So I went on holiday to Turkey and was so consumed with stuffing my face with the amazing food I didn't stop for one moment to take you any pictures of it.
Instead I'll treat you to a few holiday snaps (let's face it, no one else is going to sit through them politely).
In short, Turkish food rocks. If there's one contemporary food trend we all know about it's taking fresh simple ingredients and not dicking about with them too much, and that's what they do in Turkey.
Istanbul turned out to be an Aladdin's Cave for greedy people, and for greedy people with a sweet tooth at that. Straight off the airport bus in Taksim Square I got myself a fresh pomegranate and orange juice and some warm roasted chestnuts. I had a discussion with a Turk about why I'd bastardised the pomegranate juice with orange, and claimed it needed some sweetness. I do believe that, but I also think that because pomegranate is so damn expensive in the UK, because of its "wonderfood" properties, I thought it would be too much just to go crazy and have a straight pomegranate juice.
Our first meal was something I'd choose for my last supper. A salad of chilis, coriander and tomatoes. A plate of super sharp and salty crumbled cheese, dotted with knobs of butter, came with one of those hot thin bread things that blows up like a balloon. It's called lavas, but you'll probably get by if you ask for balloon bread. Then came a gut-droppingly hot lamb kebab, layered with slices of hot oily bread to wrap it in and a charred aubergine, sliced in half so cheese and chili could be melted into its soft flesh. Joy.
Oops - missed out the bit about our first stop at a Turkish delight store. Hated the stuff (do you remember Fry's Turkish Delight? Jesus.) until tasted the real thing a few years' back. We had rose flavour, stuff with pistachio and hazelnuts in the middle, rolled in coconut...amazing. My sweet tooth even came out in one piece of it, which was gross, but didn't stop me eating.
Anyway, presumably you're after the book and the recipes. The book is The Huzur Vadisi Cookbook. I was on a yoga holiday [insert irony here] and the food was amazing and there was a bar too, which meant that despite five hours of yoga a day I came back fatter and as alcoholic as I was when I left.
As usual, can't really be bothered to cook any of this stuff, but the fact I ate it all while out there means I know it's good.
The first good things are a few salads which can be construed as wintry:
Carrot Yoghurt salad with Tahini and Walnuts
5 medium carrots
2 tbsps olive oil
3 tbsps yoghurt
3 tbsps tahini
3 tbsps chopped walnuts
2-4 cloves garlic
salt
1 tsp red pepper flakes or paprika
Grate carrots. saute in oil with some salt. Crush garlic and add to yoghurt. Mix the yoghurt with tahini, walnuts, half the red pepper and salt with the carrots. Melt rest of pepper in a bit of butter in a pan and drizzle over as a sauce.
Beetroot and Tahini Salad
6 beets
4 cloves garlic
4 dessert spoons tahini
4 dessert spoons lemon juice
4 dessertspoons olive oil
Roast the beetroot unpeeled in the oven in a bit of oil, at 200C for 45 mins or until soft. When cool, peel and grate. Add tahini, crushed garlic, lemon juice, oil and salt to taste.
Works as a salad or dip. Should make you feel healthy as the weather turns and everyone says they got one of those " the weather's turning" colds.
There's a tasty looking recipe for meatballs in a herby lemon sauce. Can't be bothered to write it all out here, but let me know if you want it. According to this week's papers, meatballs are just the thing right now.
I did make a couple of things from here. A grilled aubergine salad with yoghurt and cigar-shaped borek. Courgette, feta and dill fritters may be next.
Aubergine salad (more of a dip) - grill 4 large aubergines until skin crisped and insides soft. They're easy to peel if you hold them under a running cold tap, grip the stem and crack th skin off. Though you will probably burn your fingers at the same time. Mix together 4 tbsps each of olive oil and lemon juice, and mash the aubs in one by one until smooth(ish). Add in 4 tbsps yoghurt mixed with 4 cloves crushed garlic and a little salt.
The borek recipe calls for round sheets of filo pastry you can cut into triangles. I was sold rectangular sheets and couldn't quite work out how to make the right shape of triangle - you really need an isoceles shaped one or, as mine did, there will be too much pastry and it will suck up too much oil.
So: mash one packet feta in a bowl. Add 1/2 bunch each finely chopped dill and parsley and one beaten egg. The idea is to place one teaspoon of the cheese mix in the middle of the bottom of the triangle then roll it up so the tip ends up on the outside. Seal with a bit of water and fry in oil for a minute or so. Even if they turn out crap (mine were too oily, but still yum), they keep kids occupied for aaaaaages.
There is lots of great stuff to buy in the Spice Market, but I went overboard on the teas, which looked delicious (rose, green with ginger, green with jasmine, a gingery wintry mix) and they are all FOUL. Bitter, disgusting and undrinkable. The sun dried darker than usual apricots are amazing though.
Oh, I forgot to mention what I didn't pick up in Turkey: a man. Actually i didn't forget, but my newsagents were most disappointed that I hadn't come back with one. I'm not sure why it's any of their business either, or where they got the idea I was on holiday shopping for a husband, but they reliably inform me they know of two women who went to Turkey and came back with a husband. Did they read about these women in Take a Break? For the past few months they have asked me every week or so whether I have found a man yet. My accountant informs me I spent £1000 in their shop last year. I suggest they watch their step.
