Strange Food (and drink)
Well, it’s not really fox testicles, it’s really the root (tuber), of the wild orchid, usually Orchis mascula. Salep refers to both the tuber and the hot drink, which is primarily out of ground tuber flour, sugar, and milk. Salep is a very common winter drink in Turkey. Other ingredients usually include rose water and orange blossom water, and cinnamon and chopped nuts on top, usually pistachios or walnuts.
Salep is known for it’s health-giving properties including as a digestive aid and increasing libido (given the tuber shape).
The drink was very popular in much of the world, before coffee became the favored drink:
“Charles Lamb refers to a ‘Salopian shop’ in Fleet Street, and says that to many tastes it has ‘a delicacy beyond the China luxury,’ and adds that a basin of it at three-halfpence, accompanied by a slice of bread-and-butter at a halfpenny, is an ideal breakfast for a chimney-sweep. Though Salep is no longer a popular London beverage, before the war it was regularly sold by street merchants in Constantinople as a hot drink during the winter.”
So where can you taste, or buy the ingredients to make this fantastic drink? Salep flour is illegal to import from Turkey, but there are drink mixes available at many international food markets that list Salep as an ingredient, although they are likely mostly cornstarch and sugar. Most drink mixes come with all the ingredients (except for milk).
I decided the best bet was to find a mix that had only cornstarch, sugar, salep, that way I could add the rose water, orange blossom water, cinnamon, and nuts in the amounts I wanted. The best brand I found was Cortas, at Barbur World Foods (Portland, Oregon).
So what does it taste like? In the dictionary definition, it is described as “muciliginous”...doesn’t sound very tasty. One taster remarked that Salep (Sahlab) was “a thick drink that tastes like a cross between Ovaltine and oatmeal.”
Well, I think it tastes a heck of a lot better than that. It is quite thick, almost eggnogg-y. The thickness is the part that is quintessential to the Salep experience, and the flavorings can be varied to suit your taste, but it should always have a little cinnamon, and I think it tastes great with a little rose water and even less orange blossom water (both purchased at Barbur World Foods).
I recently got some real Salep flour from my grandmother who traveled to Turkey. I made the drink today, and it was definitely different than the drink mix. It was more grainer, more like cream of wheat, and a bit more earthy than the mix with corn starch. I think I need to mix it more next time. Here’s a good recipe for making Salep with the real Salep flour (otherwise, there are directions on the drink mixes):
1 cup milk
1 tsp Salep powder
1 1/2 tsp sugar
a splash of rose water
a few drops of orange blossom water
a dash of cinnamon
a dash of chopped walnuts or pistachios (not roasted or salted)
Heat the milk, salep, and sugar until hot but not boiling, stirring frequently. The mixture should get quite thick. Pour into a cup, and mix in rose water and orange blossom water. Add cinnamon and nuts on top. Enjoy!
Other names for Salep root:
Dondurma
There is an ice cream made out of Salep flour, called Dondurma, that is much more popular than the Salep drink.
Traditionally, only one of two tubers are harvested from each orchids, keeping it alive, but as demand has increased for Sahlep the drink and Dondurma, both orchid tubers are harvested. For one kilogram of Sahlep (flour), 1,000 orchids are needed. And one dondurma producers says he uses 3 tons, or 12,000 orchids. It is now illegal to export.
Dondurma has been described as “chewy ice cream”, that you eat with a knife and fork, or with some difficulty on a cone. Dondurma makers traditionally use large rods to stir and mix the ice cream, although now many makers use Gelato machines for much of the process, and serve the ice cream using a large meat-hook looking rod. Rumor has it that Dondurma is so stretchy that you could jump rope with it.
I look forward to making the ice cream as the days get warmer. Here’s a promising recipe:
Turkish Chewy Ice Cream or Dondurma
* 2 cups of double cream or whipping cream
* 2 cups of full fat milk
* 3/4 cup of sugar
* 2 teaspoons of salepi (level)
* 1/2 teaspoon of ground mastic (see below)
Grind the mastic: Mastic is usually sold in drops of resin which can stick to the mortar and pestle during grinding. To avoid, freeze mastic for 15 minutes before using and place it along with 1-2 tablespoons of the sugar in the mortar.
In a mixing bowl, beat 1/2 cup of the milk with the ground mastic (and sugar used to grind) until completely blended. Dissolve the salepi in 1/2 cup of cold milk. Warm the remaining 1 cup of milk in a saucepan over low heat. Beating at high speed, add the warm milk to the mastic mixture, then the dissolved salepi. Add remaining sugar and cream.
Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and boil over low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking and clumping. Remove from heat and set aside to cool to room temperature.
Pour into ice cream maker.
Remove from freezer 10 minutes before serving.
Salep (Salepi, Sahlab, Sahlep, Sahleb, Saloop) & Dondurma
Sunday, June 22, 2008
