Nauruz, Turkish, and Cream of Wheat Pie

This is a long story with a point, cream of wheat pie. The story begins on our second weekend in Almaty. One of the English students, Marjan, tipped me off that Saturday was Nauruz, an important Kazakh holiday celebrating Spring and the new year. We were eager to see some Kazakh culture and she agreed to meet us early Saturday morning and take us to the square. English church begins at 2 in the afternoon on Saturday, so morning was a good time for us. We met her at the bus stop, pushed our way onboard, and almost an hour later we there, wandering through crowds of people selling balloons and icecream, taking pictures next to displays, and having a great time.

Marjan had promised me that we would get a chance to taste nauruz kuji, a traditional soup eaten on Nauruz. We were glad to find a woman selling a vegetarian variety. The soup was dished up cold and had a very shocking sour, and tingly flavor, as if it had soda water in it. It turns out the secret ingredient is kurut, dried salted yogurt. I laughed and laughed as I watched David consider his large bowl full of kurut soup. He is not a fan of the stuff.
In the end it all disappeared and there were no ill effects. We verified a number of times that it did not contain alcohol. It would have been scandal if I had arrived to preach that afternoon drunk on Nauruz Kuji.


After our exciting cultural experience
we joined the crowds gathering to watch the show. There was dancing and singing. As you can see from the pictures, we weren't in the front of the crowd but David still managed to get few shots. A couple joining the crowd recognized Marjan and stopped to talk. They weren't using Russian and I began to recognize a few words. Soon Marjan introduced us to her Turkish teacher and his wife. While Marjan and her teacher talked I began trying to communicate with his wife and to our delight we were able to understand each other enough to determine that we were both fine and neither of us had children, etc. Before they left, David and I had an invitation to come to their apartment for dinner the next Saturday evening. That is how it all began.



On Saturday evening Marjan met us at the center where we have church and we went together to her teacher's apartment. They had been warned that we are vegetarians so there was a lovely bean dish waiting for us, carrot salad, dolmas, cake, etc. it was a wonderful meal! Between Kazakh, Uighur, Turkish, and English we all managed to communicate and there was lots of laughter. I found out that the wife teaches Turkish to some women in her home and I was asked if I wouldn't like to learn some Turkish (it's a very useful language after all). I said I would and it was agreed that once a week on Tuesdays I would come and learn Turkish and help my teacher with her English. So that's how I happened to be in the home of a conservative Muslim family from Turkey two weeks later when she served me Cream of Wheat Pie and how I got this recipe which I am now sharing with you. The pictures are from my own interpretation of the recipe which David and I happily enjoyed for breakfast.



CREAM OF WHEAT PIE

boil milk and sugar to taste (sorry, I don't do measurements. Just make it sweet)
a pinch of salt is optional
Vanilla, cinnamon, raisins and walnuts, etc. are also optional.

Slowly add Cream of Wheat and stir with a wisk until the milk is the consistency of pudding.

crush some graham crackers, vanilla wafers, or English biscuits, into the bottom of a round casserole dish and pour half of the cream of wheat over them. Layer whole biscuits on top and add the rest of the cream of wheat. Finish off with more biscuits on top.

Refrigerate until cool then slice and enjoy with vanilla ice cream.