Patates: Potatoes by any other name

welsh onion cake straight out of the oven

Which starch do you like best? Rice, bulgur or potatoes?

Thus ran an idle conversation between husband and wife recently.

Predictably he said rice, fair enough, although he qualified that by saying that he meant a real Turkish pilav and not just plain old English rice!  I being my father’s daughter, plump for potatoes every time.  I had also just stumbled upon a lovely blog called Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen with an easy  recipe for potatoes in the oven that took my fancy and reminded me how good potatoes can be.   In Assos of necessity I cook very simply and the quality of the potatoes is excellent. I was inspired to make potatoes in the oven just drizzled with olive oil and cooked with a few sprigs of fresh rosemary from the garden with a little salt and pepper.

It was so tasty that we had it two nights in a row! But you do need good potatoes.

Another night  I made Welsh Onion Cake from a magazine I had with me: basically onions and potatoes cooked in an ovenproof dish. I used to do all sorts of similar potato dishes where basically the ingredients were varying amounts of either butter, cheese, or milk. Potatoes Anna for example was a firm favourite and is the same as this recipe minus the onions.

Ingredients for Welsh Onion Cake

Adapted from BBC Good Food magazine

Serves 6

100g/4oz unsalted butter, melted and warm

500g/1lb 2oz white onions, sliced

1 rosemary sprig

1kg/2lb 4oz Desirée or Maris Piper potatoes

 Method

·         Heat about a quarter of the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Sweat the onions with a little salt and the rosemary sprig. Slowly cook on a gentle heat with a lid on for about 20 mins. Remove rosemary and set aside.

·         Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Peel the potatoes and immediately cut into wafer-thin slices directly into a bowl containing the rest of the warm butter. Season with salt and pepper. The thinner the potatoes, the better the dish will be. Do not wash them once they are sliced, as you want all of the starch to stick the potatoes together.

·         Layer the potatoes neatly in an ovenproof dish in a circle, slightly overlapping. Continue to pile in half of the potatoes, then add the melted onions. On top of the onions, continue with the potatoes until all used up.

·         Place in the oven and cook for 45-50 mins until the potatoes are soft and starting to brown.

·         Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 10 mins before slicing into wedges.

·         Excellent with the Sunday roast if that's something that you do, or indeed any meat or fish.

***************************

here is another variation, again cooked in the oven



This time the potatoes are boiled then sliced and arranged in the ovenproof dish and there is no onion. Sprinkle with a little salt and instead of butter, drizzle with olive oil. Scatter grated kaşar peyniri/cheddar cheese over the top and cook for 10 mins at 180C/350F. 

Tips

1. Here in Turkey we don't have the different types of potato that exist elsewhere. Or rather if we do, we don't know the names. The Assos potatoes are fantastic and the ones available in Istanbul are also very tasty. Just get nice firm ones and I am sure they will be just fine.
2. In my experience, one should set aside a certain amount of time for ovenbaked potato dishes as their success relies on their being thoroughly cooked and also browned. So in reality, don't rush when making dishes like these. They can easily continue cooking for longer.

Afiyet olsun for both!

Cheesy Toasts with Tomato and Thyme

Assos is an ancient village dating back to the 4th Century BC and is perched on top of a hillside with a spectacular view of the Greek island of Lesbos.  There is a temple to Athena at the very top. St Paul and Aristotle were there.

the ancient necropolis at the foot of our garden with Lesbos in the background

This  history is what makes it so special for me but in terms of gardening, it is another story. We are high up and very exposed to the elements. The Assos wind is something to be reckoned with.  Those plants have to struggle in order to grow.

Turkish spring amongst the olive groves further down the coast - I love this sight

So we were a bit downcast when we arrived for Easter and saw the garden was still looking on the wintry side. Two days later off we set in the direction of Edremit, a bit down the coast towards say, Izmir. It is distinctly warmer down there and we were in search of plants to add some colour to our garden. We had a particular nursery in mind.

...and we found it

boot full of plants

If you are a serious gardener, you're probably thinking oh those won't survive if the wind is as dire as she says. Well, it's better to try surely!

But why am I telling you all this?

Because we got back at about half past two and we were ravenous.

What do you do when you are put on the spot and have to produce something to eat FAST? My answer is these toasts topped with cheese and tomato, and sprinkled with thyme which in this case our neighbour has dried. The bread is also key: here it is köy ekmeği or village bread, which is what English recipes always call crusty. They slice it in the bakery if you ask, and they slice generously!

nice?

 Pre-heat the oven to 180 C.

Butter the bread before placing the slices of cheese on top. I used sliced cheddar I have to say : it melts so much better than any Turkish cheese I know. Then add a few sliced tomatoes and sprinkle dried thyme over everything.

It takes between 12-15 mins.

tackle with a knife and fork

Afiyet olsun!

*********************************************************************************

By the way, it looks as if the blogspot ban has been lifted!!!! Allelujia!!! Thank you to  Adventures in Ankara ...there's a New Kid in Town I found out this evening!! It has been a stressful two months or so that we here in Turkey have had to live with this ban which we did not deserve. Anyway, it's been lifted :).

 

Broad Beans in Olive Oil: a Meze

Zeytinyağlı bakla in Turkish.

This dish reminds me why I am a Seasonal Cook as these beans  - fava in the US - are available for such a very short time.

Since Uzbekistan I have a tremendous urge for fresh, clean tastes and definitely no pilav. Where better to be than in our village house overlooking the sparkling blue Aegean with Ayvacık market beckoning? We are here for Easter. To my great surprise I can’t say that spring has arrived here; the garden is holding back and it is chilly by day and downright cold at night. We have the fire burning and indoors is warm and toasty.

apart from irises and wisteria,the garden is still bare

Yesterday we ventured forth to market and it was a joyous sight with piles of fresh green produce everywhere and a bustling happy crowd. 

 the little side approach to ayvacık market at noon

 This zeytinyağlı dish is hardly original but it is what Turkish home cooks everywhere are putting on their tables right now.

Broad beans should be podded unless they are very young and tender as they are right now.  Keep away from limp, discoloured pods; smaller is better.  In this recipe they are cooked whole; later you can pod them  and pod them again.  They keep well in the fridge for 2-3 days. 1kg yields approximately 350g shelled beans.

LOCAL bakla, fresh, firm and green: this is what I bought

knobbly and arthritic- looking: what not to buy

I checked out quite a few recipes and saw that they are all pretty similar. The one I used is from Binnur’s Turkish Cookbook. I didn’t find the recipe all that precise but I realised that it doesn’t really matter as nothing too drastic can happen.

Ingredients for Zeytinyağlı Bakla

400g broad beans in the pod/ bakla

2 cups water with 2 tbsp lemon juice

1 small onion, chopped

75 ml olive oil (half for cooking, half for later)

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp flour

¼ cup fresh dill/dereotu (half for cooking, half for later)

Salt

they don't do things by halves around here: dill

Method

·         Wash the beans. Trim both ends and shave along the sides with a knife. Cut into 2-3 pieces.

the prepared bakla in lemon water

·         Place in the 2 cups water with the lemon juice so that the colour of the beans won’t darken later.

·         Sauté the onions with ½ the olive oil in a medium-sized pot. Add the beans with 1 cup of lemon water and the remaining ingredients.  If needed, add the second cup of lemon water.*

·         Cook for about 20-25 minutes on medium-low heat, half-covered with the lid.  Check for doneness and season with salt.

2 stages of cooking

·         
Place on a serving dish and drizzle over the remaining olive oil. Garnish with the remaining fresh dill.

·         Serve at room temperature with garlic yogurt.

zeytinyağlı bakla

Tips

1.       *I  found that I definitely needed the extra lemon water. Also I cooked the beans for an extra 10 mins.

2.       The amount of fresh dill can be adjusted to taste. It is so decorative that more is good!

As the beans were cooking, TT sniffed approvingly and said ‘It smells like the real thing!’ With encouragement like that, I  certainly recommend giving this meze a try! 

Afiyet olsun!

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!

my ancient assos mortars and pestles

A Uzbek Treat: Dried Melon

Now I am back in Istanbul, this is probably my last post on my adventures in Uzbekistan.

I just wanted to show you this: there we were, driving along in our wonderful Chinese-made bus Golden Dragon from Tashkent to Samarkand, when we saw a flurry of activity along the side of the road.



what could it be, we wondered?



Our driver obligingly stopped and we all trooped out, cameras at the ready. There were about 5 or 6 guys all selling something that we couldn't identify till Galip, our local guide and font of knowledge, came to our aid.



they were packets of dried melon



In our enthusiasm we all tried a small piece from the plate that was waved under our noses. It had a smell and consistency something akin to dried figs and was nicely packaged as you can see in the pictures.

he has my money in his hand!

 We all bought some. At 1000 sum or 50 cents, it didn't exactly break the bank.

We retired to the bus glowing with the satisfaction of surviving our first Uzbek purchase. However, as the days passed and our stomachs proved to be more delicate than we had thought, this delicacy somehow lost its appeal.

Reader, I dumped it.  

Pazar in Samarkand

Outdoor markets are always great fun and who could resist a Uzbek market?  After Turkish markets the choice of fresh produce was limited but it more than made up for that in terms of colour and general fascination. What great photo opportunities!

Bibi-Khanym Mosque: partially rebuilt in the 1970s after an earthquake in 1897

This market is right next door to the enormous Bibi-Khanym (Hanım) Mosque in Samarkand, a complex that must have been the 'jewel' of Timur's empire in the early 14th Century.  Bibi Hanım was Chinese, his favourite wife. She blotted her copybook however although it was hardly her fault when the architect fell madly in love with her. The story goes that he demanded a kiss from her which she reluctantly allowed, but it left a mark which Timur immediately noticed. As a result, he executed the architect and issued the order that from then on, all women should wear the veil so as not to tempt other men.

smartly dressed for market day



grated salads to go!



cheery sellers of traditional men's hats

the traditional bread or nan



interesting place, interesting people



beautiful hand-knitted shawls - I bought the pink one for $5



selling cheese



this little boy was terrified of me!

Suzani Heaven

Just what is a suzani, you may wonder.

 I know this is a cooking blog but we all fell in love with these and they are very much part of a trip to Uzbekistan.



a mind-boggling selection in a silk carpet and suzani shop in Bukhara


If you live in Istanbul, you will have seen suzanis in the Covered Bazaar as they are everywhere, just more expensive than there. They are beautiful silk-embroidered pieces of cloth which are used as wall hangings or indeed table runners, table cloths or bedspreads depending on shape and size. There are also  highly desirable cushion covers ranging in price from about 15- 25 USD. The vendors were more than happy to accept dollars which was fine but in the end we ran out and they didn't accept credit cards much to our sorrow! Even in the hotel shop in Tashkent, where supposedly they did, my credit card was 'invalid'. So if you go, take cash. Lots of it!

Price depended of course on quality. Our knowledge expanded in leaps and bounds as the trip progressed. Atlas? we enquired confidently, or Adras? Atlas is the premier quality as it is a mix of silk and cotton but a higher percentage of silk usually 70% to 30%. Adras is 50-50. This refers to the piece of material on which the embroidery is done. The work itself can be done either by machine or by hand. We also learnt to look carefully at the back: if there were knots it was handmade!

Another criterion was 'hook' or 'needle' with 'hook being more expensive. We were just getting our eye in as far as this was concerned.

Bukhara, Central Asia's holiest city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was the place although we saw them being sold everywhere we went. The choice was intoxicating and we all succumbed. First we went back to the chaihana where we had sampled the herbal teas:

oh was he waiting for us!

And then we visited the Summer Palace of Buhkara Khan:












A pleasant place, slightly crumbling, with the sound of peacocks in the background, we came upon the Harem building. Even though the Khan had four wives, he also had forty one concubines! There was a large swimming pool beside it and apparently he would survey his ladies from a tower and throw an apple down to the chosen one! But inside now it is a suzani museum with fabulous pieces hanging on the walls. The pictures here are of those. But what we didn't realise was that it was also a shop! Here the quality stood out and we were spellbound by the pieces that we were shown.

this must be 'hook'

When Çay is Choi

And pronounced ‘choy’.

This means tea to Uzbeks. Like in Turkey and in fact all of Central Asia, it’s the universal drink and offered after lunch and dinner and I'm sure whenever you feel like it. The coffee drinkers in our group are missing their lattes and cappucinos meanwhile ...

green tea time in Fayzulla Khojaev House, Bukhara

Both black and green tea are drunk here. According to our local guide Galip  green tea is favoured in Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva because it beats the heat while in Tashkent and Fergana, they prefer black.  It is not usually sweetened, unlike Turkish çay, and if it is, it would be at breakfast time.

Yesterday we were taken to a teahouse or chaihana right in the heart of the bazaar area of Bukhara to sample herbal teas. Actually it was a fabulous suzani shop as you can see from the photos!

isn't he great?

We sampled three different herbal teas and I think we liked the first one best which contained seven ingredients:

Cloves, mint, saffron, cardomom, cinnamon, anise, and basil 

relaxing and sleep-inducing

 The tea leaves had a beautiful light fragrance and made a delicious tea. I don't know the proportions but one could experiment. Of course it was for sale: 100g which would make 60-65 small pots, cost 15,000 som. This sounds like a phenomenal amount but in fact is only $7.50. I say of course because everything here is for sale!

The tea here is not brewed like in Turkey. It’s made by putting spoonfuls of tea leaves in a pot, covered with boiling water and left to infuse for a few minutes, just like making a pot of good old English!

beautifully presented snacks served with the tea

we enjoyed it thoroughly!

Notice the cups: this pattern is seen everywhere for some reason: the dark blue with the white.

look at those great wall hangings behind me

As you can see, this tea place was in reality a fabulous suzani shop and yes, we did all either buy something there and then, or came back the next day when we had 'free time'! More about that later. 

Shopping here is absolutely fantastic!!!

I'm in Bukhara!

Yes, I really am!

And yesterday I was in Samarkand. Right in the heart of Central Asia.

I can hardly believe it myself. These are the romantic names which evoke the fabled Silk Road which ran from east to west. I have since learned that in fact it was not one single route but rather a network of routes. In those days it was silk and today it is silken suzanis.

beautiful museum-piece suzani

This is the land of Timur the Lame better known in the west as the legendary Tamerlane. He was born on the 9th April 1336 so he has just had his birthday. Since independence in 1991, his statue is prominently placed in all city squares and parks replacing all the Soviet ones of Lenin, Pushkin and the like and brides like to be photographed beside them. On the 9th the people came with bunches of flowers which they placed at the base of these statues.

Samarkand was a key city as it lay on the crossroads leading to China, India and Persia. In 1370 Timur decided to make it his capital and it must have been a fabulous place then. Yesterday we saw some of Islamic Art’s most beautiful medreses with their gleaming minarets and domes of turquoise and blue. There was a lot of restoration work done by the Soviets so it is not as old as one might think but they did a splendid job, it must be said.

 What an amazing history this country has! Rich and colourful, ethnically very mixed, it reflects conflicts over the centuries based on the aspirations of different leaders and complicated by religions and  different ethnicities. It is almost too much to take in but we are fortunate enough to have with us a marvellously knowledgeable guide, Atilla from Antonina Tourism in Istanbul. Without him, we would be lost. The people don’t speak any English. In Tashkent, the capital, where they speak Uzbek, the official language, Turkish is your best bet if you don’t speak Russian. But here in the south, they speak Tajik, a Persian language, as they are right near the Tajikistan border.

But we are discovering that the people here are extremely friendly. They don’t mind at all having their photos taken and they greet us with huge smiles displaying mouthfuls of gold teeth.  They have ruddy complexions many with the distinctive slanted eyes and high cheekbones of their Chinese and Mongol heritage especially in Tashkent.

 The older men favour black hats with long jackets or chalpan while the women love colourful velvet outfits consisting of trousers with a long dress on top. They wear scarves but not at all in the Turkish way while the younger ones love fancy barrettes with shiny beads and sequins. The people are Moslem but only 5% practise.

The food is something else. I could just leave it there actually! I think you have to like no, love meat to get on here! We‘ve got the gist of the meals: a few mixed meze to start, followed by a meat-based broth which can be rather greasy, then a meat course, followed by a dessert.  The meat of choice is mutton, especially from the fat-bottomed sheep which has a distinctive smell  when it’s being cooked and which clings to everything.  The bread is interesting, large and round – nan. We didn’t care for it at first , spoilt as we are with Turkish bread, but now we are starting to like it!

our first lunch in Tashkent

The portions are all very generous and beautifully presented, despite being on the heavy side.  Fresh salads as we know them don’t feature although you may get a few sliced tomatoes and cucumbers  called salat turist! Even so, they make a welcome break. 

I think this is for the tourists

 For me the best part is the green tea which is served in lovely bowls -piala- as opposed to glasses or cups.

 I am a bit biased at the moment as my stomach was not up to the change but no doubt I will revise my opinion. But when I read in the lonely planet guide book that you don’t come to Bukhara for the food, my spirits sank. The wine is also shall we say interesting. And to our surprise there is no raki! Those who like beer are on to a good thing as they say it’s good.

This is all one big adventure even for us who live in Turkey. I can't format my pictures as I am in the rather grandiosely named Business Centre at the hotel here in Bukhara where there is only one outside line - and I have been waiting for two days now!! So I have to go as our group is meeting at 6.45 in the lobby.

Tonight we are going to make our own 'plov' ie special Uzbek pilav!