MIDYE TAVA
TURKEY
Mussels are one of Turkey’s most typical street foods. You can buy them stuffed, often beautifully arranged over metal trays lined with old newspaper, or you can have them fried, stuffed in a fat baguette with tarator drizzled all over them. The vendor threads the mussels on wooden skewers then dips them in water, then flour for what seems like a hundred times to build up a nice coat before dropping them into a huge pan full of hot oil. Fresh anchovies are also prepared and fried in the same way.
You need a very large skillet to fry skewers, so if you don’t have one, simply fry the mussels without threading them on skewers (see Note). I am not so keen on dipping the mussels in water, then flour, so instead I use a light batter to have more delicate mussel fritters. The batter recipe I give here comes from Bill Briwa, who worked at the French Laundry before joining the teaching staff of the CIA in St. Helena, Napa, California. Serve with a salad of your choice and good bread.
SERVES 4 TO 6
FOR THE BATTER
1½ cups (175 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
Just under ⅓ cup (50 g) cornstarch
½ tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon salt
1¼ cups (310 ml) sparkling water
TO FINISH
45 large mussels, steamed and shucked (or 36 fresh anchovies)
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
Salt
Lemon wedges
1. To make the batter: Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt in a bowl wide enough to accommodate a skewer. Whisk in the sparkling water until the mixture is smooth.
2. Thread the mussels onto 8 or 12 medium (7 inch/17.5 cm) bamboo skewers—2 skewers per person.
3. Set a fine-mesh wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet. Pour 2 inches (5 cm) vegetable oil into a large skillet (see Note) and heat over medium heat until hot (if you drop a piece of bread in the oil, the oil should immediately bubble around it).
4. Drop a few skewers in the batter. Stir them to coat evenly, then remove one by one, wait a little for the excess batter to slip off, and drop into the hot oil. Fry for 30 seconds or so on each side, or until golden all over. Remove with tongs to the wire rack to drain off the excess oil. Sprinkle with more salt if necessary. Skim the oil clean in between each batch so as not to have burning bits of batter clinging to the fritters. Serve hot with tarator sauce and lemon wedges.
NOTE: If your pan is not large enough for the skewers, drop individual mussels in the batter. Stir them to coat evenly, then remove them one by one, wait a little for the excess batter to slip off, and drop into the hot oil. Fry in the same way as the skewers. Remove with a slotted spoon to the wire rack and sprinkle with more salt if necessary.