Konya Etli Ekmek is a cross between pide and lahmacun. A thin, flat bread topped with ground beef and peppers, cooked in a stone oven. We had this in Fethiye and aside from the taste, the most impressive thing was the size of the etli ekmek – 1.5meters long!! Served with spicy acılı ezme and salad and all for 10tl (although this was 2 years ago, it may have increased in price since). Despite being so long, it’s quite light since it’s thin. Delicious!
Ok, so not really a ‘dish’ but a Turkish staple food regardless!
Simit is a round bread with a hole in the middle, covered in sesame seeds. It’s kind of a cross between an American pretzel and a bagel, a perfect mix of the two.
It’s perfect with breakfast, or as a quick snack while walking around the streets of Turkey. It’s sold in bakers, corner shops and from little carts on street corners and markets. It’s even sold from trays piled high with the bread, expertly balanced on the seller’s head, while wandering the streets shouting ‘simit!’.
Perfect with a glass of Turkish tea, too!
Funny story – my maiden name is ‘Smith’ and Turkish people cant pronounce that – they always said ‘Simit’ instead!
Sucuk & egg is one of my favourite weekend breakfasts.
Sucuk is a spicy Turkish sausage, made from beef or lamb. It is mixed with garlic, cumin and other spices/seasonings then left to dry for weeks before selling.
It is sliced then fried in oil for a few minutes, then eggs are cracked and mixed into the mixture, or left whole. It is quite spicy and has a strong flavour, so I always chop up some fresh tomatoes and drizzle them with olive oil and eat them along side it, with some fresh crusty bread of course!
It’s often served as part of a big Köy Kahvaltısı (village breakfast).
The only bad thing is how strong it smells – when Berkay cooks it I can smell it for hours afterwards! I love the fancy pans it’s sometimes presented in.
Bazlama is a kind of village bread. It’s big, round and flat. It’s quite heavy and thick, kind of like a cross between a naan bread and a crumpet? I can’t really explain, but it’s really yummy.
My favourite way to eat bazlama is at the gözleme stalls in Fethiye or Calis market. They slice the bread in half and fill it with your choice of filling, cheese is the most popular but I love cheese, tomato and chili flakes. It’s then cooked on a metal plate. It’s like a giant toastie! So delicious and so filling. One whole bazlama is definitely enough for two people and is usually served with salad or pickled vegetables.
Berkay’s stepmum made some bazlama bread from scratch while we were there in September – the family goes through so much bread that it’s cheaper to make their own sometimes!
Zeytinyağlı taze fasulye is one of my favourite, simple Turkish dishes and it’s quite versatile. It can be eaten warm like a stew, eaten as a side dish with meat, served over rice or eaten cold along with other dishes as a meze.
It’s made with fresh green beans, tomatoes, tomato puree, peppers, onions, garlic and lots of olive oil. You can make it in large batches as it freezes well, and the olive oil means it last for a few days in the fridge too, and the flavour just gets better over time, making it delicious as cold leftovers too.
I love eating it warm in winter with fresh, crusty bread to mop it up with.
Meat is quite expensive in Turkey so a nice vegetarian dish like this is ideal, cheap and very easy to make. I have a recipe for it on my blog, click HERE to see that. In fact, writing this post has really made me want to make some soon so I think I’ll be buying some beans in the weekly shop!
A friend of mine posted a photo of her menemen for breakfast at the weekend, and I showed Berkay – he licked his lips and said how much he missed it, so he cooked it for our dinner Saturday night. Turkish menemen is the easiest dish to make ever, and a good way to use up whatever you have left in the fridge, especially squishy tomatoes! It’s so simple but so tasty, and you’ll have to trust me when I say it tastes much better than it looks in my photos.
Ingredients (for 2-3 people)
– 2 tablespoons of olive oil or a knob of butter
– 3-4 eggs
-one chopped onion
– 2 chopped green peppers (the long, thin kind you find in international food stores – not a normal bell pepper, although you could try that!)
– 3-4 tomatoes diced up (or tinned tomatoes for a richer flavour)
– salt & pepper to taste
Optional extras
– chilli flakes, spinach, anything else you fancy, I’ve even seen some people crumble some feta cheese on top.
First, heat the oil/butter in a pan and add the chopped onion and pepper. Berkay didn’t actually use pepper this time as we didn’t have any – they don’t usually sell the long, thin peppers in supermarkets but you can get them from international food shops. We walked past an Asian greengrocer stall and saw lots on there but didn’t think to get any – we’ll have to visit the local Turkish food store and stock up. You could try and use a normal bell pepper but I’m not sure how well it would work.
Next, add the tomatoes. Usually, we peel the tomatoes and chop them but you don’t have to. Berkay left the skins on this time, chopped them small and made sure all the juices were in the pan. For a bit more flavour, you could use a tin of chopped tomatoes and they’d be much juicier. Berkay says the tomatoes here are just not the same as Turkey and I agree with him – another thing to stock up on at the local Turkish food store next time!
We added spinach at this point just because I really like it, but it’s not usually a key ingredient of menemen!
Let the pan simmer for a couple of minutes, you want all the onion, pepper and tomatoes to be soft and plenty of juices to be in the pan.
Then, make little pockets in the mixture and crack your eggs into them. You can leave them whole, or mix them in so it’s more like scrambled eggs – it definitely looks more appetising when you leave them whole, but they cook more evenly when you scramble them in. Once you’ve added the eggs, add your salt, pepper and/or chilli flakes and cover the pan with a lid. Leave it to simmer for another 1-2 minutes, depending on how runny you like your eggs to be.
Usually, menmen is served in a special silver pan, along with some fresh, crusty bread or a seedy simit. Delicious, simple, filling and cheap!
Special thanks goes to Maxine for posting the photo of her food that inspired us to make it. Poor Berkay really struggles with the food here and adjusting to the different portion sizes and more convenience style food, he especially finds it hard not eating a whole loaf of bread with his dinner like back in Turkey, so he’s always excited when he sees photos of Turkish food and I often find him salivating staring at the photos on his phone!
Please, trust me when I say it tastes better than it looks!
This is another one of my favourite Turkish dishes, so simple to make, cheap and perfect on a winters day served with crusty bread.
Vegetables are a big part of Turkish cuisine, mainly because meat is so expensive. Most typically Turkish families will eat very occasionally, perhaps chicken once or twice a week and red meat only on special occasions so they are experts at making delicious meals from few ingredients. taze fasulye is one of these dishes.
As always, the amount of ingredients you need varies depending on how many people you want to feed, this made more than enough for 2 of us, you can always make more and freeze it, that works well.
Ingredients:
fresh green beans (around 500 grams)
2 onions diced
2 ripe, juicy tomatoes diced
1 large red pepper chopped (optional)
1 heaped tablespoon of tomato paste
3 cloves of garlic (optional)
salt
olive oil
water
First, prepare the beans. Rinse them, then pinch off the top and bottom of the beans and string them. Then break them into smaller 1.5 – 2 inch pieces. Do this with all of the beans.
Add a good drizzle of olive oil in the bottom of a fairly deep non stick pan (it must have a lid too). Add the beans, making sure the heat is turned down low so they do not burn. Stir often to avoid the beans burning, you just want them to soften slightly.
After 3-5 minutes, add the diced onion (and pepper if you wish – it just adds a little something to the flavour) and fry until the onions are soft and translucent in colour.
Get a heaped tablespoon full of tomato paste (domates salçası here in Turkey) and stir into the pan with the beans, onions and peppers. Leave this to cook together for 1-2 minutes.
Then add the chopped tomatoes and garlic into the pan along with enough water to cover the beans. Add 1-2 teaspoons of salt to flavour. Cover the pan and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let them simmer for 30-45 minutes until everything is soft and the sauce is reduced.
Serve with rice or just on its own with fresh crusty bread. Berkay had his with a side bowl of yoghurt and hot, pickled chili peppers! We went through 2 loads of bread between us with this dish… but if you can avoid that it’s fairly healthy and delicious. It’s lovely when served cold too, a good side dish.
Enjoy!
Yesterday while I was at work Berkay text me and said we could go for a little picnic…I knew a cute little place a 15 min walk from dad’s house, so we decided to go there. I picked up some supplies from the shop after work and Berkay met me at the station when I got off the train.
We took a detour to a chip shop then walked up the hill to the park, which even though it’s literally around the corner to my house, I’d never been to before! It has ruins of an old Abbey on the grounds which makes it a really pretty looking place.
We found an empty bench, sat down and served up our picnic. Pasta, chips,crisps, bread, muffins..sunflower seeds 😉 By this time it was 6pm and everyone else in the park were just there to walk their dogs…they must’ve thought we were really strange. It reminded me of the good old days back in Turkey where we’d rock up to the beach fully clothed, pots and pans, cutlery, plates, food, blankets & salt pots in hand…while everyone else was sunbathing!
After we’d eaten we went for a wander around the park, through the ruins, which made for some good funny-photo opportunities 😉
I had no idea how old these ruins were before – but according to google, Lesnes Abbey was built in 1178 … That makes them pretty old!!
It was such a lovely place to just have a walk around – I think I’ll be going for a little wander around there myself once Berkay has gone back – so peaceful, yet popular with dog walkers and children on bikes. The weather was really good – Berkay has been lucky this time. Last April when we were both over, it snowed. He’s never seen England so sunny as it’s been these past 3 weeks, so we’ve been trying to make the most of it.
There were some really lovely trees and flowers around the park too – this being one very old tree – I can imagine it’s very popular with kids trying to climb it in summer, we just about resisted temptation to attempt to climb it ourselves, and instead settled for funny poses. Look at Berkay’s cool pose – all he’s missing is an Efes in hand ha!
We had a lovely 2 hours and it really made me feel like the whole day hadn’t been wasted at work as we’d had quality time together too. Only 3 more days before he goes back…
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