Homemade Nettle Pasta and Financial Security
May has already been financially satisfying. I have made it to the breakeven - given my visa runs to Russia last year and ridiculously high rent I am paying right now in Istanbul. Which means I can give legitimate answers to the persistent questions my friends and parents still ask about the financial viability of my food career.
As Özge has started helping me with the food tours I can focus more on the cooking classes which I have been giving a lot recently. I have also had two big groups and piloted my idea of taking people to our countryside for cooking and food. Good busy times.
What’s next? What comes after the financial security is achieved again, 2 years after I quit my job? 5* vacation? A plan to conquer the rest of the world? Well, in my case it’s going to the countryside house, washing some dishes as our helper is away and then spending half a day to harvest nettle and making dry pasta. How is that for a reward?
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Sorrel Salad
As the season with the food tours and cooking classes have started in a big way I am less at the farmhouse. No wonder when I am there I appreciate the place more. This week I came for a few days without my laptop and camera left behind in Istanbul. So there was time for studying the blossoming garden, walking with Ömür, chatting with Özgür and foraging the wild herbs.
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Two Irresistible Nettle Soups (And The Virtue of Foraging)
My first encounter with nettle soup took place in my childhood when my grandma made it one fine spring. But my grandma (my dad’s mom) was always a bit of an exotic woman to me.
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Flaky Phyllo Triangles: Swiss Chard and Pastırma Börek Recipe
My mother-in-law (anne) had been unwell for a while: not really eating anything, getting quickly tired and easily irritable. She’s got diabetes which explains some of the symptoms but not all. So she thought it was time for a thorough check-up. Anne went to her doctor in Bolu, a small town in the North-Western Turkey, who was so determined to find out the wrongs that he hospitalized her for a week.
Friday came and anne still was not sure whether she would return the next day. Who will make the fresh pastry for the guests Sunday morning? I said, “No problem. I can make börek“. Özgür called his mom and got the authorization. “Olga has seen me making it many times. But she can call me in the morning for directions,”- anne said on phone.
She came back Saturday night canceling the need for my help. But I was impressed she granted me the permission to step into the sacred territory she has not been sharing with her assistants - making pastry. Letting in me, the one who does not know her bulgurs? What happened?
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Purslane Yogurt Salad (and Other Things I Have Missed This Istanbul Summer)
September is a good time to get nostalgic about the passed summer. There are certain seasonal imperatives for spending your time in Istanbul. Things to do in Istanbul in summer would be revolving around lingering in one way or another by the Bosphorus or the Marmara Sea. This year I have missed most of this delights having been busy with running food walks and settling our two new houses in Istanbul and its countryside, Sapanca. I can’t say I am sad about it but it’s the purslane recipe that bothers me most.
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