Kisir

Here is another Turkish recipe from me :) My family is so fond of Turkish cuisine that it has almost become a usual thing to prepare Turkish meals atleast twice a week. Not only that, the Turkish friends we have and the mosque we attend to serve different varieties of this cuisine at special occasions, that sometime we feel that we live in Turkey ! A good thing about this cuisine is, it doesnt require many spices and the natural taste of the main ingredients are preserved.
Kisir is a traditional Turkish Salad/Starter/Snack made from bulgur, parsley and tomato paste. For kisir, a finely grounded bulgur is used, unlike the coarse bulgur used for Bulgur pilav, couscous is sometimes used instead.Well, here goes the recipe....

Ingredients
Fine bulgur - 90 gms
Spring onions - 2
Long green pepper - 1
Garlic pods - 4
Tomato mark - 2 tbsp
Olive oil - 2 tbsp
Parsley - 2 tbsp
Mint leaves - 3 tbsp
Salt -1/2 tsp
Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Lettuce leaves (optional)
Pomegranate juice - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Method
1. Wash the bulgur well. Drain the water.

 2. Soak it in boiled water for about 1 hour.

 3. The fine bulgur granules after absorbing water would have swollen now.

 4. Drain and squeeze out the water from the bulgur using a spoon. This is an important process. The end result depends on how well you squeeze out the water and how dry the bulgur is !

5. Alternatively, you could squeeze it out using a clean muslin cloth. This method works the best !

 6. The resulting bulgur has to be absolutely dry.

  6.  Chop the spring onions, parsley, mint leaves, green chilli, garlic pods.

 7. Add all the chopped vegetables, herbs, tomato mark, olive oil, pomegranate juice, salt, pepper powder to the bulgur and mix well with your hand.

8. The final product gets its beautiful red color from the tomato mark.

9. Shape it in ovals or round forms and serve the Kisir together with lettuce leaves.

Tips :
1. You could as well chop the lettuce leaves and mix it with the kisir.
2. This could also be used as a filling for Burger sandwiches. Cut open a bread, stuff the filling, add sliced onions, tomatoes, cucumber and ketchup /mayonnaise. An ideal Snack for picnics !

This Salad goes to the event Visual Treat by Creative Sanyukta.