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.

Cauliflower and Potatoes with Turmeric, Fennel Seeds and Mustard Seeds

Writer's Note: OK, I admit it. This is an Indian dish I adopted from Madhur Jaffrey. But I think it would appeal to the Turkish palate. And it is a comfort dish I turn to when the weather's cold and I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself.

Ingredients:

4 tbsp. clarified butter, or 2 tbsp. olive oil and 2 tbsp. butter

1 small cauliflower, cut into florets

3-4 small potatoes, peeled and diced
1 tsp. fennel seeds

1 tsp. brown mustards seeds

1/4 tsp. turmeric

1 tsp. Aleppo pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Melt the butter or olive oil and butter in a wide deep skillet. Add the mustard seeds and fennel seeds and let them cook for 2-3 minutes until the sizzle. Add the potatoes and saute for 5-7 minutes. Add the cauliflower and saute for another 5-7 minutes. Add the turmeric and stir so it coats the vegetables.

Add 3 tbsp. of hot water and cover the skillet, shaking the skillet to both coat the vegetables with the turmeric and steam the vegetables so they cook faster. Remove the cover and add the Aleppo pepper, salt and pepper to taste. Continue to cook, stirring, until the vegetables are cooked through and a little browned. Serve hot plain or with garlic yogurt.

Green Beans with Tomatoes and Olive Oil / Zeytinyağlı Taze Fasulye

Writer's Note: Most Americans like their vegetables crunchy. Fair point. No need to cook them to death. But this particular dish is lovely when the beans are soft and melt in your mouth. Best served with crunchy bread and a cold glass of rakı.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 lb. frozen or fresh flat Italian green beans, defrosted

1 tsp. salt

pinch of sugar

1 lb. can or fresh peeled whole tomatoes, crushed with your hands

Directions:

Heat the olive oil over low-medium heat and add onions. Cook onions until they are translucent. Add green beans, sugar, salt, and tomatoes and cook over very low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes and green beans are soft. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Tomato Bulgur Pilaf / Domatesli Bulgur Pilav

Writer's Note: I've neglected this site for way too long. Excuse? Ten-day trip to Turkey with classmates. No earthquake, no coup, no lost students. Entirely a success. The food was, as always, amazing. Before I left I made a Turkish dinner for a small group of friends with this bulgur pilav. Serve it with any meat dish.

Ingredients:

2 cups course-grained bulgur, washed

3 cups onions, diced

1-2 jalapeños, seeded and chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

3-4 small peeled tomatoes, canned or fresh, diced

6 tbsp. butter or 2 tbsp. olive oil and 1 tbsp. butter

2 cups beef broth

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Melt the butter over medium heat and add the onions and stir until translucent. Add the green pepper, jalapeños, and tomatoes and cook down until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the bulgur, salt, and pepper and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the beef broth, bring to a boil, and simmer over very low heat for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 15 minutes until the bulgur has absorbed the liquid.

Zucchini Pie / Fırında Mücver

Writer's Note: Hello men, see that spread? That's the way ladies brunch when you aren't around. A few weeks ago I was invited to ladies' brunch with a group of amazing women -- lawyers, development specialists, human rights activists. They were candy for my brain. And the food was phenomenal. Sorry, boys, we were perfectly content without you.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

2 tbsp. cottage cheese

2-4 tbsp. fresh dill, chopped

500 grams feta cheese

1 large red onion, diced

3 tbsp. olive oil

2 zucchinis, grated on coarse grater, salted and drained after 20 minutes

1-3 tsp. Urfa or Aleppo pepper

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. dried mint

3/4 cup flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook red onion in olive oil until soft and translucent. Squeeze the water out of the grated zucchini with your hands so they are as dry as possible. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Grease a small square pyrex dish with olive oil or butter. Pour ingredients in dish and bake for 25-35 minutes until it is firm and a toothpick comes out clean.

Baked Broccoli Pie / Fırında Brokoli Mücver

Writer's Note: The broccoli in the fridge was mocking me. Hello, yes, I am still here. And I will be here for the rest of eternity if you don't think of something to do with me. Seriously, it's bad when your produce can make you feel guilty. So here's a fun brunch dish to help you escape its judgmental stare.

Ingredients:

12 oz. broccoli florets, cut small

5 oz feta, crumbled

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

3 tbsp. olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 tbsp. full-fat traditional thick yogurt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. dried mint

1/2 tsp. Aleppo pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a small square pyrex baking dish.

If you like, you can blanch or steam the broccoli for a minute or two to soften it, but it is likely unnecessary. Saute the onion with the olive oil over low-medium heat until the onions are soft and have taken on the hue of the olive oil.

Mix all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl and then pour into the pre-greased baking dish.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the top is slightly browned. Cool on the counter before cutting into serving pieces -- careful, the pie is very soft.

Serve warm.

Broccoli Potato Leek Soup / Pırasa Patates Brokoli Çorbası

Writer's Note: A guy I used to date once said my kitchen was where fruits and vegetables went to die. No, he wasn't one of those crazy people who believe plants have souls, he just meant that invariably there was a bunch of spinach at the bottom of my fridge that had long out-lasted its usefulness. I admit it, I hoard spinach and eggplant and bananas in my kitchen in case a group of traveling carpenters knocks on the door and demands to be fed. (I once met a group of German traveling carpenters who belonged to a 16th century guild, wore top hats and carried walking sticks, and only listened to death metal. They were working in a hostel I stayed in off the western coast of Ireland. So it could happen.)

In my fridge now is an odd assortment of vegetables, courtesy of Boston Organics. I got some beautiful broccoli with freakishly long stalks. I like broccoli stalks, they taste better than their alien heads. Given that the leeks in the fridge were looking like they should be playing shuffleboard and wearing dentures, I thought a broccoli stalk leek potato soup was in order.

Ingredients:

stalks from 2-3 large stalks of broccoli, peeled and chopped

2 small potatoes, peeled and chopped

3 leeks, white and light green parts only, chopped or 2 small onions, diced

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. olive oil

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth

salt to taste

optional: Aleppo pepper

Directions:

Melt the olive oil and butter over low-medium heat and saute the leeks or onions until they are soft. Add the broccoli stalks and potatoes and saute for a few minutes. Then add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat until all of the vegetables are tender. Blend until smooth. If you're a fussy soup person, you can strain the soup, but I'm not running the The French Laundry so bits of potato don't bother me. Add salt to taste and sprinkle some Aleppo pepper on top if you want to add some kick.

Red Lentil Soup / Mercimek Çorbası

Writer's Note: Today I read the first 50 pages of Russell Brand's memoirs, "My Booky Wook." (I should be writing my paper on civil-military relations in Turkey but I cannot resist Russell--he's candy for my brain.) Russell, you over-sexed madcap weirdo, you made me laugh like a psych ward banshee on the cross-trainer. If you haven't heard of Russell Brand immediately stop reading this blog and go youtube him. Don't worry about your hungry family, Russell will make the hunger pangs go away. This soup is so easy you can watch Russell and make dinner at the same time.

Ingredients:

4 cups beef or chicken or vegetable stock*

1 cup red lentils

1 onion, diced small

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. Aleppo pepper

1/2 tsp. of butter for each bowl of soup

1/2 tsp. dried mint for each bowl of soup

1/2 tsp. cayenne or Aleppo pepper total (optional)

quartered lemons for each bowl of soup

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a pot over low heat and add the onions. Saute them until they are very soft, about 6 minutes, it's ok if they brown a little bit.

Add the lentils and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the beef broth, salt, and Aleppo pepper and bring to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes until the lentils are very soft (try them to make sure there is no "bite" left in them). They will swell and absorb most of the liquid in the pot after about 15 minutes. You can make the soup thinner by adding water if you find it too thick.

Using a hand-held blender or a regular blender, blend the soup until it is a creamy consistency.

Serve the bowls of soup with the quartered lemons and pour the sizzling butter over each bowl at the table. To make the sizzling butter, melt it in a small saucepan with the dried mint and the cayenne or Aleppo pepper if you so desire. Once it froths, pour it over the soup.

Watch Russell, eat soup, and cry tears of joy.

*I prefer beef stock but you can make it lighter with chicken stock, or vegan with vegetable stock.

Spinach or Purslane in Olive Oil with Garlic Yogurt / Yoğurtlu Ispanak

Writer's Note: My parents cook everything in bulk. On any given day there is enough food to feed the Turkish army squirreled away in their three fridges and pantry, useful if the apocalypse hits when I happen to be visiting. This dish can be made in bulk and kept in the fridge for days. Lie about in your pajamas and spoon up bowls of spinach at your leisure.

While I personally don't like to corrupt the pure taste of spinach by adding onions, the dish is traditionally made with sauteed onions, so I have both options here. Sprinkling a little Aleppo pepper and dried mint on the garlic yogurt adds a bit of color and depth to the dish.

Ingredients:

2 bunches of purslane or spinach, washed, dried and roughly chopped

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 small yellow or white onion, diced (optional)

1 cupsfull fat traditional thick yogurt

1-2 garlic cloves

pinch of sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt and salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper (optional)

1/2 teaspoon dried mint, crumbled (optional)

Directions:

If using onions: Heat a medium-sized pot or deep skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. After two minutes, add the onions and saute until soft and translucent.

If not using onions: Heat a medium-sized pot or deep skillet over medium heat and add olive oil and heat for two minutes.

For both recipes: Add the spinach or purslane and the sugar and saute until wilted but do not overcook! Taste it after 3-4 minutes. Everyone likes their greens cooked to varying degrees but I think the less cooking the better when it comes to this dish.

To make the garlic yogurt: make paste of the garlic and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a mortar and pestle. Mix into the yogurt. Taste the yogurt to make sure that the taste of garlic is not overwhelming -- you can always moderate by adding extra yogurt.

Spoon the spinach into a bowl, drizzle the garlic yogurt on top, and then sprinkle with Aleppo pepper and dried mint, if you like. Add salt to taste.