Turkish delights: Icli köfte

Food sampled during each of my travels have taught me something new. In Greece one of the lesson the local food taught me was that cinnamon is not just for apple pies - it also lends wonderful depth and earthy sweetness to meat, especially lamb. These icli köftes are a fine example of that.

Elsewhere in Middle East this Turkish treat is also known as kibbeh. It's a meatball encased in a shell made of bulghur and minced lamb and is one of my all time favourite street foods (meat wraped in meat - how could it not!) . I did not have bulghur, but I did have couscous so I took the liberty of using that instead. The guests at the Turkish night loved them and one of them - Tunisian himself - actually guaranteed that these would get me married in Middle East...!

 

makes 15 or 7 big ones

shell

2,5 dl couscous

150 g minced lamb

1 onion, grated

2 tbsp all purpose flour

1 tsp tomato paste

1,5 tsp allspice

filling

1 small onion

100 g minced lamb

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp clove

3/4 dl beef stock

2 tbps pine nuts

1,5 tbsp mint, finely chopped

1,5 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

salt, pepper

Cook couscous according to the instructions on the package. Steam until dry. Mix with the rest of the ingredients into a smooth paste. Season well and let rest in the fridge for an hour.

For the filling soften the onion in a little bit of oil. Add spices followed by lamb. Brown. Add stock and cook until the mixture has slightly damp, paste-like consistency. Add pine nuts and herbs. Let cool.

Divide the shell mixture into 3 and each portion into 5. Roll into a ball and against the palm of your hand, smooth into a disc. Add a few teaspoonfuls of filling in the middle and fold the sheet around it. Smooth over any cracks with a finger dipped in water. This seals the surface and helps keep the filling in.  Another method of filing the shells is rolling the filling mixture into little kebabs, forming an oblong ball out of the shell mixture and with a finger puncturing a hole in the middle of which into which the "kebab" is then inserted, smoothing over the ends of this cylinder to seal it.

Keep in the fridge for an hour or so until ready to fry. Heat some oil in a pan and fry in batches until golden brown - a couple of minutes should do. Mine got a bit too dark. That's what multitasking (a.k.a. drinking and cooking) does to you...

Drain on kitchen towel and serve. Naturally these are best served in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the alleyways around Istanbul Grand Bazaar... but the combination of Helsinki, fabulous friends and tzatziki isn't too bad either.

Turkish delights: Sigara börek

We have already before touched upon the very dark secret of this foodblogger: I don't eat cheese (I can practically hear the readers' eyes rolling furiously: "what kind of a foodie does not like cheese?!") And I do acknowledge how shameful that is. There's an entire culinary universe there I haven't explored yet.

One of the most memorable meals ever was the dinner at Chez Dominique, the only ever 2-star restaurant in Finland where The Gentleman took me for my 30th birthday. And words fail to describe how embarrassing it was to have to refuse the cheese patter they carried to the table as part of the 6-course meal...

Yet... I can' get enough of cheese doodles. I have even learnt to eat halloumi. And mozzarella. As long as it's not melted. And in Turkey, as I've told before, one my all time favourite mezes is sigara börek: filo pastry roll stuffed with spinach and feta cheese. So... perhaps there's hope for  me yet?

Obviously those cigar-shaped fried goodies found their way onto the menu of the Turkish night.

I conveniently forgot the fact that I had never made anything out of filo pastry before. I can't say I was terribly impressed. After having seen it being used on so many cookery shows I expected to have an idea of what to expect. But the ready made triangular shape sheets I bought at the ethnic shop in Hakaniemi were nothing like it. They were thicker. And drier. And they categorically refused to roll into neat, tight, narrow cigar-like parcels. Perhaps the pastry wasn't good? Perhaps you really can't substitute melted butter with oil when brushing the sheets in order to make them pliable? Perhaps I just... suck?

My impaired cigar-rolling skills probably mean I'd never impress a potential husband in Turkey. Though, that would probably be the case in Cuba too... Boy, am I lucky to have found The Gentleman! The guests loved these though. A lot. And apparently it really pays off to get good feta for these- none of those squeaky rubber toys.

 

makes appr. 18

265 g spinach (lacking fresh one I used tinned spinach leaves)

good feta cheese (my cube was around 10 cm x 15 cm x 4 cm)

lemon juice

filo pastry sheets

clarified butter

oil for frying

Keep the filo pastry sheets covered as you're working with one - otherwise they dry. I used ready made triangle-shaped ones sized appr. 20 cm x 25 cm, but if using the big ones, cut them into obling pieces of desired size. Brush the sheet with clarified butter and spread 1,5 tsp crumbled feta on the other end. Add 1,5 tsp spinach and a dash of lemon juice, fold the long edges on the sides on top of the filling and roll it tight lengthwise  to a cigar-like parcel. Keep the stuffed parcels covered too until ready to fry. Heat oil in a pan, deep-fry in batches, drain on kitchen towel and serve. Some recipes use parsley instead of spinach - you decide which you prefer!

Turkish delights: kisir

Because of the vegetarians joining us for the Turkish night I had to make food that might go down their throats as well (dear me. I sound like a right bitch - making vegetarian sound like a curse word). Food such as kisir, Turkish tomato and couscous salad.

But  some of them couldn't even eat that as it's made of grain. Luckily my friends have redeeming qualities that infinitely improve the quality of my life as a result of which I'm even willing to accommodate their culinary restrictions...

 

4 dl couscous
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp cinnamon
the juice of 1/2 lemon
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
6 tomatos
1 generous handful of spring onions or chives
couple of handfuls of parsley
salt

Split the tomatos, scoop out the seeds and cube them. Fry the onion and garlic in a bit of oil until soft and transluscent. Add tomato paste and couscous. Then add 4 dl of boiling water and turn the heat off. Let the couscouls cook under the lid until it's done (around 5 minutes) and then fluff it with fork. Add lemon juice, tomatos, pine nuts that you've toasted on a dry pan until they get a bit of colour, spring onions/ chives and parsley. Taste and season as needed. Serve at room temperature.

EDIT: Normally this dish is made of bulghur, but since we didn't have any, I took the liberty of replacing it with couscous which we did.

Turkish delights: fava take 2

There are days when nothing works out. Days, when one should just stay away from the kitchen and accept the fact that ordering a pizza is a sufficient culinary attempt. But when one of those days collides with one of those days friends coming over for Turkish feast they've been promised... then it's best to just get with the program. Fuelled by the wine the friends bring. Pressures ran high, seeing how two of the guests were vegetarians. And third makes tzatziki that is widely hailed as the best tzatziki in the world.

And this is what we ended up with: Sigara börek, fava, kisir, tzatziki and icli köfte. But I'll tell you this: in a kitchen the size of a stamp cooking, fotographing, drinking that wine, enjoying the company of friends and writing down the recipes is pretty challenging...

But we tried and the results will be posted here in the coming days!

The whole night started with fava. That failed paté that refused to set bothered me so much I had to have another go at it. I fried a small onion in a little oil until it was soft, added 400 g  of fava beans (that the clerk told me were not cooked, but which turned out to be cooked anyway) and boiled them until soft and piping hot in a little bit of water, making sure every now and then that the water hadn't completely evaporated.


Then I drained the mixture and puréed it in the blender (which, judging by the sound, really went through a workout without any liquid to ease the pain), seasoned with salt, pepper, a little bit of sugar and mint (1 tbsp). I think I preferred dill though.

Then I spooned the mixture into a rectangular dish (12 cm x 22 cm) lined with cling film and let it cool in the room temperature. Then I covered it with cling film and kept in the fridge until next day.

And hamdulillah - it set. Following day cut into desired shapes with an oiled knife and serve. Depending on the size of your slices this makes 12-15 pieces.


Blizzing might be easier with a handheld device. And in order to get achieve silky, smooth consistency you might want to run it through a sieve too.

Pide - like pizza! Only Turkish!

I don't have any discernible special talent. I will never find cure for AIDS. The Eurovision song contest victory will elude me. And with my temper I wouldn't get my hopes up on Nobel peace prize either.

When it comes to sourcing local food, however, I do ok. Within a couple of hours from arriving in Pamukkale I had already located the best place for lahmacun. And in Istanbul I know just where to go for the best pides (Firuzaga). 

Yep- that's Anatolian kilim alright!

Since I'm a huge fan of Middle Eastern flavours, the Turkish food found a new fan in me. The humble pide is one of my favourites. It's very much like pizza, but often don't come with cheese. Instead an egg is broken on top before baking, to guarantee juiciness. Instead of tomato sauce a paste made from sun-dried peppers is often used, I learnt.

But if you want, feel free to use any pizza sauce you want. I pureed some piquillo peppers, but you can just as well roast your own and puree them - or use any store-bought roasted pepper variety. For instruction on roasting peppers, please see here.  You need about 2 dl of the sauce. Be generous with salt and pepper (and , should you want, with cumin, coriander seeds and/or smoked paprika) - especially if the sausages you're using are not very spicy.

I want my pide with sujuk, a spicy turkish sausage. North African lamb merguez would be even better. These I made with Spanish longaniza - any spicy sausage will go.

For the base you can use your favourite pizza recipe. In the need of one I came up with this, which actually matched the chewyness of pides I've had and loved pretty darn well. A dry yeast would, without a doubt, be a more convenient solution but every time I've tried befriending Spanish dry yeast something seems to go wrong.

Makes 2 (or 4 small ones)

Base:

12.5 gr yeast
1.25 dl water
1 tsp sugar
4.5 - 5dl flour (I used 2 dl of whole meal and 2.5 dl all purpose)
1 tbsp oil

Topping:

2 dl roasted pepper paste
4 sausages of your choice (mine were appr. 12 cm x 2 cm)
1/2 onion
handful of shopped green cubanelle peppers
2 eggs (or 4, if making four pides)
1 tomato, sliced thinly

For brushing:

1. 1/2 dl Turkish yoghurt + 1/2 dl water
2. oil

Mix sugar and yeast with lukewarm water. Let it erst for about 15 minutes. Then add half the flour and salt. Mix until smooth and add the remaining flour until the dough is elastic and won't cling to hands. Knead to a smooth dough and leave to rise in a bowl you've lined with oil until it's doubled in size (appr. 1 hour).

Heat the oven 250°. If using a pizza stone, put it in the oven now. I didn't have one, so I left the tray in the oven.

Divide the dough in 2 (or 4) and keep the remaining portions covered as you're working one. Only get started with the next one when the previous one's in the oven. Knead the dough to get rid of the air and roll in¨t very thinly to an oval shape of  20 cm x 30 cm (if making 2). Spread the pepper paste onto the base, then add the tomatos, then the onions and peppers and finally the sausages. I squeezed mine out of the casing in little thumb-size nuggets, but you can just as well slice them or use any spicy charcuterie- what ever you want.

Turn the edges on top of the toppings and twist the oval ends a couple of times to give pide its boat-like shape. Then transfer to the hot tray you've taken out of the oven.

Brush the edges with the yoghurt-water-mixture and break an egg in the middle of the boat.

Bake for about 10 minutes until the egg has set a bit and the edges have a nice, golden colour. Brush the edges with olive oil when it comes from the oven and enjoy. Turkish rug optional.

Touring Turkey in a hot air balloon

Last time as we were trying to finalize my travel plans to Spain the cheapest option suggested by The Gentleman would have included a change of planes (and a 10 hour wait in the middle of the night) in Istanbul.

I mean, Turkey is a great country and Istanbul is one of my favourite cities in the world but... it's not that great.

A couple of years back a friend of mine got the diagnosis we'd been dreading. It was cancer. And by then it was inoperable. It turned out to be the sort of lesson in fragility of life one should make sure to remember for the rest of one's life.



I decided to stop putting things off and make my dream of flying over Cappadocia in a hot air balloon come true. 


First I needed to Google Cappadocia just to find out where it was. In Turkey! So, for a few weeks I toured Turkey and said yes to everything my journey threw my way (within reason: white slave trade or drug smuggling might have required a bit more conviction)

After marvelling at the wonders of Istanbul, I journeyed to Cappadocia which, as a result of the vertigo I apparently developed right after my bungee jump, was exciting to say the least. Especially so after learning about an accident there had been just the week before...

After that I was off scuba-diving in Kusadasi (turned out I'm a bit uneasy 10 meters below water as well) and paragliding in Pamukkale. The trip was one of the best I've ever made and full of incredible moments. Cappadocia, however, will forever be a hard one to beat.

After Petra in Jordan Cappadocia was the second time in my life I could not believe my eyes or that places like that really existed on this planet. It was simply that surreal. I highly recommend you go there. I especially enjoyed the area around Göreme. Those who, like me, tend to return from their travels carrying rugs they a) either can't afford or b) don't have anywhere big enough to put them in, might want to check out kilims, which in Turkey are fantastic.

And though I normally avoid Christian pilgrimage sites like plague, the chapels carved in stone along with the caves that served as hiding places for persecuted Christians are quite simply stunning.

Some of the caves remained inhabited well into the last century. Since then many have been renovated into hotels that provide a unique experience.