Small meatballs in yoghurt
Tiny bulgur-cased köfte cooked with chickpeas in a yoghurt broth. Gaziantep sources insist it is not yuvalama: yuvalama’s balls are rice flour, ufak köfte’s are bulgur.
Bulgur starch has a coarser particle size than rice flour and releases starch more slowly, which is why the broth here stays clearer than yuvalama’s.
What it is made of
Yoghurt
pH 4.4 · splits above 85 °C
Dairy: it brings creaminess, protein and calcium.
Temper it with a few spoons of the hot liquid before it goes in; added straight, it splits.
Ck
Chickpea
Protein 19% · skin dissolves in alkaline water
Gives body: the bulk of the plate and its starch.
A pinch of soda in the soaking water: the alkaline bath dissolves the skins and nearly halves the cooking time.
Bu
Bulgur
Pre-cooked · steeps in 12 min
Gives body: the bulk of the plate and its starch.
It steeps rather than cooks: pour boiling water over, cover, and it is done in twenty minutes.
Eg
Egg
White 62 °C · yolk 65 °C
Gives body: the bulk of the plate and its starch.
Crack it on a flat surface, not the rim of the bowl: a sharp edge drives shell into the egg.
Fl
Flour
Protein 10–12% · builds gluten
Binds: it builds the structure and holds the water.
Sifting does not remove lumps, it aerates: the same weight takes more space. Weigh it, never scoop it.
Bt
Butter
Smoke point 150 °C · milk solids burn
Fat: it carries the aroma and softens the texture.
Add a spoon of neutral oil alongside it: the mix survives a higher temperature before the solids burn.
Mi
Mint
Menthol is volatile · add off the heat
Spice: it adds aroma and edge.
Fresh mint goes in off the heat; dried mint is bloomed in fat. They are not the same job.
Sa2
Salt
0.8–1.5% of the weight of the food
Seasoning: it sets the perception and balances the salt.
0.8–1.5% of the weight of the food. Coarse and fine salt do not weigh the same by the spoon, so weigh it.
What it tastes like
No axis sits clearly above the average: a balanced dish without a sharp character.
This profile is computed rather than measured: the role-weighted average of its ingredients’ taste vectors, shifted by what the cooking does. The thin line is the database average on that axis.
How it is made
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Swell fine bulgur in hot water and knead it with mince into a workable paste.
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Roll chickpea-sized köfte, filling each with mince and closing it.
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Cook them with the boiled chickpeas in the yoghurt broth for fifteen minutes.
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Temper the yoghurt with flour and thicken it below the boil.
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Finish with dried mint.
Where it comes from
A record of its own in the Gaziantep kitchen.