In this episode, I cook Karniyarik (a classic Turkish stuffed eggplant dish) with my good friend Burcu. While we share her easy, authentic recipe, we also open up about what it’s like to rediscover ourselves creatively in our 30s. From friendship to food to figuring life out — this one’s for anyone navigating this wild millennial chapter. Enjoy this wholesome dish and some real talk about growth, uncertainty, and finding purpose.
👩🍳 If you’re searching for:
How to make Karniyarik (Turkish stuffed eggplant)
Easy Turkish recipes for beginners
Comfort food with a story
Self-discovery and friendship in your 30s
…this one’s for you!
✨ Enjoy this wholesome dish and some honest, millennial real talk!
⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 Introducing Burcu
00:35 What is Karniyarik?
00:54 How to cook Karniyarik (Turkish stuffed eggplant recipe)
14:30 Real talk: friendship & self-discovery in our 30s
23:30 Tasting Karniyarik
📝 Ingredients list:
6 eggplants, 1 tomato (for garnish), 4 Turkish peppers (2 for filling, 2 for garnish), 1 onion, 3 garlic cloves, 300g minced beef, 1 canned chopped tomatoes, 480g basmati rice, 80g orzo pasta, 1 tbsp Ajvar (Turkish pepper paste), 1 tbsp tomato paste, 2 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp butter, ½ tsp black pepper, 2 tsp paprika, 1 tsp chili powder, 1 pinch sugar, 5 tbsp neutral oil (for eggplants), 2 tbsp olive oil (for filling), water (4 cups for rice, 100g for filling)
🎨 Burcu’s workshops:
Eventbrite: http://bit.ly/4ly3TcF
📱 Follow Burcu:
Instagram — happylandbyburcu
https://www.instagram.com/happylandbyburcu/
TikTok — happyland.by.burcu
@happyland.by.burcu
#karniyarik #turkishfood #millenniallife #selfdiscovery #friendshipgoals #easyrecipes #comfortfood #authenticrecipes #dinnerideas #foodwithastory
-Hi.
-Hi, you are watching Chin Like Chintonic. Today we have special guest. -Hi, I’m Burcu.
-Burcu is from Vienna. Born and raised in Austria, and her family is from Turkey.
And today, Burcu’s gonna show us how to -make-
-Karnıyarık, which translates to open belly or slit belly, depending on how you wanna
translate it. Perfect. Without further ado, let’s dive
in. -Let’s go.
-Karnıyarık is an all-time classic of Turkish cuisine. This dish dates back to
the Ottoman Empire. Today, Burcu will fill the eggplants with minced beef, Turkish
pepper, tomatoes, onion, and garlic. It will be stuffed, oven-baked, and served
with rice. Check the description for the full ingredients list and measurements.
What are we doing, Burcu? I don’t know why, but we do it this way.
My mom does it this way, so I’re also -doing it this way.
-So, is it for design? It probably looks better, I don’t know.
But I think the skin also has a bit of a -bitter taste.
-Mm-hmm. So I think it’s also a bit of taking away
the bitterness. But it might be anything and nothing. [laughs] Maybe let’s ask the
people outside if they know why our Turkish moms are doing this. That’s the
Turkish salt. So apparently, the eggplant takes in the water a bit while frying.
Apparently when you have soaked it in water, it actually takes less oil in. So
that’s the magic behind salted water. We will just keep it while having our rice
done. A bit down so that there is some, oh, yep, some heaviness on it. [laughs] Now we will
try the half-Turkish, half-German [laughs] or European, uh, rice. Chin was
amazing. She bought actually the right pasta, orzo, uh, which we use to make
rice. Uh, but then she also bought basmati, which we don’t use. So, in Turkey
she would mostly use baldo pirinç, but we don’t have that, so we will try
[laughs] to mix those together and see what comes out. This is a measure Chin gave
me. It’s 240 milliliters. I feel like we are making food for a full family, but
okay. You bought half a kilo. -[laughs]
-[laughs] So, what we will need to do is Chin will wash the rice. And in the
meantime, I will put some butter and some Rapsoil or Sonnenblumenoil, whatever you have,
some basic, uh, oil into the pan. I mean, a tablespoon or a bit more than a
tablespoon of butter, and just a bit of, uh, oil so that we can actually fry the
orzo in it. So when the orzo gets a bit darker, we will put the rice in, the
washed rice. Some butter, some oil, because Turkish people love their oil and
their butter. We really love it, and I have to say the truth is it really tastes
so much better. I would say one-third of a cup. Careful with this, because if it’s
too brown and burned, then it’s not great. And that happens literally in like three
seconds. Always stir and just look at it, look at the color. Yes, this does not look
healthy. [laughs] The amount of oil and everything. But believe me, it will taste
amazing. It just has to be gold brown, so I stir a bit more with the rice in it. I
put some water in. We used two cups of, uh, rice, so I put in
also four cups of water, so it’s double. So, how we generally look at it is
we just take from the side just a spoon here into the middle. And if
the rice goes above the water, we put more water in. So I’m just gonna
put this also in and hope that the rice is exactly at the corner, [laughs] at the
middle, and not too much in the water. Yeah, looks good, I think. And then we
wait till it gets a bit, uh, bubbly. Oh, let me see. Yep. And then when it’s
cooking, we will put, uh, like, um, tablespoon of salt in it, and then turn
the stove down to the smallest heat. And then just put the lid on, and then keep it
like this till it’s done. We will see if it works. -You will try with us. [laughs] Chin?
-Yes. Now you have to dry out the eggplants a
bit. Just pat them with the kitchen towel. Mm-hmm. Uh, I don’t know. [laughs] How -b-… Like this?
-Yeah, exactly. Just… Yeah, I just take it into it, actually. The whole, uh,
eggplant into the towel. Yeah. -Like this?
-Yeah. And just… Exactly. You’re doing amazing, Chin.
[laughs] And who knows? Maybe when your parents are
visiting from Vienna, I can make this one -for them.
-Just imagine a Korean making karnıyarık. Amazing. [laughs] Now we need to fry them. -Mm-hmm. Like, just dropping?
-Yes. Exactly. -Like this?
-Yeah. Yep. And maybe heat it up a bit more, the pan. Yeah. -All of them?
-Yes, if it fits. So we just have to fry them on all sides evenly. Perfect. And
then we will just… [laughs] Hard work, I know. So Chin is now being the grill
master, or the frying master, with her chopsticks, directly from Korea. [laughs]
Chin will just turn them around a bit in between. Okay. So, we are cutting the onions. Really not my favorite thing to do. There’s a lot of Turkish moms who just cut
it by hand directly into the pan, which I can’t do. Yeah, it’s crazy. So they just
take the onion, and they just, like, they do so many little slices on it so that it becomes very small pieces. And
they just do everything without a cutting -board, but with their hands.
-Wow. Yeah, no. Actually, these are very typical
in Turkey. I’m crying, by the way. So -it’s fine.
-[laughs] -[sighs] I hate this. Ah.
-I’m sorry [laughs]. I’m sorry to put -you.
-Chin is making me cry so much nowadays, it’s crazy. -You see my struggles here.
-[laughs] Real tears. Uh, got… Uh, for me, these
are Turkish peppers. This is like the -typical paprika you would get in Turkey.
-Mm-hmm. So we don’t have these bell peppers or
something like this. We don’t use those. So for cooking, it’s always these. And
they’re not spicy. They’re really nice. So we are chopping now the pepper. We have
chopped already an onion, and then Chin will also [chopping sound], uh, chop the
garlic a bit, and then we will start actually with the filling. We will show you guys how it
looks. And the garlic, and then we are done. -Okay.
-And you would already see on the corner it’s completely dry, so it’s done. What we
do is, like then we put a little, like a towel off, on it, and then the lid on it.
Yeah, so it just needs some resting time. And in
the meantime, our aubergines are looking -like this. So Chin is grating the garlic-
-Mm-hmm … because she didn’t wanna make her
hands dirty. Yes, because I’m lazy. But the problem is
I haven’t learned how to save the tip of this garlic clove ’cause, you know, you
also don’t wanna grate your fingers. Mm-hmm. So what is the tip here? [laughs] Going across the whole kitchen to look at
my eggplants. Oh, they look amazing. -They look really amazing.
-Yeah. I think this one I can already take. -[food sizzling]
-Look at her chopstick skills, guys. I studied this [laughs]. No, I did not.
But you really need to do stuff with chopsticks. It’s so much easier. Life
quality changes with chopsticks- -At this point-
-… while cooking … you are honorary Korean. You are
practically Korean. Oh. -I’m actually going, so yes-
-Yeah -… I should learn the good skills.
-I should really stop bragging about you, but Burcu also can understand Korean. So
when I have conversation with my mom in Korea and she can understand like half of
that at least. So she has to be careful with me around
her. -[laughs]
-Actually, Mama Park loves me, so it’s -fine.
-Yeah, my mom loves you. I’m putting some olive oil on the pan.
Then after doing it, like a minute or so, you know, like when it’s already a bit
done- -Yeah
-… we put the minced meat in it. -Mm-hmm.
-And then I put all the spices in. Look at her how amazing she’s working
here. So Chin has bought us some minced meat, and
what we need to do is now just, like, make it small, like very small pieces. And
I generally put a bit of water in it so that it doesn’t dry up too much. -This is advanced European system.
-Exactly. So basically you just have to press it on.
Keep the gas going. Lit the fire, -keep the gas going. [laughs]
-Yes. Until it stabilizes. What a system. -Ooh.
-Okay. -So it’s stabilized.
-Yes. Now we’re doing the spices part.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure, so I’m just putting half of a, a… -What spoon is this?
-Teaspoon. Teaspoon. Half of a teaspoon. Oh, my
goodness, I forgot even the name of those things. And then black pepper. Half a
teaspoon I would put normally in, but because this is hard work, I will just put in as much as my, -yeah, arms allow. [laughs]
-[laughs] So I think that’s enough. I think that’s fine. Chin has chili and
paprika Pulver, so I’m just putting both -of them because-
-Mm-hmm … we like some spices. So this is how we
use spices, -like with a tap-
-Wow. Like… Okay, I mean, this is too much,
but with a teaspoon we do these things. -Um-
-You don’t have patience for this little -holes, right?
-No, no. -Yes.
-So this one has actually this part where you just put it down so that you have the
bigger hole. -Oh.
-Yeah. The important stuff, Chin, in life. -You know.
-Oh. People who like spices do it this way. I
just do one tablespoon because Chin told me -that this is dreifach, so three times.
-Concentrated. So it’s concentrated, so it’s apparently
thicker. And then my secret ingredient. I literally brought this from Turkey. Uh,
it’s pepper paste, sun dried actually. -Wow.
-It’s a bit spicy, but it’s coming from Gaziantep. It’s the place to be for food.
Uh, they have a really rich kitchen, so I -just brought myself-
-Wow -… pepper paste from Turkey.
-Perfect. I feel like my mom, she would always do
that. Like when we were younger, when we -went there-
-[laughs] … to Turkey with car. I mean, from
Vienna it’s easier to go to Turkey actually than from Berlin. But she would love everything from Turkey. So our car would
just have like kgs of olives. I don’t know, like green veggies and
everything. Everything fresh. Fruits. It was just like crazy. And we would be always like so
pissed because we didn’t have space in the -car because of her food.
-Ah. [laughs] -And then there is me now. I’m like-
-[laughs] … “Actually, I wanna bring pepper
paste.” And not just like 100 grams or something. I just brought like three kg of
them- -[laughs]
-… for the whole year. Yeah. Becoming my mom. So this is how it should
look like now…. two more minutes and then we will put in also our tomato. And
next step will be, like, filling the -eggplants. [food sizzling]
-Okay. [laughs] That part will be fun. So what we normally
do is, like, we open up the belly and -then just- [knife thudding]
-Oh. You just- -… smash it, actually-
-Yeah … in, so that there is space actually
for the filling now. Chin will be filling -it and I’m just gonna do this. So-
-Uh, you don’t take the inner side out? -No, no.
-Ah, okay. -So we fill it up a lot.
-Mm-hmm. Less of the water, more of the sauce then,
in this case. -Oh, okay.
-So of course everyone does it a bit s- differently. Uh, some do it less oily,
they would put it in the oven. But this is, like, the tastiest in my opinion, of
course, depending on the person. Some people also take out a bit of the filling- -Okay
-… of this. But for me it’s, like, this -is, like, the juicy part.
-Mm-hmm. Because otherwise you’d just have, like,
an empty shell- -Mm-hmm
-… with minced meat. So some people also -now, like-
-Hmm … of course everyone tries something
out. So you can also put, like, some -shredded, uh, cheese on it-
-Oh … or grated cheese. But however you like. I just do it without anything, just like
this. And for some side garnish- -Mm-hmm
-… like pepper and tomato. But, yes, you can do a lot of different
things in this one, so there is not one full recipe that I
would be confident in sharing being like, -“Yeah, this is, like-”
-Hmm -“… it’s the way it has to be.”
-Has to be. Yeah. So everyone does their own style on
this a bit. And the garnish you would just, like, put
around them a bit -like this.
-Ooh. -Can I put more filling-
-Yes -… on the aubergine?
-Yeah, yeah. Of course, you could also use this later for some bolo- like, use it as
a Bolognes. Of course it’s- -Mm-hmm
-… not the same, but still. Mm-hmm. Just putting it into the oven. No, you are
right. Or wrong. This way. -[laughs] [pan thuds]
-Yeah, hot, hot. -Yeah.
-Careful. [tray clanks] -Okay, wh- ooh.
-Ooh, that was close. That was close. Yay. Okay. So now that all the food is in the
oven, we have time to chill. I’m getting confused, should I
talk, like, looking at this mo- camera or- [laughs] To me? ‘Cause my natural urge is to look at the
person that I’m talking with. -Exactly.
-I don’t know, I will look at you guys and -then look at her.
-I will try that too. Just imagine you’re sitting at the table,
then I will look at you and then I’ll look at her, so it will be just like this. I
wanted to start with how would you -introduce yourself to my viewer?
-Hmm. Maybe it’s different from what I imagined. [laughs] So, uh, I’m Burcu. Of course you
heard that at the beginning, but hey. Um, I’m 33 years old. Oh, not yet. In a month.
So what am I up to? Who am I? Well, maybe starting from where we met with Chin.
She’s actually my ex-flatmate. I moved to Berlin five years ago. Fun topic, it was
COVID times. I am from Vienna. I studied there, I lived there my whole life. But
for me there was always something bigger. So when COVID happened, it hit me really
hard. Then it was like, wow, I’m just at home. Just studying, going to
work, but it was still, like, not what I was envisioning for my life to m- for my,
like, end of 20s. So yeah, I packed my bags, came to Berlin. Now I’m just working
full-time job, doing some side hustles. -[laughs]
-Tell my viewers, uh, about your side -hustles.
-I’m doing nowadays workshops in Berlin. Um, outside in the park, just chilling,
you know? Like, it feels like a picnic with friends actually. Also putting it
online so that people can join still. Last time it was cross-stitching, next
time it’s gonna be, like, -uh-
-Glass painting? … glass painting. -I’m just like-
-[laughs] … I feel like I’m trying so many things
to find myself at 33 now. And it’s so -funny because Chin and I also are like-
-[laughs] Or like a lot of my friends, I feel like
after becoming 30, I’m actually realizing that I’m a creative
person, for example. And I see that also in Chin. I’m just like, “Wow, we’re finding
[laughs] ourselves now at, like, 33 now.” -Who would have thought? -And nowadays I’m just floating. I have a
full-time job. I am -enjoying it.
-What do you do as a full-time job? [laughs] Yeah, nothing with my creative
side actually. I’m a treasury manager. So before I was a finance manager and, uh, my
bachelor’s was also, like, business administration. Also like a lot of my old
friends from Vienna and stuff, they, they knew me as, like, this really rational
person, uh, just following the steps in life, doing… So like going and doing her
studies, working, earning money, you know, like coming also from a migrant
background, also my friends are. So it was -always important to work,-
-Hmm … study hard, work and earn money and
have a stable life, right? And nowadays I’m more like, “Ah, stable life? Who needs that?” [laughs] Of
course I’m still very risk-averse, so that’s why I’m just doing it as a side
thingy, my creative side. Because there is -still-
-Hmm … thought of being, like, a failure in
life or being stressed that I might be a -failure.
-Mmhmm -Because for me, I was
really like, “I need to earn money but I also wanna have fun in life,”
because for me working 9 to 5 is not my dream anymore. And believe me, if you
asked Burcu five years ago, that was her -dream.
-That was her dream. -Yeah. She was like-
-I witnessed that. [laughs] [laughs] She was like, “Oh, let me work.”
And nowadays I’m just like, “Ah, it’s 5:00 -PM. [laughs] Let me clock out.”
-Let’s go. [laughs]. -[laughs]
-And by the way, Burcu’s workshop is so much fun. -Yes.
-Last time we were stitching all together in a park. Good vibes, good weather. And
next time I’m going there too. Glass painting. You can find her event on
Eventbrite. Exactly. It’s called Glass Painting at
Treptower Park. It’s always every second Thursday, like, every two weeks. But I think Chin will anyways add, like, a
link or just like add my- -Mm-hmm
-… Instagram name on there, so -maybe I will see some Berliners.
-We are very friendly. -Exactly.
-[laughs]. [laughs]. Even if it doesn’t sometimes
look like it. Doesn’t look like it. Well, we are very
friendly. -Yeah.
-Wir können auch Deutsch. -Exactly.
-Sogar sehr gut Deutsch. Und ihre Muttersprache ist Deutsch. Sprache ist gar
kein Problem. -Also, Deutsch, English, Türkish, Korean.
-Koreanisch. Also, wir haben alles. Enjoy and come.
[laughs] -[laughs]. Join us.
-Did it sound too much like I was already, like, trying too hard to get people on my
workshops? -Nah. W- we’re not that desperate.
-That’s what she said. What makes you happy these days? I speak very openly so I’m s- Like, Chin
knows, but I do therapy. Like, I go to therapy. My therapist really likes to ask,
“What do you need right now?” This is one of the things that makes me really happy
to be able to go, actually, to therapy on a weekly basis, to be able to do this, pay this. I couldn’t
imagine, like, five or six years ago when I was still a student, when I was still
living with my parents, right? And nowadays, it’s just for me, like, this
freedom- -Mm-hmm
-… of being able to do stuff for myself. I’m planning to do, like, a yoga course.
Like, becoming a yoga teacher. -What?
-Yeah. That is one of my dreams. It’s- -That’s so cool.
-It’s not, uh, very clear when I wanna do it, but I really wanna do it for myself
actually, and then I can see if I wanna -bec- also teach classes. But-
-Mm-hmm … at the beginning, it’s really for me
because I saw that yoga does really well -for me. Like, meditation.
-Mm-hmm. And these are the things that I did with
therapy. And talking to my therapist when she’s asking me, like, “What is it that
you need?” Mm-hmm. And this is
something I’m really, like, uh, thinking of nowadays, where I’m like,
“Okay, I went to university. I studied and -I j- enjoyed studying.”
-Mm-hmm. Like, not the studying part but the fun
part. Um, but I’m like, “I could have done so many
more things.” And then I’m always like, “Okay, let’s breathe.” [laughs]. Right now
I’m really enjoying my creative side doing the workshops. And right
now I’m also on TikTok. Next step is
opening up the Etsy shop and, yeah, seeing where it goes. What I realized also doing these workshops
is, like, there are not many people joining maybe, but the thing for me was it was such a hard
thing to actually tell people close to me -that I’m doing these workshops.
-Oh, I can relate. [laughs] And just being like… I don’t know. I was
like… I felt, like, a bit of shame but also, like, this, you know, um,
“What if I fail?” And then my therapist, like, couple weeks
ago, she was like, “Can we take out failure out of your vocabulary?” She
wanted to take out failure and success out of my vocabulary because she was like,
“It’s such a burden.” Do you have any wishes for your future
self? Similar to my younger self by the way. I
feel like- -Mm-hmm
-… being less of a people pleaser because I am still, and it’s still hard for me.
“Life would be so much easier if you -weren’t, like, such a people pleaser.”
-[laughs] But other than that, really enjoying, uh,
time with my partner, so hoping for that -to go on.
-Mm-hmm. And I feel like also with friends and
family, just enjoying my time more with family and friends. They’re all having our
lives. Mm-hmm. So it’s anyways hard to meet up, find your
time, you know. So, I’m like, “I really wanna enjoy- enjoy
those times.” Work is not [laughs]- -[laughs]
-… anymore, like- -Priority [laughs]
-… priority in my life. I’m not saying -don’t work.
-No, no. -[laughs] But-
-But there are more important- … more important things in life for
sure. Life has its own way. -Mm-hmm.
-So better enjoy the ride. I mean… [laughs]. Yeah, I mean, what else are you gonna do?
[laughs]. Exactly. [laughs]. At least we can try to
enjoy it and do some random stuff. -Exactly. Well, that was really nice talk.
-Yes. -And thank you for being so open.
-Yeah. I mean, I, I told you I will be like… It’s the internet. The internet doesn’t
forget. But hey, maybe I will forget at some point and then it’s a good reminder.
[laughs] Yeah. By the way, this will not be the
last time you will see Burcu, so… -[laughs].
-I am shocked. You never know. Maybe people will not like
me and they will be like, “Oh my -goodness. No.”
-Well, I mean, I care about what my -viewers-
-Mm-hmm … like and, of course, I really
appreciate every feedback and I try my best to reflect that. But if you are trash
talking my friend and giving her bad comments, -sorry, but I’m gonna delete it. [laughs]
-[laughs]. Okay then, let’s find out how it’s cooking
in the oven. So very juicy. We are done. How do you know when it’s fully cooked?
Or- So you can always look on the bottom part.
So that’s what I do generally. Just, like, looking if, like, it’s sticking to
the pan a bit but it’s, like, really cooked because you can already feel it on
there because it’s very juicy inside. Mm-hmm. So yeah. That’s all done. -Oh god.
-[laughs]. That’s the age. Let’s try. -Let’s try. You eat aubergine first?
-Yes. I always do aubergine a bit and then -also a bit of the rice.
-Mm-hmm. -Tell me now how it is.
-Okay. -Mm.
-Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. -Juicy. Mm-hmm.
-And actually the rice, not bad. I mean, you taste it, it’s a different
[laughs] rice for sure. -I had one job. Thank you for watching.
-Thank you for watching. See you next week. See you next week. Bye.
3 Comments
Great video! The recipe looks delicious and the guest was super lovely.
Love it ❤❤❤
Wow so nice😍