A taste of Turkey

By EWAN MCDONAlD

In the first of a new series, we focus on the food from this week's featured nation, Turkey.


Kiwi blokes have so much to thank Turkish cooks for. Where would the backyard barbie be without kebabs?

Funny, then, that the foodie's bible, Larousse Gastronomique, is rather sniffy about Turkish cooking. Because of the country's long subjugation to the Greeks, there is no such thing as Turkish cuisine, it declares.

Elizabeth David, the English writer-cook who made a lifelong study of Mediterranean food, comes from the other side of the kitchen.

Talking of souvlaki or lamb kebabs, something you'll find on most Down Under grills, she declares: "Exquisitely simple, they are in fact of Turkish origin, like many Greek dishes, although the Greeks do not always care to admit it."

Well, that's what you get for being at the crossroads of two continents and quite a few more cultures - arguments over who cooked what first.

Most of the food that has become familiar to western tastes is saray, or palace, cuisine which developed in the homes of the rich during the Ottoman Empire.

Village cooking has a quite different background. There, people learned to make more with less. In many areas there's little meat, so pulses such as chickpeas are used to make it go further.

In Turkey, as in so many countries, a meal is as much about gathering and chatting as it is about the menu.

Breakfasts are familiar: bread, white cheese, honey or jam, though you can expect additions such as cold boiled eggs, tomato, cucumber, olives and sliced meat.

The usual drink is not coffee but tea (cay). In Turkey, life revolves around cay. Expect to slosh for most of your visit.

A typical lunch will be similar but it could cross over into the meal that is served at dinner-time: soup, salad, vegetable dishes, grilled meat, the fluffy rice dish of pilav that is one of the nation's great treasures, fruit or dessert.

And, of course, around afternoon tea you'll be expected to pick at the platter of goodies that has cousins all round the Med: tapas in Spain, hors d'ouevres in France, antipasti in Italy and meze in Turkey.

Meat will be cooked in ways that most of us are familiar with: kebab (cubes grilled on a skewer); doner (thin slices stacked on a vertical skewer, grilled and hacked off); kofte (meatballs); sac kavurma (stir-fried cubes of beef, usually); guvec (meat and vegetables stewed in their juices); or tandir, the woodfired clay oven that is known as a tandoor in India. Seafood is rare, despite the country's long coastline, because it's expensive and there are health worries.

Vegetables are one of the great joys of Turkish cuisine. The eggplant, known locally as patlican, is the base of most recipes. It's said that if there's a way to sneak an eggplant into a dish, then a Turk will do it.

Dessert is often fruit, often dried fruit. But any special occasion must include Turkey's famous sugar-coated and syrupy desserts. Confectioner Haci Bekir is credited with perfecting the country's best-known dish, Lokum or Turkish Delight, when he got his hands on refined sugar in the late 18th century. It was a good career move for Haci: he became chief confectioner at the Topkapi Palace and in 1777 opened a shop in Istanbul that is still keeping the family in the business and doing a roaring trade.

RECIPES:

Imam Bayildi (The Priest Fainted)

6 long eggplants

8 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 cup parsley, coarsely chopped

1 tsp sugar

3 tomatoes, diced

250ml olive oil

3 onions, finely chopped

Juice of half a lemon

Salt

Peel the eggplants lengthways in strips. Make a deep cut in each eggplant, leaving 2cm untouched at either end and without cutting through to the skin on the other side. Soak them in a large bowl of salted water for 20 minutes.

Sautaacé the onions in oil for 5 minutes. Remove the onion with a slotted spoon, leaving the residue oil in the pan. Mix onions with garlic, tomatoes, parsley, salt, sugar and lemon juice.

Drain the eggplants and fry lightly on either side. Arrange them in a large pan with the split facing up. Fill the eggplants with the onion mixture, pouring whatever is left over the top. Add 500ml water, cover eggplants with foil or wax paper and then cover the pan with a lid. Cook on medium heat for about 45 minutes or until the eggplant is tender.

Let cool in the pan. Transfer to a platter to serve.

Karniyarik is the same, except minced beef is fried up with the onions, sliced tomato is placed on top of the stuffed eggplant and the whole lot is baked for about 30 minutes in a moderate oven, rather than cooked on the stovetop. Serve hot.

Lokum [Turkish Delight]

500g sugar

600ml water

1 tsp lemon juice

2 Tbs rose water

60g corn flour

Icing sugar


Lay a piece of muslin in a tin (about 20 sq cm) and dust it with corn flour. Boil the sugar, water and lemon juice in a saucepan, stirring constantly. Stir the rose water in with the flour in a separate bowl, then slowly pour the flour into a saucepan, stirring all the while over medium heat. When the mixture thickens to jelly, pour it into the tin and let it cool. Once cool, turn it on to a bench dusted with icing sugar. Cut into squares and cover generously with more icing sugar.

If you want to add nuts or fruit, add them once you've removed the lokum from the stove.

If you can't find rose water at your supermarket, try a health-food shop or pharmacy.