My first trip to the organic market this spring was a revelation. I regularly shop from farmers at the Friday market in Sapanca and have gotten to know producers that sell at a handful of weekly markets in Istanbul. So I though I was very close to getting the kind of food my grandparents used to grow in their beautiful garden. I was mistaken. Ah, the Turkish agriculture developments.. I have almost forgotten that beets come in whimsical shapes and have greens, that carrots don’t mean intense orange color, that artichokes are small and come unpeeled in all their formidable beauty, that leafy greens are not the size of a pillow case and that baby spinach is not an oxymoron in Turkey.
Warm Salad of Poppy Greens
Salad That Cures Winter Depression
Salads like this make you forget all the longings for a good tomato and other things the past summer was abundant with. Instead, you will be grateful that the winter is almost here with its cheerful, delicious and super-nutritious produce.
The base of the salad is the sprouted mung beans. I have gotten the idea from Ulli. We met at my breakfast club a month ago, and I wondered why our paths had not crossed before: both of us live in Moda and both are passionate about eating healthy. Ulli is a certified Ayurveda consultant and yoga therapist who teaches her clients to live and eat in sync with their bodies. She is such a fascinating person that I am planning to tell you more about her one day, but for now - to the sprouted mung beans. [click to continue…]
Shepherd Salad with Freekeh
Summer calls for light meals cooked in no time. As the days become hotter my cooking class menus have lighted up and shifted its focus from the hearty mains into the appetizers (meze) showcasing the bounty of the available produce. And when I cook for myself I rarely spend on a meal more than 5 minutes (hands-on) because the summer ingredients are so good and self-sufficient that the only thing they are calling for is chopping them up. So my knife skills are improving day by day.
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Fancy Dressed Cheese Köfte Salad
Last week I hosted folks from a London-based designer agency who are meeting with food-conscious people around the world to gather insights about the use of fruit and vegetables. We talked a lot about the Turkish food culture that I had embraced and made a part of my pantry and diet. We touched upon both fresh seasonal produce and the second life it gets in the form of salça, pekmez, ekşisi, tarhana, dried vegetable skins used for stuffing, seasoning made of dry vegetables, dried fruit and other ways of preservation. Besides sharing these insights, I got a few insights myself in particular about how I eat. I mean how I really it which appeared different from what I thought.
Buckwheat Tabbouleh: Passed Summer Passions
The whole summer we have been making this salad for breakfast. Bol (full, a lot of, in Turkish) greens - parsley, dill, basil, mint, rocket salad and purslane which we were occasionally getting from Anamur, the Mediterranean home base of my husbands’ family. Then a bit of plum tomatoes, a hint of cucumber and red bell pepper - to give more color and substance to the otherwise green salad. Anne also puts cheese, usually leftovers and crumbles of the cheese she cuts for breakfast that morning - creamy ezine peyniri, soft string cheese and maybe some lor (cottage cheese). Then comes a splash of extra virgin olive oil, a memory of our culinary trip to Ayvalik. And a handful of olives - black and green - to throw on top of the salad right before serving. Eating bowl of this salad for breakfast has become a good tradition this summer.
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.
Last Winter Salad And Lessons of Minimalism
From sun and chirping birds I arrived to the up-to-the-knee snow. It took 1.5 hours to get from Istanbul to Sapanca and then 2.5 hours to drive up to our farmhouse. We stopped by the car workshop to put on tire chains. We then lost one of the chains as we climbed the hill and stopped to look for it and fix it again. We dropped the car by the gate and climbed the last 100 meters with bags and new gas cylinder through the up-to-the-knee snow and the complete darkness. There had been no electricity since the morning. Very typical for this winter.
