What to do with Artichokes or Enginar

an enginarcı at the Selami Çeşme pazarı, my local Monday market

Everything may be a bit late this year but enginar or artichokes are indeed ripe and out there, readily available on street corners and at the markets alike.  Do you know them? Here in Turkey or at least Istanbul, they are beautifully prepared and sold ready-to-go in plastic bags full of lemon water to prevent them from discolouring.  Right now they cost between 2.50TL- 3.00TL for one. They are a real delicacy with a subtle taste that we never tire of.

Turkish-style, there is just one way to prepare them which is zeytinyağlı: I have nothing to say against it. In fact, I am doing this myself every 10 days or so at home these days. Click here to find out how to do it.

classic zeytinyağlı enginar/artichokes in olive oil

 The other traditional seasonal way is to cook them with bakla or broad beans. For this recipe, click here.

BUT change is in the air: radical, this. Generally speaking, Turks like their food done in the time-honoured way and ne’er a deviation shall there be. So when I happened to be at the very popular Divan Pub by the Marina in Kalamış with a couple of friends a few days ago, I was delighted to see that they were celebrating Enginar Günleri or  Artichoke Days. Actually it's on for the whole month of April so you can still catch it.

A few words about Divan: the name has a very definite upmarket ring to it. This particular branch has the most desirable position right by the sea and you feel pretty special to be sitting there enjoying it all basking in the sun as we were.  In a way, Divan is one of those people-watching places ...not cheap but worth it once in a while.

I loved the fact that the artichokes were being prepared in slightly different ways, like this:

you can see clearly that the artichoke hearts have been cooked first and then grilled

grilled artichoke with rocket salad

 artichoke carpaccio which I had  - and enjoyed although I did
feel there could have been more enginar!

 
The other choices were enginar dolması - artichokes stuffed with the usual rice dolma filling, and a grilled artichoke soup which sounded interesting as it had pistachios in it. Unfortunately I couldn't persuade either of my friends to have it!

I was really delighted to see the delicious enginar being used in more creative ways which we can easily try at home.

Why not buy some today and prepare them differently for a change?

Or, of course, go to Divan and eat them there while you can!

Afiyet olsun!