Tuesday, July 30, 2013

My Dad's Gioulbasi - Γκιούλμπασι

In the early seventies my father made a couple of times a dish called Gioulbasi. The name seems Turkish but I am not sure. My father used to compare this dish to λουκούμι, Turkish delight, because the meat was so tender. My dad would make several slits in the meat and insert a garlic clove in each. Then he would wrap a whole leg of lamb in several layers of wax paper and finally wrap that package using newspapers. He would cook it for 2 1/2 hours in the oven. This dish was mostly used as μεζέ, snack when friends and relatives would visit us.

There are several different meats you can use for this and I chose to use a combination of pork and round cubes.
I removed the wrapping material, washed and dried the pork. I used a sharp knife to cut the meat into small pieces.


The round was already cut into small pieces.


This was exciting because I was going to use my Dutch oven. Yes!


Here is my locally grown garlic.


Here is the list of ingredients (left to right):



  • Phelps' world famous German red garlic. I used six cloves. I cut each clove in three small pieces
  • 1/3 of a cup mustard. I used two different type of mustard because the yellow one was really low
  • 6 carrots cut in large pieces
  • about a tablespoon salt. You can use more if you would like. 
  • 2 tablespoons garlic onion powder
  • one whole nutmeg ground
  • one tablespoon salt
  • two medium onions. Next time I would use five onions cut in large chunks.
  • one cut of wine. Of course I used my favorite Brotherhood Riesling.
  • two tablespoons oregano.

I love this wine...


Here is a closeup of the Phelps' German Red garlic.


I added the two different meats and ingredients in my Dutch oven and gave the whole thing a good mix.


Here it is mixed...


 I used heavy duty aluminum foil to simulate my dad's method of wrapping the meat with various paper products.


 I covered the pot...


 and used rope to tie the whole thing together.


This baby is ready to go in the oven. I cooked it for two hours in a 380° F preheated oven.

Here is the final product...


Here too...

This was a daring recipe to make because I didn't have anything in writing except memories of conversations I had with my dad. I hope I made him proud. Love ya dad!

6 comments:

  1. How did it taste compared to what you remembered?

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  2. I don't remember. It has been over 40 years and I just don't remember. I do remember, though, my dad bragging about it.

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  3. after some reverse-engineering, trial-and-error etc with google-translation I found out that if you want to translate "garden rose" in turkish you get "gül bahçesi" !

    the technique is very simillar to what in Ionnnina thay call "στην γαστρα"

    aferım oğlum !

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  4. It is great to recreate a dish to bring back memories. I am sure your Dad is smiling right now.

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  5. I rather think it is derived from "göl başı", meaning 'lakeside' -- presumably where you prepare this dish -- rather than "gül bahçesi", meaning 'rose garden'.

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