The Levant and Anatolia · Volume 01, The Oil Coast, the Anchovy Coast and the Court Between Them
Midye Dolma
Istanbul and the Aegean coast
Illustration
- Time
- 1 hour
- Researched
- 20 sources cited
Stuffed mussels, cooked and eaten cold, and the clearest small-scale demonstration of dolma technique in this chapter.
As tradition built it
Makes about 30. Around 1 hour, plus resting.
Ingredients
- 30 large mussels, scrubbed
- 200 g rice
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- 2 tbsp currants
- a splash olive oil
- to taste fresh lemon juice
- a little sugar
- to taste salt
- to taste black pepper
- to taste allspice
- a handful fresh mint and parsley
Method
- Sauté the onion in olive oil with the pine nuts until lightly coloured.
- Add the rice and toast briefly, then stir in the currants, salt, black pepper, allspice, a little lemon juice and a pinch of sugar.
- Open each mussel partway at the hinge without fully separating the shells.
- Fill each mussel with roughly a dessertspoon of the rice mixture, close firmly.
- Pack the filled mussels tightly into a pot, cover and steam over low heat until the rice is cooked through.
- Rest and cool completely before serving, finished with fresh mint, parsley and a wedge of lemon.
What a modern chef changes
The resting discipline made explicit, and the oil doubled down on rather than apologised for.
Rung 4
Method
- Cook, then rest the mussels covered in the fridge for several hours, ideally overnight, exactly as the zeytinyağlı discipline in Rung 4 prescribes, rather than serving them shortly after steaming as many home versions do.
- Bring back to room temperature deliberately before serving, a sous vide bath at 20 to 22°C removes the guesswork if the kitchen runs cold or warm.
- Finish with a different, more peppery cold-pressed oil than the one used in the filling, the two-oil technique this chapter's research found recommended across several Turkish sources.