Published in 2015 by Stewart, Tabori & Chang
An imprint of ABRAMS
Text copyright © 2015 Engin Akin
Photographs copyright © 2015 Helen Cathcart
Additional photographs by Bekir İşcen (this page, this page, this page, this page, this page, this page, this page, this page, this page, this page, this page) copyright © 2015 by Bekir İşcen
Styled by Helen Cathcart
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014959137
ISBN: 978-1-61769-172-0
Editor: Camaren Subhiyah
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CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction to Turkish Cuisine
Spices and Ingredients
PART ONE
SMALL PLATES (MEZE)
•
Appetizers
Dolma and Sarma
Shish Kebabs and Kofta
Salads and Condiments
PART TWO
MAIN DISHES & ACCOMPANIMENTS
•
Soups
Vegetable Dishes
Rice and Bulgur Pilafs
Meat and Poultry
Fish and Seafood
Egg Dishes
PART THREE
BREAD, PASTRIES & PASTA
•
Bread and Savory Pastries
Pasta and Dumplings
PART FOUR
SWEETS & BEVERAGES
•
Desserts, Turkish Tea & Coffee
Acknowledgments
Sources
Index of Searchable Terms
Foreword
The first time I saw Istanbul was as a student in the mid-1980s. Back then, donkey carts still trundled across the old iron Galata Bridge and the dolmuş (shared taxis; same etymology as the word dolma, or “stuffed”) were hoary 1950s Plymouths and Chevrolets. And from the very first day I was smitten. I couldn’t get enough of the magical skyline with its domes and rocket-like minarets; I kept riding the hulking white public ferries at dusk as the skies flared up cinematically over the sixth-century silhouette of the Hagia Sophia. But mainly I was hooked on the food. With its succulent kebabs and simple grilled fish, its healthful vegetable stews, bright salads, böreks (shaggy savory pastries), and sun-ripened vegetables, Turkish cuisine seemed to me like the last undiscovered frontier of Mediterranean cooking. I got addicted to the tulip-shaped glasses of strong, sweet tea drunk in shady tea gardens. I loved the dollhouse-like baklava shops and the scent of grilled mackerel sandwiches along the docks. I spent my evenings at meyhane, atmospheric dens serving raki (an anisey spirit) and all manner of meze (small plates), from creamy garlicky dips to stuffed mussels. Even the slender cucumbers sold by street vendors as a refresher seemed somehow ambrosial. And the meals often came framed by views so breathtakingly beautiful, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that the city was a mirage.
More than a decade later, as a newly minted food writer, I returned to report a magazine article on Istanbul’s foodscape and had the blessed luck of having Engin Akin as my guide to the city’s clamorous bazaars, smoky kebab joints, and genteel fish restaurants on the Bosphorus shores where white-jacketed waiters ceremoniously mosaicked the table with meze. Though previously we’d met only briefly at a food conference in Greece, Engin tended to me with unflagging zeal—Turkish hospitality personified. Going around with Engin was thrilling, and a little intimidating. A walking textbook on Ottoman food mores and vernacular street snacks, she examined spices like a sultan inspecting troops, haggled fishmongers and butchers into submission, imperiously waved away any morsel of food she considered imperfect. Together we searched for the ultimate lahmacun (wafer-thin, lamb-topped flatbreads baked in a wood-burning oven), the most pistachio-intensive baklava, and the plumpest mantı (thimble-size dumplings) served under a tart cloak of yogurt.
I kept returning to Istanbul again and again, until finally, besotted with the city and inspired by Engin, I ended up buying an apartment there—a little place with a Bosphorus view. Now I own my own set of tulip-shape glasses for sipping tea while gazing at the boat traffic outside my window. Istanbul’s restaurant food is more delicious than ever, but it’s nothing compared to the flavors in people’s homes—especially Engin’s home, where dinner could involve an Ottomanera stuffed melon, an epic lamb shank with burnished, caramelized quince, and homemade halva for dessert.
Over some two decades of friendship, Engin and I have cooked together at many different places. Or rather she’s cooked and I’ve watched—and tried to keep up and take notes. “Turkish cuisine marries palace finesse with rugged nomadic traditions,” Engin will expound while fashioning an addictive börek from thin sheets of yufka pastry and a meat filling sweetened with masses of onions, or while putting a fragrant finishing flourish of mastic on an Ottoman pilaf. On Engin’s boat during an indolent Aegean voyage, instead of the usual boat fare—makarna, or pasta—she’ll concoct a sophisticated warm salad of bulgur studded with walnuts and pomegranate seeds.
At the cooking school Engin operates in her stately ancestral home in the traditional hamlet of Ula, I’ve learned my all-time favorite eggplant preparation: charred over live fire, briefly sautéed in olive oil with sun-dried tomatoes, then presented on a bed of garlicky yogurt with a finish of sizzled brown butter. That, and a majestic clay pot–baked chicken stuffed with spiced rice. At Engin’s Istanbul house, I’ve watched her throw an impromptu meze party for ten on her lush grassy lawn overlooking the Bosphorus. From that bash, I picked up her recipe for dainty herbed köfte (meatballs) laced with pistachios, which I make all the time, and braised fresh pinto beans scented with cinnamon.
Back in New York, craving more “Engin food,” I’ve urged her many times to write a Turkish cookbook in English. Finally, that book is here. It’s the product of Engin’s skills as a cooking teacher, her flair in the kitchen, and her deep love and knowledge of her country’s cuisine, culture, and history. The recipes you’ll find in it are both classic and fresh. As the title suggests, the book is indeed “essential” thanks to primers on Turkey’s garlicky dips, smoky grilled meats, plump stuffed vegetables, earthy meat-and-legume stews, and syrup-drenched pastries. But there are also surprises aplenty. You will be introduced to zeytinyağlı (zey-thin-yah-lih), a wondrous silken veggie confit in which beans or artichokes or leeks are braised for an eternity in olive oil with a secret pinch of sugar that teases out their natural sweetness. You will discover fresh, surprising flavor combinations such as lentils with quince and mint from the town of Bolu, bulgur with chestnuts and tangerines (Engin’s invention), and every iteration of eggplant. And if, like me, you regard cuisine as a window onto culture and history, Engin’s texts on everything from the grand kitchens of the Ottoman palaces to the evolution of Turkish meze rituals will keep you up all night reading. Welcome to the wondrous world of Turkish cuisine.
— Anya von Bremzen
Introduction
FROM THE BLUE SKY TO THE BLUE SEAS:
TURKISH CUISINE FROM ITS ROOTS TO THE PRESENT
When you think of Turkish food, you may envision the sumptuous array of small plates known as meze—delectable savory pastries filled with meat and vegetables, hummus and smoky-eggplant dips served with grilled flatbread, refreshing cucumber salads, and briny olives, all shared communally alongside drinks. Or perhaps you’ve purchased shish kebabs, succulent char-grilled meat on a stick, from a street vendor. If you have a sweet tooth, you may also conjure up images of the pastel candies called Turkish delight, or flaky pastries dripping with honey, served alongside a small, dark and frothy cup of Turkish coffee. Turkish cooking is all of this and so much more.
The Roots of Turkish Cooking
This venerable cuisine has its origins in pastoral times, when Turks lived in what is now called Mongolia, north of China. The history of these Turkish tribes can be traced back to 3000 BCE. Descended from the Huns, the Hsiung-Nu, as the Chinese called them, were said to be the best archers and horsemen on the Asian steppes, and legend has it that the Chinese built the Great Wall to guard against their invasions.
Over the centuries, as these nomadic tribes moved westward to the sea, Turkish cuisine came to encompass a fusion of food cultures inspired by not only the diverse inhabitants and landscapes of Turkey’s expanding borders, but also through trade with countries near and far, from China to India, Persia, Arabia, Eastern Europe, and the entire coastline of the Mediterranean and almost the entire northern half of Africa.
We can assume these Asian tribes grazed their animals in highland pastures in the summer and wintered in their valley settlements, but their diet would have been limited and dependent for their sustenance primarily on sheep and goats and the products made from their milk. Yogurt was a critical component of this early Turkish diet, and one of the most significant Turkish culinary contributions to the world. It was—and still is—drained in muslin bags and either kept that way or, when solid enough, made into balls and dried. The dried keş, as it is called, can be kept “forever” and is either diluted or, if mixed with herbs, grated to be used in different dishes.
Another dairy dish that dates back to the Turks’ earliest nomadic days is kaymak (literally “cream”), which is the cream retrieved from warmed milk (similar to clotted cream). The Chinese called it su and their Turkish neighbors provided it to them. The dumplings the Chinese offered in trade are said to have been an inspiration for the popular Turkish pasta dish mantı (this page), which takes its name from Chinese mantou. The dumpling inspiration is very likely, but the traditional garlic and yogurt sauce served with mantı makes the dish very Turkish.
As the range of the Turkish tribes expanded, new tastes were integrated into their gastronomy. In the mid-500s, the Göktürks (the first Turkish tribe to officially call themselves Turks) consolidated power in their traditional tribal lands and established the Göktürk Empire.
The Oguz Turks, consisting of twenty-four clans not wanting to be ruled by the Göktürks, crossed Central Asia from east to west, first settling near the middle course of the Syr Darya river and along the eastern coast of the Aral Sea, next to what is now the western Kazakhstan steppes. They eventually united politically and founded the Oguz Yabgu state in year 750 CE.
This migration provided new opportunities for the Oguz, as those who did not own large herds were able to farm and fish. Thus, during the Middle Ages, Turks became so well established in Central Asia, it was inevitably “Turkified” so much that the area was named Oguzeli, meaning “the land of the Oguz.” When the Turkish state Karakhanids conquered Transoxania (between the Syr Darya and Amu Darya, bordering Oğuzeli) and ruled it from 999 to 1211, their arrival signaled a definitive shift from Persian to Turkish predominance in Central Asia. With Arab immigration during the seventh and eighth centuries, the population of the territory became mixed. Turkish-speaking people were in the majority, but the administrative language was Arabic, and Persian was the intellectual language.
The eleventh-century dictionary Divanü Lügat-it Türk by Mahmut from Kaşgar, which translates Turkish to Arabic, is an invaluable resource for studying the culinary world of the Turks during this time. It depicts a more varied Turkish food scene that reflects the change from a nomadic to a semi-nomadic culture. Now with states of their own, by farming, fishing, and hunting, the Turks could and did widen the borders of their gastronomy. By this time they were already seasoning their dishes with saffron, pepper, and garlic. Their affinity to make use of the aromatic greens found in the flora of wherever they settled is a continued legacy today that gives unique character to the regional cuisine.
From the wide range of terms for vineyards and winemaking found in this dictionary, we know that they were involved extensively in making wine along with other fermented alcoholic drinks. Prohibition of making and drinking wine during the Ottoman era due to Islamic orders had put an end to it. By order of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic in 1923, many research centers for wine were established all around Turkey, leading the way for a number of wine producers. Today Turkey produces excellent wines.
A description of banquets like yoğ (banquets in honor of the dead) shows that food was the center of Turkish life, much as it is today. Women of the time were expert in making thin breads called yuwka (see yufka, as it is now called, this page). Their legacy now lies in the expert hands of Turkish men who provide us with these thin sheets of dough, which is easily shaped at home into savory böreks, desserts, and other preparations.
Kavurma, small cubes of meat cooked in the animal’s tail fat then salted, was stored in large earthenware containers for later consumption. Thinly sliced beef was also salted, spiced, and dried in an airy, shaded area to make pastırma. Both preparations remain popular today. In fact, kavurma is one of the favored ingredients of pide, an essential bread filled with a variety of fillings (this page).
And although the drying of all kinds of foods, including in-season vegetables and fruits, was a matter of survival in those times, today almost every village household continues the tradition, making ingredients like tomato paste (this page), vinegar (this page), the ubiquitous soup mix tarhana (this page), and bulgur.
THE ESSENCE OF ANATOLIAN CUISINE
When the Turks came to the Anatolian Peninsula, the roots of Turkish cuisine were already formed. To this medley of food they now added all the unique flavors of this varied region with its diversity of flora and climates. Eastern Anatolian cuisine (like that of its neighboring nations, Syria, Iraq, and Iran) is known for its variety of spices. Cumin, coriander, and herbs such as mint, dill, tarragon, purple basil, and green fenugreek infused traditional dishes with new flavors and aromas. Western Anatolian cuisine shows a Mediterranean and Aegean influence with its liberal use of olive oil and fresh, easy-to-make condiments. Almost every preparation is finished with a sprinkling of fresh herbs, giving each dish a freshness and vitality.
The last people to settle in Anatolia, Turks discovered that Anatolia’s fertile soil could grow quality wheat to sustain them. Their farming heritage, acquired along the banks of Syr Darya river, has become a legacy in Anatolia. Wheat products like bread, bulgur, and yufka (used both as thin bread and as the dough for böreks and pastry desserts like baklava) thus became an integral part of Turkish culture and a unifying factor among all the regional cuisines. Special firik wheat, previously called suruş, produced by smoking the young milky kernels and then pounding them into a type of bulgur, is one of the unique assets of the famous gastronomy of the southeastern city of Gaziantep.
Arabic, Persian, and Islamic Influences
By the tenth century, the Turkish tribes of Central Asia gained political strength in lands far and near, including India, all of Arabia, and a large part of Persia. Arabic cuisine, which most likely was influenced by the Persian use of spices and elaborate way of cooking, made an impact, especially on the Turks’ elite and ruling class. In time, however, these sophisticated cuisines intertwined with the simplicity of nomadic foods to create a unique Turkish character.
THE ASTOUNDING REACH OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
The Ottoman Empire, named after its founder Osman (of the Oguz Turks), was one of the most extensive and enduring empires in history. By the end of the fifteenth century, the Ottomans established themselves as a world power in Europe, and at its zenith in the sixteenth century, the empire encompassed a coastline of 3,200 miles along the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf, the longest coastline of any single state in history. As undisputed masters of the Eastern Mediterranean, Turks traveled from the imperial capital of Constantinople (now Istanbul) overland to the Balkans and by sea to the Arab world, returning with new flavors that eventually altered and refined the existing Mediterranean food culture.
They easily adopted ingredients used by other cultures and modified these cuisines to suit their own tastes. A good example is the world-famous Imam Bayıldı (this page). The dish integrates eggplants from India, the garlic known to the Turks’ nomadic ancestors, and the New World’s tomato with olive oil from the Mediterranean, cooked slowly in the style of Arabic and Persian cuisines. The unique and original dishes the Turks created were a fusion of styles and food cultures that resulted in the creation of one of the world’s leading cuisines.
Turks also exported Turkish cuisine to other parts of the globe, and many international foods today still reflect that heritage. For example, Turks quickly accepted the large, broad-breasted poultry imported by the Spanish from North America into their own cuisine. When these dishes were in turn exported to Europe, the birds became knows as turkeys, and that name was brought back to the Americas by the first English settlers there.
Peppers were another imported ingredient introduced to other lands through the Ottomans. Hungarians for a long while called peppers “Turkish eggplants,” while Italians referred to corn as grano turco, also thinking it came from Turkey.
The New World’s products were more than welcomed. Tomatoes gave a new face and taste to Turkish dishes and became the indispensable ingredient, simmering in olive oil with meat and other vegetables of worlds both old and new, like peppers, potatoes, zucchinis, green beans, corn, and pumpkins. To these regional fresh herbs and other traditionally nomadic ingredients would be added, giving preparations a unique Turkish taste and character. Böreks now had a great variety of vegetable fillings; fried dishes like eggplant, potatoes, and zucchini would benefit from the tangy taste of yogurt sauce; legumes like dried beans and chickpeas were now cooked with tomatoes and became tasty and nutritional enough to be served on their own.
The Turks’ love for fish flourished in the coastal areas of Anatolia, a peninsula with three sides surrounded by seas. The fish of the Black, Aegean, and Mediterranean seas are still eaten with the simplest of preparations.
The influence of the Turks on many towns that were either built or expanded during the Ottoman era—Sarajevo and Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kavala, and Salonika in Greece, Chania in Crete, Skopje in Macedonia, Elbasan in Albania, Budapest in Hungary, and many others in the Balkans or Eastern Europe—is reflected in magnificent Ottoman architectural elements like mosques, bridges, khans (small country inns), hamams (baths), and other relics from the Turkish Ottoman culture once present in these places.
Sarma, turli göveç (tave), baklava, kadayıf, çörek, and börek (this page) have become part of the traditional cuisines of all these countries, just as they are in Turkey. Ultimately, Turks left imprints of their culture in both Asia and the West, and they transformed the Ottoman heartland into a melting pot of several distinct cultures.
The Imperial Palace and Its Kitchens
In 1453, more than 150 years after the Empire was founded, its seventh Sultan, Mehmed II, conquered Istanbul and brought an end to the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. The dream to rule over both Asia and Europe had become a reality, and the twenty-three-year-old sultan would be known as Mehmed the Conqueror.
After Sultan Mehmed captured Constantinople, one of his first acts was to build Topkapı Palace, which would be a home for the sultans until 1856. At its peak, the palace was home to almost 4,000 people, while the kitchen staff numbered more than 1,200. This was the first step toward the development of the palace cuisine, which would become a lifestyle model for Turkish subjects, even more so for people of social or governmental importance within the borders of the Empire. This is why you will find dishes that can be traced back to the palace kitchen in all areas of Turkey in addition to regional cuisines.
THE CUISINE OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE
In Turkish palace cuisine, appearance and innovation were secondary to the flavor of the food, which was absolutely paramount, and chefs were expected to attain perfection. The palace kitchens always emphasized flavorful ingredients, prepared simply but flawlessly to best showcase any virtues or faults in the ingredients themselves, a philosophy that is strikingly in line with many of today’s most revered chefs internationally. Even haute Turkish cuisine has always possessed an elegant simplicity. This is why the culinary ties between the palace and the public were never severed. The same simple styles are still followed today, and even people who have Turkish food for the first time usually do not find the taste exotic.
SUPPLYING THE PALACE KITCHENS: SUPERB QUALITY, ENORMOUS QUANTITIES
The splendid ceremonies, lavish banquets, and large population of the palace meant that it was an astoundingly huge institution that consumed five hundred sheep per day. Ultimately, the palace created an immense kitchen that placed no limits on the quality or quantity of ingredients. A monthly list from the palace archives in 1526, during the Ottoman Empire’s golden age, includes 544 chickens, 61 geese, 11 pounds of saffron, 116 mussels, 87 lobsters, 400 fish, 5 ounces of musk, 6 pounds of black pepper, 6½ pounds of olive oil, 7 gallons of molasses, 49 pounds of Wallachia salt, 7½ pounds of starch, 51 jars of boza (a fermented millet drink), the heads and trotters of 616 sheep, 180 tripe, and 649 eggs.
These ingredients and many others were assembled by virtue of an unbounded geography. As the capital city of the empire, Constantinople was supplied with rare gastronomical delights from all over the world: rice, sugar, spices, dates, and plums from Eygpt; fragrant apples from Crete; cheese from Milan; white amber (for sherbet) from the coasts of Japan and Madagascar; and mastic from Chios (Sakız) Island, a Greek island just off the Turkish Aegean coast. Merging the rainbow of colors and flavors of these ingredients from around the world created a cuisine hundreds of years ago that today would be fashionably known as “fusion food.” Bread with mastic and cinnamon, desserts scented with distilled flower essences, halva fragrant with amber, ice cream scented with musk, and saffron rice are just a few examples of this rich mélange.
In fact, many of the dishes eaten at the palace were fundamentally no different from the food eaten by Ottoman subjects in ordinary homes. This similarity is plainly seen in the palace kitchen account books of the mid-sixteenth century, which lists such standard dishes as aşure (this page), cheese pide (similar to pie but made with softer bread dough), pilaf with chickpeas, spinach borani, tripe soup, stuffed grape leaves, and stuffed chicken. All of these dishes are still very much a part of ordinary household cooking in modern Turkey.
Turkish Cuisine Today
Turks today still favor the simple food of their nomadic heritage. Böreks (savory filled pastries, this page) are the product of nomadic tribes’ yufka dough, a cornerstone of Turkish cuisine. Mantı (dumplings, this page) is another all-time favorite dish. Dried vegetable dolma are another example of contemporary cuisine with roots in nomadic times, as are the yogurt soups and sauces that delectably dress most Turkish dishes.
But by the end of the Ottoman Empire, the nomadic, Mediterranean, and Islamic cuisines had blended so completely that a unique cuisine was created, bearing the best gastronomical elements of each: healthy, sustainable, flavorful, filled with variety, and easy to cook.
When the English author Julia Pardoe visited Constantinople in the nineteenth century, she wrote: “There is no such thing as overeating. The Ottomans eat to live, but they don’t live to eat. Also the reason for having so many different dishes served at one time is so that each one can find something he or she likes.”
The aim of Turkish cuisine is to satisfy the diner, and a great deal of care is given to achieving the best flavor in even the simplest dish. Seasonal cooking with local ingredients is a hallmark of Turkish food, and it’s interesting that this contemporary culinary trend can be traced back to nomadic times. Those tribes cooked with what was available in the best and most economical way possible, and as a result, Turkish dishes are created in harmony with nature and are not concerned with being ostentatious. There are more herbs used than spices, which gives Turkish cuisine a freshness that is reflective of the way we eat today. Turkish food is honest in its simplicity, yet it is at its utmost, delicious and pleasing to even the most discerning of palates.
Spices and Ingredients
Turkish cuisine is not, as most people think, spicy; however, it has its own unique aromas that are not always derived from spices. The heavenly aroma of browned butter, used especially in pilafs and börek (savory pastries), and the smoky fragrance of grilled eggplant are two delectable examples. The refreshing smell of mint or dill that’s sprinkled on most summer dishes and salads also characterizes Turkish cuisine. In contrast to these fresh fragrances, whole and ground aromatic spices are used sparingly, which is much in line with today’s almost universal precept of using spices judiciously so as not to overpower the natural flavors of the other ingredients. This approach is especially apparent in Turkish dishes that originated in the kitchens of the Ottoman palace. Some regional dishes, however, are more powerfully spiced, making them attractive to those who like more robust tastes.
This careful use of spices derived first from the simple cooking of the nomadic cuisine and also the palace’s view that spices should be used strictly for medicinal purposes. Some spice concoctions are still produced today for their health benefits in honor of this traditional view. Occasionally, the palace showed its opposition to using spices in cooking by forbidding them. Nevertheless, the consumption of spices remained high in the palace because they were used extensively for purposes other than cooking.
Until the sixteenth century, the spice used most often in the palace was black pepper, followed by cumin, saffron, ginger, mustard seed, and mastic. As the borders of the empire expanded, new spices entered the palace, including nutmeg, anise, cardamom, celery seed, basil, cassia, and coriander. Recipes of the time suggest that these spices were most likely used in food preparation.
OLD AND NEW WORLD SPICES MINGLE
Today’s dishes that use an abundance of a variety of spices are kofta (balls or patties made from lamb, beef, or a mixture of the two) and, in some cases, dolma (stuffed or wrapped vegetables)—especially those made in the cities of Urfa and Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey. The Egyptian Bazaar in Istanbul, thus named because the spices of the Far East used to come by ship from the port of Alexandria in Egypt, was assembled in this covered area, with spices to be sold to local dealers and also transferred to European markets. At the Egyptian Bazaar, also known as the Spice Market, one can find special mixtures of spices for dolma and kofta: combinations of black pepper, hot red pepper flakes, coriander, cumin, thyme, and mint. These Old World spices are supplemented by New World spices such as allspice and ground red pepper that hold an established position in Turkish cuisine—so much so that in some areas allspice is literally called “dolma spice.” Cumin, used both in food preparation and as a condiment on tables where grilled meat is served, is favored as much for its digestive qualities as for its aroma and taste.
REGIONAL AROMATICS
In Turkish cuisine, the flora specific to particular geographical regions play an important role in how dishes are spiced or flavored. In eastern and southeastern Turkey, hot red pepper flakes, cumin, dried mint, sumac, and tarragon form the spice backbone of the regions’ cuisines. In these regions, a soup is never served without browned butter and dried mint or tarragon to give it a final twist. In eastern Turkey, fresh coriander is brined—creating a spice found nowhere else—so that it can be used in the region’s famous yogurt soups. In southeastern Turkey, this aromatic herb is replaced by haspir (false saffron) and is used in yogurt soups as well. (Haspir is not related to saffron but, as it looks like saffron and also gives a yellow color to foods, it has been called so by American cooks.) Central Anatolia competes with these regions with a special spice mixture called çemen. A paste made from ground fenugreek, cloves, cumin, allspice, cinnamon, garlic, hot red pepper flakes, and pepper, çemen makes any dish delicious. For locals, it makes an appetizing spread that is perfect on a slice of bread. Çemen is the spice that gives pastırma its unique taste and which helps preserve this spicy dried meat.
INDISPENSABLE SPICES FOR SWEET DISHES
In Turkey, sweet dishes also get their share of spices. Rose water, a distillation of rose petals, is one fragrance that is often used in milk-based sweets. Mastic (hardened drops of resin collected from the mastic tree) is a runner-up to rose water, but cinnamon is the spice that is sprinkled on almost every sweet. Salep is a spice derived from wild orchid bulbs that is common to all traditionally made ice creams, giving them flavor as well as their consistency. In winter, salep is boiled with milk and sugar to create a creamy hot drink that’s consumed with a generous sprinkle of cinnamon and ginger.
HERBS
While tarragon is the herb of eastern Turkey, dill is the herb of western Turkey. Wild fennel, which grows in the spring and has no bulbs, is used in lamb dishes, and bay leaves are used when grilling fish and in fish stews. Purple basil is the queen of bulgur dishes, but the king of herbs is flat-leaf parsley. It is used so much that the idiom “Don’t be a parsley” refers to those who think everything is their business. Thyme is used with meats where it grows wild. Most herbs are generally used dried. One that may be called a national aroma is dried mint, which is often swirled in browned butter and used as a dressing for soups. Fresh mint, however, along with fresh parsley, is a required accompaniment to kebabs in southeast Turkey.
• PART ONE •
SMALL PLATES (MEZE)
Melon and White Cheese
Turkish Caviar
Spicy Peanut Spread (Acikax with Peanuts and Tahini)
Hot Paprika and Walnut Spread (Muhammara/Acika)
Fava Bean Puree
Chickpea Balls with Tahini (Topik)
Roe Spread (Tarama)
Fried Mussels
Sardine Balls
Red Lentil Balls with Cornichons
Fried Calamari Rings with Pistachio Sauce
Sardine Birds
Crispy Zucchini Slices
Fried Zucchini Blossoms
Zucchini Pancakes (Mücver)
Crispy Eggplant with Tulum Cheese and Pekmez
Albian-Style Fried Liver
Blanched Chicory with Oil and Lemon
Circassian Chicken, the Easy Way
Fried Balls of Greens and Figs
Smoked Mackerel
Roasted Baby Bonito
Cornmeal Pancakes with Anchovies
Salmon Tartar Made in the Style of Uncooked Kofta (Çiğ Somon Köftesi)
Black-Eyed Peas with Samphire
Wild Radishes
Yufka Squares with Botargo
Avocado with Botargo
Egg and Botarga Rolls