Turkish lunch with friends

La versione in italiano qui

Third stop of Joan's Final Culinary Tour: mysterious and fascinating Tutkey!

One day last week

Me: hi Susy, how are you?

S.: fine, thanks and you?

Me: I'm ok ... listen, wanna tell you something ...

... I was wondering ... what about a turkish lunch together next week?

S.: Woooowww! ... you know I can't miss it, count on me, sure we'll have fun!

Well, must confess I friendly did calculate my inviting move, I knew pretty well Susy would have been glad to join me in this trip. She is a dear friend of mine, even toug a recent friend, we met for the first time about a couple of years ago, but you know when you have immediately feeling in between, that sort of skin sensation when at first sight you feel a nice presence and a good mood flooding in your veins? well, that was it!

Born in California (and still U.S. citizen) from Magyars (Hungarian) parents, who fled there with the revolution in 1956, she is very fond of Oriental cuisine as she lived in India for many years and also because she told me that Turks conquered and ruled in Hungary for more than 300 years, leaving a huge heritage in culture, traditions and food. She was going to be a very good cook companion, plus she 's got a wide variety of dishware and table utensils from all over the world, giving me the chance to organize a nice Mid-oriental table: the bag under the candle holders and the tea glasses are really from Turkey.

So, a quick decision about wat to cook, a quick list about wat to buy, a quick shopping and a long time togeter cooking, eating, chatting, together! Leo (her husband) and Emy joined us, and were very clever in tablesetting (Leo is an architect, a very good elp in matching colors and shapes!).
Take a comfortable seat, my dear travelling fellows, sorry I am a little bit late in blogging all recipes, but the flight to Turkey will be long and we'll ave plenty of time to enjoy our meal.

Cumin & Pumpkin Dip
recipe from Taste 
serving 6/8

500 g butternut pumpkin, seeded, peeled, coarsely chopped
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp ground cumin
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbs Greek-style natural yoghurt 
1 tbs chopped coriander
salt and freshly ground black pepper

- Steam pumpkin: pour it in a metallic basket into the pan, the water level up to the base of the basket. In pressure cooker 10 minutes from the whistle, in a traditional pan 20 minutes with a lid.

- Heat oil in medium frying pan over medium heat. Add cumin and garlic and cook, stirring, for a minute or until aromatic. Add pumpkin and cook, stirring, until pumpkin is coated in spice mixture. Remove from heat.

- Put the mixture and yoghurt in a food processor and blend until smooth, but it's so tender you can easily do with a fork. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Stir in coriander. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least an hour.

Cumin & Carrot Dip
recipe from Taste

serving 8/10

1 kg carrots coarsely chopped

60 ml extravirgin olive oil

2 tsp ground cumin

3 garlic cloves, crushed

salt and freshly ground black pepper

- Steam carrots: pour in a metallic basket into the pan, the water level up to the base of the basket. In pressure cooker 10 minutes from the whistle, in a traditional pan 20/30 minutes (until tender) with a lid. Let cool a little and peel.

- Place carrots, oil, cumin and garlic in the bowl of a food processor, and blend until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

- You can make this dip up to 2 days ahead. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. Remove from fridge 15 minutes before serving to bring to room temperature.

Turkish Pide

recipe from Taste

7 g dried yeast (1 bag)
1/2 tsp caster sugar
250 ml/ 1 cuplukewarm water
450 g/ 3 cups unbleached plain flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbs extravirgin olive oil
2 tbs natural yoghurt
plain flour, to dust
1 egg, lightly whisked
2 tsp sesame seeds

- Combine yeast, sugar and 2 tbs of the water in a small bowl, and stir until yeast dissolves. Set aside in a warm, draughtfree place for 10 minutes or until frothy.
- Sift flour and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the remaining water, oil, yoghurt and yeast mixture. Use a wooden spoon to stir until combined, then use your hands to bring the dough together in the bowl. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic.
- Or else put all ingredients in your kneader and work for 8 minutes.
- Grease a large bowl with a little oil, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat in oil. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draughtfree place to prove for 2 hours or until dough has doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 230°C. Punch down the centre of the dough with your fist. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2-3 minutes or until dough has returned to its original size. Divide into 2 equal portions and shape each portion into a 15 x 30cm rectangle. Place on 2 non-stick baking trays and press with fingers to indent surface. Brush with egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds (I toasted a little in a no-sticky pan). Loosely cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm, draught-free place to prove for 20 minutes or until dough has risen 1-2cm.
- Bake at 230° for about 20 minutes or until pide is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the base. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Cut into slices and serve with dips.

Cacik

A sort of cucumber salad like Indian Raita or Greek tzatziki, recipe by Susy

plain yogurt
(greek style would be perfect)
peeled cucumbers
finely chopped garlic
finely chopped mint
salt/freshly ground black pepper

- Slice cucumbers, sprinkle with salt and let rest at room temperature for at least half an hour.
- Strain from water in excess, combine with yoghurt, garlic and mint, add more salt if necessary and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and paprika, if desired.

Köfte

Traditional meatballs that can be prepared in different ways depending on the region. Main ingredients are minced meat, parsley, eggs, bread crumbs, onions, garlic and various spices (cumin, oregano, mint, pepper, red pepper).
We made ours, following our Turkish inspiration and served with spiced basmati rice.

Serving 4/6:

400 g beef minced meat
1 big onion, finely chopped
one or half green chili pepper, finely chopped
finely chopped parsley
1 egg
40 g stale bread, chopped
a little milk
breadcrumbs
salt/pepper
extravirgin olive oil
favorite spices
(we used ground Indian jeera)

- Pour bread and as much milk up to cover it in a saucepan and cook at low flame until it becomes a sticky cream (5/10 minutes sould be allright). Let cool.
- Sauté onion in a little oil, adding a little water, it does'nt have to fry but become tender. Let cool.
- In a bowl pour meat, bread, onion, salt, pepper, chili, egg, parsley, spices and mix well. Shape into balls, roll into breadcrumbs then flatten a little bit. In a large pan pour some oil and cook meat balls at medium flame, turning upside down evenly, with care they don't break in pieces.

at the end of our lunch a refreshing hot fresh ginger tea




more pictures on flickr




Hope you enjoyed, see you next week in Japan!

Turkey Round up