GOLDEN THISTLE (SPANISH OYSTER PLANT)

(Recipe in English is below. Sevketi bostan tarifi için burayi tiklayin)

I am very happy to be able to find the Aegean greens:/herbs in the supermarkets these days! I haven’t seen any yet on the stalls in the open air market but those days will come too; but till then I’ll have to do with the supermarket stuff.

Anyway, yet another edible plant that I kept hearing of from our friends from the Aegean region of Turkey and the only thing they would say that it is really delicious! Being a plant that is quite difficult to pick, the price is quite high in comparison to the other edible plants in Turkey which are sometimes almost for free, you’d think!

golden thistle (spanish oyster plant)

Anyway, it is indeed a delicious plant! I am quite happy to have something different on the table as well! 

Browsing on my cooking books and the recipes on the internet, I found out that there are recipes of salad and warm dish with meat. Having recently had this mezze feast at home, I went for making the warm golden thistle with meat. Regarding the meat, the recipes mention either lambs meat or chicken. There was this recipe posted by a lady who was saying that she used chicken legs as this was what she had available at home. So I conclude that you are free with the choice and type of the meat you use (of course you are :p)

Ingredients (serves 3 – 4 p)

500 gr. Golden thistle; washed very well and chopped roughly (I soaked the plant in water with some vinegar a couple of times. I also cleaned the dark muddy part off of from the heads of the plant)

I washed the golden thistle well and chopped them roughly

300 gr. Chicken meat, cut into medium size cubes

chicken meat

1 medium size onion, cubed

1.5 – 2 glasses of warm water (I actually made the dish with 1 glass of warm water and I think it’d be better with some more to keep a better texture)

2 – 3 spoons of olive oil

For the roux turkish style

1 egg yolk

1 spoon of flour

The juice of 1 or ½ lemon (depending on how much you like sour)

Method:

1. Take the olive oil in a pressure cooker and warm it. When it is warm, saute the onions in the olive oil for 2 – 3 minutes.
2. Add the chicken and continue sauteing for a few minutes more (I sauted till the chicken turned into white)
3. Add the golden thistle and continue sauteing till it changes its colour.
4. Add the warm water and pressure-cook it for 10 – 15 minutes.
5. In the meantime you can prepare its roux (quite Turkish style): place the egg yolk, the flour and the lemon juice in a bowl and whisk until the mixture becomes even and smooth.
6. When the dish is ready, take a ladle of the water of the dish and add it into the bowl with the flour mixture and whisk very well! We do not want to have the egg yolk cooked in the dish, therefore we have to follow this procedure a few times before we finally pour the flour mixture into the pressure cooker!
7. Add the sauce into the golden thistle and stir a few times on low fire for one minute or two.

Step 2

Step 3

golden thistle with chicken

golden thistle with chicken