Me in Istanbul and my parents in Russia started baking bread at home around the same time. While I approached the matter scientifically and studied one of the most fundamental books in the field, read home bakers’ forums and watched hours of video tutorials, my parents pursued the intuitive path.
How do you feel about peeking at other people’s kitchen pantries? This is the first thing I do when allowed to somebody’s kitchen! What can be more fascinating than looking at your friend’s curated collection of jars, boxes, bags of the cooking condiments you also use, you know but have never ventured to cook with or you never knew existed? I love asking questions and hearing stories about how people source their ingredients and what they cook with them. A week ago Alex, my friend from San Francisco living in Istanbul, invited me over to have a look at her pantry.
Here in Istanbul only a few might make simit, sesame-bathed bread rings, at home. But while visiting my parents in Russia it felt like a right thing to do: after all my dad is a simit-addict. When my parents came to Turkey last autumn, dad walked from our Sapanca property down to the village (1 hour downhill and then 1.5 hours back) to combine exercise and purchasing of some simit. Much to his embarrassment he forgot the word and could not make himself clear to a bakkal who would not sell simit anyway.
That’s why my caring husband assumed the duty of finding a good bakery wherever we stayed during our road trip with parents and diligently procured simit every morning. I can’t call most of the simit on the Aegean coast the real deal, but dad felt his breakfast was incomplete without a bread ring or two. No wonder that my impossible-to-excite parent brightened when I announced I would be making simit.
This classic Turkish red lentil soup is a handful of lentils, a carrot, a potato and an onion. You sweat the whole bunch in a pressure-cooker until it mashes, then puree it with an immersion blender and eventually thicken with a roux. How special does it get? Well, this soup has rescued me more than once.
Turkish Red Lentil Soup by Olga Irez of Delicious Istanbul
