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.

A Note on the Mortar and Pestle: Garlic Paste

I am gutted that Gourmet Magazine has closed its doors (despite a million person membership) -- for shame, Conde Nast! At least the recipes are available on its website and epicurious, but still, it was a lovely surprise in the mail once a month, and the articles were well-written and informative. (A few weeks ago I had a Gourmet Magazine tribute dinner to celebrate its years of providing us with unbelievable food).

Last night I was reading the Gourmet Today cookbook, a fantastic collection of 1000 recipes -- I think it is our consolation prize to make up for the loss of the magazine. Several times in the book, the writers recommend creating garlic paste "using side of a large heavy knife." Honestly, that is the last possible way I would consider creating a garlic paste. If you want a true garlic paste for garlic yogurt or various dressings, a mortar and pestle is the only way to proceed. Adding a bit of salt helps to create friction with the garlic and then a good 5-6 minute pounding is required to create the correct consistency. This is also an excellent way to work out your aggressions -- your cheating ex gave you the clap, childhood home burned down to the ground, best friend married your soul mate -- the mortar and pestle can take it all.

A mortar and pestle is also useful for grinding spices (although I prefer an electric coffee grinder that I have devoted to that purpose). I recommend a marble mortar and pestle, available from several on-line sources. No need to spend more than $20, and you will use it forever. I don't recommend the fancy porcelain mortar and pestle and I bought my parents from Williams-Sonoma. It makes a horrid racket and isn't worth the heavy price tag.

Traditional Fried Eggplant with Tomato Sauce and Garlic Yogurt Sauce / Patlıcan Kızartması

Writer's Note: Last night I went to Andrew and Bonnie's house for dinner and board games. I brought this dish, and the börek. Both were a hit. Playing board games with graduate students is a bit like negotiating the Treaty of Versailles. You spend half your time refining and defining and quibbling over the rules, and the other half playing the game. Our team beat the other team, 3 to 0, yes, riding that high all day today. Thanks, A&B, for an evening of hilarity.

Fried eggplant with tomato sauce and garlic yogurt may be the quintessential Turkish side dish. Unfortunately, the amount of oil used to fry the eggplant will generally scare off the health conscious cook. I have adapted the recipe to make it more healthy, but equally satisfying, by broiling the eggplant instead of frying it.

Ingredients:

4 small-medium eggplants

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp. plus 1/4 tsp. plus 1/4 tsp. salt

10 fresh, ripe tomatoes, blanched and peeled, or 1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes without basil

2 tbsp. salted butter

3 cups thick traditional full-fat yogurt

pinch of sugar

3 garlic cloves

1/3 tsp. dried mint (optional)

1/3 tsp dried Aleppo pepper or paprika (optional)

Directions: Heat your broiler in your oven. If the broiler is part of your main oven unit, move the rack to the middle of the oven.

Cut the eggplants in 1/4 - 1/2 inch discs, you can also cut them in half if the eggplants are particularly large, but they will shrink as they broil. I like to use small eggplants so the discs are small and attractive, and also they don't fall apart easily. Line some pans with aluminum foil and generously brush the foil with olive oil.

Lay the eggplant in a single layer on the foil. Brush the tops of the eggplants sparingly with a marinade of 1 cup of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of salt. Broil the eggplants until they are brown and a little crispy, about 5-6 minutes. Turn them over halfway through and broil the other side for about 3-4 minutes. Some of they may stick -- if they break a bit don't worry, you can cover those with the tomato sauce. Discard any of the eggplant slices that are too browned or blackened. You may need to broil the eggplants in rounds if they do not fit in the oven at the same time. Do not put the eggplants on more than 1 rack in the oven at the same time, they will not cook properly. Also, do not bake them -- they will dry before they brown.

In the interim, dice the tomatoes and simmer with the butter and sugar and 1/4 tsp. salt for 20-30 minutes until the sauce is thick, a little thicker than pasta sauce. Make the garlic yogurt by pounding the garlic with salt in a mortar and pestle and adding to the yogurt.

Take the eggplants out of the oven and arrange on a platter with relatively curved sides (so the sauces don't run off) in an overlapping fashion. Spoon the tomato sauce over the eggplants and the garlic yogurt over the tomato sauce.

The three-layer appearance of the dish lovely! Do not stir to mix the ingredients. Finally, sprinkle the Aleppo pepper or paprika and dried mint on top, if you so desire.

Strained Yogurt Spread / Süzme Yoğurt / Haydari

Writer's Note: You don't need my fancy set-up to do this (notice I am using a flower vase as the base for my rigged contraption, sometimes I feel like kitchen MacGyver), but cheesecloth or a linen bag is recommended. Have you recently seen an episode of MacGyver? Uh, excuse me, since when did he have a mullet? Was I completely blind as a child? There's another hero of my adolescence shattered against the judgmental boulders of adulthood.

Ingredients:

1 32 oz. container full-fat traditional thick yogurt

2 garlic cloves

1/4 tsp. salt

6-7 sprigs of fresh dill, chopped

Aleppo pepper

dried mint

1 tsp. plus some amount good quality extra virgin

oil

Optional: grated cucumber (salted and drained) or purslane

Directions:

Drain the container of yogurt overnight in the fridge using a cheesecloth or linen bag. You will be left with a very small ball of drained yogurt.

Mash the garlic cloves with the yogurt to make a paste. Incorporate the paste into the yogurt. Add 1 tsp. olive oil and the chopped dill. You could also add some purslane or grated cucumber for the dish to make it brighter. Decorate with dried mint and Aleppo pepper and drizzle olive oil on top.

Spinach and Feta Pie / Tepsi Boregı

Writer's Note: Filling filo dough with tasty cheeses and vegetables is a Turkish pastime. I know you think this is difficult, but it's not. You can do all the prep work in an hour to an hour and a half.

The real issue is the amount of butter. You need to brush each sheet with butter or a butter mixture to get the right flavor for the dish. My parents, who as far as I am concerned have gone off the health kick deep end, have replaced the butter with a safflower oil and yogurt blend. They also wash the cottage cheese to remove the salt and soak their feta in water to make it less salty. At that level, the trade off between extra years on this Earth and my standard of living weighs heavily in favor of salt and butter.

But if you are health conscious you can make the dish healthier with those measures, it just won't taste as sinful. And sin tastes good.

This is a difficult dish to get wrong. It looks complicated but it's really not. You just need to conceptualize the dish as follows: layers of dough brushed with butter, a cheese and spinach filling, popped in the oven for 45 minutes. That's it. I will walk you through it.

Good with a drizzle of garlic yogurt or a small side salad. Once you get the hang of the dish you can start experimenting with the filling -- replacing the spinach and feta with a cheese combination, or ground beef with onions, or one of my all-time favorites, sauteed eggplant.

Ingredients:

1 frozen packet of filo dough, see note on defrosting*

9 oz. crumbled feta cheese

1/2 cup chopped fresh dill

2 large bunches of fresh spinach or 2 bags of frozen chopped spinach**

1 cup cottage cheese

8 oz. of unsalted butter***

1 cup full fat traditional thick yogurt

1 large yellow or white onions, diced small

2 tbsp. olive oil

fresh ground black pepper and salt to taste

2 eggs

1 tsp. Aleppo pepper or 1/2 tsp. cayenne, optional

Directions:

Put the oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Saute the onions in the olive oil over very low heat for 10 minutes until the onions taste sweet and have taken on the hue of the olive oil. Do not let them brown.

To make the filling: combine the cottage cheese, feta, dill, and onions in a bowl. Defrost the spinach and squeeze out the water from the spinach. This is really where you can take a wrong turn -- if the spinach is too watery it will ruin the dish. Add the spinach to the filling. At this point you should taste the filling and add salt and pepper and Aleppo pepper or cayenne to taste. Depending on the saltiness of the cheese you may need more or less salt. Once the filling is to your liking, add and incorporate two eggs. Now the filling is done.

To put together the pie: Melt the butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave on low heat. Put aside about 1 - 2 tbsp. for the top. The rest of the butter mix with the yogurt. This is what you will use between the layers of filo dough. Prepare your work station so that you have a pan that will fit the filo sheets in it. If they don't fit, you can cut them down to fit. Check the box and figure out how many sheets are in the box. If you have 20 sheets, you are going to work on a 8-4-8 system. That means 8 sheets of filo, then half the filling, then 4 more sheets of filo, and then the last 8 sheets of filo. If the box has a different number of sheets, figure out a system roughly similar and make sure you keep rough count of where you are in the pile of filo sheets as you go through.

All of this should be done before you open the plastic packaging. You want to keep the filo in the packaging until the last minute. Line the pan with aluminum foil. Using a pastry brush, brush the foil generously with the butter/yogurt mixture. Now open the filo packaging and cut it down if necessary. Place one sheet of filo in the pan and brush it sparingly with the yogurt butter -- this is really a issue of practice but you will get the hang of it by sheet 3 or 4. You want to be sparing as possible so the dish is not drowning in butter. Repeat with the next 7 sheets. Spoon half the filling on the sheets, keeping a 1/2 inch border of filo dough where you do not spread the filling (this helps to create an edge of filo dough so the filling does not leak out of the sides of the pie). Use the next 4 sheets and then add the other half of the filling. Finish with the last 8 sheets and for the top sheet brush it with the reserved butter that does not have the yogurt in it. This will help the top brown better.

Bake the pie for 45-55 minutes until it is browned. If it looks like it is going to burn you can cover it with foil for the last 15-20 minutes. Make sure the bottom is cooked by lifting it carefully by the foil and making sure the bottom sheets are cooked. Let the pie cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting it into squares or triangles. Serve with garlic butter or haydari.

*Filo/phylo dough can be difficult to work with if it is not properly defrosted. I use the Athens brand filo dough, and if I have planned ahead, defrost it in the fridge for about 5 hours, and then on the counter for up to an hour. Or you can defrost on the counter for about 2-3 hours, but

that may lead to the layers sticking to one another (sticky or dry layers are your nemesis for this recipe). You will need to work relatively quickly once you open the plastic sheathing because the layers have a penchant for drying out -- be purposeful, but don't rush! Some recommend laying a damp paper towel or towel on the layers as you work with them -- I have never found this necessary.

**This is the one recipe where I would say frozen spinach may be easier to work with then fresh spinach, and the difference in flavor is undetectable. Which also means that you can keep the ingredients for this dish around for emergency rations in the fridge for weeks at a time.

***Do not use salted butter! It will make the filo pastry burn in the oven. All that work to waste . . .

Poached Eggs over Garlic Yogurt with Sizzling Butter / Çılbır

Writer's Note: There is no culinary subject more discussed on the
inter-web than poaching eggs. It's overwhelming, really, especially for a novice like me. The are gadgets galore, and videos, and heated arguments, even name-calling. For shame, culinary community, such disagreements should be held behind closed doors.

A few nights ago I couldn't sleep -- I woke up at 2:30 for no good reason and thought, well, if I'm up I might as well poach some eggs. I padded downstairs and boiled some water with vinegar and salt and started poaching eggs. One after another. My spinning vortex did nothing to keep those white jellyfish strings from forming around the yolk. Neither did using a small coffee cup. I tried everything I had read about the traditional method for poaching eggs to no avail. Oh fair reader, it was disheartening. After four I gave up and laid in bed listening to the New Yorker Fiction podcast. Junot Diaz read a fabulous short story by Edwidge Danticat. That cheered me up a bit.

Yesterday, having recovered from the earlier debacle, I decided to try one of the gimmicky methods I read about on another blog. Tie the egg in a piece of cling wrap and poach the egg in the plastic. It seemed too easy -- and it was. The white came off the yolk with the plastic, and it looked wrinkled and old, nothing like a poached egg should. Back to square one. Today, armed with a new carton of eggs I tried again. Vinegar, salt, boiling water, lower temperature to a simmer, create a vortex, and slowly, spinning spinning toward freedom . . . uh, no, that's a Simpsons episode. I slowly lowered the dish into the vortex and Yes! Success! One poached egg. Always mindful to quit while I am ahead, I stopped and called it a day. For hours I have been reveling in my perfectly poached egg. Ah, revelry.

Ingredients:

4 fresh eggs

1/2 cup thick traditional full-fat yogurt

1/2 garlic clove

1 tbsp. white vinegar of any variety

1 tsp. and 1/4 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. butter

1 tsp. dried mint

1 tsp. cayenne pepper or Aleppo pepper (optional)

Directions:

Beat the garlic with the salt in a mortar and pestle until it is a creamy paste. Mix the garlic into the yogurt. Divide the yogurt into two bowls.

Boil water, vinegar, and 1 tsp. salt in a small saucepan at least 2-3 inches deep. Crack egg into a small dish or saucer. After it boils turn the heat down so the water is simmering. Create a vortex by stirring a spoon in the same direction for 20-30 seconds. Gently pour the egg into the water from a close distance. Use the spoon to stir the egg white closer to the yolk. Cook for at least 3 minutes, longer for a slightly more solid yolk.

Fish the eggs out of the water using a flat strainer and lay the eggs in the bowls over the yogurt (for some the hot of the egg and cold of the yogurt may be odd -- you can always put a piece of buttered toast between the two to "American-ize" the dish. Although, let's be honest, salty yogurt and eggs for breakfast is about as un-American as cassoulet and universal health care.

Heat the butter with the dried mint and cayenne pepper or Aleppo pepper in a small skillet until it foams and sizzles (this can be done concurrently with the egg poaching). Pour the butter over the eggs and revel in your own competence.