Last week was all about cooking comfort food for the freezer. After cooking up a big batch of spinich and onions, it was time to make the dough for some Gözleme.
I ended up making a double batch of dough because I had some left over ground lamb and onions from making Lahmacun, Turkish pizzas, the day before. Between the massive amount of spinich and onions plus the lamb mixture, I had enough to make 10 individual pockets.
Normally, when you see people make gözleme, they make very big portions to share. They use a Saç or a concave or convex fry pan. The pan is turned over onto the fire and the gözleme is fried on top.
I like to deviate from the big portions because I like to freeze them for later. Once defrosted, they can be popped in the toaster for an afternoon snack or paired with a salad for a light dinner.
There are so many different options for fillings.
- Spinach and Onions
- Spinach, onions, and feta
- Feta and parsley
- Baked potatoes and green onions
- Ground Lamb and onions
I used the dough recipe from Ozlem’s Turkish Kitchen. However, I precooked the spinach and onions ahead of time and lightly squeezed the excess moisture from it before adding some feta cheese.
I also folded my pockets slighly differently. Once rolled out, I folded all the edges over the dough to make my portions. This seemed to hold the filling in place while I pan fried them.
Other than that, the recipe above is filled with great instruction and pictures to show you how it all comes together. Pretty soon, I bet you will start thinking of all sorts of other fillings to try! Let me know what you come up with or just invite me over for tea to try them!