Peach & Halloumi Salad

Oh how I love summer and the fabulous produce we get here!

gorgeous, aren't they?

Just look at these peaches from Bursa! They’re like a still life, all pink and sweetsmelling, perfect in every way.

We returned from Assos a few days ago, again taking the alternative route via Edremit with all the little roadside stalls and their foodie offerings.  I just love that way.

 This time it was karadut suyu or black mulberry juice – ‘buzzzz gibi!’ Which means ‘like ice!’ Also truckloads and truckloads of huge dark green watermelons as well as  regular melons – an impressive sight! And let’s not forget the big fat Çanakkale tomatoes which are superb. Crateloads of them lining the road.

So then we approached the city of Bursa, renowned for its peaches/şeftali (pron: shef-ta-lee) and lo and behold like magic, all the little stalls we saw were indeed selling them. We had to stop and buy some, and some fabulous nectarines too. I couldn’t ignore the figs from a nearby village either but these are so vulnerable, you can only buy a few at time.

 

what a display

 

It’s usually best just to eat these delicious fruits as they are, no messing about with them, but this salad happens to combine 3 of my favourite tastes: peaches, halloumi cheese from Cyprus and tangy rocket. A simple dressing with a touch of fresh mint suits this combo to perfection. Now, this isn’t a Turkish salad at all – they may use cheese in salads sometimes eg with a mevsim salatası or seasonal salad, but never fruit. But don’t let this deter you! It makes a marvellous combination, I assure you!  Scatter a few roughly chopped walnuts or hazelnuts on top if you like.

Peach and Halloumi Salad
-inspired by BBC Good Food Magazine

Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a main

Prep 10 mins Cook 5 mins

·        Cook 225g sliced halloumi/hellim cheese on a hot griddle pan for 2-3 mins each side for that lovely stripy effect. TIP do this at the last minute as the slices will lose their delightful oozy softness if you do it too soon.

 

 

 

makes my mouth water just to look at them

 

·        Mix 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, ½ tsp honey and 1 tsp olive oil with some seasoning. You could try your pomegranate molasses/nar ekşisi here instead of the vinegar. Or how about a combination?

·        Divide 100g fresh rocket/roka between 4 plates. Stone 2 peaches or nectarines (you may feel the need to peel the peaches but thankfully not the nectarines) and slice into thin wedges, then scatter over the rocket with the halloumi and a small handful of mint leaves. Drizzle over the dressing and serve.  Scatter a few chopped nuts if liked.

 

peach & halloumi salad!

 

Enjoy!

goodbye, Assos!
(view from the end of the garden)

 

Türlü - Summer Casserole of Vegetables with Lamb

türlü - a medley of summer vegetables with lamb 

Does a casserole sound a bit too wintry? I know we usually think of casseroles as being warm and comforting but because this one is filled with all the fresh summery vegetables, it seems like just the thing! This is an easy undemanding dish, good for when you have company and would rather socialise than tend the kitchen! Or make it in advance and simply reheat.

 

layers of veggies in the earthenware casserole

Türlü actually means ‘various’ or ‘of all sorts’. The reference here is to all the different vegetables included in this dish. The name is difficult to pronounce as that ü is similar to the French u: two of them together make it quite a tongue-twister for us!

 

 

The intense heat of the last few weeks has finally abated. My goodness, it was hot and how our appetites suffered! Since a recent violent storm, temperatures have fallen and now we are feeling comfortable again and more like eating. I am a great fan of casseroles at the best of times because I like mixed flavours and this one is great. In this recipe the amounts are specified but you know, just use what you have available at home – it won’t really matter. You can add other vegetables too eg carrots or peas. I had a lone carrot in the fridge so used that.

türlü cooked and ready to serve: I love dishes like this!

On the other hand, I do think having a great pot is essential – these earthenware ones called güveç here, are ideal but any le Creuset for example will do the trick. With food, having the right pot, the right dish can make all the difference. I’m a great one for getting the right look and for a hearty rustic dish like this, this pot shows it off to perfection as well of course, as cooking it nice and slowly to mouthwatering tenderness. Take it to the table just as it is. Your guests will love you for it.

Ingredients for Türlü or Summer Casserole of Vegetables with Meat

Serves 6

500g cubed lamb (or chicken or veal)

200g fresh small okra/bamya carefully peeled into a cone shape without cutting and releasing the slimy juices inside

250g tender green beans/taze fasulye,  stringed and snapped in half

2 courgettes/kabak, sliced

2 eggplants or aubergines/patlıcan, peeled in stripes, sliced and then chopped

2 potatoes, peeled and quartered

slicing the potatoes

 

3 tomatoes, sliced

3 mildly hot long green peppers/sivribiber, chopped

2 medium onions, chopped

6 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp margarine

4 tbsp sunflower oil/sıvı yağ

1/2 cup water - depending on how juicy the tomatoes are

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp dried thyme/kekik

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 150°C/300°F/gas mark 2.

·        Grease the inside of a medium earthenware pot or güveç with the margarine and put aside.

·        Heat the sunflower oil in an open pan and add the meat. Cook until the juices evaporate. Add the chopped onion and continue cooking till softened. Season to taste and add the tomato paste. Cook for a few more minutes. Transfer to the güveç.

·        Add the remaining vegetables in layers: potatoes, courgettes, green beans, long green peppers, eggplant/aubergines, tomatoes and okra. Finally, add the chopped garlic and finish with some sliced tomatoes. Sprinkle with the dried thyme.

ready for the oven

 

·        Pour the water over the vegetables. Cover and bake in the oven on a low heat for 2 hours. Check that the vegetables are cooked at the end of the cooking time.  If necessary, add a little more water during the cooking. It all depends on how juicy your tomatoes are. Mine were very juicy but I still needed to add extra water.

·        Don’t serve it straightaway from the oven: it will be too hot. Let it sit for a while. Because the pot is earthenware, the dish will retain its heat for a long time and be perfect for eating whenever you are ready.

mmmmmm

 

Afiyet olsun!

 

Menemen: Eggs Turkish-style

menemen almost cooked!

Today is a day akin to Christmas: it’s the first day of Şeker Bayram (pron: shek-er by-rum) ie the 30 days of Ramazan are over and you can just feel the relief in the air. It’s been a long and difficult period of fasting due to the excessive heat this year but they did it!  

a huge variety of sweets on sale at Ayvacık market in
anticipation of the Bayram

Bayram means holiday or festival and this is one of the two main religious holidays of the year.  Şeker is literally ‘sweet’ or ‘candy’. Children put on their best clothes and go visiting. They collect candy or in their wildest dreams, money!

looking spick and span!

We had our first little visitors from nextdoor at 9 this morning when we were still in our nightgear! But at least we were prepared with our candy.

So what were we doing to celebrate? We were eating a perfect menemen for breakfast!

menemen done to just the right degree of softness

What is menemen? It’s the Turkish equivalent of omelette or scrambled eggs with a few tasty extras which make all the difference.

I had a Master Class in how to make it from SIL! Of course I already knew what the ingredients were and roughly how to make it, but now I’ve finally GOT IT! Certainly not difficult but a little time-consuming. You have to be patient to make a good menemen so no rushing. This is why it can't be a daily breakfast item. Certainly worth making for a special brunch though or indeed as a light meal at any time of day.

 menemen prepared and served in a traditional dish,
Olympos Lodge

Chop your ingredients carefully and quite small: the onion and the long green peppers and cook gently in a knob of butter till soft.  Grate your big juicy tomatoes and pour on top of the other ingredients, then slowly cook till much of the liquid has disappeared. I was sure there wasn’t going to be enough room in the pan for the 5 or 6 eggs what with all the other stuff but there was. Crack them in one by one and mix into the mixture. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Red pepper flakes if you like. SIL said how about garlic but we decided not for breakfast. You can also add pastırma or sucuk, the local spicy sausage if you like it.

Ingredients for Menemen – Eggs Turkish-style

Serves 4

1-2 onions, chopped finely

like this ...

2-3 long green peppers/yeşil biber, hot/acı or sweet/tatlı

we used these

2 large tomatoes, cut in half and grated

grating the tomatoes

 grated ...

4 eggs (1 per person)

Seasoning to taste

Pastırma or sucuk if desired

Method

·        Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan and cook the chopped onion till soft. Add the chopped green peppers and continue cooking. Add the grated tomatoes and cook till the liquid has more or less evaporated. This takes a little time. Season to taste.

cooking the liquid down

·        Crack in the eggs one at a time and mix into the dish with a fork. It should have the appearance of scrambled eggs not omelette. Using a spatula, rough it up as it cooks. You can have it as firm or as soft as you like.

adding the eggs

·        Serve with fresh bread and glasses of tea all round!

nicely presented menemen at a little place in Çiralı
...but I think ours was better!

Afiyet olsun!

Turkish Ramazan Pide

In Turkey this year the holy month of Ramazan has fallen during the hottest possible days of  July and August. Believers have had to do without food or water for up to 15 hours a day while enduring daily temperatures in the upper 30s. We who don’t fast can only wonder.

Ramazan pide are round and sprinkled with sesame and nigella seeds-
this one is from the fırın in Küçükkuyu

This fast is broken at sunset when the muezzin calls from the minaret to announce the time for the shared meal called iftar. It is actually quite a celebration and here where we are in our Aegean village, I know that all the neighbouring villages share huge iftar suppers which everybody looks forward to.

As the afternoon light starts to wane, a certain buzz can be felt in the air: things start to perk up. One place it can be felt is at the local fırın or bakery where special Ramazan bread called pide (pron: pee/deh) is baked. In fact, in our local bakery in Ayvacık, it is baked no fewer than 3 times a day! I bought one earlier this evening, it cost 1.25 lira or 44p. My family can’t resist it especially when it is warm and fragrant  so I restrain myself and only buy one. If any of the family are in the car, that’s it, half of it will be gone by the time we get home!

Yesterday in Ayvacık I went in to buy one pide but it was a bit early. I asked if I could see where they were being baked and they said in their usual friendly way Of course! So in I went and was lucky enough to witness the whole process – a real hands-on business, I must say!

this type of pide is called tırnak pidesi meaning nail pide!
ie the indentations are made with fingers!

he's sprinking on the sesame and nigella seeds

Pide is very much part of the Ramazan tradition here in Turkey and is the bread of choice for both iftar and sahur, the early morning breakfast the people eat before daybreak.

in line to be baked

All Cooked Out in Assos

Yesterday, Friday, was market day and here in Assos we are more or less equi-distant between two markets: one in Ayvacık and the other in Küçükkuyu along the coast.

We always prefer Ayvacık as it is both more traditional and better laid out as a market rather than scattered higgledy piggledy in the streets, plus now I know some of the stall holders and that’s always a plus.

here they are, bargaining for pegs

Also it’s more colourful due to the Yörük women  with their distinctive multicoloured headscarves who come in from the outlying villages – they are originally nomads who have been resettled.



tomatoes are an unbelievable 1 lira or 30p a kilo!

Küçükkuyu is a touch more upmarket if that’s possible: the people who go are on the whole from yazlıks or summer homes in the neighbouring villages whereas Ayvacık Pazar attracts locals so it has all the feel of a real weekly focal point for the area.

these rather strange things are called acur: a type of cucumber

When you go to the pazar, you invariably end up buying more than you planned.  At least that’s what happens to me! It all looks so attractive, you can’t help it.

But you pay the price...

The long and the short of it is that today I've been in the kitchen since noon. I did have some time out and went to my friend's for coffee.  But you can’t ignore all that fresh stuff in the fridge so back I came .....

So, what have I made?

·        First of all, a kilo of borlotti beans in olive oil/zeytinyağlı barbunya:

zeytinyağlı barbunya

·        Secondly, a semizotu yemeği/purslane dish cooked with onion and tomato with a little rice. Sadly no picture as it was all eaten for lunch before I thought of including it in this post!

·        Thirdly, a banana loaf with the bananas that Daughter No 2 brought with her from Istanbul and which were rapidly going off. Click here for the recipe.

iced with white chocolate and chopped walnuts

·    
    And the grand finale, 10 jars of bottled tomatoes as part of my Tomato Summer 2012 Project! This is To Be Continued!

fabulous Çanakkale tomatoes at their height

5 kilos = 10 jars

• Oh yes, let me not forget a whole box of sigara börek which are now safely in the freezer awaiting Son Cem’s imminent arrival from London!! I made these first thing this morning.

a very interesting scene: a yufka-making family in Küçükkuyu -
yufka is the Turkish equivalent of filo pastry. I bought 3.

 I think that'll do!

Eggplant Fritters with Honey



warm and crispy:
 eggplant slices in a light batter drizzled with pomegranate molasses

Eggplant slices soaked in milk? Never heard of it. An extension of soaking in water to remove their natural bitterness? Maybe.

But then ‘the eggplant is a mysterious playmate’  as I read in Manolo's Food Blog, a fair comment I would say. This is actually a Spanish recipe which is why I haven't translated the name into Turkish. It's a slightly different take on the usual fried patlıcan in garlic yogurt that we make here and absolutely yummy!

The recipe, said Greg, whom I met a few days ago with his wife while having coffee with Carol in her nearby village, is actually from Claudia Roden, not just my namesake but the doyenne of Middle Eastern cooking. The idea was novel but everyone said the resulting fritters were delicious: a perfect combination of crunchy exterior with soft interior. The secret is in the temperature of the oil: don't be scared of frying, just make sure the oil is hot enough.  Make sure it sizzles when you pop your veggie or whatever in otherwise it will turn out soggy.

Summer in Turkey brings an avalanche of eggplants so we're always on the look-out for new ways to serve them. Once home, I searched for the actual recipe on the internet and sure enough, there it was followed by some enthusiastic comments! I had some eggplants handy and nothing to lose.

Ingredients for Eggplant Fritters with Honey

from Claudia Roden's 'The Food of Spain'

2 long eggplants/patlıcan (about 1.25lbs), peeled in stripes and sliced into rounds

they discolour very quickly but don't worry

2 cups whole milk

Flour for dredging

Salt to taste

Olive oil or sunflower oil for frying

Orange blossom honey or other aromatic honey, to taste. I actually used pomegranate molasses/nar ekşisi which tasted fabulous

Method

·        Soak the eggplant slices in the milk for one hour (this will minimize the absorption of oil). Drain and dredge with flour. Heat a finger of oil in a frying pan and fry carefully on both sides till golden honey brown.

soaking in milk

dredging in flour

......and frying, first one side then the other

...like this

·        Lay on kitchen paper to absorb excess oil before transferring to a plate.  Add salt to taste and drizzle with honey or pomegranate molasses.

·        Serve these crispy little rounds warm and enjoy!!  I have already made these a second time!

Afiyet olsun!

Zeytinyağlı Bamya - Okra in Olive Oil

a spoonful of zeytinyağlı bamya or okra in olive oil

Also known as lady’s fingers for their long delicate shape. In Western Asia they are known as bamia or bamya. In fact the Arabic word for the plant is bamay so it’s obvious where the Turkish name for this unusual-looking green vegetable originated.

a sweet display of home-grown okra at Ayvacık market

Now here’s a good word: these little pods are described as being mucilaginous – the word sounds so much like its meaning: full of characteristic slime or ‘goo’. Here in Turkey we like to minimize this as much as possible by careful preparation but not all cuisines are the same: apparently you can thinly slice the okra and cook for a long time and this mucilage will dissolve.

So done the Turkish way, okra is one of the fiddliest vegetables to prepare! Because of this, I don’t buy them often but when I do, the family is ecstatic. The trick is to snip off the end and then with a very sharp knife, cut round the end taking great care not to cut too much otherwise the slime will ooze out. Many people don’t like okra dishes for this reason: they find that slimey consistency off-putting. This recipe is an olive-oil version and therefore eaten cold, but okra can certainly be eaten hot as well.

just like sharpening a pencil

Here we are and it’s mid-summer. There is an abundance of bamya of all sizes: the most tender are predictably enough, the smallest ones. I tend to buy the medium-sized ones as they are not so taxing to prepare! The very large ones will be quicker and easier to prep but potentially tough.

here are some big ones which I resisted
for the above reason

Okra goes brilliantly with lemon juice  so don’t hold back.

Ingredients for Zeytinyağlı Bamya – Okra in Olive Oil

Serves 8

500g/1.1lb okra/bamya

2 onions, sliced thickly

2 large tomatoes, skinned and sliced (the Çanakkale ones are ideal)

¼ cup olive oil

2 juicy lemons

3 sugar lumps

1 tbsp salt.

Method

• Prepare the okra, wash and place in a bowl with the juice of 1 lemon and cover with cold water. Put aside.

• Use a shallow, wide pan ie not a typical saucepan, and arrange the onion slices over the bottom of it. On top, place half the tomato slices.

•  Drain the okra and arrange them carefully on top of the tomatoes.

• Finally, place the remaining tomato slices over the okra and add the salt, sugar, olive oil and the juice of the second lemon. Place a dish on top so that they acquire the traditional shape ie slightly flattened.

notice the sugar lump on the left

with the plate on top

• Cover with a lid and cook over a gentle flame for about 30 mins. Taste to make sure the okra are soft. Let cool in the pan, remove the plate and if possible, serve from that pan. Make sure your guests see the dish before you disturb the shape!

zeytinyağlı bamya or okra in olive oil

• NB Additional water is not necessary as the juice of the tomatoes plus the other liquids will be sufficient.

Afiyet olsun!