New Year's Supper: Highlights

In the celebration of the New Year, the most important meal is the New Year's Supper that usually lasts until very late hours.
A typical Turkish New Year’s Eve Supper, can be composed initially by a dinner with a soup, one or more appetizers (meze), pilaf, salad, a main dish, which is usually stuffed turkey (Hindi Dolması), but can be also stuffed chicken (Tavuk Dolması) or other dishes, usually meat dishes, and one or more desserts.

The most common turkey stuffing in the New Year is the iç pilavı, containing usually dried red currants, pine nuts, turkey or lamb liver in very small pieces, and flavored with all spice and cinnamon. Often, the turkey, in addition to the rice filling, is also stuffed with chestnuts (Kestaneli Hindi Dolması).

The whole turkey only appears in supermarkets at this time of the year, and is not very consumed in Turkey in the rest of the year.

The dinner may be accompanied with wine, which occupies an important place in the New Year's Supper, in the case of consumers of alcoholic beverages and wine lovers.

The most appreciated and consumed alcoholic beverage in Turkey is the raki, the national drink of the country. It is also very popular in the New Year’s Supper, among other alcoholic drinks, such as vodka, whisky, beer and various liquors.

Raki is not drunk pure. It is always mixed with water and also accompanied with water. Another raki’s inseparable company, are the mezes, which are a wide range of Turkish appetizers, namely stuffed grape leaves, several köfte, dolmas, among many others.

Russian Salad (Rus Salatası) is a very popular meze in Turkey.

Several mezes for sale in a supermarket in Ankara

On the New Year’s Eve, after the dinner, the evening may continue with various mezes, with raki and other beverages, and also kuruyemiş (dried fruits for aperitif).

Wine, kuruyemiş and pineapple in a supermarket in Ankara

The menus of the restaurants and hotels can repeat this type of menu or can opt for more international menus.

The New Year’s Eve is generally an happy coexistence between family and friends, animated with typical games, eventually with colorful flower arrangements that resemble the ones typical of Christmas, and often lit by intermittent lights that can decorate a "Christmas tree” and the windows and balconies. People also exchange presents, and there are special shows on television, in the main squares of the cities, in hotels, restaurants and bars, in addition to the spontaneous meetings on the streets.

Natural European holly for sale in Kızılay, in the center of Ankara.

Happy New Year! ***** Mutlu Yıllar!

Rice Stuffed Chicken (İç Pilavlı Tavuk Dolması)

There is also a version of this recipe made with turkey. The recipe with turkey is specific for the New Year, as the turkey in Turkey is almost only eaten in the New Year.
Both versions are a good suggestion for the New Year’s Supper or for the lunch of the first day of the year.

1 chicken with about 2 kg * 50 ml of olive oil * 2 tbsp thyme, * black pepper * red pepper * salt

Filling:

1 cup rice * 1 1/2 cup water * 3 tbsp dried red currants * 1 onion * 1 tbsp olive oil * salt * black pepper * 1 tsp cinnamon * 1 tsp all spice

Wash the rice and place it in hot water for about 20-30 minutes. Mix the olive oil with the spices and the salt. Place the chicken in an oven tray and brush it with this mixture. Put it in the oven at 180° for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the filling. Sauté the onion in olive oil. Add the rice and fry it lightly for about 2-3 minutes. Add salt, black pepper, all spice and cinnamon. Add the water and the red currants. Cook until all the water evaporates. Stuff the chicken with the rice and place the chicken again into the oven for about 15 minutes.
The rice recipe (İç Pilavı), which name means Rice for Stuffing, is also used as a filling of dolmas and sarmas and as a side dish.