Tag: Turkish food

Turkey welcomes you

Sercan Unsal is drawing solace from serving delicious Turkish dishes to the residents of the city

“I am not the owner. Allah is the sole owner of everything. I am the caretaker. I serve the people,” Sercan Unsal interrupts, on being addressed as the owner of Alaturka, a fast food Turkish restaurant in Delhi. The entrepreneur then harks back to his college days in the late ’90s and talks about his reasons for choosing India for pursuing graduation and higher studies. “I wanted to study commerce, but in an English medium college, which was unfortunately unavailable in our country those days. Though most of the colleges which suited my convenience were located in Europe, I chose India as it was economical. So, I pursued my B.Com from Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, University of Delhi. And then, I went ahead with my masters in Commerce.” He has been living here ever since.

The young Turk lived with the dream of opening a restaurant offering traditional Turkish fare in the city and he finally realised it in 2008. Such a desire was triggered off by several incidents one of them being when once in 1996, he asked for doner kabab at a restaurant and was told that it wasn’t available.

Now, Sercan proudly sells this staple Turkish delicacy from his popular restaurant located at Select City Walk in Saket. Doner kebabs are made mainly of lamb meat, cooked on a vertical spit and then sliced off to order. The other authentic dishes available at his joint are falafel and humus rolls which cater to the vegetarians of the Capital. Though most of the dishes carry authentic Turkish flavour, usually hot and spicy, a few like their tomato chilli sauce, have been altered to suit the Indian taste.

Unsal believes in serving bona-fide Turkish food in his restaurant so he uses traditional spices like sumac, tahina (paste), wine leaf, chilli flakes and chilli paste, imported from Turkey. “Sumac has a royal history. It is sour in taste and was used in spicing up the salads prepared for the Sultans as it has a tendency to increase the appetite.”

His start-up is slowly gaining popularity. “On Christmas eve and Christmas day we have our little shop full of customers demanding doner kabab rolls and falafel rolls. On the blessed days, the queue surpasses the door of our restaurant.”

And thanks to the response, Alaturka is now on an expansion spree. There are Alaturks coming up in Pacific Mall, Subhash Nagar, Ambience Mall and Vasant Kunj. In addition to these, around 10 more Alaturka restaurants are being planned for the Capital.

Drawing comparisons between Indian and Turkish cuisine, Unsal explains, “If you talk of taste, it’s pretty similar to Turkish food. Otherwise, Indian food and Turkish food preparation have very few differences like the type of oil used, and the sort of spices used. As a rule, olive oil is used in almost all the Turkish delicacies whereas Indian food prefers going heavy with ghee and butter. As a result, one still feels lighter after stuffing a full-fledged Turkish meal than one feels after having Indian dal makhni and tandoor breads dripping in butter.”

via The Hindu : Life & Style / Metroplus : Turkey welcomes you.

July 16, 2011
Ottoman imperial cuisine back on menu in Istanbul

Researchers piece together dishes from historical archives, scrolls and books to recreate taste of 15th century court

It’s an amateur chef’s nightmare: a list of ingredients without instructions on how much to use or how to prepare them.

Ottoman speciality stuffed steamed apple is prepared at the Asitane restaurant in Istanbul. Photograph: Jonathan Lewis

But for Batur Durmay, owner of what’s believed to be the only restaurant in the world that serves Ottoman imperial cuisine, the challenge was inviting.

“Ever since my early childhood, food was the only topic around the family’s dinner table. We never talked about politics, sports, music, movies – but we loved to explore anything connected with food,” said Durmay. His restaurant, Asitane in Istanbul, takes its cue from the sumptuous feasts of the 16th century. Diners have included royalty and cabinet ministers.

It started with two books: the first ever kitchen ledger of the imperial palace in Topkapi dating from 1469 that listed about 45 dishes served at the Ottoman court, and a book describing the royal festivities of 1539 celebrating the circumcision of Suleiman the Magnificent’s sons Cihangir and Beyazit. “That text gave us the names of 100 different dishes served at the circumcision feast, but we still didn’t have any recipes, or any ingredients,” Durmay says.

The team scoured archives underneath Topkapi Palace and at the national library, looking for documents, books and scrolls that would hint at how the sultan’s cooks had managed to tickle imperial palates. A task for culinary detectives: with Istanbul as the final destination of both the silk and the spice routes – where any wares were taxed before being shipped further west – official harbour documents gave approximate details of spices, produce and foodstuffs available in the Ottoman capital.

Registers with the amount, origin and date of purchase of every food item that entered the imperial kitchens helped to narrow the search. And finally, finding the right measures and the right way to prepare a dish was a matter of trial and error.

Asitane has recreated 400 different recipes. Combined with elements of contemporary fine dining, imperial dishes ranging from the 15th to the 19th century are served.

Most diners are foreign tourists. “Many Turks are very conservative when it comes to food,” Durmay said. And the Turks’ relationship with their Ottoman past is problematic. “In school we are taught that the Ottoman sultans were cowards and traitors who sold our country to the British.” The era is perceived as backwards and decadent.

“It is hard to find Turkish experts of the Ottoman language who help us decipher Ottoman texts. I now work with scholars from a university in Berlin,” says Durmay.

But lately the Ottoman era has regained popularity in popular culture. Asitane provides catering for the set of Muhteşem Yüzyil (Magnificent Century), a glossy and successful TV show that depicts the life of Suleiman the Magnificent and caused outrage among conservatives in Turkey for showing the sultan enjoying alcohol and the company of women.

“Many restaurants calling themselves Ottoman actually only serve traditional Turkish food,” Durmay said. “But Ottoman cuisine fuses the tastes of the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus and central Anatolia. It goes far beyond the kebab.”

via Ottoman imperial cuisine back on menu in Istanbul | Life and style | The Guardian.

July 16, 2011
A Soft Spot for Turkish Goat-Milk Ice Cream

By FLORENCE FABRICANT

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

The very notion of goat-milk ice cream is uncommon enough. But Sophia Brittan, below, churns into even more exotic territory with her Turkish-style goat-milk ice cream at Victory Garden, in Greenwich Village.

Street vendors in Istanbul sell ice cream called dondurma that they work into improbably elastic strands, almost like mozzarella, thanks to the addition of salep, a wild orchid root. Ms. Brittan’s version comes in three flavors: vanilla, herbal and, the sweetest of the three, mastic, a kind of natural gum used in the eastern Mediterranean.

For her soft-serve goat-milk ice cream, without salep, the flavors include herbs with pistachio, rose, tangy plain and mastic, in addition to dark chocolate, vanilla, coffee and salted caramel. Sundaes with herb, nut and flower toppings are also sold.

Victory Garden, 31 Carmine Street (Bleecker Street); (212) 206-7273. Turkish-style dondurma ice cream is $5 for a serving. Soft-serve goat-milk ice creams are $3 for mini, $4.50 for regular and $5.25 for large with a topping.

via A Soft Spot for Turkish Goat-Milk Ice Cream – Food Stuff – NYTimes.com.

July 6, 2011
Istanbul Trip Produces New Turkish Recipe

By Daphne Oz

Jul 3, 2011

This week, my family and I took a trip to Turkey to visit my paternal grandparents at their home in Istanbul. Though we only have about a week here each year, it’s a very easy place to feel at home, with its gorgeous scenery along the Bosporus, fascinating melding of the Byzantine old world and a modern cosmopolitan bridge between East and West, and, of course, all the fabulous food.

Usually, our trips revolve around three essential activities: visiting with family, sating our appetites for Middle Eastern cuisine and bargaining like natives at the Kapali Carsi, the covered bazaar.

The first two activities are pretty self-evident, though we have some particular traditions. We like to gather the huge extended family at my great-aunt’s home, whiling away the hours while picking fresh mulberries and cherries off the giant trees in her backyard. And though there are a number of wonderful inexpensive local restaurants serving authentic Turkish cuisine (imagine: affordable, healthy, delicious food in a major city!), we generally eat at home, allowing the older women to pass along their prized recipes to the younger generation.

As for the bargaining, I’ll be sharing more on that — and my tested techniques for securing the best deal — next week. Suffice it to say that learning how to haggle properly is practically a rite of passage, one full of code and decorum that are both revered and dreaded if you are used to the Western shopping system of nonnegotiable prices.

For now, back to visiting with family and cooking. This being my first trip to Turkey since getting married last summer, there seemed to be extra emphasis on bringing my Turkish culinary skills up to speed. (Naturally, there was lots of accompanying chatter about the supposed aphrodisiac qualities of Turkish cooking.)

I’ve never been much for stiff, measured cooking, so the casual, comfortable cooking style of Turkish cuisine really appeals. In my entire weekend of cooking with my relatives, I never saw a single measuring cup or tablespoon. Everything went according to habit and taste, quality and completion being determined by the “eyeball” technique, which is tricky at first but becomes an invaluable asset.

As I head back to America, with a bundle of new recipes in my repertoire and fond memories of sharing this time and heritage with my grandmother and great-aunts, I’m confident that my new skills will come in handy on a daily basis, precisely because the emphasis is on creating food that your family will love and that you (and I) will love to make.

When I cook, I am almost always tight on time and unprepared, meaning I have to be flexible with my ingredients (basically, using whatever I might have on hand). But that is exactly how creative dishes come together! Learning a few traditional, easy tricks to have on hand in a pinch is essential, and it never hurts to know a few winning flavor combinations (rosemary and garlic, lemon and oregano, Aleppo pepper and mint).

But the most important thing I learned is that the best cooking is inspired and personal, rooted in treasured histories of someone else’s rendition but ready to take on a new vision in your own kitchen.

So with that in mind, here is one of my favorite Turkish recipes, perfectly suitable for a first-timer or an experienced hand, with lots of flavor appeal for the whole family. As they say in Turkey, “Afyet olsun!”

BEGENDI (bay-EN’-dee)

Servings: 4

Roast 4 small- to medium-sized eggplants until skin is loose and can be peeled off easily, approximately 10 minutes on medium heat. Be sure to rotate every 2-3 minutes to grill all sides.

Peel the eggplants, and mash interior flesh in a bowl. Reserve.

Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil to medium heat, being sure not to boil, and lightly fry 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour, whisking constantly until mixture thickens, approximately 6 minutes.

Stir in reserved eggplant.

Stir in 1/4 cup of milk and 3 tablespoons of finely grated low-moisture mozzarella or pecorino until melted.

Season with freshly cracked pepper and sea salt; go ahead and add rosemary, Aleppo pepper, chopped dates or anything else you might like if you’re feeling adventurous.

Serve in place of mashed potatoes for a delicious, creamy side dish that packs the powerhouse nutrients of eggplants (a staple of Mediterranean cooking).

A traditional Turkish serving is to use begendi under a dish of sauteed peppers, tomatoes, garlic and onions with cubed chicken browned in a saucepan with olive oil.

© COPYRIGHT 2011 CREATORS.COM

via Istanbul Trip Produces New Turkish Recipes – National Ledger.

July 4, 2011
Looking for Plov in Istanbul

Mihman: Plov and Happiness

(Editor’s Note: Since it turns out that “DTVAE,” our favorite Uighur restaurant in town, is closed while the Ottoman-era building it is in is being restored, we thought it might be worthwhile to again run this review of another excellent Uighur spot — which happens to be right around the corner from the closed one.)

It was a dark and stormy night. We found ourselves standing cold and shivering, stomachs growling, in the lobby of a shady hotel, our dining plans once again thwarted by the capricious nature of Istanbul’s restaurateurs. What was supposed to be a restaurant inside the hotel serving southeastern Turkish cuisine had now been turned into a forlorn spot devoid of customers and with an unappealing menu written in Russian.

What to do? We stepped outside and took a look around and saw few promising options in this part of town, known as Laleli, a wholesale clothing district dominated by shops selling cut-rate leather and fur coats and by cheapo kebab joints. That’s when we remembered a recent tip we had been given about a new “Uzbek” restaurant in the area. After making a few inquiries with some locals, we found ourselves inside the gleaming Mihman, a Central Asian restaurant that opened its doors only a few months ago.

Things looked promising right off the bat. The vaguely gaudy décor and the frilly tea cozies on the tables telegraphed Central Asian authenticity. This was quickly reinforced by the pot of steaming green tea that was brought to our table, to be drunk – Central Asian style – out of small bowls. The encyclopedic menu, meanwhile, promised a long list of tempting dishes, both familiar classics and intriguing obscure ones, that will make a return visit a must.

Perhaps overcome with hunger and a sense of nostalgia for previous meals we’ve had in the land of the ‘stans, we went ahead and ordered several things. Perhaps we were again overcome by hunger and nostalgia, but we can report that everything we ordered at Mihman – run by an Uzbek who hails from the Uighur city of Kashgar in western China – was a winner. The extremely fresh puffy little round loaves of Uzbek naan seemed as if they had been flown in from Tashkent that morning. The plump Uighur-style manti were superb. Çuçure, a soulful reddish broth that had tiny dumplings floating in it, hit the spot on a rainy night. The very tasty Kashgar kebab, grilled chunks of lamb flavored with an earthy-tasting mix of spices, took us back in time to a long-ago visit to the dish’s namesake city.

We ended the meal by renewing our plov affair with plov, the Uzbek rice dish that conquered Central Asia. Like any good plov, Mihman’s hid layers of complexity beneath a deceptively humble façade, with fragrant basmati rice, slivers of sweet carrot cooked until they are almost candied, assertive cumin seeds and chunks of flavorful meat all working together to create one of the more appealing comfort food dishes we know of.

We take the opening of this enticing plov shack (which is located near an excellent Uighur restaurant) as a very positive sign for Istanbul’s dining scene, which until recently had been devoid of good, authentic places serving food from other parts of the wider region surrounding Turkey, particularly east of the border. Considering how many Uzbeks, Uighurs, Iranians and others call Istanbul home, we’ve always found it a bit strange that it’s very hard to find any restaurants serving food that caters to them.

Much has been made recently about Turkey’s possible drift eastwards. We don’t like to comment on political matters here, but when it comes to culinary ones, we say: drift, baby, drift.

Address: Gençtürk Cad. No. 65, Fatih

Telephone: 212-526-0803

Web: www.mihman.com.tr

(photo by Yigal Schleifer)

via Looking for Plov in Istanbul | Istanbul Eats.

June 30, 2011
Best BBQs in Istanbul

The BBQ and roast are not as big an issue in Istanbul as they might be in London or D.C. As the summer dawns in, people do start to move outdoors, but it is not so much for the picnics and the BBQ, as it is for the Bosphorus.

That said, if you will be in Istanbul on a sunny Sunday and you really are yearning for a BBQ party, you might as well check out the few following options.

1. Ciragan Hotel by Kempinski in Ciragan (between Besiktas and Ortakoy, right next to Four Seasons Bosphorus) does tend to host BBQ Sundays during the summers from 19.30 to 23.00 at the Summer Lounge. There is also music and drinks… BBQbuffet costs 155 TRY per person. With drinks, the price is at 189 TRY. However, do call the concierge and check again as you make your reservation.

Cook yourself…

[By Ippi (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons]

2. A more classic way of enjoying the heat of the grill is at “Cook yourself, Eat yourself” venues. There are many of these in Istanbul, but most of them requires a long car drive (sometimes to the out of the city for a couple of hours). Nonetheless, a few options within the city are the following: Camlik Et and Kazanc Park.

Camlik Et is located in Silivri, which is still approximately an hour away with car (up to two hours with the bus). It is located over an area of 30,000.00 sqm. Reservations are a must on the weekends. One can bring their own meat and cook it here. Side dishes may be ordered from the property owner.

Kazanc Park is on the Asian side of Istanbul and a little farther away from Polonezkoy. There is a hotel on this property as well as a picnic area, where visitors are allowed to grill meat with their BBQ. There is a children’s area and a trekking area. Phone number: 0090 (216) 434 52 99.

3. Your third option when it comes to grilled meat are the steakhouses of Istanbul. Most of the steakhouses have a nice and big garden, but you are unlikely to get the garden party atmosphere at these. Some of the best steakhouses include: Gunaydin, Ozgur Sef, Nusr-et.

On a final note, a nice buddy, a friend who has a big house with a big garden along the Bosphorus and who welcomes the summer with a BBQ party, is as always the best BBQ ever in the city…

via Best BBQs in Istanbul | Istanbul | NileGuide.

June 29, 2011