Easy As Peas: Turkish Zeytinyağlı Bezelye

Often when I cook, I have a small notebook alongside the stove. I try to take notes and measure ingredients as I go so I can pass along the recipes to you.

In the kitchen, now I have a pile of paper scraps filled with my chicken scratches and not everything makes sense. One of those recent recipes was my version of zeytinyağlı bezelye (sweet peas in olive oil). I can’t recall the exact measurements, so I will have to guess.

My husband, thankfully, shelled a kilo of fresh peas for me while he talked with his brother via Skype. (That’s been the best way for us to talk to friends and family members back in the U.S.)

Later than night, I cooked the peas to serve as a side-dish with roasted chicken and a fresh salad. The traditional Turkish recipe usually contains diced potatoes and carrots, which I didn’t use. My version is more like a pea-tomato mixture flavoured with garlic.

I was pleasantly surprised when my husband helped himself to a second serving of the peas. I think he liked this simple dish even more than I did!

Afiyet olsun!

Zeytinyağlı Bezelye (Sweet Peas in Olive Oil)
Ingredients:
~50 ml (¼ c.) extra virgin olive oil
1 ea. medium onion, diced small
1 head fresh garlic, thinly sliced
300 g. (~ 2 c.) fresh green peas (you can substitute frozen peas with good results)
200 g. (1/2 can) diced tomatoes (use fresh tomatoes if you prefer)
2 heaping T. tomato paste
½ tsp. sugar
360 ml. (1 ½ c.) water
TT salt and freshly ground black pepper
Optional garnish with fresh dill

1. In a medium-sized saute’ pan over medium heat, saute’ the garlic and onion with half of the olive oil until they soften, about 3 to 5 minutes.
2. Then, add the peas, tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar and water. Cover the pan with a lid and let cook until the peas are tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Transfer the pea mixture to a glass container so it can cool down. Then add the reserved olive oil.
4. Serve the peas at room temperature. Garnish with fresh dill if you so desire.

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Learning the ‘Turkish Flavours’

Unlike many of my expat friends here, I do not have a Turkish mother-in-law to teach me how to cook.

So far, I’ve relied on the few Turkish cookbooks I’ve purchased or borrowed and the advice of long-time residents to prepare “traditional” Turkish recipes.

But last week, I took a special opportunity to take a Turkish cooking class offered through the International Women of Istanbul. Selin Rozanes, an Istanbul native, teaches Turkish cooking classes in her beautiful Nişantaşı apartment through her business called Turkish Flavours. She also offers several Istanbul market tours, street food tours, culinary tours in Turkey and more. I hope to take one of her market tours next month.

Donning a black handmade apron, provided by Selin as part of the class, I was ready to start chopping and slicing. Hand those vegetables over!

The 1940s apartment has been remodeled with a prep area just off the salon. The room is fitted with a large island in the middle and is well organized with wooden cutting boards, knives, spices and other necessary tools. Along one wall is the gas range oven that we would be using to bake and cook our dishes. In the second kitchen in the back, Selin had a helper washing the many dishes and utensils we used.

We had an extensive menu to prepare that included the following 9 recipes:
- Sigara böreği - crispy pastry rolls with feta cheese and herbs
- Zeytinyağlı enginar - Artichokes in olive oil
- Karnıyarık - Split-belly eggplant
- Spicy bulgur pilaf
- Cacık - a garlicky yogurt mezze with cucumber and dill
- Yoğurtlu Havuç Salatası - Carrot-yogurt salad with tahini and walnuts
- Yeşil zeytin salatası - Green olive salad with pomegranate molasses
- Kaymaklı kuru kayısı - Apricots stuffed with clotted cream and garnished with pistachio
- Kaymaklı cevizli incir - Stuffed dried figs infused with honey and bay leaves

The class went by in a blur.

Selin showed us how to stuff and dip the apricots in ground pistachios.

Selin explained each dish as we went. I became the designated chopper once she learned of my culinary experience. “Chef, chop this,” she said.

I also liked that Selin varied from the more “traditional” Turkish recipes and added her own flair and pinch of spices to them. For example, the artichokes generally are cooked with peas and carrots. However, her recipe included handfuls of whole, peeled shallots, fresh fava beans and scallions. The dish was flavorful but tasted very light and spring-like.

This is exactly how I like to cook in the kitchen too. Very rarely do I ever follow a recipe verbatim. I tend to add more spices than stated, and I’m quite generous with the garlic and freshly ground black pepper.

My favorite dishes ended up being the stuffed apricots, the artichokes and the carrot salad. I also enjoyed learning how to make, stuff and roll the sigara böreği using the yufka, which is one of my favorite hot mezze dishes. I can’t wait to experiment with these recipes in my own kitchen soon!

Stuffed figs with walnuts

Cacik, sigara böreği and artichokes

Split-belly eggplant garnished with tomatoes and dill ready to be served

What I’ve learned, overall, is that Turkish cooking is fairly simple. It’s not complex and doesn’t require 20 ingredients to make one dish.

This class was a great experience to learn more about the new country I’m living in and how to make its cuisine, which is something I can enjoy years down the road no matter where our travels take us.

If you are visiting Istanbul or even live here and want to learn how to cook from an expert like I did, I highly recommend Selin’s Turkish cooking class.

Afiyet olsun!

Selin, me, and my classmates just before we sat down to enjoy our afternoon meal.

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The Scent of Lilacs

The spring breeze coming in from the open windows is starting to make our whole apartment smell like lilacs.

It reminds me of my home where I grew up. My mom always has had an amazing garden - a large ramblling mix of wildflowers, bushes and vines. It’s full of tall phlox, creeping phlox, pink and purple verbena, coreopsis, daisies, echinacea, butterfly bushes, irises, rose bushes, and of course, several purple lilac bushes.

1982: My brother and me in mom's garden

When I was little, I loved playing in the dirt in her garden. I would make dandelion “soup” and carefully assembled mud pies garnished with wildflowers and “help” my mom plant flowers. (Maybe this is how I originally fell in love with cooking!)

Well, I don’t have a garden here in Istanbul, but I do have the next best thing.The streets in my neighborhood always are full of gypsies hawking bunches of beautiful flowers. This past week, I’ve walked by the buckets of lilacs, always pausing for a moment, inhaling the sweet scent and pondering whether to buy a bunch or not.

Today, I finally stopped to haggle with one of the gypsies. Prices are never posted. So you must make a decision how much are you willing to pay for the flowers before you approach - at least this is how I do it. I even had pulled out the exact change from my purse and put it in my back pocket.

“Çok güzel leylak. Bir tane ne kadar?” (Very pretty lilacs. One bunch how much?)

“Bir tane 10 lira.” (One bunch 10 lira)

“Hmmm. Iki tane ne kadar?” (Two bunches how much?)

“Iki tane 20 lira, ama üç tane 25 lira.” (Two bunches 20 lira, but 3 bunches 25 lira.)

Well, you get the picture. After a few minutes of picking through the lilacs, I got two bunches for the bargain price of 15 lira (about $10 USD)! Originally, I was willing to pay 20 lira, but I scored an even better deal.

This weekend, I’ll have the memories of my mom’s garden on my mind and the fragrant smell of spring lilacs in our apartment.

Spring is my favorite season!

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Flat Tire, Falling Over Antalya Flora

Antalya - While our hotel was only 13 kilometers from the airport, it took us more than an hour to reach it.

You see, the historic center of Antalya, known as Kaleiçi (the old city), is full of twists and turns, and a maze of extremely narrow, one-way cobblestone streets. A certain popular map site had given us the wrong directions - yet again.

The narrow streets also are filled with Turkish shops like this one,
where we bought a beautiful table lamp.

I got out of the car to ask for directions in my Turkish-English lingo. We found our hotel, Tütav Adalya Otel, a few turns away, but couldn’t drive down that street because it was blocked off. I went in the hotel to ask for directions and was told we’d have to basically drive all the way around to access the hotel off the main street of Cumhuriyet Caddesi near Tophane Parkı.

Well, once we drove back around by the park, we heard a strange noise and realized we had a flat tire! Just a few more blocks until we reached the hotel’s otopark. One of the rear tires had a large puncture in it. Who knows what we hit!

Tired and somewhat hungry, we decided to settle into the hotel and find a nearby restaurant for a late dinner and a glass of wine to unwind.

Saturday morning, we woke up early, and Jason attempted to change the flat tire with the spare tire. No luck! The tires’ lugnuts didn’t budge. We called Avis and a repairman arrived in 40 minutes.

In my broken Turkish, I asked, “O lastik, tamir etmek mi?” (That tire, can you repair it?) Somehow in that stressful moment, I recalled the words for tire and to repair from my Turkish classes. Mind you, I didn’t think I’d ever need to know those words either!

“Yok. Yeni lastik,” he told me. (No. New tire.)

With the spare tire put on, we followed the repairman out to a Ford dealership so we could obtain a new tire. Annoyingly, we found out that we’d have to pay for the tire (as stated in our Avis rental agreement). 200 TL!

We asked how long the repair would take because we had plans to drive out to Manavgat and Side to explore for the day.

“Üç saat.” (3 hours)

“Genellikle America'da, yeni lastik, çok kolay. Neden?” I rattled off as I was getting fired up. (Generally, in America, a new tire is very easy. Why 3 hours?) This was not the way I envisioned spending my birthday in Antalya.

Well, it was procedure that the Avis office in Istanbul had to approve the repairs, which remember, we had to pay for. Blah, blah, blah.

About 10 minutes later, the repair was approved, and then we were told maybe 30 minutes. Whew! That was better.

Since we had time to kill, Jason and I decided to walk around the area - albeit a strange area with an industrial park, a large department store, furniture shop, a convenience store and tons of greenhouses.

Snails seemed to be quite at home at this greenhouse that was growing melons.

In the distance, we even could see grazing dairy cows and sheep. We even passed a grove of lemon trees.

So there we were, two yabancı (foreigneers), wearing shorts and t-shirts, strolling down a gravel road, and I was taking photos. I’m sure the few Turks that passed us in cars thought we were crazy. Oh well. I found some pretty wildflowers alongside the road.

This flower looked like a type of hollyhock that my mother grows in her garden in the U.S.

Almost like a giant dandelion.

So a little over 2 hours after the repairman arrived at the hotel, finally, Jason and I were ready to hit the open road. The situation could have been worse.

As the saying goes, we turned our lemons into lemonade.

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Celebrating With Margaritas in Istanbul

(I tried to get this posted on Friday before we left for Antalya, but I was experiencing problems with my computer. So I guess you must read the post a little late.)

We’re in Turkey so I had completely forgotten it was Cinco de Mayo last week.

Apparently, my husband hadn’t. During the day, he called me saying he wanted to make his infamous, salt-rimmed margaritas when he got home from work and asked if I would make my tomato salsa. (Remember our horrible Turkish-made margarita experience here?)

Off to the store I went to procure the needed groceries.

In the U.S., Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) with copious amounts of tacos, nachos and tequila-laced margaritas, not even realizing the real meaning of the day for many people of Mexican descent. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the day in 1862 when the Mexican army fought and defeated the French army in a David-and-Goliath-like battle. In the U.S. and some states in Mexico, the date is often celebrated with fiestas and parades so people can honor their Mexican heritage.

These were going to be some “expensive” margaritas. 1 kilo of limes cost 15 TL (about $10 USD). Reserved bottles of Jose Cuervo tequila and Grand Marnier from airport duty free = priceless. 1 bag of tortilla chips = 10 TL ($6.50). Still cheaper and better to make the drinks at home.

As I’ve said before, hubby is an excellent bartender. I let him have his fun in the kitchen while I finished making the salsa. He squeezed the limes with our giant hand juicer and even made a simple syrup. 

He also garnished the margaritas with these adorable slug-like creatures he learned to make from a bartender on our honeymoon in Belize last year.

Now, Jason won’t divulge the exact measurements of his drink to me. However, if you’d like to make these margaritas at home, please email me and he will share the recipe individually with you. I will say his margaritas are top-notch and pack a good punch. We enjoyed them while we noshed on the chips and salsa at home.

In the meantime, I will share my simple salsa recipe made ala Turkish-style, of course.

Afiyet olsun!

Joy's Mexican Salsa
Ingredients:

500 g. (Antalya) tomatoes, medium diced
½ ea. small onion, diced small
2 ea. pickled acı Turkish peppers (for a medium-spiced salsa)
TT fresh lime juice, chopped cilantro, salt and pepper

Place ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, stir to combine. Add the lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper to your liking.

Serve with tortilla chips.

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Amazing Antalya Road Trip

Pictured: Jason stands in front of the ruins of a Roman Temple in ancient Olympos, southwest of Antalya.

Just returning from a 3-day weekend in Antalya in southwest Turkey, which is considered the Turkish Riviera.

We hiked, explored ancient ruins, dipped our toes in the Mediterranean Sea, and just simply enjoyed ourselves. An amazing area! I will be posting photos and trip reports throughout the week.

Stay tuned!

Olympos (Latin: Olympus) was one of the Lycian cities, dating back more than 2,000 years ago, that I’ve mentioned before in Turkey. Later, the city was ruled by pirates, the Romans, Venetians, Genoese and Rhodians and finally abandoned after the arrival of the Ottomans in the 15^th century. Today, you’ll find fragments of ancient, stone buildings and temples throughout the former site of Olympos.

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Turkish “Green” Eggs Served For Dinner

Like other busy women, sometimes I just need a simple meal to prepare for dinner.

Some days I run errands all over Istanbul and by the time I get home, I don’t have enough time to make the dish I originally planned before hubby gets home. So onto plan B.

I looked in the fridge and found a half kilo of fresh spinach from the Turkish pazar that I needed to use. Just add some eggs and voilà - dinner!

An American friend (who is married to a Turk and lived here for 30 years) shared this simple Turkish recipe for yumurtalı ıspanak (eggs with spinach) with me. I understand sometimes rice is added to the spinach too, but I didn’t because I’m trying to cut down my carb consumption.

I served this simple meat-free dinner with a large side salad filled with greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley, a little Parmesan cheese, dressed with nars ekşilli sos and Turkish olive oil. It’s a meal full of protein, vitamins and a healthy dose of veggies.

Afiyet olsun!

Turkish Yumurtalı Ispanak (Eggs with Spinach)

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp.  olive oil

1  small  onion, diced

1 head fresh spring garlic, diced

1  lb. (500 grams) fresh spinach, cleaned and rinsed

To taste salt, freshly ground black pepper

4 each eggs

Optional  pul biber (Turkish red pepper flakes)

1. In large stock pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes until softened.

2. Then, add the spinach and spices. Cover the pot with a lid to allow the spinach to steam and wilt - about 3 minutes. The spinach will reduce in size considerably.

3. Finally, make 4 small holes for eggs in the spinach mixture. Carefully, break the eggs into these holes.

4.  Cover the pot with the lid and cook just until the egg whites are set. This takes about 3 minutes if you want “runny” eggs otherwise continue cooking a bit more to set the egg yolk.

This dish also could be served for brunch or lunch. Serve with toast if you like to dip it into your runny eggs. Another Turkish recommendation is to serve the eggs with a side of yogurt, of course, because yogurt goes with everything!

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