There was the time when I thought that quince, a fruit that looks like a bright yellow oversized pear, was hard, astringent, and impossible to eat. That was surely before I tried ayva tatlısı, a classic Turkish dessert of quince poached in sugar syrup. Ayva tatlısı is a good example of how carefully you should pick a right cooking method to fully unleash the flavor of a seasonal ingredient. A few hours of gentle cooking in the sugar syrup do wonders to quinces: every tiny cell of the fruit gets saturated with the viscous syrup, and the quince transforms into a soft candy perfumed with a floral fragrance that even the most skilled perfumer at the Spice Market would not be able to replicate.
Secrets and Urban Legends of Ayva Tatlısı (Quince Dessert)
Turkish Carrot Bars (Cezerye)
Every single time I visit Topkapı palace I think I am back to India touring the palaces of the once-mighty maharajas. Intricately carved marble, symphony of the floral and geometrical patterns on the walls, thrones laid with mother-of-pearl, oversized jackets made of the fine handwoven silk embroidered with gold. Those displayed at the spacious courtyards of the Topkapı palace in Istanbul are not so different from the exhibits at the maharaja palaces in Rajasthan. Who is to blame for these similarities - the Mughals, the Seljuqs or the Persians before anybody else?
Pistachio Labne Ice-Cream Without Machine
The whole summer I have been theorizing about homemade ice-cream. But the practical implementation had to wait: maybe I live too close to an excellent artisanal ice-cream parlor or, even more likely, I am just afraid to clatter my kitchen with a new ice-cream maker. Whenever I clean the kitchen (every day, few times a day) I find a utensil that has to go or pantry item that needs to be used immediately because the expiry date is too close or I have abnormal quantities of that (1 kg whole dry sumac berries from Antakya anyone?). And still my kitchen is packed, and there is no way to fit even a small ice-cream maker in the cabinets.
Zapekanka (Russian Cottage Cheese Bake) with Tel Kadaif
I have not seen my friend Yulia for exactly a year, and what a year it was: I got married and she gave birth to the twins Anastasia and Sofia. There was occasional catching up over skype, and I even got to see the girls - yet the proper meeting was overdue.
When we stopped by Yulia’s in Moscow I did not know what to expect. Has my friend changed after her family doubled and she took on much anticipated yet a completely unknown role of a mother? And most importantly: does the change in her life mean I have to change something in mine?
Nevzine: Sinful Sinful Turkish Shortbread Sweet
‘How is your mother-in-law?’ I hear these days almost after the “How are you?’. My friends, my family back home, customers of my Istanbul cooking classes and walks who have been reading this blog and know that my mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer last November and went through a radiation therapy 2 months ago. ‘She is rocking’, I usually answer because despite all her health complains she has been really active at the kitchen. Until it occurred to me that the worse she feels the more she is rocking.
Sütlaç: Turkish Rice Pudding with Fig Sauce
There is a big big world beyond baklava. That of kadaif, wire-looking dough swirled into nests, cocoons or spread up and lavishly soaked in sugar syrup. That of Turkish delight, soft and tender and wonderful transformation of a fruit syrup. That of candied fruits, nuts and even vegetables with orange skin slices, whole walnuts or pumpkin wedges basking in sugar syrup. Treating pretty much anything to a good dose of the sugar syrup is a good rule of thumb in creating a decent Turkish dessert. But there is a big big world beyond sugar syrup too. Enter the Turkish puddings.
Sinful Turkish Sponge Cake: Need for Rest
I was meant to write this post 2 weeks ago. I can only hope that it rested well and turned as fine as Turkish sponge cake called revani. With revani you bake the cake, pour over the syrup and then let it rest so the cake hungrily soaks in all the syrup. Making the Turkish sponge cake can turn into a fairly quick deal if you serve it still warm. Yet I find that it reaches perfection when the cake is cooled completely or even chilled overnight. I wonder if a post nursed for 2 weeks can be compared with a rested sponge cake.
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