So many people have asked me about baklava all these years. Well, too many. When somebody heard that I came from Turkey, most of the time they said, “oh baklavaaaa, do you know how to make baklavaaa?”. Frankly, I’m tired of it as I don’t like baklava myself, and there are so many more delicious dishes in Turkish cuisine. But well, here I am, writing this recipe.
The first time I heard about this dish was a few years ago when I did the graphic design of a cookbook for an amateur chef in Turkey. I loved it a lot back then, but I don’t cook it often.
This is one of those dishes that I liked a lot when I was a kid, which surprised my mother a lot. I was very picky with eating “fancier” dishes. But veggie dishes like this one, I ate without question. That is of course, as long as she cooked it without meat.
Yes, yes I do. I love bulgur! A few weeks ago I posted my first bulgur pilaf recipe and since then I’ve been eating bulgur often believe me. This recipe is a variation of that first pilaf recipe. This time I used one of my favourite vegetables, the magnificent eggplant.
Yes, the title says all. The secret to this salad is to chop everything small. And you must, I mean you MUST, use pomegranate syrup and sumac. You must find them and you must use them.
Well yes, I pitted all these 650 grams of black olives by hand. It was a rather meditative activ… naaaah, it wasn’t, it was a boring activity which took away 45 minutes of my life. Not bad for the delicious result though.
When I was a kid and living in Bakirkoy, Istanbul, we used to go to a kebab place called “Istanbul Kebapcisi” every once in a while as a family for a weekend lunch. It was a bit dark (because of heavy use of wood), meat-ful of place and even though I liked the food, I always secretly wished we went to a fancier place. The food was quite good though, at least as far as I can remember. Any kebab we ordered, red meat or chicken, was always served with bulgur pilaf.
I’m writing this blog post in my sick bed right now. Or ok, more like recovering bed because the peak of flu passed and I am indeed on the path of recovery. And I can breathe again. And I feel like eating again, dreaming of pastries like this one.
I admit. I haven’t felt inspired to write for a while. I’ve been baking & cooking as usual, so it’s not about food. But I just felt like doing other things, like reading – I purchased many books lately about food justice, feminism and seed sovereignty. So I’ve been reading them. And I also went to a 2-weeks holiday in Istanbul during new year so yes, excuses excuses, but this blog post was long overdue..
This is one of my all time favourite dishes. It is also one of the easiest dishes to make with very cheap and easy to find ingredients. One of the most traditional dishes in Turkish cuisine, my version is cooked without meat, while many others cook it with beef or lamb. Its best companion is rice pilaf and you can find the recipe for that here.
Did I ever tell you how much I love cooking?
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