Muhlama - a.k.a. Turkish Cheese Fondue, Black Sea Style

Muhlama is simply corn meal cooked in butter, then made to a pudding like consistency by the addition of water and lots of melting cheese... The last step is to pour melted, browned butter on top... This is one of the main dishes of Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey... It showcases some of the main produce of the region: cheese, butter and corn; and does it well. The simplicity and easy preparation of this dish made Muhlama one of the most cooked dishes because in the past hard-working Black Sea women do not have time to cook dishes with long preparation time since they work in the agricultural lands over the mountain slopes and also take care of their cattles... It is eaten together with Corn Bread, which is another staple of the region, and Corn Bread gives the crunchy texture you will need with this oozing dish and also accentuates the corn meal in the dish ... I will post a Blacksea style Corn Bread recipe one of the coming days...

This is the perfect comfort food for me, and also one of my favorite dishes among food I have tasted so far... And no Swiss cheese fondue makes me as happy as Muhlama - although I named the title Turkish cheese fondue... It is veeeeerrrry tasty, give it a try (did I emphasize enough :)). If you love cheese there is no way you will not like this - just look at the ratio of cheese to corn meal...

Ingredients:
(will make enough Muhlama for 2 to 4 people)

1/2 cup corn meal
2 cups water
2/3 stick of unsalted butter (1 stick is 125 gr)
+250gr mozarella* (cheese will be a bit less than 2 cups, I used 265 gr to be exact, but really does not matter, use 250, 260, 270... more cheese, more oozing...)
1,5tsp salt (start with 1/2 tsp and taste, salt amount should change according the the cheese you use)

Recipe:

1 - Cut the mozarella into small pieces and put aside...
2 - I use bigger size sauce pan to make this dish... Traditionally you would use a frying pan, but I feel safer with the deeper sauce pan...
3 - Melt 1/3 unsalted butter stick (half of the above amount) over medium heat, and when melted, cook the corn meal in it until corn meal starts to change color to darker shade of yellow...


4 - Once the color starts getting darker, add 2 cups of warm water, and salt... and mix and continue cooking... It should be simmering over medium heat...
5 - Add mozarella and mix... Continue mixing and cooking until all of the cheese melts...
6 - When all cheese is melted, put the pan aside...
7 - Before serving, melt other half of the butter (1/3 of the butter stick) in another pan... When the butter is slightly browned, pour it over the muhlama pan...


8 - Enjoy with corn bread for the best taste or if you don't have corn bread with any other type of bread. It won't dissappoint you either the case. Afiyet Olsun! (Turkish version of Bon Appetit!)


* You can use any type of mild melting cheese... After my trials&errors, I found out that the best result (closer to traditional taste) is obtained with mozarella... If you like the cheese taste to be sharper, add some (couple of tbsp) shredded parmesan into it...

Note: If you have left over, you can heat it and enjoy the next 1-2 days...