Name: Chard Stuffed with Toasted Corn and Hazelnuts in the Style of the Black Sea
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Turkey
Ingredients: 1 medium onion, chopped; ¼ teaspoon sugar; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 2 ounces soft cheese such as crescenza, mozzarella, Teleme, or cream cheese; 1 tablespoon tomato paste, canned or homemade; ¾ cup toasted corn kernels, about 4 ounces (see Note); ⅓ cup whole hazelnuts (1½ ounces), toasted; 12 large chard leaves (from about 2 bunches); 2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves; 3 tablespoons unsalted butter; ½ teaspoon Turkish or Aleppo pepper or ¼ teaspoon crushed hot red pepper; 8 ounces pastrami or basturma, shredded; 2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking

By Paula Wolfert

Published 2009

About

This recipe is from the Turkish town of Trabzon on the Black Sea coast, where dried sweet corn and anchovies are the two most popular staples in the local diet. Here this form of corn is used as the basis of stuffings as well as to make bread and to enrich egg dishes. The sweet, milky, fresh-picked corn is toasted and dried in stone ovens for about 8 hours while still on the cob; then the kernels are scraped off and dried a while longer. The resulting toasted corn has a delicious sweet, ear