All posts tagged: Mediterranean food

Baked Artichoke Bottoms Stuffed with Mushroom and Goat Cheese

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If you follow me on FB or Instagram, you’d probably have seen some photos of the lovely weekend trip to Çanakkale. I did a wine tasting, ate local specialities such as cheese helva (peynir halvasi), ice cream, and oğlak(kid), yeah!, which can be eaten only through March and April. I’ll dedicate a whole post on the trip later because I think what I saw and did there is worth a whole page and it wasn’t all about food this time. Also, April is extra special for that area because of the Battle of Gallipoli and Anzac Day. So today let’s just talk about food and sharing food. Spring conjures up asparagus and artichoke. Do you remember I was eating lots of white asparagus in France? I sometimes see them in jars at Metro supermarket but I don’t buy them of course – strictly shop locally and find alternatives! In Turkey, when you go to farmers’ markets these days, you see many guys trimming artichoke bottoms. The artichokes here are bigger and how they are cooked …

Smoky Eggplant Mushroom Risotto

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On a rainy evening, what can be better than a bowl of warm risotto? A warm lentil or pumpkin soup for lunch, and a risotto for dinner will set you right even if you’re not big on carbs like myself. The weather and the month December are two good excuses to indulge in dishes you don’t normally eat. And this risotto will be THE ONLY risotto I’ll be making repeatedly from now on, and I actually have made this three times already! Char-grilled eggplant puree, Patlıcan Salatası in Turkish, is my favourite meze and I can eat it every day ONLY IF grilling eggplants over the open fire was a less messy job, though it’s usually one of Mr.O’s jobs in the kitchen. Which version do you like the best? With yogurt, with tahini, or with olive oil, or with a bit of all? Do you have your own secret method of char-grilling eggplants? While I was looking for an idea, I came across two articles on the best way to char-grill eggplants. The first was …

Vanilla Custard Tart with Prunes: Reblog

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While I was writing up the post about Ricotta Yogurt Cheesecake, I found this one in my past recipe collection. The memory of the delightful taste instantly came alive and I thought I’d like to share it with you. We’re going back in time to 2009… I hadn’t taken much of jacaranda trees lining streets of Sydney, announcing the start of spring, until three weeks ago when I went on a school excursion and heard a co-teacher explaining about the specialness of the trees. I would see purple colours in streets and think summer is getting closer but didn’t pay enough attention; maybe I did, when I first came to Australia, and I remember walking through jacaranda tree-lined streets of Paddington with girlfriends of mine, chatting and laughing, exhilarated by the sight of the beautiful flowers falling as if it was snowing, and then, over time, the significance of the tree that once existed in me seems to have faded and died .  “It’s human nature to start taking things for granted again when danger …

Ricotta Yogurt Salep Cheesecake

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I’m tackling the Turkish cuisine today. I love discovering unusual and native ingredients and incorporating them into cooking. I was given this strange looking fruit preserve, turunç, whose identity was revealed through the google search as bitter orange or Seville orange. Of course, I knew  Seville orange but not in this look, which reminded me of animal intestines or something. So when Mr.O’s mum, with a suggestive look, held one piece up to my curious face, I was a bit scared.  But after knowing what it was, I was amused by the discovery because we have similar fruit called Yuja, which is unedible sour citrus, therfore made into marmalade or tea. My mum uses the marmalade when cooking for its aroma and effect of getting rid of odors in fish or meat. Anyway, it was very sweet and apparently according to the Ottoman customs, was offered as a spoon sweet (Aegean Eating) to show the host’s hospitality. Another recipe for Bitter Orange Jam is found on Give Recipe. Compared to the look of Yuja, this jam …

marinated goat cheese

Greetings of Spring:Tulip and Marinated Goat Cheese&Artichoke

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Istanbul is dressed in blooming tulips and newlyweds getting a photo shoot are seen in all parks. The country that is believed to have spread tulips to Europe and have created Tulip Mania is exhibiting a vast collection of tulips, many of which I hadn’t seen else where. Surely, April and May are the best time to visit Istanbul. Including the typical Turkish tulip that resembles a Turkish tea glass, there are so many different species and I’m particularly excited walking around the city, tulips being my favourite flower as a child, but not now. Why? I’ve come out of the shell. I’m glad I caught these flowers at their best as they die in the ugliest form. I didn’t know tulips could look like this. There are many more photos of other varieties but I thought it’d be rude to paint the page with photos of flowers and my very favourite tulip photo isn’t here because it didn’t come out well! Another thing that makes spring an exciting season is strawberries but in Turkey, …

Clam and Scampi Chowder – with couscous, no cream

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Sometimes tt’s good to make complaints, but not often. Since my public ranting about the lack of seafood in Turkey, I’ve had more chances to eat seafood, I mean rare seafood. Scampi! One evening Mr.O came home with bags full of all kinds of unusual seafood that I hadn’t seen or eaten here; big flathead type fish, squid and scampi with eggs. It was too much to finish in one meal. First, I boiled the fish and boned it, then ate it with lovely homemade garlic aioli. I reserved the liquid in the pot and processed it to make fish stock. The liquid was gelatinised overnight in the fridge and it became easier to spread it in a thin layer in a plastic bag, which is an alternative way to store liquid stock. Homemade demi-glace is stored in ice cube makers and chicken stock is stored in one-cup portion in plastic bags. How many people are bothered to do this nowadays even if it’s so easy? The next day I used the leftover fish to …