This is Ghillie Basan's classic (and Classic) book on Turkish cookery that came out a few years after I'd been on holiday there. I think I had a hazy idea that the food would be all right, but it's not - it's stunningly good. The produce is amazing and the repertoire endless. The Turks argue that theirs is one of the world's great cuisines, and they're right.
I was first there over 25 years ago, and stayed for a week in Kalkan, now much developed. When my sister and I arrived, by bus, hordes of children turned up to try to persuade us to stay at their pension. We took pot luck and ended up in a lovely place with a terrace overlooking the bay. Every morning we sat out and had our breakfast of boiled egg, fresh bread, olives, salty cheese, tomatoes, honey and olives. It's still the ultimate breakfast, to my mind.
One of the places we visited was Efes with its incredible roman amphitheatre. We also made innumerable visits to a different Efes with its light, thirst-quenching interior.
Ghillie has a recipe for caramelised mushrooms, which I've not tried before, so I'll make those, and some cheese borek. And something with my veggie box's remaining aubergine.
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2 comments:
Hello Fran,
Nice to see you on the Foodie BlogRoll!
I do think that one of the nicest things about living where we do is the number of inexpensive Greek and Turkish cafes and the easy availability of all of the lovely ingredients (I've got some apricot leather in front of me as I type this, destined for a Moro's apricot and chocolate tart this afternoon).
Cheese boreki are one of my favourite things and I'd love to know how the caramelised mushrooms turn out. I hope you're going to blog about it!
Have a lovely bank holiday.
Hi Deborah - yes, I love the shops we have - mainly Turkish in Tottenham with the odd Greek bakery. (Odd as in random, of course.) I'll certainly blog the borek and have a pic of the finished mushrooms ready.
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