30 DAYS, 30 DISHES – DAY 7: KAYMAK & HONEY

Posted on November 18, 2017 by livingtheturkishdream

Kaymak is the Turkish version of to clotted cream, made using buffalo milk.

It’s thick, creamy and very rich! Its sometimes served as an accompaniment to desserts like künefe and tel kadayıf, but my favourite way to eat it is with honey.

It’s delicious served like this with honey for breakfast, along with some fresh bread to spread it onto. It’s often served as part of a Köy Kahvaltısı (village breakfast) in restaurants along with the usual olives, eggs, tomatoes, eggs, jams and various other goodies!

30 DAYS, 30 DISHES – DAY 6: Zeytinyağlı taze fasulye

Posted on November 17, 2017 by livingtheturkishdream

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!

30 DAYS, 30 DISHES – DAY 5: Türk kahvesi

Posted on November 16, 2017 by livingtheturkishdream

Turkish coffee is very strong and very thick black coffee. It’s unfiltered, so you really need to master the art of avoiding swallowing the grains at the bottom of the cup, otherwise it won’t be a very pleasant experience! It’s always served black, with a small glass of water, and is often accompanied by a piece or two of sweet Turkish delight.

It’s served in tiny, porcelain espresso cups, some of which have beautiful brass or copper cases, with intricate designs and patterns, making it look rather regal!

Turkish coffee has it’s own traditions. When a boy wants to marry a girl in Turkey, the boy and his family have to visit the girl’s family’s house to ask for their blessing in marriage. Whilst there, the potential bride will make Turkish coffee for the guests. Sometimes, she puts salt in the potential groom’s coffee, instead of sugar, and waits for his reaction. If he doesn’t react negatively, or show his disgust, it’s said to show his good character.

Turkish coffee also has fortune-telling abilities. After you finish your cup, turn it upside down on the saucer and wait for the grounds to form a pattern. Some people are able to read these grounds and interpret the meaning. Last year, when Berkay was awaiting the decision of his visa application, he had a BBQ with his friends. One of their wives made coffee and they sent a photo of the remaining grounds from the bottom of the cup to an app which reads them and tells you the meaning. The app said Berkay’s meant the following: “you’re waiting for some results and they’ll be on the doorstep tomorrow, it’ll be good news. You’ll be going on a long journey”.. and how right they were too, because the very next morning the visa arrived in his hands!!

30 DAYS, 30 DISHES – DAY 4: BEYTI KEBAB

Posted on November 15, 2017 by livingtheturkishdream

Beyti kebab is a popular kebab dish. Minced beef or lamb is cooked on skewers, then wrapped in thin lavaş bread (similar to tortilla wraps). It’s then sliced up into inch-thick pieces and arranged in a circle on a plate. A tomato based sauce is poured over the top, and yogurt placed in the middle. It’s a bit spicy, and usually served with rice. The combination of the rice and lavaş bread makes it very filling!

I’ve actually never had this dish in Turkey, but have in two different Turkish restaurants, one in London, one in Essex. It was served slightly differently in each place, one served it with peppers and tomatoes, and a thicker sauce, the other served it with cucumber.

It’s a good one to try – as long as you’re not put off by the sight of yogurt on your dinner plate. It took me years to get the hang of that!

30 DAYS, 30 DISHES – DAY 3: LOKMA

Posted on November 14, 2017 by livingtheturkishdream

Lokma are balls of dough, deep fried then covered in sweet, sticky syrup, best served while hot or warm.

Crispy on the outside but soft in the middle, when you bite into them they are slightly chewy, they are similar to donuts, but less cakey.

Lokma is often made in large batches and is a popular choice of food at celebrations or festivals, given out for free by families to all the local people during weddings, henna nights, openings of new shops/restaurants and even during sünnet (circumcision celebrations) and funerals (a certain amount of days after someone dies, their family arranges to serve food to local people).

When we were down in Ölüdeniz in April, there was a parade and celebration marking the official start of the summer season and they were cooking fresh batches of Lokma in the street and handing them out to everyone passing by. Wherever you find a stall giving them away, you can be sure there will be a huge line of people waiting!

Delicious, sticky, gooey, crispy… and full of sugar!

30 DAYS, 30 DISHES – DAY 2: MIDYE DOLMA (Stuffed Mussels)

Posted on November 13, 2017 by livingtheturkishdream

Midye Dolma, or stuffed mussels, are a popular street food in Turkey, sold by vendors from carts along the streets and beaches in lots of cities and towns!

The mussels are cooked and stuffed with rice and herbs. You gently pull the top shell off, squeeze some fresh lemon juice over the mussel and rice mixture, and use the top shell like spoon to scoop it out. I’ll be honest, I’ve never tried them as the thought of mussels just puts me off – but it does look good with all the rice stuffed inside.

They’re cheap, around 50 kurus – 1tl each depending on size, so it’s definitely worth a try. Berkay always goes to the same seller, just across the bridge by the water taxi’s in Calis.

Berkay absolutely loves them, I’m just not brave enough to try!

30 Days, 30 Dishes – Day 1: Pide

Posted on November 12, 2017 by livingtheturkishdream

Three months ago I done a photo series on my blog, writing a little mini-blog about a different photo every day throughout August. It was quite popular so I’ve decided to do a similar thing for the next 30 days – 30 photos of 30 different Turkish foods!

So, 30 Days, 30 Dishes – Today, it’s Pide!

Pide is basically a dough base in a stretched out oval shape with a topping and folded over edges. It’s similar to a pizza, but it doesn’t have the usual tomato puree on top. Toppings can vary, but my favourite is kıymalı (mince & onion) but I also like the lamb, or spinach and cheese. They usually ask if I want egg on top, which is a weird concept to me, egg on pizza? I tried it once and it wasn’t bad – as long as it’s cooked well and not runny!

Berkay’s brother is actually a pide chef, so over the years I’ve had a few made by him, which are particularly delicious! Other than from him, my favourite place to get them from are the lokanta’s in and around Fethiye. Pide is usually served with some fresh salad. So cheap and so delicious too!

Recipe – Menemen – Turkish eggs, tomato & pepper

Posted on February 6, 2017 by livingtheturkishdream

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!

Turkey Day 1 – The desire for familiarity, Sunsets and BBQ’s.

Posted on March 8, 2016 by livingtheturkishdream

I’ve been back from Turkey a month already, but haven’t yet posted any photos from my trip, so I’m going to do a little mini-series about the 9 days I spent there in January/February, starting now with Day 1!

It’s always weird when I go back to Turkey, especially this time as it had been so long since I last visited. There is always that desire to go and visit all my favourite places immediately, to check that they’re still the same and to reassure me that while our lives are full of uncertainty and obstacles, we have our own ‘happy’ places where things have stayed the same, the beautiful scenery, the promised daily sunrise and sunset, the friends we hadn’t seen for nearly a year… It’s an almost overwhelming urge for familiarity.

This time was no different. After landing late evening the previous night, when I woke up in the apartment the next day I was ready to go and see ‘my’ Fethiye. After a quick breakfast, we headed to the Friday famer’s market to stock up on fruit and vegetables for the apartment for the week, trundling through the market with bags full of fresh produce, eyes stinging from the smoke blowing around the stalls, arms aching from carrying the bags, but the welcome familiarity of the sights and smells.. just like old times. Then to the bank, the exchange office to change some currency, and the old age question of tost or döner for lunch… We settled for the tost.

I love sitting at this little toastie place and watching the world go by, the kids skateboarding in the park, workers rushing around the town, people paying bills.. the hustle and bustle of everyday life for the locals. It’s one of the best spots for people watching, that’s for sure! The added bonus is that the toasties are amazing, definitely the most popular in Fethiye! I had cheese and tomato (I think that’s the English girl in me..) while Berkay had the slightly more traditional karışık tost, cheese, sucuk (spicy sausage) and chilli flakes. The price was perfect for our budget too .. 10.50tltl for two toasties and two drinks (less than £2.60)!

After lunch we headed up to ‘Aşıklar Tepesi’ – lovers hill, which overlooks Fethiye bay. I love parking the car up, sitting on one of the benches and just admiring the beautiful view – it’s a good view all year around, but especially on clear winter days when the skies are blue and the mountains in the distance are covered in snow, it makes it look rather dramatic.

Another thing that always looks better in winter is the Calis Beach sunset. Although also rather spectauclar in summer, in winter the sun sets right on the horizon rather than behind the mountains,making it even more impressive.Watching the sunset from this beach was definitely something I knew I had to witness again on my first day back in the country for 9 months, so after a quick google search for the daily sunset time to make sure I wouldn’t miss it, we headed back to Calis and waited.

The sun set around 17.30 that day, and it didn’t disappoint! Although I love taking sunset photos, and have thousands (literally..) of shots of the exact same thing on my iPhone, iPad and camera, none of them really capture the moment well enough. The sun reflecting off the water, the boat sailing in the distance and that brief moment where the sun is perfectly aligned on the horizon and you don’t want to blink because if you do you’ll miss that last split second of the red glowing sphere before it disappears until morning… sunsets are really just something you have to see in person!

Apart from Berkay, Boncuk and the sunsets, the other thing I really miss about Turkey is the BBQ’s, so it made sense than on my first day back, that was our dinner of choice! BBQ’s are so much a part of our life there that now whenever I see (or smell..) one, the first thing I associate it with is Turkey! They don’t care what season it is, how cold it is or how wet it is, it’s always BBQ weather, even if that means sitting outside on the balcony wearing layers and freezing! There’s something so satisfying about preparing it, cooking it and having a good old chat while it’s grilling away, then sitting down to eat it straight off the coals. Mmm. We love BBQ’s so much that we had 4 in the 9 days I spent there. In fact, I’ve just this minute booked an apartment for us to stay in when I go back to Calis next week, we toyed with the idea of staying in a hotel as we haven’t done that for years, but the number one thing that swayed our decision was the fact we’d have no BBQ facilities, nowhere to store meat, no plates or cutlery etc in a hotel! Turkey just isn’t Turkey without a BBQ.

After washing up (that’s the downside to eating in…) we met our friends for a chat and a coffee at Erasta, and then headed off to our other friends house for Çay and baby cuddles. I’ve shared photos of their twins before, when I first met them in 2014, and even back in 2013 when I posted about our meal with the family celebrating the news that she was pregnant! Now, fast forward to 2016 and the twins are nearly 2.. not only that, but they have another baby who is 9 months old! Realising that our best Turkish friends had ‘grown’ a small human in the amount of time I’d been away from the country made me think about just how long I’d been away..

A few Turkish treats!

Posted on July 20, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

Do you ever get that feeling when you’re in a supermarket abroad and you see a British brand you know and get excited and drawn to buy it, even if its something that never usually makes it in to your shopping basket at home? No? Maybe that’s just me…

When I saw a shop selling Turkish food on a different route home from work last Friday, I went in to have a look and ended up buying a few things. I got cheetos, even though they weren’t actually Turkish ones (the shop sold a lot of foods from all sorts of places), one of my favourite chocolate bars, ezogelin soup and a packet of extra salted sunflower seeds (which I’m actually munching on right now!). That same day I also took a trip to Waitrose to buy some Baklava, I figured since it was Şeker Bayramı it would be rude not to do my part and join in with the celebrations, 50p a piece too, bargain.

That wasn’t the only Turkish-treat-shopping spree I’ve been on recently. Earlier on this week I went on a walk around Canary Wharf during my lunch break to find a Turkish restaurant/cafe/deli that someone had recommended to me. Walking past it and seeing all the diners outside eating some of my favourite Turkish dishes and smelling all the delicious food made me want to order some for myself, but I resisted and instead just went to the deli where they had a few shelves full of goodies along with a counter full of fresh snacks and mezes. They had different teas, jams, sauces, drinks, Raki (yes!), wine, biscuits, cakes (POP KEK!), chocolate and a chiller full of ayran, cheese, yogurt, sucuk and sausages. All of it looked yummy, apart from the cans of ‘Sosis’ – Boncuk sausages! I don’t quite think I could bring myself to eat canned meat with my dog’s name on, but it really did make me smile.

I had a lot of fun browsing, but only ended up buying a very pretty jar of tomato salça, and an equally well presented bar of olive oil soap – I admit it I’m a sucker and only bought them because they looked so good with the Turkish eyes on, in the 3 years I lived there I never once bought a bar of olive soap.

I definitely want to go back to the deli restaurant soon for a proper meal, or maybe just to sample some of the pastries, mezes and baklava they had. It’s dangerous having this place so close to my office, I can almost hear it calling my name when I’m sat with my boring old sandwiches at lunchtime.

If anyone is in the area and wants to visit – it’s called Hazev and is directly across the wobbly bridge at Heron Quays at Canary Wharf. All the staff were speaking Turkish, and I had a chuckle when I understood what they were saying. ‘Ne Kadar?….. Bu?’ Obviously people don’t often buy the goods on the shelves as they had no idea how much to charge me for either item, oops. I think they have a new regular customer now, though!

After seeing tinned Boncuk sausages on the shelves, I had to message Berkay’s brother for a photo update on our dog, just to check… She’s as happy, cute and playful as ever! My little sausage. ❤