Tomato Salad with Olive Oil (Shepherd’s Salad)

Tomato Salad with Olive Oil

Probably one of the most classical summer salad at Turkish homes is the Çoban Salad (Pronounced as Choban and means Shepherd’s Salad). There are lots of varieties in the US, under many different names: Mediterranean Salad, Greek Salad etc. The main idea is the same though, this is a refreshing summer salad that you can serve almost with anything.

The recipe is basically mixture of summer fruits. 🙂 Ok, I won’t go into the detail of a famous debate, whether tomatoes and cucumbers are fruit. Because they are technically fruits! There, end of the debate. 😉

If you don’t care about the taxonomy, you can enjoy this with grilled meats, as an appetizer or even as a main course. Feel free to play around with the recipe, and customize. Any kind of tomatoes as long as they are flavorful would work. Choose your chillies according to your spice endurance, they can be mild or hot, its up to you.  Another crucial ingredient is a good quality olive oil, do not substitute it with any other oil and try to use a cold pressed extra virgin olive oil if possible.

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Quinoa Salad w/ Black Beans and Avocados

Quinoa Salad w/ black beans & avocados

Quinoa is something new for me.

I kept seeing it in grocery stores, but was reluctant to use it.  Then, while I was doing an eating challenge for my public health and nutrition class last year,  I wanted to explore different kinds of whole grains and quinoa was one of the new discoveries. Quinoa grains look like tiny lentil grains, once cooked they have a crunchy texture and nutty flavor. They can be either eaten cold in salads or warm, just like pilafs.

The first time I cooked quinoawas with a broth as a side dish. which also came out pretty good. But as soon as I tasted the quinoa for the first time an array of Mexican flavors passed through my eyes, and the result is this recipe. 🙂

Be bold, quinoa goes well with almost anything, but if you are in a Mexican food mood, make sure you try this one.

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Baked Zucchini Patties



Baked Zucchini Patties

Just like other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern people, Turks also love stuffed vegetables. They try to fill every kind of vegetable you can think of with rice or rice-meat mixture. If the vegetable is not a leafy one, then it is hollowed out for stuffing. And zucchini patties are almost always a side dish to the stuffed zucchinis.  Every household would save the carved out tender zucchini flesh, and once the demanding stuffing procedure is done, remaining zucchini pieces are grated and turned into delicious patties.

I like very kind of zucchini dish, and this is also one of my favorites.  In it is original form, the batter is runnier and it is deep fried in olive oil. However, I follow a different, healthier interpretation. I saw this idea in another food blog (in Turkish) few years ago, and played around with the recipe a little bit.  As a result, this become one of my favorite recipes, being super easy and healthy at the same time.

It serves as a great appetizer, side dish or as a brunch.

Ingredients:

• 1 lbs zucchini
• 3-4 scallions
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese

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Celery Roots in Olive Oil

Celery Roots in Olive Oil

They say greatest loves born out of greatest hates.  I had a love/hate relationship with celery roots ( or celeriacs as some people call them)  . These root vegetables have a very strong odor that would infuse all home while cooking, and I used to hate it as a child.  To make things worse, it was my mom’s favorite vegetable, and  was also probably one of the few vegetables that used to be around in winter time before the advent of greenhouse farming. (Yes, I know we can have eggplants in December now, but back then it was not the case! 🙂 )

As  combined result of the convenience and my mom’s gustatory taste, we had celery roots almost every week: in olive oil, with lamb, with potatoes, salads….you name it. I hated it and declined to eat it in any form back then.  Even though picking food was not allowed in our house, celery roots was exempt from that and I have successfully avoided them for a very long time.

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Coleslaw with Cranberries

Coleslaw w/ dried cranberries

Cabbage is a leafy vegetable in the cruciferous vegetables family. As with all the members in this smelly vegetables group, they release a very strong and unpleasant smell while cooking.  Some people like the taste and would not mind the smell but some people just plainly hate it.  As a result there are many cabbage haters, along with cabbage eaters.  But neverthless, cabbages are health foods, there are recent and promising studies that show their effect as anti-cancerogens.

Even though I am a cabbage eater, I live with a cabbage hater. Lately  I realized eating cruciferous vegetables raw would not release that horrible odor, and your loved one might actually enjoy these wondrous nutritious vegetable without being disgusted by that horrible smell.

I came across this recipe in Food Network some time ago, and I tried it. We both liked it very much, and since it has been a classic side dish for us, especially with Slow Cooked BBQ Baby Ribs. Like every recipe, this one developed over time, and actually even now I do keep experimenting with different ingredients.

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Khaman Dhokla

Khaman Dhokla: prepare to be surprised

Dhokla…

It is probably the most surprising and addictive food I ever eaten. It looks like a sweet cake, yet it is savory.  Besides being savory it is light, fluffy, moist and spicy. After I tried it for the first time it has been one of my favorite foods, and I always asked for it in every Indian restaurant.

However, it is not found in most of the restaurants.  It is a chaat, meaning a snack,  a street food from India, an appetizer sold mostly by street vendors. So if you want to try it you should find an Indian restaurant that serves chaat specialties, like Vic’s Chaat Corner in Berkeley.

After I tasted it for the first time I asked for its recipe, but was very disappointed when I learned that it needs a special steamer to cook, and it is hard to find other ingredients as well.  So I gave up and accepted the fact that it is a food I can get only on weekends, because that’s the only time they sell it at Vic’s. 😦

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Steamed Artichokes w/ Fava filling

Artichoke hearts filled w/ fava puree

Artichokes always remind me of spring.  In my hometown, Izmir they come out in the middle of spring and disappear in few weeks.  So the fresh artichoke is a delicacy that can be enjoyed for a short period of time. They are cooked in many different ways, and this is the most Aegean way I think.  🙂

Cutting up an artichoke is a pain. The edible heart of the artichoke hides under layer after layer of leaves and inedible purple ‘choke’. It is very oxidative, and turns to brown immediately and dyes the hands in a terrible way. Since the preparation is such a pain, it is a common sight in Turkey to see a people selling prepared artichokes swimming in the bucket of lemon juice on the streets.

For this dish you can either prepare the artichokes yourself or you can buy canned artichoke hearts. If you decide to do it the hard way, make sure you wear gloves and put the artichokes in lemon juice-water mixture after you cut them up until you are ready to use them.

The recipe is for four large artichokes, but it is possible to use smaller artichokes and serve them as a party dish. 😉

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Fava: Broad Bean Puree with Olive Oil

Fava: Broad Bean puree w/ olive oil.

Fava is a dish made from dried broad beans (fava beans). It is common in Mediterranean, especially in Turkey and Greece.  The buttery texture of the fava beans and their slightly bitter and nutty flavor makes this dish a special one.

Even though this dish is called fava, the word ‘fava’ does not mean ‘fava beans’ in Turkish.  Weird, I know! 😀

The Turkish word for fava beans is ‘bakla’ and all other dishes made with fava beans are called as ‘bakla’ dishes except this one.  Fava is the Italian word for broad beans, and it is possible that this dish was borrowed from Italian Levantines living in Aegean coasts.

Most of Turkish mothers do not let their young sons eat this dish, because of G6DP deficiency, which is also known as “favism” . It is very common in Turkey and eating fava beans causes hematuria in the affected individuals. So, you might want to avoid this dish if you have the G6DP deficiency. 🙂

Dried fava beans smell very weird and almost unpleasant while cooking.  Once the cooking process is done, the smell goes away, but make sure that you cook them in a well aired kitchen.

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Kisir: Bulgur Salad with Herbs

Kısır: Turkish Bulgur Salad

Kisir or Kısır ( as spelled in its original form) is a very popular Turkish bulgur salad. It is a classic for the afternoon tea parties of the women, and generally accompanied by some borek ( cheese pastries) and tea. It resembles Tabouleh a bit, but it is not the same.

It is a very healthy  dish, contains bulgur (par-boiled whole wheat), lots of vegetables and fresh herbs, lemon juice and some olive oil.

Every family has a different kisir recipe, and they all taste different.  I like it when it is fluffy and spicy so feel free to adjust it to your own taste and add or subtract ingredients. 🙂

Most grocery stores carry bulgur for Tabouleh, but that is generally not the type you want for Kisir.  Kisir’s bulgur should be finely grounded, this way it will be softer and fluffy once soaked. If you can find a Middle Eastern or an Indian grocery store around look for No.1 or No.2 bulgur to get a better taste of this delicious salad.  If you cannot find those, you can go with the regular kind, but beware that larger grained bulgur needs more water and heat to cook than this recipe calls for. So experiment according to your taste.

Second interesting kick in this dish is Sumac.  Sumac is actually a kind of berry, and the ground form is used in Middle Eastern dishes to give a fruity sour flavor to the foods.  It is not a must, but I urge you to try it, because it is delicious.

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Ezo Gelin Soup

Ezo Gelin Soup

Ezo Gelin Soup (Bride Ezo’s Soup) is a traditional Turkish lentil soup. It’s a hearty soup that is perfect for cold winter days, made with red lentils, rice, bulgur and dried mint leaves. It contains only vegetables,legumes, and cereal so it is appropriate for vegans or vegetarians as well.

“Ezo” is a female name and “gelin” means bride in Turkish. The origin of this soup is attributed to an exceptionally beautiful woman named Ezo, who married and moved from her hometown where she became homesick for her village and had to deal with a difficult mother-in-law who couldn’t be pleased. It is for her, the story goes, that Ezo created this soup.

Even though the original recipe calls for white rice, I substituted it with barley to make the recipe whole-grain.

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