Alinazik

The origin story of Alinazik, one of the most delicious dishes of Turkish cuisine, dates back to the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Yavuz Sultan Selim.

Actually, alinazik’s real name is “gentle hand”. Its story is as follows:

During the Ottoman Empire, Yavuz Sultan Selim was returning from a mission when he stopped in Yavuzeli, Gaziantep. The locals there heard of his arrival and prepared a feast for him. An anonymous Anatolian woman cooked up eggplants on the stove, roasts fresh lamb, mixes yoghurt with garlic, salt and afterwards into the mixture of roasted eggplants. She serves the roasted meat on top of this so the mixture below is not visible. Finally, she decorates it with green peppers and tomatoes and serves this meal to the sultan.

When Yavuz Sultan Selim tasted the dish, he loved it so much that he asked those around him “which gentle hand (Eli nazik) made this dish?” From then, the dish was known as Alinazik, a variation of the phrase ‘gentle hand’. It has since become one of the most popular dishes of Turkish cuisine.

How to make Alinazik

Ingredients:

For ground beef

• 250 grams ground beef
• 1 onion
• 1 tomato
• 1 green pepper
• 1 teaspoon of tomato paste
• Liquid oil

For the yoghurt mixture

• 4 eggplants
• 1 cup of strained yogurt
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• Salt
• Black pepper

The preparation

1. Add vegetable oil in a pan and fry the chopped onion.
2. Add the minced meat after the onion.
3. Then add green pepper, diced tomato
4. When the tomato juice is released, add the tomato paste to the pan.
5. Add salt and pepper to the minced meat and let it cook.
6. Roast the eggplants in the oven.
7. Chop the eggplants into small pieces.
8. Add the strained yogurt and grated garlic to a bowl and mix.
9. Add the eggplant to the yogurt and mix.
10. Then season the eggplants with salt and pepper.
11. He takes the eggplant mixture on the plate first. Then put the minced meat on the eggplant.
12. If you wish, you can serve the plate with roasted peppers and tomatoes. Enjoy your meal.