MADIMAK (KNOTGRASS)

(English recipe is below. Madimak tarifi için burayi tiklayin)

I heard of its name but I have never tasted it before: Madimak, in Turkish and Knotgrass in English (I hope it is the correct translation for it). Two weeks ago, I have seen it in the open air market for the first time. And it was only last weekend that I bought some to try and make something of this plant. 

My mom who joined us to the market, said that her grandmother cooked this plant for them frequently and that they loved it. I was silly enough not to ask for its recipe but to be honest, I don’t bother anymore. I trust internet! Though, I have to admit that the number of recipes available out there becomes fewer, the more uncommon is the ingredient. I found that they make either dish or either soup of the knotgrass here in Turkey. Some add pastrami, some don’t. Some recipes talk about lentil some don’t. I added, again, carrot and pepper. And I added both lentil and pastrami. I was careful about the amount of the pastrami that I added but if you like you can add more.

All in all, the result was good!

One more thing that I would like to mention is that, I did not remove the stalk of the plant as no recipe I found on the net mentioned so. And I regret that because the stalks are quite rough and does not entirely become soft after half an hour cooking. Next time, I’ll remove the stem as much as I can and try to make soup of it. I think it is worth to try then! Indeed, the stalks need to be picked and thrown away as they do not get soft at all (I steam-cooked a handful of the knotgrass stalks separately in the pressure cooker for half an hour in order to see if they'd get soft at all, but they dont't). The lady at the bazaar also told me that the knotgrass dish made with the leaves only. So, the pictures you see below have the stalks which disturbed us while eating; but next time it'll be without! Anyway, I'd like to note that there's an alternative recipe (slighltly different) for knotgrass and it's with sujuk and bulgur. To see the recipe, please click here. 

Ingredients (serves 6)

Half a kilo knotgrass, the stalks are removed, the leaves washed and drained and chopped fine

knotgrass (madimak) chopped fine

Two medium sized onion, chopped

2 spoons of green lentil, boiled

1 carrot, sliced thin

1 green pepper, sliced thin

3 spoons of bulgur

5 slices of pastrami, chopped fine  

pastrami that needs to be chopped fine

2 glasses of warm water

3 spoons of olive oil

1 spoon of tomato paste (Turkish: domates salçası)

Half a spoon of or less pepper paste (Turkish: biber salçası)

Method:

1. Sauté the onions for 5 minutes in the olive oil. Add the carrot and pepper and sauté a few minutes more.
2. Add the tomato and pepper paste and sauté some more. Add the pastrami and continue sautéing.
3. Add the knotgrass, the bulgur and the green lentil by mixing it with the rest of the ingredients. Add warm water. Close the lid to cook for about half an hour.

step 2

step 3

     

happy ending!!!

happy ending!!!

            

Smakelijk!!!