I don’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t know what a börek was. It has always been a natural part of my life, because it is the most common thing in Turkish cuisine. There are many, and I mean many, variations, with different kinds of fillings (cheese, potato, meat..), different kinds of making (fried, baked..), different kinds of dough (filo, puff..), but in the end, all of them are called, “börek”.
When my friend asked me last week if this was muhammara before eating it, I said no. Or kind of no. We used to call it çemen back at home. But then some people say that çemen is something else. This is not exactly muhammara either! So what is that dish?? Well, here is definition: this is a walnut / paprika spread with spices which resembles muhammara, with the recipe coming from mum! I will call it, “le spread”.
I came back from Turkey in such a weird, panicky way after all the coup attempt and whatnot, that the only thing I could bring with me happened to be a mezze cookbook that I bought at Istanbul Airport. This spinach pastry is inspired by a recipe from that book. The main difference: I didn’t put the freaking dill in my version!!
In my family, five o’clock tea has always been a must during the day because we are very British. No, we are not, but isn’t five o’clock tea, which started in Britain, a very much international habit now? So yes, we love this too, and we love having a few snacks to go with our well-brewed tea. One of the most common snacks in these tea sessions is salty and savoury cookies in various shapes and tastes. These cookies are generally sold in patisseries in Turkey and you can find at least a couple of different types in each patisserie. There are also sweet versions too of course, but in this recipe I will focus only on savoury versions.
I think I am feeling terribly homesick. How did I get to this conclusion? Well, even a simple recipe like this is enough to make me – almost – cry! This is indeed the simplest recipe in this blog so far. Yet it is full of memories.
There are some dishes which have such big sentimental values for us that they sometimes feel heavy to cook, to eat, or even to serve for others. This soup is one of those dishes for me, and perhaps, the heaviest in my heart of all. It’s really delicious and whoever I served loved it. But for me, sometimes the memories pass beyond its great taste and turn it into something else, other than food… I hope you take the time and read the whole story..
‘Weird enough, there are some very traditional food from Turkish cuisine that I heard all my life but never tried until I moved away from Turkey. No, that is not about feeling homesick, no not at all. I am not really feeling homesick. But sometimes my friends expect me to introduce new tastes to them, preferably from Turkish cuisine, so I try my hands on these traditional recipes that I had never tried before. This pudding, called Keşkül, is one of those. Essentially, it is a very easy and fast milk pudding with almond and coconut, generally served with coconut flakes or pistachios. Some recipes call for coconuts in the pudding itself (such as my recipe), whereas some only use it for serving on top. But here is the little story behind the name of this dish…
I have a BIG advice to you mothers out there: never discourage your child about cooking a certain dish! Your child, whatever age s/he may be, can react to this by not even “trying” to cook that dish for years and years. Ok, she might be also looking for excuses not to cook this or that, but still, don’t do that, it’s not nice. My mother scared the shit out of me when I wanted to cook rice the first time, so I did not even attempt for many years. Until one day, she, herself, told me; “why don’t you cook rice, it’s the easiest thing in the world!”. Come again??
If there is one thing that reminds me of Turkish cuisine, even if I like it or not (and I usually do not), it is this rice pudding. I do not like this, no, as I do not like any rice pudding or porridge or anything else that resembles these.. All those things feel like baby food. But well, I still enjoyed eating this one I made for the blog, because I felt like a little girl eating mama’s rice pudding again.
When I ask people which “Turkish desserts” they know, the first answer is mostly “baklava”. And maybe some would say “Turkish delight”. Baklava, Turkish delight, baklava.. Well I’ve never been taken much by any of these two. My absolute favourite was always this dessert, which is, to put it simply, cookies made of flour and semolina, having a pine or another nut in the middle, and dipped into simple syrup to get moist and veeery sweet; it is called “Sekerpare”, which is literally translated as “Sugar piece”.
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