Istanbul

Spent six weeks in Istanbul. It was winter, but not that cold. Food was great as usual, despite some disappointments - e.g., quality of oven-roasted milk pudding (firin sutlac) as well as salep drink is down. In the past, poorly made firin sutlac and salep were hard to comeby. More recently, with increasing brands of processed salep in the supermarkets, and factory produced firin sutlac (ending up in rice being crushed), it is a matter of trying a few places before finding good sutlac or salep. On another note, I ate in some nice restaurants, and also in my favourite restaurant in Beyoglu. A weekend stay in Sapanca took us to a B & B, where food was cooked by the owner Zeliha. Both breakfast and dinner - breakfast included 20 kinds of jams, molasses and preserves, all homemade; and again homemade cheese, at least five types. Dinner was super, with olive oil dishes made to excellence. Back home, my mum's cooking was as always satisfying and truly missed. I took turns at times, and once cooked Stephanie Alexander's lemon chicken, which is always tasty. I left from Turkey to Europe two kilos heavier. Three months later, I returned craving laksa (Laksa King is the go!). I have just borrowed a book from the library called FIRE by Christine Mansfield (Sydney chef). It has a section on Istanbul with interesting insights. The food under Istanbul is a true stretch from Turkish food, perhaps more for experimenters. I marked some of the simpler dishes in the book for later. I am hoping to add some more recipes sometime soon.

Turkish Food - Lonely Planet

I have recently borrowed a book from the library. It is a Lonely Planet book, the World Book Turkey. It is very good. I am enjoying reading it before bedtime. It is very insightful. One couldn't have covered the Turkish kitchen better. It contains only a few recipes, but describes the food and how Turkish eat. I think I will buy a copy sometime soon.

Green Beans in Olive Oil

Zeytinyagli Yesil Fasulye

This is a very much loved dish, and one of the most common ways of cooking vegies in olive oil. Do not shy away from using plenty of good quality olive oil in this dish. It is a great side dish, or a dish on its own when served with rice. In summer, it is often served cold, at times straight from the fridge. It can be made a day before.

Frozen green beans can be used, but fresh beans are always superior. Frozen version is quicker to prepare and cook, and also an option when green beans are out of season. One of the best green beans I recall using were straight from the garden patch of Isthmus Retreat (off Wilson's Prom, great owners, great spot).

Abla's restaurant serves also a very similar dish (see recipe in 'Lebanese Kitchen'). The recipe below is just an approximation of what I do - once you get used to this dish, no need to use a recipe. It's simple and variations in amount do not matter really (as long as there is enough olive oil, and not too many tomatoes).

One could replace onion with two garlic cloves. Add paprika or black pepper (or herbs, e.g., fresh parsley at the last minute, or dried mint). It also works if you have run out of tomatoes (or a tin of tomatoes) - just omit it, or one tablesp tomato paste could be used.

Try it also dropping some garlic yoghurt on to it before serving (mix crushed garlic with plain yoghurt, and adjust taste for salt).

1 tablesp olive oil
1 onion, diced up small
1/2 kilo green beans
2 diced tomatoes
1/3 cup additional olive oil
1 teasp salt
1 tablesp sugar
1/2 cup water

Use a medium sized pot with a lid. Gently fry the diced up onion in 1 tbsp olive oil. Once onion is soft and starts to turn colour, add the pre-washed and trimmed green beans, stirring a couple of minutes. Add tomatoes, additional olive oil, salt and sugar. Stir. Add water, cover. Cook for 30-45 minutes over low heat.

When cooked, the beans will have changed colour, turning into almost khaki green (if looking bright green still, add a tablesp of water, and continue cooking). The beans should not be crunchy, but feel soft and moist.

Upcoming Recipes

I have several recipes to add. Here are the photos for now, recipes to follow...

Black-eyed bean dip

Peynirli Borek - Pastry with Cheese Filling

Güveç - Winter Casserole

Water Pudding with Rose Water - Su Muhallebisi

I have several recipes to add. Here are the photos for now, recipes to follow...

Chickpea Salad

Nohut Salatasi

A similar version of this chickpea salad is in Claudia Roden's The book of Jewish food (under Sepphardic entries). I love chickpeas, and this is quite a nice salad. And the salad dressing is great to dip bread into.

For instructions on how to cook chickpeas, see steps 1 & 2 under humus.

2 cups of cooked chickpeas
1 or 2 roma tomatoes, diced
juice of one lemon
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teasp cumin
1/4 teasp paprika (sweet or cayenne)
1 garlic clove, crushed
some fresh parsley, some dried mint, sprinkled

Mix all, serve and enjoy.

New Year, a Turkish cookbook, etc.

I have come across with a new Turkish cookbook the other day at Readings. This is by the Lebanese chef Greg Malouf and his ex-wife Lucy. It is called Turquoise, full of nice photos from their trip in Turkey. I didn't buy the book following my pact not to buy any more cookbooks! But I did have a flick through. It's full of good recipes, although I was quite surprised by a pumpkin soup recipe with a touch of cumin. I must say in all of my life (yes in Istanbul, but have been to various parts of Turkey and tasted food from several regions), I have never come across with pumpkin soup. I did introduce it to my family on one of my recent visits, and it wasn't well-received. It really is not a Turkish taste, and I am curious to know if a small village happened to have a version, which is how the soup ended up in the book. Apart from this unusual (or I should say out of place) entry, Turquoise appeared to be a well-presented addition to Turkish cookbooks. My favourite in English is still a book with no photos by Ayla Algar from which I will try the potato salad sometime soon. And one day, I might perhaps take up my dream of writing up a Turkish cookbook.

Sütlaç - Turkish Rice Pudding

There are many versions of rice pudding across the world, one my favourites being kheer (Indian/Pakistani version with almond meal and cardamom). The Turkish version is Sutlac, which I essentially grew up with. This version is nothing like the tinned rice pudding you get in the UK or Australia from supermarkets.

Sutlac had a well-deserved place in the Ottoman Kitchen, and was flavoured by rose-water (which you could try, just by adding a teaspoon of rose water before taking the pudding of the stove).

In Turkey, most patisseries serve their own version of sutlac, and one variation is firinda sutlac, i.e., baked rice pudding. The homemade version is often cooked on the stovetop, and for some reason, tastes best when made by my mum. I tried a batch last week, and was quite pleased to find out that my two-year old loved it, and the older one didn't reject it. So here is the recipe (after such a long break).

It is quite easy to make, best served cold, and can be sprinkled with cinnamon. You could increase/reduce the amoung of sugar according to taste.

1 lt milk
1/2 cup long-grained rice
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablesp cornflour

Wash and drain rice. Add the rice and milk into a pot. Cook over a low to medium heat stovetop, stirring occasionally. When the rice has softened, add the sugar and stir. Mix the cornflour with a couple of tablespoons of water until smooth, and then add to the pudding. Stir until the pudding just starts to boil. Pour the pudding to glass bowls, and let it cool in room temperature. Keep refridgerated. Sprinkle with cinnamon if you wish.

Tahini with Grape Syrup

Tahin Pekmez

Only three weeks left before the end of winter in the southern hemisphere, and winter is already milder with 17 degree days in Melbourne and clear blue sky. But this is no excuse to skip tahin-pekmez, which is a Turkish breakfast spread and a great winter-warmer (is this a real word?). You simply mix tahini with grape syrup. It is a great nutty taste, but one that not everyone is into. It is partly to do with the fact that not everyone in Turkey eats sweet spreads for breakfast when there is the option of feta cheese, tomatoes and cucumbers to be eaten with fresh bread and tea. I usually start breakfast with a cheese slice (often feta) on bread, and finish with jam/marmalade or tahin pekmez with bread again (not a big breakfast though, as I cut one slice into half).

Tahini is a sesame seed paste that is available in most supermarkets, and often known as the base for hummus. Grape syrup is a type of molasse that is thick and full of nutrition.

To make tahin-pekmez, simply add 1/2 measure of grape syrup to 1 measure of tahini. Mix until the grape syrup is soaked into the tahini. Spread on a slice of white bread. Don't hesitate to change ratios, depending on whether you like it more nutty versus sweet.

To purchase tahini and grape syrup online, visit Turkish market online.

Pilav with Bulgur

Bulgur Pilavı

Bulgur is a traditional ingredient for making pilav or pilaf in Turkey (burghul in Arabic). Turkish often accompany main meals with pilav either of rice or bulgur. I have had this dish so often as I was growing up, and my mum often diced up fresh and really tasty tomatoes on top of it. I often make bulgur pilavi at home, and not always alongside Turkish food - it goes well with food from other kitchens as well. This recipe is for this weekend's herb blogging event hosted by Foodblogga.

Bulgur pilavi often includes onions diced and lightly fried. There are various versions, for example, with different vegetables or green lentils. The one in the photo has got capsicum and tomatoes lightly stir-fried with onions.

There are two types of bulgur, fine and coarse. To make pilav, you need the coarse type. The fine bulgur is used in salads or dishes such as red lentil balls. I wouldn't attempt pilav using fine bulgur, which might reveal a soggy kind of mash.

Preventing bulgur to stick in the pot is sometimes a challenge, better to use a deep non-stick pot.

But recently, I discovered that rice-cooker makes excellent bulgur pilavi! You need to prepare onions etc. on stove-top, and add in the rice-cooker after bulgur and water.

For a different taste stir through your favourite herbs in the end, and a teaspoon of butter.

1 onion, chopped

2 tablesp olive oil

2.5 cups of water

1 cup of bulgur

1/4 teasp salt

1 tbsp butter

Pre-rinse the bulgur using a strainer.

Lightly brown the onion in olive oil. Pour in the water, and bring to boil. Add bulgur and salt, cover and cook over high heat. When water begins to boil, lower the heat. After water is absorbed, place a thin cloth (or a clean teatowel) over the saucepan and let it rest.

Stir in the butter, and some herbs to your liking.

Note 1: As I previously wrote, it is a challenge to obtain well-absorbed bulgur pieces that have not stuck to the bottom of the pot. So for the rice-cooker method, first lightly brown the onion in a frypan on the stove-top. Then use your rice-cooker as you would for rice (i.e., add rice and water according to instructions), adding the browned onion in the cooker before starting it.

Note 2: If using rice-cooker, follow the amounts given for rice. My rice-cooker has a small cup, and requires at least two cups of rice/bulgur. After adding bulgur, adjust the water amount again according to the rice-cooker requirements. The size of the onion (small v. large) is left to preference.

Tomato Soup with Rice

Domatesli Pirinç Çorbası

Since I last visited my blog, it's been two months and it's now winter in Melbourne. This week, it's been raining heavily, there are floods in the southeast, trees falling down, riverbeds overflowing. The good news is I am still busy but less so. This soup is a great winterwarmer soup again from Turkey, and also great for the Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Kalyn's Kitchen this week. This soup is commonly made with fresh parsley, but dried mint also works well.

Fresh tomatoes are always better, but tinned tomatoes are practical and work fine. Another short-cut (great for weeknights) is to use one-day old leftover cooked rice. 1 cup is enough, and you only need to add the rice, and bring the soup to boil. If using cooked rice, adjust the amount of water to 3-4 cups.

If you like thicker consistency, stir 1 tablespoon of flour into the thickened tomato mixture and before slowly adding water.

Spice it to taste, sweet paprika, freshly ground black pepper, ras-el-hanout (I know it's not Turkish, but I love it).

2 tablesp olive oil
1 clove of garlic, diced
2 large tomatoes, crushed
(or a tin of crushed tomatoes, around 400 gr)
1/2 teasp salt
1/2 teasp sugar
1/3 cup uncooked rice
5-6 cups of water
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
(or 1/2 tabsp dried mint)

Lightly fry garlic in oil in a large saucepan. Before garlic changes colour, add the tomatoes, salt and sugar. Cook tomatoes for about 5 minutes until it is thickened. Add the rice and water. Cook covered, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes until rice has softened. Add the parsley, cooking for a couple of minutes. Serve warm.

Croutons: Croutons are optional, not being part of the original recipe. To make your own croutons, dice one-day old bread, drizzle with olive oil and place in a microwave safe container. Microwave uncovered in high for 2 minutes. Stir, if necessary, microwave another 20 seconds, and another 10 if necessary. (Watch out, they burn quickly - so only increase time at short intervals).