Oğmaç takes its name from how it is made: flour is rubbed with water between the fingertips until it turns into lumps smaller than a chickpea. Those grains give both texture and body as they cook. Add the water any way but little by little and you will end up with dough, not grains.
Ingredients
For the oğmaç crumbs
For the soup
For the top
Method
-
Make the oğmaç
Put the flour in a wide bowl. Flick the water in a little at a time with your fingertips and rub the flour. Grains smaller than a chickpea should form, not a ball of dough.
-
Sieve
Pass it through a coarse sieve and rub any large lumps again.
-
Build the base
Cook the onion in butter for 4 minutes and the tomato paste for 1 minute.
-
Add the water
Pour in the hot water and bring to the boil.
-
Add the oğmaç
Scatter the grains into the boiling liquid and stir straight away. Tipped in all at once they stick into one lump.
-
Simmer
Boil for twelve minutes, add the salt, mint and pepper flakes and cook for 2 minutes more.
Tips
- Flick the water in with your fingertips, not with a spoon. Water poured from a spoon makes dough instantly.
- The grains must be scattered into boiling liquid and stirred as they go. This step cannot be rushed.
- Dry any leftover oğmaç with a dusting of flour; it keeps in a jar for a month.
Nutrition
Values are per serving and approximate.