One and a half years ago I hosted the first meetup of my Istanbul Breakfast Club. The idea was simple. I wanted to share the beauty of Turkish breakfast, most generous and inviting morning meal in the world with folks living in Istanbul or visiting the city. While discovering dozens of regional breakfast dishes, multiple varieties of local olives and cheeses, arrays of morning pastries and plethora of eccentric jams, I felt compelled to spread the word. And spread the word I did through my blog until I sensed my urge to share the beauty of Turkish breakfast in a more literal way.
At that time my whole family was working at my mother-in-law’s restaurant in Sapanca meaning I missed a pleasure every Istanbulite indulges on Sunday - a long festive breakfast with near and dear. I wanted my breakfast club to extend the definition of near and dear. Finally, here in Istanbul we do not hear much about supper clubs thriving all over the world, and I thought I could pioneer it, even if through breakfasts. Istanbul Breakfast Club got born.
The initiative kicked off with my trip to Antakya where I got smitten by the local food and breakfast specifically. Not surprisingly I smuggled a suitcase of South Eastern Turkish delicacies into my kitchen and decided it would be unfair to keep that deliciousness to myself. Ever since one Sunday a month my breakfast showcased a particular region of Turkey such as Black Sea, Hatay, Mersin, Aegean coast and many more. Once I ventured into salting salmon, making caviar and reviving my grandma pie’s recipe to host a lavish Russian breakfast. And I received overwhelmingly positive feedback from my guests when I braved to prepare a no-grain breakfast to share my new eating choices. Istanbul Breakfast Club had become a safe place to let my culinary aspirations go wild.
Throughout all these months I hosted about two hundred people in my modest kitchen in Moda. I had over folks living in Istanbul, expats, repatriated Turks, locals and travelers, a few of which joined my breakfast on the very first day of their stay. Film makers, journalists, teachers, painters, software engineers, book authors, families with young kids (one of which protested leaving my house, many of which made friends with our dogs). Meeting all these people had been great, but even greater was seeing them mingling and exchanging views on Istanbul and its food, travels, politics and life in general. “Look, here they are, sharing a meal and buzzing like a big family. This is why our guests come here,” one breakfast guest suggested.
I was worried before every single event hoping that my bread will bake to perfection, that my guests will like the cheeses I have sourced at a farmers’ market and that everyone finds their way to my house. Of course I was worried to replicate the authenticity of the regional Turkish and not necessarily Turkish flavors. And yet my guests have demonstrated the grace for which I will always be grateful. When I hosted a Black Sea breakfast, a half of my guests had the Black Sea roots, and yet no one suggested that their grandma made it better. Last time a young woman came to me after breakfast and held my hand. “You know what? I am Arab, and I have eaten a lot of this”, she pointed to the bowl of muhammara, roasted red pepper and walnut dip. “This one is the best I have ever had”.
I have been getting “the best I have ever had” compliment for various dishes from various guests on various occasions. I admit, I appreciate these words for they pamper my ego, but even more I appreciate them for what they taught me about myself. I have learned that my happiness grows manifold as I watch my food evoking strong emotions and making others talk, recall, remember, travel, dream, search, aspire, make sense, share.. I love that - how always it is with food - it is more than food. It is the conversations it evokes, connections it builds and insights it gives us about the world around us and within us too.
I am upset to announce that this October I hosted the last meetup of Istanbul Breakfast Club. I am suspending this initiative for the time being. But hey, long live the Turkish breakfast! I will not leave you without one. For now all I can say is this: I will soon be offering my breakfasts, in a different format and from a different location. If you have not done so still, please subscribe to my email updates (see the side bar to the right?) and if you are a long-time follower, please, please, please, don’t skip the next week email. Meanwhile, here is a much-requested recipe from my last breakfast. Talk soon!
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I appreciate the patience of all my breakfast guests that have requested a recipe. I am a living example of the Russian saying,”Promises come true in three years”. If I am to start somewhere I shall share a recipe from the October breakfast. I have a short memory (partly, this is why I blog) and able to keep in mind only the last thing I cooked.
The last thing happened to be this pumpkin molasses cake. Being in Turkey my molasses are not sugar cane molasses, but rather pekmez, grape juice reduction used as a natural sweetener in Turkey. Here we spread it on a peace of bread or scoop with a piece of lavaş, alone or as a duet with tahini paste. Turkish cooks bake with pekmez too, but not extensively. As dumping refined white sugar into everything remains a prevailing practice here, I thought it would be great to do more baking with pekmez.
I got idea of the pumpkin molasses cake from Pastry Affair, a fabulous baking blog with the recipes and photographs that have been teasing me for a while. I have tweaked the recipe in a few ways. For one thing, the grape molasses I used are thinner than sugar can molasses and hence call for less liquid / flour. I also made my own pumpkin purée because the canned one does not exist in Turkey; as I have never seen the canned version, I can’t say much, but I hear it might be thicker than the homemade one. I also replaced the all-purpose flour with the wholewheat: after going no grain for eight months and reading the chapters that Dan Barber in his book “The Third Plate” devotes to wheat I don’t have the heart to get back to the white flour stripped off nutrients.
After I played with the recipe for a bit, my pumpkin grape molasses cake came out exactly how I wanted. It is weighty for its size, yet airy with a moist crumb. The cake does not give away its key ingredients, but in case anyone has any doubts left, yes, it includes all the goodness of pumpkin, black grape juice reduced into a thick syrup and nutty wholewheat flour. The warming spices create satisfying flavor, but do not scream about their presence: cinnamon is not your attention sucker for once and red pepper flakes appear tamed, what a surprise! Finally, this pumpkin grape molasses cake is only mildly sweet. And yet sweet enough to be served as a desert. Or course with mascarpone, or whipped cream, or how we do it here - with kaymak, Turkish clotted cream, to your unsuspecting guests.
Pumpkin Grape Molasses Bread
Source: Olga Irez (Adapted from Pastry Affair and Simply Recipes)
Prep Time: 10 Min
Cook Time: 40 Min
Total Time: 50 Min
Makes: 1 loaf
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240 g) homemade pumpkin puree (see the recipe below)
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup (100 g) extra-virgin olive oil
- 5 tbsp (85 g) pekmez (grape molasses)
- 5 tbsp (65 g) brown sugar
- 1/2 vanilla pod
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp apple vinegar
- 1 1/4 cups (170 g) wholewheat flour
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp hot red pepper flakes
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. In a large bowl, sift the wholewheat flour, salt, ground cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the hot red pepper flakes and stir the dry mixture to combine.
- In another bowl mix the homemade pumpkin puree, olive oil, beaten eggs, pekmez (grape molasses) and brown sugar. Open and scratch the seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean to the bowl. Combine baking soda and vinegar on a small saucer and transfer to the wet mixture.
- Finally add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and gently stir until just combined and you see no lumps of flour. Line your baking loaf tin with parchment paper and pour the pumpkin molasses bread batter in. Bake for 40-50 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely before slicing and serving. Keeps for 4-5 days in the fridge.
Homemade Pumpkin Puree
Source: Olga Irez
Cook Time: 45 Min
Total Time: 50 Min
Makes about 1 cup
Ingredients
- 250 g peeled pumpkin
- 1/4 cup water
Directions
- Slice the pumpkin thinly. Place in a medium pot and add the water. Bring to a boil and simmer on the low heat for about 45 min until the pumpkin becomes fork-tender and all the visible moisture evaporates. Blitz the pumpkin with an immersion blender to produce a smooth puree. Cool down if using in your baking. Keeps for 3-4 days in the fridge and freezes well.
Wow! I didn’t know the Breakfast Club was only “in session” for a year-and-a-half. Then I feel
r-e-a-l-l-y privileged to have been at three of them. These breakfasts were spectacular, and exactly as you described. Just like a salon for exchanging ideas, with amazing, wonderful food as the main event.
Olga, your joy just shouts out of this blog post. I am awaiting next week’s post with bated breath! Thank you for these amazing Sunday mornings. I loved every minute.