As-a-matter-of-factly she said leaving the kitchen after the night of cooking for over 30 guests, “After the guests leave put the bread dough to rise overnight. In the morning we might be short on bread and the road may be closed because of snow”. I was humbled by the responsibility my mother-in-law has passed on me and mildly outraged by the scope - there was some 5-6 kg of dough to handle.
January 2012
Things slow down in winter: people travel less and to much warmer places than Istanbul. I do fewer food walks and cooking classes. Short days tempt you to do less and think more, or even better stare at the enchanting fireplace to the howling sound of the wind outside.
In between doing what you used to do and thinking what you can be doing there is the third state of being - experimenting. Usually rather risky affair calling for time to run the trial-and-error and yet not promising a certain outcome experimenting sounds very right to do off season.
Every time I go to Set Balık (and after many trial-and-errors this is THE place where I go for a fish meal) I keep wondering how other Istanbul fish restaurants could have possibly survive this competition. Off the tourist trails location, unusual fish dishes, loyal regulars, professional service and reasonable bill - Set Balık so well illustrates 5 rules of a good Istanbul fish restaurant.
Istanbul coffee shops and Turkish coffee culture are both such a paradox. How could the city where the coffee shops have existed for over the half of the millennium start favoring Starbucks and its local copy-cats? How could the tradition of the Turkish coffee served in the tiny gracious cups could be traded for the mugs of Nescafe? Luckily, there is still a handful of Istanbul coffee shops to indulge the nostalgia, authentic ambiance and a good cup of coffee.
Making dolma (Turkish for any stuffed dish) calls for so many steps and so much patience that I like to keep it for the days when you cook for the whole week ahead. Waiting for your rice to soak, simmer, steam, cool down and then get cooked in dolma becomes less painstaking if meanwhile you are preparing meat stock to make a soup or pressure cooking chickpeas to turn them into hummus.
This Sunday could have been such a cooking-ahead-day but turned different: the snowfall closed the way up to our farmhouse at the Istanbul countryside. Which meant that early morning we put together a huge breakfast for the guests who arrived the night before and relaxed for the rest of the day as no one else dared the steep hill taking you 500 m above the sea level. Once the breakfast was over we were so happy with the sun and snow that immediately put the rice to soak and went out to made a snowman.
Two hours and one tart crust down I concluded, “Who really needs this effort in Turkey where you can make almost any baked wonder with yufka dough, or Turkish phyllo!“ French have butter so they make tarts. Turks have wheat and water so they make yufka dough. Which is more egalitarian by nature. Butter-loving individuals can still brush their yufka dough with butter and savor that delicate flaky pastry. Less aristocratic folk will simply season their yufka with the mix of sunflower oil, yoghurt and egg to get a substantial meal.
Maybe you are settling in Istanbul, maybe you live abroad with a Turkish spouse and feel curious to learn Turkish cooking, or maybe you got captivated by the local cuisine while traveling in Turkey and would like to recreate its taste back home. Besides looking up Turkish cooking recipes you may be interested in learning to use Turkish cooking utensils. Here are seven great tools to make your Turkish cooking experience fun and its outcome - perfect.
