Istanbul_ The Collected Traveler_ An Inspired Companion Guide - Barrie Kerper [167]
On her first Turkey trip, she went to Gaziantep, generally considered to be the country’s gastronomic capital, and studied Turkish cuisine with Ayfer Unsal. “Travel is far and away the biggest influence on me,” Sortun says. “When I went to Turkey for the first time I had genies and magic carpets in mind. When I got there it changed everything I ever thought about the country and food.” Spice is wisely arranged by spice and herb groupings or families. This is so much more sensible to me because we often have an abundance of one herb or another, or want to buy a new spice and try it out, but then have to wade through dozens of recipes before finding one that might be suitable. One small quibble: Sortun often refers to “the Arabic Mediterranean” and “Arabic foods,” but the Turks are not Arabs, a fact about which you will be swiftly reminded.
Among my favorite recipes in this book are Arabic Coffee Pot de Crème; Cranberry Beans Stewed with Tomato and Cinnamon; and Greek Salad with Winter Vegetables, Apple, and Barrel-Aged Feta Cheese. Also Oleana offers its own assortment of spice towers online, one of which is baharat (Arabic for “herbs and spices” as well as for “spice shop”). Though Sortun offers a recipe for baharat mix in her book, it is far easier—and just as fresh-tasting—to use the one from Oleana. Because I don’t like lamb, I didn’t use the Oleana baharat for Lamb Steak with Turkish Spices, but following some of Sortun’s recommendations, I did use it on grilled mushrooms with olive oil, in a chickpea soup with farro, in a tomato sauce, and in a carrot soup … and it was great each time. Each spice blend (the others are Ras El Hannout, Persian Spice Mix, Za’atar, and Dukkah) is $15 plus shipping and handling (617 661 0505 / oleanarestaurant.com).
Turkish Cooking, by Irfan Orga (Andre Deutsch, 1958). In the afterword to Portrait of a Turkish Family, Ateş Orga notes that Turkish Cooking was quite successful when it was originally published, and was still in print twenty years later. This piqued my curiosity, and I felt I had to track it down. I’m glad I did: it’s an interesting little book, though I have only made very few recipes from it. It’s for the herbs and spices list and the preface for which this book is really worthy. Orga notes that the craze for “vitaminising” food—balancing meals so the greatest dietetic value may be extracted—is lost on the Turks as they have for centuries served well-balanced meals quite by accident. They have been experts on vegetable dishes for generations, and “unknowingly vitaminised themselves by simply serving their vegetables in the liquor in which they were cooked.”
Turkish Cooking: Authentic Culinary Traditions from Turkey, by Bade Jackson (Chartwell, 1998). Jackson notes in her introduction that historical documents reveal that the basic structure of Turkish cuisine had been established during the nomadic period of the sixth to the eleventh century AD. “Culinary attitudes toward meat, dairy products, vegetables, and grains that characterized this period still make up the core of Turkish cuisine.” Jackson provides a variety of meat and vegetable recipes with (mostly) readily available ingredients, and many are those that would be prepared in an average Turkish home.
Turquoise: A Chef’s Travels in Turkey, by Greg and Lucy Malouf (Chronicle, 2008). I discovered Australian gourmands Greg and Lucy Malouf a few years ago through their books Artichoke to Za’atar: Modern Middle Eastern Food and Saha: A Chef’s Journey Through Lebanon and Syria, not because I’ve been to Australia (yet). Turquoise is a special book—first of all, it’s gorgeous, with photographs