Brenda Farrell | Turkey & Lifestyle Travel Specialist » Food and Recipes

And the winner is ……

brenda — Mon, 31 May 2010 20:15:50 +0000

Over the weekend I cooked for Turkey by preparing Turkish dishes on the International Culinary Stage at Eat! Vancouver . For everybody who entered their name and email address into our box, adorned with colourful images of Turkey (thanks, Jon!) we offered a chance to win a copy of Orhan Pamuk’s book, “Istanbul.” Pamuk has a magical way with the descriptive word, is a Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, and has several other books to his acclaim.

Thank you to everybody who entered the draw and congratulations to the winner, Juliana Pasko.

Recipe for Kisir or Bulgur Salad

brenda — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:44:20 +0000

Another dish that I will present on the Turkey Culinary stage at Eat! Vancouver, this is a simple dish, served at room temperature.

This delicious appetizer, so simple to make, is traditionally offered before tea on special occasions. In restaurants, it is often served as a meze (hors d’oeuvre) along with other salads made with fresh or roasted vegetables and of course, yogurt salads. Bulgur is grown in South Eastern Turkey and exported worldwide.

What

1 cup of fine bulgur

1 cup boiling water

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

1 cup loosely packed flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons hot red pepper paste

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon pomegranate juice (or 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice)

Salad greens or boiled grape leaves

Tomato slices and flat leaf parsley.

How

Put *bulgur in a bowl. Stir in the boiling water, a few spoonfuls at a time. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes at room temperature. Add onion to bulgur and combine thoroughly. Then stir in the other ingredients, seasoning to taste. Line a serving dish with salad greens or boiled vine leaves and top with the bulgur mixture.

Garnish with sliced tomatoes and parsley leaves. Serve at room temperature.

Recipe provided to Eat Smart in Turkey author Joan Peterson by Vedat Basaran, executive chef and manager of the luxurious Feriye restaurant on the Bosphorus in Istanbul. Joan sent me a copy of her book several years ago and I have found it a useful reference on Turkish cuisine.

*Note: be sure to use bulgur and not cracked wheat.

Simple Recipe for Kaymak Tikisa – Dried Apricots Stuffed with Yogurt or Kaymak

brenda — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:32:59 +0000

I recently spent a day in the kitchen with celebrated Turkish gourmet, Engin Akin where, in addition to learning the subtleties of Turkish pilav, I also learned how to make this simple, yet very elegant sweet dish that blends the Ottoman preference for sweet and sour taste combinations. I will be demonstrating this Turkish dish on the International Culinary stage at Eat!Vancouver this coming weekend.

Ingredients

Dried Turkish Apricots

Sauce

Half a cup of white sugar
Half a cup of water
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Filling

Thick Baltic-style plain yogurt (strain thick yogurt for two days, or use kaymak (clotted cream)
One teaspoon of Pekmez (grape molasses)

How

Saute dried apricots in butter, add brandy or water until quite but not very soft. Remove from heat leaving the lid on the pan.
Meanwhile, make the syrup, heating the sugar in water until it has fully dissolved. Add the lemon juice. Add the syrup to the apricots and steam the apricots in the syrup for about 5 minutes longer.
Remove the apricots and reduce the liquid to a thick but still clear syrup.

Slit each apricot and insert a teaspoonful of thick yogurt or kaymak. Dip into Pistachio crumbs. Arrange on a serving plate with the creamy part up. Pour the syrup over and serve.

Make Yogurt the Simple Way

brenda — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:45:51 +0000

A couple of posts back, I wrote about making yogurt with starter culture and my little electric yogurt maker. After speaking with my Turkish friend (actually she is teaching me to speak the language) I decided to try making it the Turkish way … the result was impressive, so I am reproducing Meric’s Yogurt method so that anybody can make yogurt at home.

Ingredients

2 litres of organic, full-cream milk. Skimmed milk doesn’t work.

One cup of good quality plain yogurt (can be from a previous batch.)

Method

Bring milk to the boil but do not boil.

Cool the milk in the saucepan until your finger does not say “ouch” when you put it in! It should be warm, not hot.

Blend one cup of plain yogurt with one cup of warmed milk and add to the rest of the milk and mix thoroughly.

Put on the lid and wrap the saucepan in a blanket and store at room temperature for 24 hours

I then strain the yogurt to get the thick, pressed yogurt seen at mealtimes across Turkey. The longer one strains, the thicker the yogurt. Even after two hours, the yogurt is thick, creamy and delicious.

iyi gunler!

How to make thick, Turkish-style Yogurt

brenda — Wed, 12 May 2010 16:51:18 +0000

Thick, creamy, Turkish-style yogurt

Carla wrote to me asking how to make thick Turkish-style yogurt. There are a couple of ways:

The easy way:

1. Buy high quality plain yogurt and strain it in the fridge until there is no more liquid draining into the bowl. I use a thin cotton “sock” and sit it atop a strainer over a bowl in the fridge. The result is a thick, creamy yogurt.

My preferred way:

2. Bring a litre of full-cream milk to boiling temperature but do not boil. Cool to blood temperature and mix your yogurt starter (bacterial culture found in the dairy cabinet at your health food store) with a drop of milk, then add the remainder of the milk. I then pour mine into 7 small glass jars and turn on the yogurt machine for a 10 hour period, after which it turns off automatically.

Alternatively, you can pour the tepid mix into a thermos and leave it to sit somewhere warm for 15-24 hours. If you use the latter approach, you will need to experiment a little.

My Turkish friends tell me that they leave the mix in a bowl and wrap the bowl with lots of towels for 24 hours to insulate and facilitate the culture, while sitting in a room-temperature oven (no heat.)

I used to make my own yogurt when my children were young and then I took a break. Now, it is something I really enjoy making and when I can create the thick, creamy yogurt that is served everywhere in Turkey, I am especially happy.

Use this thick yogurt instead of cream, to stuff dried fruit, to mix with fresh fruit for dessert, and to serve atop home-made granola (recipe in a previous post.)

Enjoy …

I use Yogurmet bacterial cultures rather than a spoon from a previous batch, but I understand you can just keep using some of the previous batch to start a new batch.