All posts tagged: vegetarian

Coconut Crumbed Mung Bean Sprout Fritters

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Patience…patience… Life in Turkey is very slow, so slow that waiting is big part of my life. Take a deep breath and let it be, let it go… Boşver… the word Mr.O often throws at me who frets over small things. I’ve been waiting for my knife to be delivered for over 5 months, though I was told 3 months. What kind of knife, you would wonder, right? I ordered a special knife when we had a family trip to Babakale. I’m still waiting, bugging Mr.O’s dad to find out if it’s on its way or it’s still being made. We were told that the knife will be passed on to the family friend who is living there and then she will bringing it to a relative in Çanakkale, and then finally to Istanbul, not by post but in person, who will come to Istanbul, and god knows when it will happen. At the moment, two of my knives, Opinel and Sürmene, and guess who won in the tomato slicing competition, which is the best sharpness …

Cauliflower-Crusted Baked Fish Nuggets / Kayra Allure

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Everyone went to bed with the forewarning of a Siberian snowstorm and of closing of schools last night. It’s a privilege not having to walk to the bakery for the morning bread. If you’re crazy about fresh morning bread like me, you’d plan the hours of buying bread and never mind going out early in the morning to pick up bread. Whenever I think of fresh morning bread, I think of my Bordeaux time with my mentor, who buys bread 3 times a day and is very strict about the morning bread. Life is too short to eat bad bread, he says. Well, one can’t eat a whole loaf of baguette, though one easily can if one doesn’t hear the inner voice that nags you “Eat Healthy!”, but if you can’t finish it all, well, it’s a big food waste, which will be banned in Seattle from this year and which has been restricted in Korea for a long time. Most households have a dehydrator like this at home but in Turkey, they have street …

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 …

spinach meatball

Spinach Kale Cheese Balls with Quick Harissa

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What I love about my new neighborhood, which is one of the best areas as far as the livability goes, there is a huge park where you can jog or play tennis or all sorts of activities happen all the time. I watched a classical concert and Eurasia dance show all by chance. On top of that, you can eat a big open-buffet breakfast on a lazy Sunday morning. Every Monday a big, I mean a HUGE farmer’s market (you can check go on to Son Mastori and click on the link) and there is also an organic market every Wednesday. If not at those farmers’ markets, there is still a small indoor traditional market where I usually shop for my everyday needs. “Let’s support small grocers!” I never buy groceries at supermarkets. No matter how cheaper things are in supermarkets and no matter how many ‘Buy 1 Get 1 Free‘ deals there are to tempt me. I love the interactions with people. I don’t get ripped off in this neighborhood as I used to. …

nettle ravioli

Foraging – Homemade Ravioli with Nettle Leaves

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These days I wish one day were 48 hours. I feel like chasing time all the time. What you want to do and what you have to do don’t always meet, but at least we’re all running, aiming for that dream, I hope. I’ve been a kind of nomad cook for a while, cooking out of a suitcase. I dream about having a big kitchen with good lighting and being able to cook at daylight. However, I am still a cook on the road, changing places, and that is why I equip my kitchen with minimal cookware, but I’ve managed to cook and blog all along the years of moving around. I’ve drawn to foraging food,  since I got here, which has been so enjoyable, I mean, it gives the feeling of ‘living’, walking through the forests picking plants, weeds, nuts, fruit, etc. I’ve been discovering many weeds and plants that I’d eaten but hadn’t seen fresh. I saw ladies picking this creeper vine leaves and wondered what they were doing with them and I …

Rice Noodles with Asparagus and Mushrooms

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Yeah! The cherry price is going down! Guess how much the cherries are here per kilo? I’ll give you a hint…. It’s $29.99 for California cherries in Australia and down to $9.99 in season near Christmas. So here in Turkey? $3 per kilo!! And the price will go down further later. If you’re a cherry devourer like me, it’s good enough a reason to live in Turkey. Actually, I teased my friend the other day by sending a photo of cherries spilling out of the bowl and she was so tempted and traumatised since she loves all kinds of fruit. The cherries won’t be as plentiful as last year because of a few storms that have passed here. I saw the poor cherries fallen off the trees rotting on the ground when I was in the village haven last week. Anyway, I’m enjoying them as much as I can while they last. The apricots will come out followed by sour cherries, etc. When there are fresh veggies and fruit around, why would one bother to …