All posts filed under: Turkish

Jerusalem Artichoke and Quail with Saffron Risotto / Plato Kalecik Karasi

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The title might have daunted people who don’t know or haven’t had all of the three ingredients, Jerusalem artichoke, quail, and saffron. I enjoy shopping at my tiny local market, where grocers got to know me better now and put all the veggies and fruit in one bag, not like the Turkish way, which is one plastic bag per item. My new neighborhood is much friendlier than the previous, and especially the veggie man, when I buy fresh herbs, sticks each bundle to my nose to smell and puts them into separate bags, saying “It smells nice, doesn’t it? I don’t want to spoil the nice smell so I’ll put them separately. Ok?” Fair enough. Also, he knows by now that I buy only the quantity I need. “How many carrots? Two?” “How many cucumbers? Three, enough?” The grocers at the Kadikoy market would be so annoyed if I did that and charge extra for punishment, maybe. When I went there after the trip to Safranbolu, I saw a big pile of fresh Jerusalem artichokes …

peking duck

Crispy Skin Slow Roast Duck / Saffron Carrot Rice / Büyülübağ Wine

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“When a girl tries to treat herself, someone else takes advantage” The reason why this post starts with the phrase is because of what I’ve been wondering about why I cook. Yes, I love eating for sure, but would I cook the way I’ve been doing if it wasn’t for another person who enjoys it more than the person who actually cooks? You wouldn’t definitely go through roasting a whole duck for 4 hours just for yourself, would you? Well, I would have in my early years when I started getting into cooking just for the sake of experiment and excitement. And when you see the person enjoying the food more than you do, that’s the reward for a hard work. Like the slow roasted duck. Mr.O loved it so much that he brought home another whole duck. Sometimes I feel like being an Ottoman chef working for the sultan in Topkapi Palace. That’s why my mum always warned me growing up not to tell a guy I’m a good cook. And the older I …

pasaeli wine

My Favourite Turkish Wine List

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It’s been the strangest May since I arrived in Turkey in terms of weather. It’s supposed to be warm and sunny enough to pick herbs in the garden and sit outside for a long brunch or an evening barbeque. Instead, it’s been like this over a week, stealing the cheerful mood. Snails are plenty here. The French will love seeing these organic escagort. Mr.O deliberately steps on them while walking to tease me with the awful sound of snails getting crushed in shells. 😦 I seem to feel the pricking sensation running down my spine whenever he does that. Why are men like mischievous kids? The things that get me out of the blues on rainy days are baking or sipping wine with cheese. So I’m going to talk about wine for a change. It’s been a while since I last mentioned wines here. I’ve simply run out of wines to talk about or even to drink. Luckily, thanks to the wine I discovered all by chance, I’ve got  by without worrying about my daily …

Magret de Canard in Turkey! Kayra Vintage Shiraz 2009

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Summer holiday came early for me this year. As you noticed, I was away for a week, visiting these beautiful sites and swimming in the sea of incredible colour, which I have no vocabulary to describe it. Turquoise…people usually call it, but to me it is more than just that. The colours of the sea along the Aegean Sea are just mesmerising. You can lose your jaw, staring into the water.

Lamb Roulade with Light Satay Sauced Cauliflower/ Smyrna 2010, LA Wines

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Last Saturday Mr.O offered to cook dinner to impress me so I stayed out of the kitchen for a change, taking a full advantage of the occasion,  and  sipped wine amid the clattering and chopping noises coming from the kitchen. I could sense even from the noises that he was feeling pretty nervous trying out a new recipe, but I was also as anxious as he was, while imagining possible disasters. I shouldn’t really make a big deal out of one bad dinner, but I was born to care about food, which I sometimes saw it as a curse, but  now I’ve come to the point where I shall accept the fact that I am a food snob and shall remain as such; now I understand why chefs are thought to be bad-tempered, grumpy, cranky and foul-mouthed except Jamie Oliver. I am sure he swears in the kitchen when off the camera, though his swearing won’t sound as offensive and vulgar as others, but still….Professionalism or Obsession? You can’t separate both, can you?a I got …

Pasaeli Turkish wine

Pasaeli 2008 vs 2009

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It feels like I’m clearing out the wardrobe for spring as I’m digging out old photos that I’ve been meaning to post on the blog. You might remember me saying, if you’ve been following me since day one, that I was glad to have discovered new labels for Turkish wine. Since then, I’ve had many more wines, but I haven’t written anything about them. I’ve been drinking a lot faster than I can write about them, so the empty bottles are collecting in the corner of my kitchen as are the photos of them. So today I will be cramming for writing about all the wines before I head off to the wine course. It might be interesting to see how my wine reviews will change after the course. I will have more fancy wine vocabulary for sure, but I hope I don’t change to a wine snob from a wine enthusiast that I am. When I first encountered Pasaeli, I was very curious about their blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit …