the end of the squash's cooking, stir in the red pepper, butter and oil, simmer a further 10 minutes.
- Loosen the cornstarch in a little water, stir in, add salt, simmer a final 10 minutes.
Notes
Sourced to the Turkish Ministry of Culture's own portal, itself citing the Rize Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism.
What a modern chef changes
No rung; a sourcing honesty rather than a technique change, since the dish itself is already correctly humble.
Method
- Use genuine cavolo nero rather than a headed cabbage substitute, the closest real botanical match this chapter's research could confirm for karalahana, and say so on the menu rather than calling it simply "cabbage soup."
- Do not rush the corn and bean simmer. The dish's whole body depends on both being properly tender before the greens go in, not on the greens themselves, which cook quickly.
- Finish with a little extra butter at the table, in keeping with this coast's dairy-forward character rather than the Aegean's oil-forward one.