Purslane Salad with Garlic Dressing / Semizotu Salatası

Writer's Note:  It's been ages since I've posted.  Since my last post I got hitched, bought a house, and got pregnant.  It's been a busy couple of years but I am hoping to reinvigorate this blog this year.  This is my all-time favorite salad -- purslane with lemon garlic dressing.  It's difficult to find purslane in the States and when you do, it is probably expensive even though it is considered a weed here.  I've planted it in my garden this year so hopefully in a few months I'll be posting even more recipes.

Ingredients:

1 large bunch purslane, leaves picked and stems discarded
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 lemon, juiced
1/3 tsp. salt
1/4 cup olive oil

Directions: Using a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic cloves and 1/3 teaspoon salt to a fine paste.  Using a fork, mix the garlic paste, olive oil, and lemon juice to make the dressing.  Dress the purslane leaves and serve.  Purslane leaves are delicate and should not be left in the dressing for more than a few hours.

The Perfect Summer Salad

Writer's Note: It's hot.  Almost too hot to eat.  But if you must eat, eat this.  It is the perfect summer salad -- something about the dill, lemon and salt create a blissful dressing that you will find yourself going back to over and over again.  Simple, clean, and ideal for a hot summer night.

 

 

Ingredients:

2 vine ripe tomatoes, diced
1 large cucumber, peeled, quartered and sliced thin
3 large sprigs dill, minced
juice from half a lemon
2-3 tbsp. olive oil
2/3 tsp. salt

Directions:

Mis the ingredient and allow the tomato and cucumber to marinate in the dressing for at least 30 minutes before serving.  The salt is an important component of the dressing -- do not leave it out!

Cold White Bean Salad / Fasulye Piyazı

Writer's Note: I was recently in San Francisco and went to Pera, a new Turkish restaurant, for lunch. We ordered an assortment of mezes (appetizers) and the cold white bean salad was, in a word, phenomenal. If you live in San Francisco and you want a nice meze lunch, I highly recommend a visit to Pera: www.perasf.com. I called them and the head chef gave me their recipe, which I include below. For those of us who don't live in SF, we have to make do with the dishes that come out of our own kitchens.  I decorated the dish with hard-boiled eggs and lemon slices which is the traditional serving style in Turkey.  Quite 1950s-esque.  Don't worry, Pera serves a much more modern version of the dish.

Ingredients:

1 cup white beans, soaked overnight in lightly salted water

6 scallions, using only the middle light green sections, cut into 1/4 inch dice

1 cup whole parsley leaves

1 cup cherry tomatoes, split in half

good extra virgin olive oil, Pera uses Dafni brand, which they highly recommend

3-4 tbsp. red wine vinegar

3 hard-boiled eggs, optional

slices of lemon

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Boil the white beans in salted water until they are just tender. Do not let them get mushy or the dish will turn to bean mash.

Cool outside of the fridge for a few hours in a large pan or on a large tray, and then put in the fridge until they are completely cooled.

At least an hour before serving, toss with the olive oil, vinegar, scallions, parsley leaves, salt and pepper and allow the flavors to marry.

Decorate with cherry tomatoes or halved hard-boiled eggs, if you like, and serve with lemon slices.

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.

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.

Pomegranate and Arugula Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Writer's Note: This is certainly not a traditional Turkish salad but given that it is winter and impossible to get good, fresh tomatoes here in the chilly arctic tundra (also known as Cambridge, MA), I thought I would post one of my favorite winter salads. If nothing else, pomegranate seeds are very popular in Turkey and used in several dishes, especially sprinkled on desserts.

Over the holidays I was visiting Napa and picked up a lovely bottle of pomegranate balsamic vinegar, perfect for this salad. No need to run out and buy it -- this dressing works just as well with regular balsamic vinegar. Peeling a pomegranate may seem daunting but it is actually easy: cut off the top just a little into the body of the pomegranate. Score the outside of the fruit in two intersecting circles just deep enough to go through the skin (you will be cutting a little into the seeds but that is unavoidable) and then break the body into four quarters and pull the seeds out with your fingers. One for me, one for the bowl, two for me . . .

Ingredients:

seeds from 1 ripe pomegranate

1 bunch of baby Arugula

1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup pomegranate or regular balsamic vinegar

pinch of sugar

pinch of salt

1/4 tsp. dried mint (optional)

Directions:

Wash the arugula thoroughly and then dry. Put the arugula in a shallow bowl or on a platter and sprinkle the seeds on top.

For the vinaigrette, whisk the the olive oil into the vinegar with a fork, adding the vinegar in a slow drizzle so that it emulsifies. Continue to whisk and add the sugar, salt, and dried mint, if you want. A little sugar and salt is sufficient, and should be added according to your taste. My measurements on the vinegar to oil ratio are pretty generous with the vinegar but I really don't like oily dressing. You can reduce the ratio to 1:3 if you want a more traditional vinaigrette.

Serve the salad with the dressing drizzled on top and some on the side for those who want extra.