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)
Mind-Changing Anchovy Stew (Hamsi Buğulama)
As the winter slowly crawls in hamsi claim larger part of the fishmonger’s stalls and of the weekly ration in Istanbul. Hamsi (also known as anchovy) are a finger-long fish with a shiny silver belly and dark grey back. It smells and tastes sea like no other fish does. Every time I cook hamsi with my cooking class participants I feel on a mission: the odds that my guests are suspicious (at best) about this fish are very high. I don’t blame anybody who got introduced to anchovy through the infamous pizza topping. But the hamsi I am talking about belongs to a different category of food. So bear with me.
Wholesome Green Lentil Soup: Turn of Seasons
If unprivileged ingredients exist then green lentils are among them: their color is hardly appetizing, and the taste can be easily bland unless some additional measures are taken. I confess, when it comes to soups I often prefer their red sisters. There is nothing more comforting than a red lentil soup being it dal seasoned with the warming spices or its soothing Turkish version with tomato and pepper pastes. However, I changed my opinion about green lentils last week after trying a green lentil soup made by a female cook who serves homemade meals at her tiny cafe not far from where I live in Istanbul.
Pumpkin Baked in Greek Vinaigrette (Sinkonta)
Yes, pumpkin is in town. The huge round type that you buy in wedges carved out with a gigantic saw, cleared off the seeds and peeled. I always admire the pumpkin guys (and in season you will see a few at any weekly market in Istanbul) who are on a mission to make this fabulous vegetable more accessible and less intimidating for the home cooks.
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?
