Acılı Atom / Atom Meze

Ok, welcome to Episode 1 of Meliz’s Meyhane, and I want to show you how I make one of my favourite meze dishes, Acılı Atom, or Atom Meze. Acı, or acılı, means with heat (hot) or spice (spicy), which comes from the dehydrated hot, long red chilli peppers (red sivri biber, similar to a cayenne) that are fried in butter and oil and set against a cooling thickened garlic yoghurt. Just pass me the bread. You can watch the recipe video here 

Tip: if you can’t get your hands on already dehydrated red peppers, then you’ll need a dehydrator (some multipurpose air fryers will have this function) or in the oven on a very low heat (around 60c) for the around 8-10 hours (obviously, energy crisis is not currently conducive to this latter method!) 

INGREDIENTS  

250g thick natural yogurt 

1/2 tsp finely grated fresh garlic 

1/4 tsp sea salt flakes 

2 dry long red chilli peppers (kırmızı sivri biber), cut into 2cm pieces 

30g butter 

1tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp sweet paprika 

1/4 tsp pul biber 

METHOD: 

Place a sieve lined with kitchen roll / muslin cloth over a bowl and place the yogurt in the sieve. Cover with kitchen paper and pop in the fridge for 12 hours,  or overnight. Once strained, tip the thickened yoghurt into a bowl and stir through the garlic and salt. Leave to one side. 

Add the butter and olive oil to a pan, and once melted, add the peppers, give them a swish for 30 seconds or so, stirring constantly, then stir through the paprika and pul biber and take off the heat. Immediately pour this over the garlic yoghurt, sprinkle over a little more pul biber and serve with fresh crusty bread or pitta.