It’s been a great three days working with OzHarvest at their MasterChef Live! Stage. I am very happy to be one of the OzHarvest Ambassadors, since it’s a charity that is close to my heart, delivering excess food from restaurants and hotels to the needy. Here is the recipe I’ve done at the show.

Somer Sivrioglu, Efendy Restaurant

Patlican Ezme ( for 6)

Ezme is one of the most popular dishes in Turkish cuisine, that can be served as a meze ( Antep Ezme), as a salad – coarsely chopped with walnuts ( Gavurdagi), even as a cold summer soup, without the olive oil but with ice and cold water.

Most important trick in making this recipe is to chop all the ingredients with a sharp knife or Zirh ( Turkish style large mezzaluna) and never to use food processor.

Ingredients

• 2x large eggplants
• 1x large red capsicum
• 2x spring onions
• ½ bunch Italian parsley
• 1 teasp. Salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 3 tablesp. EVO oil
• 2 tablesp. Lemon juice
• 1 tablesp. Apple vinegar
• For decoration
• 2 tablesp. Pomegranate molasses
• 20 pomegranate pearls

Patlican Ezme

Method

• Pierce the eggplants wih a fork
• Smoke on the charcoal turning when blackened and until all soft
• Put in a colander to drain excess water
• When cool down, peel the skin.
• Put back in colander to rest 10 more minutes
• Cook red capsicum over open flame
• Leave until all skin burnt
• Take in to a container and seal with a stretch film
• When cool down, peel the skin under water to get all black parts out
• Chop spring onion finely
• Chop parsley finely
• Chop eggplant coarsely in to a chunky puree
• Finely dice red capsicum
• Mix all the ingredients in a deep bowl
• Add salt and pepper, EVO oil, lemon juice and apple vinegar
• Mix it all
• Take in to a service platter
• Drizzle pomegranate molasses and decorate with pomegranate pearls

Karniyarik

Karniyarik ( Lamb stuffed eggplant)

Karn?yar?k which literally translates as “split belly” is widely made and dearly loved almost in every part of Turkey. But by going over the ingredients and cooking method, I believe it’s from southeastern and eastern Mediterranean regions of Turkey. I must warn you; this is not a light dish, but it is absolutely fantastic and if you haven’t had karn?yar?k before, it will change your ideas on eggplant dishes. Enough said to advertise eggplant – Turkey’s adopted vegetable.

There are a couple things to be careful about when you’re cooking with eggplants. Buy eggplants right before you cook and pick the firmer ones; eggplants tend to get soft in the refrigerator. And for this dish, do not use huge eggplants. Try to find smaller ones.

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“ This article was published in Gourmet Rabbit Issue 1”

Turkish cuisine is considered to be one of the leading cuisines of the world due to the variety of its recipes, the use of natural ingredients, the singular flavours and tastes which appeal to all palates and the influence of Turkish cuisine throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

The roots of Turkish cuisine come from the Nomadic ages and central Asia, the first home of the Turks. The cuisine and culture evolved with the contributions from inland Asia and the Mediterranean on their arrival in Anatolia.

In a sense Turkish cuisine provides a bridge between Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines. The focus is always on enhancing the natural taste and flavour of the ingredients. No single element dominates Turkish cuisine, like sauces in French and pasta in Italian cuisines.

The Palace was the central point in the Turkish empire and chefs were brought from far and wide to cook for the royals and their guests fostering a great

hub of food and culture. While the Palace cuisine was developing in ?stanbul, local cuisines in Anatolia were multiplying in several regions, all displaying different geographical and climactic characteristics. These cuisines, after remaining within regional borders for centuries, are now being transplanted to the big cities and their suburbs as a consequence of large scale urbanisation and migration towards new urban centres. As a result, the national Turkish cuisine has been enriched by a number of local recipes. (more…)

Turkish Fried Eggs with Spicy Sucuk Sausage

Story

Sucuk

A popular egg dish commonly served for breakfast in Turkey is sucuklu yumurta , a delicious Turkish style fried eggs topped with a dry beef sausage called sucuk.

Since the early years, sucuk has already been traditionally eaten for breakfast from the Balkans to the Middle East and Central Asia. Turkish sucuk, also known as soudjouk or sujuk in other neighboring European countries, is made locally with ground beef, seasoned with a variety of spices such as garlic, cumin, sumac, salt and pepper. The sausage is then dried for several weeks making it to become hard and stiff. When sucuk is cooked, it produces a very strong appetizing smell and flavor.

Since sucuk is usually not eaten raw, the Turks usually fry it without the need for using oil. When cooked alone, it goes well when eaten with bread, cheese, olives, hard boiled eggs and slices of tomatoes and cucumbers which all make up for a typical Turkish breakfast. (more…)

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

Menemen

Ingredients – 4 Servings

8 free range eggs
2 bullhorn peppers ( or Turkish sweet chilli from Auburn)

3 tomatoes

½ red onion

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil (more…)

Ezogelin Soup

2/3 cup red lentil, washed and drained
1/3 cup rice, washed and drained
1/3 cup extra fine bulgur, washed and drained
1 onion, chopped finely
3 tbsp flour
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp butter
4-5 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp dried mint
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cups cold+6-7 cups warm water
1 tbsp salt to taste

1 tbsp chopped spring onion for decoration
Lemon wedges or lemon juice (more…)

Soups hold a significant place in Turkish cuisine. It is consumed anytime between breakfast as a quick warm meal to the wee hours of the morning as an after drink meal curing hangover. Regardless of region or wealth, every dinner at a traditional Turkish house starts with a soup.

Toyga Corba

Chorba (soup) comes from Persian language meaning salty boiling ( shorba) , shor meaning salty and ba to boil.

The accounting records of 16th and 17th century prove the variety of soups cooked in Ottoman palace kitchen, one of the most popular one being yoghurt soup. It is argued that lemon and yoghurt based soups are of Turkish origin. Lesley Chamberlain, respected British food journalist supports the argument in his books. Rice and vermicelli based soups were also quiet popular in both Ottoman palace and public kitchens.

It is established that there are 893 different soups recorded in Turkish Cuisine. Three, I would never forget.

(more…)

Cilbir

Ingredients – 4 Servings
1 clove crushed garlic
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 table spoon Aleppo red pepper ( or chilli flakes as substitute)
2 glasses of yoghurt
2 table spoon butter
8 free range eggs

Freshly chopped mint for decoration (more…)