The Hungry Turk

Pumpkin Challenge - Part 1

In a few days it’s Canadian Thanksgiving, a holiday that traditionally celebrates the end of a bountiful harvest. This day also brings families together around a table honoured by a stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes and loads of pumpkin pie. Over the next ten days The Hungry Turk will participate in the celebrations with two dessert recipes, which will give the good old pumpkin pie a run for its money.

The first recipe is a traditional Turkish one. As a kid, I didn’t have a sweet tooth and wasn’t a huge fan of pumpkin. But I eventually grew up, and my appreciation of this humble vegetable emerged as the years passed. As long as you have a big sharp knife and some muscle power, you will enjoy this recipe more than anything as it doesn’t involve any labouring over a pie crust.

In Turkey, pumpkin is sold fresh, usually by a vendor who stations his cart at a street corner. He cuts, de-seeds and peels the orange monsters so that you don’t have to do it yourself and risk major injury.

Unfortunately for my poor little self, there are no pumpkin vendors at my street corner here in Montreal. I live in the West, remember, and who in these modern days struggles with a whole pumpkin when you can go to the store and buy it in a can!

So I had to resort to my own resources. But to limit the risk of injury and avoid eating pumpkin everyday for the next month, I bought a small, almost miniature, pumpkin (see picture from previous blog entry). I have never seen such small pumpkins in Turkey and I have to admit that I wasn’t quite sure whether they were ornamental or for cooking.

First, with the help of a sharp chef’s knife, I cut the stem off. I then stabbed the pumpkin   from the top with my big knife and worked my way down on one side. I repeated the same procedure for the other side (starting at the same point on the top) and split open my pumpkin. I used a spoon to de-seed the pumpkin and kept the seeds (see note below). I then quartered each half, and cut each quarter in half (ending up with 16 small pumpkin pieces).

The part that I thought was going to be the most difficult to execute turned out to be the easiest: peeling. I’m useless when it comes to peeling vegetables with a knife and almost always resort to the use of a peeler. This time, however, I thought that my peeler couldn’t handle the tough pumpkin skin, so I started off with a knife. After 5 minutes of desperate battle, I decided to try the peeler. And it worked like a wonder!! So my advice: Don’t try to be a hero, use a peeler!

Turkish Style Poached Pumpkin Dessert (Kabak Tatlısı)

Serves 5


1 small pumpkin (about 3 lb), cut, de-seeded and peeled
1 cup sugar
2 cloves   
Squeeze of lemon juice
½ cup crushed walnuts

Transfer the pumpkin pieces in a large pot and cover with sugar. Cover the top and set it  aside for at least 3 hours, until the juices from the pumpkin come out. Add the cloves and a quick squeeze of lemon juice. Turn the heat to medium and simmer, covered, until the pumpkins turn a darker shade of orange and the juice thickens into a syrup, about 30 minutes. Do check the pot frequently to avoid the pumpkins from sticking to the bottom.

Transfer the pumpkins into a serving plate and pour the syrup on top. To finish off, sprinkle with the crushed walnuts.

Note: Don’t waste the pumpkin seeds, they are great in nut mixes or on their own. Separate the seeds them from the pulp, rinse them well and spread on a kitchen towel to dry completely (takes about a 2 hours). Transfer the seeds into a small container, mix in half a teaspoon of vegetable oil and half a teaspoon of salt. Close the container and shake it untill all the seeds are covered with the salt and oil mixture. Pre-heat your over at 250°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment and bake/toast your pumpkin seeds for about 1 hour.

The Most Versatile Potato Salad

There is a reason why potato is the perfect answer to the following absurd job interview question: “If you were to be a vegetable, what would you be?” A potato of course! What else is more versatile? And until like the onion, which also tends to multitask, the potato won’t make anyone at the office cry…

And it gets better. This Most Versatile Potato Salad accompanies pretty much everything from fish to chicken to red meat. It has no mayonnaise in it and once your potatoes are boiled it takes about five minutes to put together. What else do you want?

Oh I should also mention that this is a true Hungry Turk family recipe, so please cherish it, love it and pass it on! I have seen my grandfather make it, I have seen my mom make it and I am looking forward to pass the recipe onto the next generations!

The Most Versatile Potato Salad

Serves 6 as a side

 

5 large yellow-fleshed potatoes

½ bunch fresh Italian parsley, chopped

½ bunch fresh dill, chopped

4 scallions, finely chopped

2 tablespoons paprika (and more according to taste)

Juice of 1 lemon

1/3 cup olive oil

Salt to season

Wash and poke the potatoes a few times. Place them in a large pot of cold salted water and bring to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 35 to 40 minutes. While your potatoes are cooking, prepare all your herbs.

Peel the potatoes while still hot. Be careful not to burn yourself but don’t let the potatoes get cold either (do not boil the potatoes peeled). Using a knife, roughly puree the potatoes and add the olive oil. You want “crumbled” potatoes not a silky puree consistency. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. Season with salt and more paprika according to taste and serve lukewarm. The salad is also good served cold.

Note: Be generous with the amounts of herbs you use, they really make the difference.

Ode to Eggplant

Oh Eggplant Eggplant,

Your purple makes me chant.

But why are you so bitter?

Don’t you like my descant?

 

You know I’ve always loved you,

Like a panda chewing bamboo,

So where is all that bitterness coming from?

Did I forget the corkscrew?

 

Is it because I ate all that sauerkraut?

If that’s so please don’t freak out,

Because I will have to lay you down in salt

To make all that bitter dark juice flow out.

 

Isn’t great, isn’t grand?

Don’t you just feel like in a dreamland?

Oh I love you Eggplant,

Even when you are so bland!

Eggplant Salad

Serves 4 to 6 as a side dish

 

4 medium size eggplants

2 large pieces of canned roasted red peppers, rinsed and diced

1 Roma tomato, deseeded and diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

Juice of 1 lemon

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

½ cup Italian parsley, chopped

Poke a few wholes in the eggplants and roast them at 425°F (220°C) in the oven for about 40 minutes, until they collapse. If you can do this on a grill with real fire, it’s even better. Peel the skins off and puree them roughly with the help of a knife. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well to combine. Serve chilled.

Note: If you have fresh red peppers available where you live roast/grill them as well. Unfortunately for me, the fresh ones are very hard to find in Montreal. That’s why I use the ones that come in jars.

Memories of Summers Past

Sometimes I envy Captain Kirk. Just a few words, “Beam me up, Scotty”, and he’s back in his comfort zone, the USS Enterprise. I do not possess the technology available to Captain Kirk, as a matter of fact not even a plane ticket, but I do have my very own transporter: food!

Last week, I made a dish called batırık, which instantaneously beamed me to Anamur, where I spent most of my summers as a child.

Each morning, after breakfast I would head to the beach to meet my friends. We’d play in the water until either our lips turned purple and our fingertips wrinkled, or I saw my grandmother hanging off her balcony calling me in for lunch. After lunch, I would either help my grandmother with household chores (I loved doing laundry, don't ask why) or take a nap. Besides, you had to be out of your mind to be on the beach or anywhere outdoors between 1pm and 4pm (unless you were a tourist keen to work on that lobster tan).

Around 5pm my grandfather would make his way to the kitchen to prepare tea. No day went by without the 5 o’clock tea. My grandmother would usually fix something to eat, sometimes a cake, sometimes a cheese roll, and sometimes the famed batırık! I always knew that batırık was in the works when I heard my grandfather pounding the walnuts in the brass mortar. The whole front part of the apartment would resonate… bam bam bam!

After teatime I would go out again to play. My friends and I would usually hang out at a playground near the apartment building or cause trouble in its close vicinity. Some days I would head back to the beach with my grandmother around 7pm. By that time the waves would have calmed down and the beach would be pretty much deserted.  A few days a week we would go for a digestive walk after dinner and get the Kahramanmaraş style sticky ice cream. I loved it (and still do). Because of the salep (flour made out of the root of Early Purple Orchid) and mastic used in its preparation, this ice cream is much harder in texture and stickier than the conventional ice cream. The best way to eat it is to bite it. Of course, those with sensitive teeth should not try this at home!

My days in Anamur were pretty monotone… eat, play and sleep. But Anamur was also the place where I was let loose completely and where I was as happy as I could be. Thanks to this low-key coastal town, I had an extended childhood, using the word “play” without hesitation past the age of 12.

Batırık

Batırık is native of the eastern Mediterranean region of Turkey where both my maternal grandparents come from. In Anamur, my grandmother’s hometown, the dish is made with sesame seeds and peanuts, while in Ermenek, where my grandfather is from, walnuts are used instead. My grandparents almost always made it with walnuts but I do have a vague memory of sesame and peanut taste in my head as well. Batırık is more a teatime dish and is especially popular at women’s gatherings. Some people squeeze the water out of it and serve it in bite-sized pieces, but I personally prefer it as almost a soup, served with a few ice cubes, blanched white cabbage and chopped cucumbers. It’s very refreshing and surprisingly filling because of the main ingredient, couscous. The key part in batırık’s preparation is to use a mortar and pestle. I’ve seen some recipes that instruct to use a robot to turn the walnuts (or the sesame seeds and peanuts) into a paste. But this method doesn't let the oil from the nuts to develop and mix into the dish. Also, a lot of people use pepper paste to add a bit of spice and extra colour. I have never seen my grandparents use it, as they were not very keen on heat in food, so I have not used it here. For the extra colour, just use loads of tomatoes.

Serves 6-8 as a teatime snack or 4-6 as a light meal

1 cup medium couscous (called düğürcük in Turkish)

6-8 ripe tomatoes, grated

1 medium onion, grated

1 ½ cup Italian parsley, finely chopped

1 ½ tablespoon mild paprika

1 tablespoon red pepper paste (optional)

2 cups walnuts, lightly roasted and turned into a paste with a mortar and pestle

1 medium white cabbage, roughly chopped and blanched

½ English cucumber, cut into ½ inch pieces

Lemon juice

Mix all the ingredients except the cabbage and cucumber in a large bowl. Combine well (use your hands  to lightly knead it) and set aside for at least 30 minutes. The couscous will absorb the juices from the grated vegetables, swell and soften. Add more paprika if so desired (don’t salt the batırık until it is served individually). Put 4 or 5 spoonfuls in individual serving bowls and add just enough cold water to obtain a very thick soup. Top up with a few ice cubes, and serve with the blanched cabbage, cucumbers and lemon juice as desired.

Runner's Delight

I may be a novice runner but I learned pretty fast that I have to load myself with carbohydrates before my long runs to have enough energy. And what a better way to do it than with pasta? Apart from staying in shape, meeting new people and contributing to a great cause, this whole running experience has encouraged me to try out different pasta recipes. A win-win situation really!

This past weekend was a perfect example of my pasta binging: Pasta on Thursday, pasta on Friday, pasta on Saturday and on Sunday… half-marathon in Ottawa. All that pasta must have done its magic because I ran like the wind. Well, my own little breeze. I beat my personal record and it was all smiles for two hours and twenty minutes.

In honour of the wonder food that got me to the finish line, every weekend The Hungry Turk will feature a new pasta recipe. All comments are welcome and if you have your own favourite pasta recipe that you would like to share please let me know. I’m sure I will need fresh ideas pretty soon.

I’ll start off with this simple yet delicious recipe that my mom used to make. To be honest my memories of it were quite blurry at the start. All I could remember was the intense olive taste. So here is what I came up with. Loaded with green olives and tomatoes, this recipe is perfect for a casual summer dinner party among friends.

Enjoy!!!

 

Pasta Bake with Olives and Tomatoes

Serves 6

 

1 pack of spaghetti (500gr)

1 cup green olives, washed, pitted and sliced (I use olives that are already pitted and sliced, which makes this recipe very easy to prepare. Make sure to wash them to get rid of the extra salt.)

1 garlic clove, sliced thinly

6-7 ripe Roma tomatoes, sliced thickly

1½ cup grated cheese (e.g. mild cheddar, gruyere, aged mozzarella)

Extra-virgin olive oil

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add your pasta to cook. For this recipe you’re allowed to cook your pasta a little more than al dente. In the mean time, heat some olive oil on a medium pan and add the garlic. Cook the garlic until golden and add the olives. Stir for 4 to 5 minutes, and put aside. Once your spaghetti is cooked, drain it, transfer it back to the pot and toss is it with some more olive oil. Transfer half of the pasta to an appropriately sized baking tray. Layer half of the sliced tomatoes and top it up with all the olives. Add the remaining past. Layer the rest of the tomatoes and cover with grated cheese. Bake in an oven heated at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes, until the top is golden.

I can’t wait until next weekend!!

Çikın Pay

When I was in first year of undergraduate, there were many reasons why I looked forward to going back home. Sleeping in my own bed (my comfortable bed), not having to sanitize the whole bathroom before I went in, having clean dishes when I needed them and knowing that they were not used in some nasty dorm experiment, and the chicken pie. Yes, the chicken pie.

There was a set menu. It never failed. The first night was unmistakably chicken noodle soup and a steak. (I don’t know how I did without eating red meat in the UK for over a year. After a while I gave up, in defeat, and dug in. If mad cow were to get me, I’d get it back).

The chicken noodle soup was the precursor for next day’s meal: the chicken pie.

My mom knew. They all do.

 

Chicken pie is actually an oxymoron, because it has no pie in it. It’s more like a chicken hot pot. The only difference from the usual chicken hot pot is that this one is the mother of all chicken hot pots. No jokes.

Now, I know that there are some people out there who are already smiling because the chicken pie goes way back, and they were there when it all started. Those two words were the first English words that my childhood partner-in-crime and myself learned: Çikın pay.

According to family gossip, my mom got this recipe from my grandfather, who had spent time in the US as a student from the mid-1940s to early 1950s. As a young and hungry man, he had to provide for himself and learned how to cook the American way. Along with stuffed roast turkey, his pool of recipes included a dish called “chicken à la king”, which actually has pieces of white bread in it. I think chicken pie is my mom’s interpretation of this famous “chicken à la king”. But in my books, chicken pie remains the king.

It’s a foolproof way of making kids eat their peas, literally. It has chicken (duh), peas, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms and béchamel sauce. Topped with cheese, it’s every kid’s dream. At least, it was ours.

Here is the famed chicken pie recipe for your Mothers’ Day lunch.

 

Oh I forgot the most important reason: I missed my mom.

Happy Mothers’ Day!

 

Chicken Pie

Serves 8

 

1 whole happy chicken, poached & stock reserved

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 tablespoons plain flour

1½  cups hot milk

2 medium potatoes, diced

1 big or two medium carrots, diced

1½ cup green peas

10 button mushrooms, diced

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

1½ cup grated cheese (e.g. mild cheddar, gruyere, aged mozzarella)

Wash and pat dry your chicken (make sure to take the giblets out). Put it in a large stockpot and cover with cold water up to two-thirds. Cover and bring to a boil. Once the water starts boiling, turn the heat down to low and let simmer for about 30 minutes. Turn the heat off completely and let the chicken cool down in the pot while you’re preparing the rest.

Make the béchamel. This is the part that requires strong will and muscle power. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Once the butter is melted, add the flour and keep stirring (preferably with a wooden spoon) until well combined. It’s ok if the mixture crumbles. Add the first ladle of hot milk and keep stirring. Add the next ladle of milk once the first one has been absorbed completely. Keep adding ladlefuls of milk, stirring continuously and allowing each ladleful to be absorbed completely. By now you should have a very thick sauce. The aim is to have a creamy sauce. This requires about 2 cups of liquid. Make up the rest of the liquid with the chicken stock that you reserved from your poached chicken (you can freeze the rest of the chicken stock for a later use). Season with salt and pepper and keep your béchamel warm on very low hit.

Boil/steam your veggies. First put the potatoes and the carrots. A few minutes later add the mushrooms and finally the peas. Let the vegetables cook until the potatoes and carrots are tender and set aside. I personally use frozen peas and carrots (there is actually a very handy carrot and pea mix in stores).

Now, the dirty part. Shred your chicken to the bone. I know it sounds cruel, but that’s the way it’s done. Use your hands, because you want every piece of meat, no skin. From a medium size chicken you should be able to get about 3 cups of meat, if not more

Add the veggies and chicken pieces into the béchamel sauce and give it a good stir. Taste, and season if necessary. Pour the mixture in a large glass or ceramic dish and top with grated cheese. Put the pan in the oven and cook at 400°F (200°C) until the cheese turns golden, about 20 minutes.

The chicken pies goes very well with rice.

Aaaah…