Siz de benim gibi Akman Bozacısından uzakta yaşıyor, o tadı özlüyor ve senelerdir bozaya hasretseniz belki evde yapmanın zamanı gelmiştir?

5 – 6 ay önceydi herhalde. Bir gün Zeynep Töre’ye, “Boza yapmayı da bilirsin sen herhalde?” demiştim, o da beni yanıltmamıştı sağolsun. Ben de o gün bugündür aklıma geldikçe yapıyorum. Kim demiş ille de kışın içilecek diye?

Bir tek Türkiye’de bilinir içilir zannederdim ama galiba Osmanlı Saltanatında yayılmış bozanın ünü de. Bir çok ülke şimdi kendine pay çıkarır olmus; meğer Bulgaristan’da kahvaltıda sunulurmuş. Kimbilir kim yaptı ilk. Ellerine sağlık ama.

Zamanında içinde alkol var diye yasaklanan bu içeceğin alkolü, mayalanma esnasında varolan alkol. Çok yüksek bir değeri yok — %2 – %6 arasında. Bu oran, kullanıldığı tahıla, mayalama süresi ve sıcaklığına göre değişiyor.

Darıdan da oluyor boza, bulgurdan da. Bazen bulgur ile pirinci yarıyarıya koyuyorum. Belki her türlü tahıldan yapılabiliyordur ama ben şu ana kadar bir tek bu ikisi ile denedim.

En iyisi tarihçesini anlatmayı bu işi bilenlere, belki de en meşhur bozacı olan Vefa Bozacısına bırakayım ve size Zeynep’ten öğrendiğim tarifi yazıvereyim.

Malzemeler:
5 – 6 kişi için

1. 1 bardak bulgur (1/2 bardak bulgur + 1/2 bardak pirinç de olur)
2. 1 bardak şeker
3. 8 – 9 bardak su
4. 1 çay kaşığı kuru maya

Yapımı:

1. Bulgur ile 8 bardak suyu büyükçe bir tencereye koyup, kısık ateşte, bulgurlar eriyinceye kadar pişirin. Dilerseniz pişirmeden önce bir gece suda bırakıp şişmesini de sağlayabilirsiniz. Tencerenin kapağını kapatmayın; pilav yapmayacaksınız



2. İnce tel süzekten, üzerinden tahta kaşıkla bastırarak koyu kıvamda bir sıvı elde edin



3. Şekeri bu sıvıya ekleyin, eğer çok kıvamlı olmuşsa bir kaç bardak su daha ekleyebilirsiniz. Bu aşamadaki koyuluğu içeceğiniz bozayı andırmalı. Bu karışımı yine hafif ateşte 3 – 4 dk kaynatın, cam bir kAseye boşaltıp mayalama sıcaklığına (45C civarı) gelene kadar bekleyin



4. Ayrı bir kAsede ılık su ile kuru mayayı ezin, büyük cam kAsedeki karışıma ekleyip iyice karıştırın
5. Üzerini tülbent veya benzeri bir bezle kapatın, oda sıcaklığında mayalanmaya bırakın



6. Bulunduğunuz ortamın sıcaklığına göre mayalama süresi değişebilir. Biz çöl misali bir yerde yaşadığımız için bu en son yaptığım 2. gün bitmeden mayalanmıştı
7. Buzdolabında soğuttuktan sonra üzerine tarçın serperek, varsa leblebiyle ama ille de kaşıkla servis yapın

Bozacının şahidi?

Here is my local wine experience to take a part of Wine Blogging Wednesday #12, with the theme “Drink Local, Real Local” hosted by Lenn Thompson.

The wine that you see has been made only 2 miles away from where I live. Local enough, no? ;)

Living in Northern California gives you many choices in finding local wineries. We do not live so close to Napa Valley; it is about 1.5 hrs drive away. And we somehow prefer the wineries of the Sierra Foothills in El Dorado County then the crowded Napa Valley ones. They are about 40miles or so away from where we live; Folsom. I thought one of those wineries would be the closest, but I was wrong. Running a search on the internet got me a winery that I have never heard of within 7 miles! I was going to check them out and write about them here. But one day, as I was driving to work I finally realized that Gekkeikan’s Sake Plant is just there; only 1 mile way from where I work and about 2 miles from home. Than I started to think if sake is a wine or not. Also posed the question on Lenn’s website and got encouraging answers. So, I decided to go there in a rush today at my lunch break. You know, living here for 5 years, I have never been to their tasting room or the plant even once. ;( I guess it is normal as the tasting room is open from 10:00am to 4:30pm and only in weekdays.

Turns out Gekkeikan was established in 1637 (no typo here!) in Fushimi, Japan. It is considered to be one of the world’s oldest companies. They established the plant in Folsom in 1989. And I wondered why they have chosen Folsom. The answer is in their website:

Just as Fushimi was “discovered” centuries ago, Folsom was found to offer just the right conditions: high quality water and an abundance of rice- the perfect setting for a skilled brewmaster backed by over three and a half centuries of experience.

Before setting off there I wanted to read more about sake to really determine if it is beer or wine. As it is written in Gekkeikan’s website, it is a fermented drink; just like beer and wine. It is made mainly from rice and water.

My experience with sake has not been so wide; we have a nice salmon recipe that calls for sake and every once in a while we have sake in the sushi dinners. And in my short research I also came across John Gauntner’s Sake World. There he states

Sake is a beverage fermented from rice, which is a grain. This would make it more of a beer than a wine. Yet, sake is not carbonated, and flavor-wise is closer to wine than beer, although it is indeed uniquely different from wine. Sake is not a distilled beverage, and is not even remotely related to gin, vodka or other spirits.

Even after this I went to Gekkeikan. Turns out it was worth doing so; they do make plum wines there.

The lady in the tasting room didn’t like the idea of me taking a picture ;( When I asked her if sake is beer or wine, I was hoping she would say one way or another. But, no, there was no definite answer there, either. She said city considers them as a brewery but the state sees them as winery (or vice versa.) When they make their plum wine, they do shut down their brewery, she added. Some kind of strange regulation I suppose.

I got to taste 3 different sakes. They all tasted the same to me, which proves that I am not a connoisseur. There were two plum wines; Kobai Plum, made right here in Folsom, and Plum Gekkeikan imported from Japan. I didn’t taste them there as my lunch break was about to be over and I was getting hungry. As I am writing this, we are tasting the one made in Folsom. It definitely is a sweet wine! This one has plum essence as opposed to the Plum Gekkeikan which is made using real plums. I really am interested in buyingh the imported one as well. I was told I can get both of them in Trader Joe’s, but I could only find the Kobai there. Now I only wish I had a plum to drop into the wine glass, as I once saw in a restaurant!

Taking a part of the IMBB #17 was not only fun because I just made up a recipe that we enjoyed consuming, but also we got to enjoy A la Cuisine’s Clement’s great round ups which is still going on as of this writing. His great choice of topic brought many recipes to try!

When he announced free tea offer from Adagio Teas I thought I’d just go and see what they have to on their website. Visited their homepage and it seemed like they have every combination of teas possible. I had a hard time choosing those 4 teas! To be honest, I have never heard of Adagio before that offer. Now, I find myself browsing their website and going through pages to find what kind they do not have!

So, I made my choices, submitted and received a confirmation immediately. Not so long after that I received an email saying it has been shipped! They were fast, to say the least.

When I received the package, I was amazed by the amount they sent; generous! There was also a hand written note. How nice can it get? A gift from a tea company for you to try out their products. I am all for it. They sure know how to get new customers ;)

Tomorrow morning I will brew one of them; still cannot decide which one. If you have any ideas, please write me before I wake up!

I will also post my opinion on each of these tea samples from time to time. Stay tuned!