Even more than cooking I love being in the kitchen with somebody as crazy about cooking as myself. If needed, I can travel for that opportunity like I did a while ago with Güngör Abla, woman who endured working with me at Babushka the whole season.
We got in the car and headed off to Tire, a small town located on a fertile plain surrounded by the green hills of the Aydin Mountains. Conveniently located close to Selçuk and the famous ancient ruin of Efesus, Tire owns its real fame to the weekly market that many claim to be the largest open-air market in Turkey. It is not a parking lot affair or a neighborhood market covering a few streets; every Tuesday the whole Tire’s old town converts into one roaring marketplace.
We made sure to arrive on Monday, but the main purpose of our visit was not shopping. We came for Güngör Abla’s older sister, Hatice Abla who stopped by Babushka once. Beautiful groomed woman in her late forties who carried herself with royal dignity, she impressed me at once. I guess the sympathy was mutual. After a short chat and a few bites she invited me to Tire and afterwards in every phone conversation reminded her sister to bring me along. I did not take long to convince knowing that Hatice Abla is a also sensational cook who has worked in restaurants all her life.
We left the highway for the country road winding through the vast fields and, still 15 min away from Tire, stopped at the road side cafe run by the Hatice Abla’s in-laws. Active small old lady in shalwar wearing a white headscarf and over it - a floral one with the untied edges draping around her face. She quickly threw the edges over the top of her head looking like an Italian nun and greeted us in a local dialect.
As we we sipping the house ayran made from the milk of the very family’s cows, Güngör Abla was praising my cooking skills. The old woman looked at me as if trying to measure where I am standing on the cooking continuum and concluded, “No cook will compare with Hatice,” giving her daughter-in-law the praise every Turkish bride dreams of (even if she may not confess when confronted). “She made a börek for you,” old lady continued. “Hatice kept thinking what to cook since you don’t eat meat. She sent the whole family to forage wild greens in the mountains”. Just a low-stake family visit.
Hatice Abla greeted us warmly. We hugged and kissed like old friends. It was the first time I traveled in Turkey without my husband and was welcomed not as somebody’s wife and a foreign guest, but a human being of its own. I felt very grown up .. and spoiled at the same time; there is nothing like being patronized by older women who care for you.
The börek was sensational. In fact the best one I have eaten in my life (anne, forgive me). Moist pastry loaded with wild greens remained crispy at the top and bottom because of the egg and olive oil brush. The day was filled with chatter, snacking, tea drinking, more börek a few soaps.
Next morning after an early breakfast Hatice Abla guided us through the wide streets and narrow lanes filled with small stalls. I resisted the shopping urge for whole 20 minutes and only because after brisk walk through the stalls Hatice Abla took us away from the market, to a cafe near a picturesque waterfall. After the break nothing could get on my way. Figs only recently dried, foraged local blueberries, freshly harvested walnuts, piles of tender zucchini flowers and heaps of wild greens. I kept filling the bags and thinking about Özgür, man of experience, who convinced Güngör Abla to go on this trip by car.
That night Hatice Abla’s husband was planning to take us out for dinner. The plan was valid until we passed a fishmonger’s stall and someone said “Sardines”. Then things developed in a peculiar way that happens only when a few women get together. Sardines. So huge they can’t be sardines. Oh, we get such good ones in Alaçatı. How do you cook them? We can show. What about having dinner at home? Sardines and salad, and some meze. Yeah, meze! Before anyone knew I was picking some cibes for the meze spread, Güngör Abla was paying for the sardines and Hatice Abla was calling her husband to ask if he did not mind the change of plans.
Three women armed with bags of groceries, decades of restaurant experience (I am not taking about myself) and passion for cooking, we were unstoppable. The home kitchen with little counter space, small sink and no chef knife at sight, it was the most comfortable place to work because we agreed on the menu and everyone knew their job well. Güngör Abla made Babushka’s sardines, salad and stuffed zucchini flowers. I prepared dessert of nevzine and Moroccan mallow salad while Hatice Abla focused on the meze.
She did some things I have never seen done before. Caramelizing par-boiled cabbage veins in olive oil. Making salad of mustard green cooked over a bonfire turning the greens smoky and sweet like I could never imagine them being. Cooking carrots strips into a mind-blowing meze.
“Yoğurtlu havuç” (carrot and yogurt salad) is a frequent and frequently forgettable part of the traditional Turkish meze spread. Sometimes boiled, sometimes raw, carrots are grated, combined with strained garlicky yogurt and popped on the table as is. Hatice Abla did something different. She first shaved the carrots into thin strips and cooked them in the swooning quantity of excellent olive oil. Some strips even got nicely caramelized. Then she crashed a handful of walnuts and diced plenty of garlic and stirred all the into the piping hot carrots. Then she made me taste. I paused, looked at her and confessed, “I am feeling so lucky to be at your kitchen right now”. She smiled as she was mixing the carrots with a few dollops of the strained yogurt we brought from the market.
Fourteen dishes later we were done. “Anything missing?” Hatice Abla ranged her eyes round the table where even the most crafty waiter would not be able to squeeze another plate. Then she held my forearm and confided, “We have to open a BIG restaurant with you!”
We dined like Gods that night, but the carrot salad won my heart. The evening I got home I recreated that dish with - I confess - a bit less olive oil and with addition of earthy cumin and coriander seeds as well as fresh parsley. These touches worked superb, and the carrot salad is on the Babushka menu this winter. If you can’t come over for dinner, I insist you make this recipe at home.
Turkish Carrot Salad with Yogurt
Carrot cake aside, when was the last time you made carrot the star in a dish? Too often carrot is just another onion you dice finely only to add more flavor to your soup or stew. Does not this vegetable deserve a bigger role on your tables?
In the Turkish salad carrot goes lavish in the company of crashed toasted walnuts, earthy spices, garlic, parsley, yogurt and abundance of olive oil. Serve it as a part of your meze feast, but also keep in mind that in desperate times you may spread this Turkish carrot salad on a piece of good rye bread and call it a lunch.
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Total Time: 20 min
Serves: 8
Ingredients
- 1 kg carrots (about 10 medium)
- 3⁄4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1⁄2 tsp ground cumin seeds
- 3 large cloves garlic finely diced
- 1⁄2 tsp ground coriander seeds
- 1⁄2 tsp fine sea salt and more to taste
- 1⁄2 cup walnuts
- 1⁄2 cup finely chopped parsley
- 1⁄2 cup strained yogurt
Directions
- Wash and scrub the carrots. With the vegetable peeler shave off as many thin strips from each carrot as possible; I usually end up with less than a 1/2 cm (1/5 inch)-thick core that you could use to make stock or add to your soup or stew later on.
- Warm the olive oil in a wide pan on the medium heat and add the carrot strips. Season with salt at once. Cover with a fitting lid and let cook until the carrots lose their crunch and become soft (about 7-10 min). Keep the heat at medium: it is nice to get some of those carrots caramelized, but stir now and then to prevent scorching.
- Meanwhile, in a separate pan toast the walnuts over the low heat tossing the pan very frequently. As you get a few brown spots on the walnuts transfer them to a zip-lock and beat with a wooden rolling pin to crush the walnuts. I recommend crushing them rather than chopping to release more oil and hence the flavor.
- Once the carrots are soft, stir in the cumin, coriander and diced garlic. As the aromatics release their smells, turn off the heat and add the crushed walnuts (reserving some for serving) and chopped parsley. Let cool. Finally mix with the strained yogurt and sprinkle with the reserved crushed walnuts just before serving.
I will try this for sure! We have good farmer’s markets, but nothing compares with those in Turkey. You are blessed to have all this wonderful bounty to cook with.