Simple yet delicious – Turkish Tost…

Posted on May 4, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

One of my favourite, quick, simple and most importantly – cheap, lunchtime snacks in Turkey is tost.

Not to be confused with ‘normal’ toast – it’s a big, Turkish bread sliced down the middle, stuffed with delicious fillings, pressed and served with a side of spicy, hot pickles. Yum.

The fillings are pretty basic, the most popular is a mixed tost, or “karışık tost” in Turkish, which is a toastie with cheese, sucuk (spicy Turkish sausage) and usually tomato too. I often have this, although my favourite is just a plain, simple cheese and tomato one. There aren’t really very many more variations to the fillings, although whilst in Berkay’s village he had one with scrambled egg, sucuk and cheese in, an odd mixture which tasted surprisingly good.

I love the simpleness of tost so much we used to always make our own at home, but you really can’t beat the way they’re made in cafe’s under a proper, heavy iron press instead of the usual toastie machines. The only downside to how delicious they are, is how unhealthy they are, it’s a bit of a carb overload, eating half a turkish bread in one sitting, and the bread is usually covered in butter on the outside too so it can be rather greasy. Delightful though!

The best cafe serving tost like this in Fethiye is İksirci Tezcan. It’s a small cafe (well, more of a large hut really) on the corner of Fethiye harbour, next to the blue culture centre on the main town square. You can’t miss it, it sits under a shady tree and has pretty, very traditonal low tables and chairs, painted in bright, vivid colours. It’s very popular with locals and often at lunchtime you’ll struggle to find an empty seat amongst the many school children who flock their during their break. It’s almost famous in Fethiye, ask a local or expat about the ‘toastie place’ and they’ll know where you mean!

Tost is the only food on the menu here, along with the usual soft drinks, water or their other speciality – freshly squeezed fruit juice, usually orange or pomegranate but it varies depending which fruit is in season. Don’t be put off by the simplicity of the menu though, the toasties here are all amazing.

It’s a good place to sit and people watch as locals and tourists wander past, boats sail in and out of the harbour and street animals play (I shared my tost with a cat!)

The best thing of all about this cafe is how cheap it is. This was our bill, 10.50tl for 2 mixed tost, a can of cola and an ayran.. at today’s rate this is just over £2.60!
Whether you’re on a budget or not, it’s a fantastic price and a fantastic place to spend half an hour watching the world go by, and you’ll be able to tick ‘tost’ off the ‘Turkish street food to try’ list.

Pizza in Fethiye…

Posted on March 9, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

While abroad it’s always nice to embrace the local culture, break out of your comfort zone and try something new… I love Turkish food and ate it a lot whilst I was there, but sometimes all you want is an easy, unhealthy, pizza!

My favourite place for pizza in Fethiye is PizzaTomato, it’s part of a chain of restaurants all over the country, similar to Pizza Hut. Obviously, they sell pizza, along with the usual things, garlic bread, chips, wedges, chicken sides… It’s totally unhealthy, and not traditional Turkish in the slightest, but it is very yummy.

It’s not advertised on the menus, but they always have a ‘buy one pizza get another the same size for just 2tl extra’ deal if you ask. Medium pizzas are around 22-25tl and there are lots of choices! Of course there is a bit of a Turkish twist to the way its served – with a jar full of pickled chili’s, you wouldn’t get that in the UK, or Italy, would you? The Turks do love their pickled vegetables.

Along with yummy pizza, the Fethiye branch has the added bonus of a particularly nice view! The restaurant has 3 floors, with a small childrens play area on the second, and if you go right to the top floor and get a window seat, this is the view you get…right out over to the statue of Atatürk towards the sea.

Another bonus is the air-conditioning…on more than one occasion we’ve planned to go into Fethiye for doner, pide or something else cheap for lunch and ended up taking a detour to PizzaTomato instead as eating in a building with air con was an offer we just couldn’t resist!

I see people complaining all the time about people going on holiday to Turkey and eating ‘English’ food (I know, pizza isn’t English…) instead of trying the local dishes, I see the point, but these restaurants aren’t only there for the tourists. In fact, in all the times we went to PizzaTomato I’ve only ever seen 2 other British people in there, and it was always very busy! The Turkish people love their fastfood as much as anyone else, in fact, in large cities like Denizli which has very few foreign tourists, they have Mcdonalds, Burger King, KFC, PizzaTomato, etc… and although I’d prefer a lovely traditional Turkish pide, sometimes it’s nice to indulge in something a bit different 😉

If you want to visit whilst you’re in Fethiye, it’s on the main street opposite the harbour and small Migros.

Taze Fasulye – Turkish green beans recipe

Posted on November 12, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

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!

Perfect Turkish Rice..

Posted on September 26, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

I’m not a great cook, never have been and probably never will be, but for the past few months I’ve been cooking more often and trying my hand at some Turkish dishes after being ‘trained’ by Berkay. He rarely compliments my food, it’s never salty enough or oily enough, but a few days ago he told me my attempt at Turkish rice was great, and that’s good enough for me! ‘Turkish rice’ as I call it, is a tough one to master but I think I’ve nearly got it. I know it’s a favourite of some so here’s our version!

Ingredients for 2-3 people:
1 cup white rice ( In Turkey, we use Baldo rice, you may be able to find that in certain supermarkets in the UK but if not, basmati rice will be ok)
2 tablespoons şehriye (This is like a thin pasta, if you’re in the UK look for ‘orzo’ pasta which is almost identical)
A knob of butter
2 cups of hot water
half a chicken stock cube
salt and pepper to taste
+ a shallow saucepan with a lid

Firstly rinse the rice in cold water, then you need to soak the rice in HOT water for around 30 minutes before cooking. After the 30 minutes, wash the rice again in cold water, the water should run clear. Drain it well.

Heat the butter in the pan on a medium heat and once melted, add the şehriye. You need to keep an eye on it and keep stirring so that it doesn’t burn. Wait for it to change to a darker, toasted color.

Once it has changed colour, add the rice into the pan and stir thoroughly for a couple of minutes, again make sure the heat is on medium so that the grains do not burn.

Now add the hot water, half the chicken stock cube and a little salt. Stir a few times, turn up the heat and bring to a boil.
Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to low-medium and cover.

Leave the rice to simmer for 8-10 minutes. Now, if there’s one thing Berkay has taught me it’s to NOT lift the lid to check if the rice is done, this is apparently very important. How do you know if it’s done if you can’t open the lid? Well, give the pan a little shake, judge the best you can and/or just turn off the heat and hope for the best! It’s difficult to judge – it can either end up soggy, stuck to the pan or perfect and there is very little time between each stage. I find that 10 minutes is the perfect amount of cooking time for 1 cup of rice with 2 cups of water.

Turn off the heat and keep the pan covered until you are ready to serve, again this is apparently very important!

Use a fork to fluff up the rice and serve. Berkay puts black pepper on his to spice things up a little.

Enjoy!

Do you like this ‘Turkish rice’? Have you mastered it or found a better recipe? Let me know (:

Recipe: Patlıcan Salatası (aubergine salad)..

Posted on August 15, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

When I moved here I had never tried an aubergine, nor did I want to… but after a few BBQ’s with our friends here in Fethiye, I realised this dish was an important and unavoidable part of the Turkish BBQ experience, so I gave in and tried some… I’m now in love with it and it’s actually one of my favourite foods!

It’s name is ‘Patlıcan Salatası ‘ (aubergine/eggplant salad). When cooked on the coals of the BBQ then prepared and made into a salad, aubergines have a unique smokey taste and this dish is perfect when served as a side salad along with grilled meat and crusty bread, yum!

Ingredients:
3-4 aubergines
2 medium red peppers
2 medium onions
2 medium tomatoes
1 lemon (for the juice)
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
Salt

(You can play around with the amount of each to suit your taste – this is just a rough guide of what we use, but it really depends how much we have left in our fridge!)

Once the BBQ is lit and ready to grill on, put the aubergines and peppers directly into the hot coals. Turn them occasionally with a pair of tongs so that they cook evenly. They need to remain in there for around 15 minutes until they are soft and the skins are blackened. This is important, as this is what gives them the real smoky barbequed taste. Once they get to this point and look similar to mine below, take them out and set them aside until cool enough to handle.

While they are cooling down, you can prepare the other ingredients…

You can either cook the onions and tomatoes by putting them into the coals for 10-15 minutes until they become soft, or if you’d prefer, leave them raw and slice up into the salad as they are. It’s down to personal preference and it’s delicious both ways.

Peel the cloves of garlic and chop into small thin pieces.

Once the aubergine and peppers have cooled down a little (and the onion and tomatoes if you chose to cook them too..) you need to peel the skins off (or just the outside few layers of the onion). If they have been sat in the coals long enough, the skins should peel off really easily. It’s a messy job and be careful not to burn yourself as they will still be very hot inside. (Yes, I’ve learnt the hard way on more than one occasion- oops!)

Cut off the top/stalk end of the aubergines and peppers (some people like to remove the seeds too but we always leave them in) then chop up everything into smaller pieces – the aubergines, peppers, onions and tomatoes – and add them all into the same bowl.

Add the garlic into the bowl along with the olive oil and salt. All the Turkish people I know are obsessed with oil and salt so they add a lot of both, but you can adapt it to your own taste.

Finally, cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice of one half into the salad – mix it all together and that’s it!

It doesn’t look very appealing, and I think that’s why I was so resistant to try it, but it really does taste delicious, especially when cooled down and served with barbequed meat and crusty bread. The bread is perfect for dipping into the juice at the bottom of the bowl – yum!

Let me know if you’ve ever had this dish, is it always part of your Turkish BBQ’s? Will you be trying this recipe out for yourself?