Purslane Salad with Garlic-Yogurt Dressing (Semizotu Salatası)

Writer's Note: Most American cooks do not know about purslane, and American farmers often treat it as a weed to be eradicated. But according to Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma, it is one of the two most nutritious greens in the world (the other being lamb's quarter). I searched high and low for purslane until I located it at the Hollywood Farmer's Market. It's likely to pop up at markets and specialty food stores as it becomes more popular. This is a traditional salad made from purslane in Turkey. It is also lovely cooked with onions and olive oil as a spinach replacement.  Purslane is a rather delicate green so be gentle with it and cook it within 2-3 days.

Ingredients:

2 large bunches purslane

3-4 garlic cloves, peeled
2-3 cups yogurt

5-6 tbsp. olive oil

1/3 teaspoon salt and salt to taste

Directions:

Using a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic cloves and 1/3 teaspoon salt to a fine paste. This is an excellent way to work out your daily aggressions in a productive fashion. There should be no chunks of garlic left in the paste. Whisk the garlic paste and yogurt together to make the dressing for the purslane. Wash the purslane carefully and pull off the individual leaves from the stalks. Mix the dressing with the purslane leaves, drizzle olive oil over it, season to taste with salt, and serve.  You can decorate the salad with black olives or a few sprigs of dill.

Strawberry Raspberry Balsamic Jam / Çilek Frambuaz Balsamic Reçeli

Writer's Note:  Berlin is refusing to acknowledge spring.  We have a few warm days and then, pow, like a slap upside the head, the cold and rain come pouring out of the sky like the wrath of a thousand Prussian soldiers.  I am in serious denial about the weather so spring jam seemed like a properly defiant act. 

Ingredients:

1 lb. strawberries
pint of raspberries
juice from 2 lemons
1/4 - 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
2 1/2 cups sugar

Directions:

Clean strawberries and raspberries and cut off strawberry stems.  If the strawberries are really big, cut them into two or three.  Macerate the strawberries and raspberries in the lemon juice and sugar overnight in the fridge.

Heat the stove to medium and cook the berries for about 20-30 minutes in a teflon or copper saucepan.  Jam can really ruin your pots so teflon is a must unless you have a copper saucepan.  After about 15 minutes pour 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar into the jam.  Taste after 5 minutes and continue adding until you have a balance of sweet and acidic that is to your liking.  Jam is ready when you spread a small amount on a plate and it has a thickened jammy consistency.

You can store the jam in pre-sterilized jars.  Sterilize the jars by boiling them for 5 minutes.

Ginger Whiskey Pear Preserves / Armut Reçeli

Writer's Note: Turks make their own preserves.  Strawberry, sour cherry, fig, green walnut, quince, unripe pistachio, orange . . . you name it, they will turn it into a sweet, sticky beautiful spread.  Rarely, however, do you see pear preserves.  Since there aren't that many fruits in season right now, pear is an obvious choice in Berlin (always available here in the Arctic tundra). Turkish preserves are not like American jams, they are bits of lovely fruit swimming in a viscous pond, less jammy, more fluid.  And if you want the mother lode of jam recipes, I suggest picking up a copy of Christine Ferber's Mes Confitures, which is the only book on jam making you will ever need.  These preserves make an excellent peanut butter and jelly sandwich -- gingery and less sweet than your usual fare.

Ingredients:

3-4 ripe pears,* peeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup whiskey
1 inch ginger, minced
juice from 2 fresh lemons (the lemons have pectin, and allow the preserves to thicken properly)

Directions:

Macerate the pears in the other ingredients for at least two hours on the counter, or overnight in the fridge.  Pour ingredients into a non-stick saucepan or skillet (I use a copper saucepan which evenly distributes heat and prevents scorching but they are expensive and, frankly, unnecessary for this recipe).

Heat over medium heat for 20-30 minutes until the sugar bubbles and has thickened.  To check doneness, take a small spoon of the liquid and spread it on a small plate.  When the liquid is viscous and jammy, it is done.  Preserves that have been boiled too long will harden into a rock after they cool so it is best to start testing after 20 minutes.

If you are going to use the jam right away, you can put it in a jar in the fridge without sterilizing the jar.  This recipe makes one medium jar of preserves.  However, if you want to put some away for later use, it is best to boil the jar and lid for 5 minutes and then pour the jam in while it is hot so that the jar reseals.

*To ripen pears:  put the pears in a dark paper bag somewhere warm for 3-4 days.  Even hard as rock pears will ripen.  I used to use the laundry closet, which really confused my roommate but accelerated the ripening process.

Apple and Endive Winter Salad / Kış Salatası

Writer's Note: Finding fresh vegetables in Berlin is a bit of a challenge.  Somehow Germans seem to subsist solely on bread, cheese and sausage for nine months out of the year.  On occasion, however, in Turkish markets and upscale grocery stores, you can at least scrounge together a few elements for a nice winter salad.  Tangy green apples with sweet dried cranberries and tart pomegranate syrup work really well together.  You can easily make the dressing without the syrup, but you'll miss out on the awesome double tartness of the fresh pomegranate and the syrup.  Kind of like I am missing out on the awesome variety of vegetables available anywhere else in the civilized world.

Ingredients:

2-3 endives, sliced into 1/2 inch slices
1 large bunch mâche (field salad) or watercress, washed and dried
1 cup pomegranate seeds
1-2 green apples, diced
1/3 cup dried cranberries
sunflower or pumpkin (or other) seeds

For dressing:
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp. dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. dried mint
1/2 tsp. salt
pinch of sugar
3 tbsp. pomegranate syrup

Directions:


Emulsify the dressing ingredients with an immersion blender and drizzle over the salad ingredients.

Potatoes with Scrambled Eggs / Yumurtalı Patates

Writer's Note: My mother made this dish for us on Sunday mornings. It was certainly a family favorite. Clearly not only my family's favorite because there are several Turkish Facebook pages devoted to the dish.  Facebook has gotten out of hand. I'm happy to be a fan of a band or writer, but a breakfast dish? People have way too much time to dither around. Soon they'll be fans of the avatars of their favorite breakfast dishes.

Ingredients:

2-3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil 

3-5 medium-sized young potatoes, red or white, boiled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes (peeled or not, your choice)

4 eggs

4 tbsp. milk

salt and pepper to taste

Optional:

1 cup yogurt

2-3 garlic cloves

1/4 tsp. salt
Aleppo pepper and dried mint

Directions:

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a frying pan.  When hot, put in the potatoes and allow them to brown a little, only stirring occasionally.

In the interim, while the potatoes are cooking, whisk the eggs with the milk and salt until they are well combined and frothy. Once the potatoes are cooked, pour the eggs into the frying pan and allow them to sit for at least 30 seconds.  In order to get large curds of fluffy eggs, slowly scrape swaths of egg across the pan once every 20-30 seconds, without stirring the eggs.  When they are just set, turn off the heat under the pan.  Serve with fresh ground pepper.

Optional: If you want to top with garlic yogurt, mash the garlic with the salt in a mortar and pestle and then combine with the yogurt. Sprinkle mint and Aleppo pepper on top if you like.

*For this dish I would use a red or yellow-skinned potato, not a russet potato. The potato will have a cleaner, lighter taste that will balance well with the eggs. But if russet is all you have, by all means, you can use those too.

Well-Mannered Sour Meatball Soup / Ekşili Kofte

Writer's Note: The lemon and egg mixture that is used in this soup is called terbiye which literally translated means "manner" (of the Emily Post variety) -- you literally manner your soup.  This soup is perfect on a winter evening, especially if you have a cold.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

300 grams ground beef
1/3 cup basmatic or jasmine rice
1 tsp. dried mint
1 tsp. Aleppo pepper
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
2 slices old bread, crusts removed and torn into small pieces
1 medium onion, grated

2 eggs
2 lemons, juiced
salt to taste

Directions:

Heat your oven to broil or the highest temperature.  Fill a medium-sized pot with water 3/4 full and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Knead the first 10 ingredients (for the meatballs) for at least 5 minutes until well combined.  Make small meatballs no larger than the size of a quarter (or a 2 Euro coin for those on this side of the Atlantic).  Lay the meatballs evenly spaced apart on the foiled baking sheet.  Broil the meatballs for 7-8 minutes until just a little browned on top.

Drop the meatballs into the boiling water and continue to boil over medium heat for 30 minutes.  The meatballs will turn the water into a nice beef broth for the soup.  Turn off the heat under the soup.  You can skim off the oil from the top of the broth or leave it to flavor the soup, as you like.

While the meatballs are cooking, whisk the two eggs with a fork until well combined.  Add the lemon juice and continue to whisk until the color has lightened and it is frothy (at least 3-4 minutes).  This is the terbiye for the soup.  The trick is to add it to the soup without cooking the eggs.  By adding only small amounts of the broth (a tablespoon at a time) you can slowly raise the temperature of the terbiye without cooking the eggs.  Add a tablespoon at a time, continuously stirring, until you have about two cups of broth mixed into the terbiye.  Slowly pour the terbiye into the soup.  Add salt to taste, and a little extra lemon juice if you like, and serve.

Lemony Mushrooms / Limonlu Mantar

Writer's Note:  I love these lemony mushrooms.  My roommate in Cambridge, MA, made them for me once about a decade ago and they are still my go-to mushroom dish.  Something about the butter and lemon combination imparts a tangy flavor that is both bright and earthy.  Thanks, Cory.

Ingredients:

1 lb brown or white button mushrooms, or other varieties, cut into 1/2 inch slices

2 tbsp. olive oil

2-3 tbsp. butter

1/2 tsp. Herbs de Provence

1/4 cup white wine

1 lemon, squeezed

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat olive oil and butter over medium-high heat in a large skillet until butter is melted.  Add mushrooms, Herbs de Provence, salt and pepper, and saute until the mushrooms begin to sweat.  Add white wine and saute until wine is absorbed.  Add lemon juice and saute until the mushrooms are tender and lemon juice is absorbed, about 10 more minutes.  

Orange Fennel Chicken with Black Olives / Zeytinli Portakalı Tavuk ve Rezene

Writer's Note: It is really cold in Berlin. There is snow on the ground, my heaters are cranked to high, and yet, I am still freezing here in my new apartment in Kreuzberg. In honor of sunnier places and a yearning for the Mediterranean, here is a new recipe.

Ingredients:

2-3 large chicken legs, or other chicken parts

1 navel orange, half squeezed, half sliced into thick slices

1/3 cup olive oil

2-3 fennel bulbs, peeled and quartered

1/2 cup black olives

1 tsp. Aleppo pepper

1 tsp. dried mint or Herbs de Provence

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. fresh pepper

Directions: Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Mix olive oil, spices, and orange juice as marinade. Rub the marinade on the chicken and fennel pieces. Line the bottom of a deep baking rack with aluminum foil and lay the chicken pieces and fennel pieces in the bottom. (If using chicken breasts, lay them breast side down for the first 50 minutes of baking.) Surround with the orange slices. Pour the remaining marinade over the chicken and fennel. Bake chicken for 10 minutes at 500 degrees and then lower temperature to 350 degrees. Bake for another 50 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Ten minutes before the chicken is finished, add the olives to the bottom of the pan. If the chicken skin has not crisped, turn the broiler on for 5-10 minutes until skin is crisp. Serve with drippings spooned over the chicken and fennel.

White Asparagus / Beyaz Kuşkonmaz

Writer's Note: The move to Germany has unfortunately taken a bit of time so I am only just getting to updating the blog. In honor of white asparagus season (that is weiss spargel for those of you in the know), here is a new recipe.

Ingredients:

1 lb. white or green asparagus, peeled and cut into 2-3 in. pieces

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. dried mint

salt to taste

Directions:

Heat the oil over medium heat until hot and add mint and salt. Add asparagus and saute until a little wilted, about 4-7 minutes depending on the thickness of your spargel. Add 2-3 tbsp. hot water and cover to steam. Remove lid and saute a little longer until just tender. Serve hot as a main course with a nice white wine.

Stuffed Eggplant Deconstructed / Tembel Patlıcan Dolması

Writer's Note: In Damascus there is a street corner called Lazy Housewives' Corner. The grocers there have pre-cored eggplants for stuffing, shelled peas, and carrots cut into decorative sticks. It's a lazy chef's paradise. Also apparently a good place to pick up a hooker since I saw my one and only prostitution transaction on that street corner. I guess it's a good place to go if you're too lazy to even go through the hassle of getting a housewife.

Since Damascus is a bit far to travel, I'm stuck as my own sous chef. For days I have been wanting to make stuffed eggplants. I had all of the ingredients ready but the time never presented itself. Yesterday I got home from a long day and decided stuffing the eggplants was an unnecessary step better suited to housewives in Damascus. So here's Lazy Cantabrigians Stuffed Eggplant.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp. olive oil

1 onion, diced

1/2 lb. ground beef

2-3 small eggplants, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes

2-3 tbsp. pomegranate molasses

2 cups full-fat traditional yogurt

4-6 garlic cloves

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. Aleppo pepper

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Optional: Aleppo pepper and dried mint

Optional: 1/4 cup pine nuts

Directions: Saute the onions in the olive oil over low-medium heat until they are translucent and soft. Add the pine nuts, ground beef, pomegranate molasses, cumin, 1 tsp. salt, and Aleppo pepper and saute until the beef is just cooked through. Add the eggplants and cook for 4-5 minutes until the eggplant is a little soft. Cover and lower heat and continue to cook until the eggplant is cooked through, stirring occasionally. Add the parsley and stir for an additional minute until it wilts. Turn off heat.

Make a paste from the garlic cloves and 1 tsp. salt using a mortar and pestle. Serve the eggplant dish with the garlic yogurt and sprinkle with the Aleppo pepper and dried mint if you desire.