Turkish Coffee with Turkish Delight

I grew up in 70’s in Istanbul in the midst of transition from traditional to modern lifestyle.

I still remember grandmas devotion to make perfect Turkish Coffee traditional way, over burnt charcoal slowly cooking for more than 15 minutes, while regularly removing the ‘cezve’ the traditional copper pot- from the coals to prevent coffee to overcook.

Those days, a prospective wife was judged by the taste of her coffee making skills, that shows not only the technique but more importantly one’s patience.

For seasoned Turkish coffee drinkers it is not hard to tell the difference between a properly made Turkish coffee and one prepared the way cheap restaurants would do, basically boiling the coffee quickly, degrading thus the taste and producing little if any froth that needs to cover the cup of coffee.

Although to this day there are still a few people who either do or at least know the days when coffee was heated on charcoal, for all practical purposes modern electric or gas stove tops became the heating equipment of choice.

Turkish coffee is made by pulverizing freshly-roasted medium-roast beans in a mortar and pestle, or grinding them extra fine in a cylindrical brass coffee mill (kahve degirmeni).

To make Turkish coffee:

1. Pour in cold water in the coffee pot. You should use one cup of cold water for each cup you are making and then add an extra half cup “for the pot”. Add a teaspoonful of the ground Turkish coffee per cup in the water while the water is cold and stir. The amount of coffee may be varied to taste, but do not forget, there will be a thick layer of coffee grounds left at the bottom of your cup for properly made Turkish coffee. Don’t fill the pot too much. If you need to add sugar this is the time to do it.

2. Heat the pot as slowly as you can. The slower the heat the better it is. Make sure you watch it to prevent overflowing when the coffee boils.

3. When the water boils pour some (not all) of the coffee equally between the cups, filling each cup about a quarter to a third of the way. This will make sure that everybody gets a fair share of the foam forming on top of the pot, without which coffee loses much of its taste. Continue heating until coffee boils again (which will be very short now that it has already boiled). Then distribute the rest of the coffee between the cups.

Since there is no filtering of coffee at any time during this process, you should wait for a few minutes before drinking your delicious Turkish coffee while the coffee grounds settle at the bottom of the cup.

Here’s how to order ‘Türk Kahvesi’ when you’re in Turkey:

Sade (sah-DEH) – plain, no sugar (fairly bitter)

Az sekerli (AHZ sheh-kehr-lee)- w. a little sugar (takes off the bitter edge; less than a teasp. per cup)

Orta sekerli (ohr-TAH sheh-kehr-lee) – with medium sugar (sweetish; about a teaspoon of sugar for each cup)

Sekerli (CHOK sheh-kehr-lee) – with lots of sugar (quite sweet; two teaspoons of sugar or more)

Midye Tava with Tarator Sauce

Beer-battered Mussels with Walnut Sauce

Serves 6 as part of a meze

1. 30 blue mussels, scrubbed
2. 1½ cups plain flour
3. 165ml lager beer
4. 1 egg, separated
5. Vegetable oil, for shallow-frying
6. Salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
7. Tarator, for serving (recipe follows)

• Place mussels in a bowl and cover with boiling water.
• Using a blunt knife (such as a butter knife), along the broad edge, open shells and remove mussles. Snip off the beards and place on paper towel to drain.
• Place ½ cup of the flour in a bowl, pour in beer and egg yolk and mix well.
• Whisk egg white until it forms soft peaks and fold into the flour mixture.
• Heat oil in a frying pan.
• Add salt and pepper to remaining flour.
• Toss mussels in flour, shaking off any excess, then dip in the batter.
• Lower carefully into the oil, in batches, fry for a minute or so, until dark golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towel. Serve with Tarator.

Tarator – Walnut Sauce

1. 3 slices day-old white sandwich bread, crusts removed
2. 100ml milk
3. 1½ cups shelled walnuts
4. 2 cloves garlic, peeled (see notes)
5. 1 teaspoon salt flakes
6. ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
7. 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
8. 1 lemon, juice strained

• Soak bread in milk for 5 minutes, then squeeze to remove excess liquid.
• Finely chop walnuts in a food processor then place in a bowl.
• Add bread and knead to combine.
• Place garlic and salt in a mortar and crush with a pestle to form a fine paste.
• Stir oil, vinegar, lemon juice and crushed garlic into the walnut mixture.
• Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour; return to room temperature and stir well before serving (as it may separate). If refrigerating overnight, mix in a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to loosen it up before serving.

Notes: If you don’t like the taste of raw garlic, roast it at 200°C for about 5 minutes, or use finely chopped garlic scapes (or shoots) when in season. Mix in a drizzle of olive oil before serving if refrigerating overnight.

Narli Ordek

Ingredients

For the duck

2 pcs of Duck Maryland

Duck fat

100 ml. Pomegranate molasses

cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg

For the sauce

200ml. Tawny port

20 x pomegranate seeds

5x sour dried plums

Method

1. Put the duck marylands into a deep oven tray and cover with duck fat and 100ml. Pomegranate molasses
2. Add cinnamon sticks, star anise and nutmeg
3. Cook in an oven, at 120 degrees 4 to 4and1/2 hours ( depending on the oven)
4. Meanwhile, glaze the pomegranates and unseeded sour plums with port and pomegranate molasses
5. Add duck legs in to the glaze adding a spoon of duck fat to give a shiny finish
6. Cook for 30 minutes.
7. Serve over blanched greens of snake beans, broccoli and/or asparagus