The scoop of ice cream above, clotted cream Maras (MA-rush) ice cream to be specific, was nestled on top of a bowl of warm semolina halva with a spoon stabbed in the center for the whole duration of the photo shoot (you’ll see in the photo below). And the spoon stayed still for at least 20 minutes. All this was possible due to the core ingredient of Turkish ice cream: Salep.

Aside from a traditional winter drink, salep also refers to a powder of dried orchid tubers, used in thickening the delicious Turkish ice cream, which is indigenous to Kahramanmaras – a city in southeastern Turkey. The local orchids contain a nutritious starch-like polysaccharide (complex carbohydrate) called bassorin, which accounts for the thick consistency. The resulting ice cream is extremely elastic and chewy and stays solid for quite a long time. The spoon stabbed in the center of the scoop was intended to summarize this magical quality. Unfortunately, since the top part of the photo was cropped, you weren’t able to see that in the published article very clearly. Aren’t I lucky to have a blog with endless space to fill?

So, this is the original photo:

I recall a heated discussion at the comments section of David’s Pistachio Gelato post.

A couple of his readers commented that only Turkish people get to enjoy the ice cream made with salep because we want to keep it all to ourselves. While that claim sounded possible, knowing how bountiful and hospitable my culture is, I wanted to dig a little deeper to find out the reason why.

While it’s true that we can’t get enough salep for our ice cream – and you will definitely not blame us if you had tasted it – the reason why salep isn’t exported is not just that. The orchids (mainly Cephalanthera Kotschyana and Dactylorhiza Osmanica among 38 others) from which salep is extracted are becoming extinct.

Apparently, 1000 orchids are needed for 1 kilogram of salep powder, which is valued at around 200 USD. A mid-sized ice cream factory uses up to 12 million orchids per year. Because of this serious threat, it is forbidden to export.

After a few phone calls, I learned that one of the largest producers of Maras ice cream grows its own orchids. It is not a child’s play, let me tell you… The secret is in the ingredients: goat’s milk, salep and sugar. And not just any milk or salep. The importance of the local ingredients is so paramount that all the production takes place in Kahramanmaras and the ice cream is shipped to other cities from the original factory. It is impossible to achieve the same taste with a goat’s milk from elsewhere.

The process starts with picking the tubers. After careful inspection, the tubers that pass the quality test are boiled in milk (or water) and then dried under shade to maintain its color and consistency. Once grinded, it is then added to the goat’s milk with sugar and mixed in huge containers for a specified amount of time. Finally, other flavorings are added and the ice cream is ready for packaging and freezing.

So there you have yet another reason to visit Turkey. My favorite Maras ice cream store is Mado. Clotted cream (kaymak), pistachio and caramel flavors are highly recommended. Mado branches are spread throughout the city. Here are some branches that are closest to major touristic locations:

MADO TURKEY BRANCHES

Besiktas – Sehit As?m Cad. Seyhan Apt.No:21 – (+90) 212 258 77 80

Beyoglu- Istiklal Cad. No:188 – (+90) 212 244 17 81

Sultanahmet – Alemdar Mah. Divanyolu Cad. No:24 – (+90) 212 528 96 95

Taksim – Aydede Cad.No:15 – (+90) 212 297 22 00

Here are some more branches in other countries:

AUSTRALIA – Roda Court Gladstone VIC 3042, Melbourne (+61) 396083204

U.A.E. – Al-Mamzar Center, Office No.5 Box. 21012 Dubai (+971 4) 3700377

HONG KONG – 9/F Yip Kwong Industrial Building 11398 Canton Road,Mangkok KOWLOON
(+852) 2 3906882

SOUTH KOREA – 6Th Fl, Seonyeoong Bldg 735-45 Yeongsamdong Kangnam-Ku SEOUL
(+0082) – 623 4581240

On a different note, as promised, here’s my dinner table with all the props I gathered from friends for the article. I laid them out a week before Janet arrived and stared at them for hours.

The below recipe is inspired by the delicious Vietnamese Coffee I first tasted at The Slanted Door (yes, that restaurant again!). Semolina Halva is traditionally prepared with a mixture of milk and sugar or water and sugar. The substitute (sweetened condensed milk) was right on spot. This halva has exactly the same texture with all the others I have tasted in restaurants, but developed a unique caramel taste thanks to the delicious sweetened condensed milk.

The most important part of the recipe is cooking the semolina until it develops a golden color. I tested the recipe many times and concluded that the right color is achieved after 20 minutes. The photo Doug took during the process is much more explanatory:

Above photo courtesy of Douglas Fletcher.