Go to Turkey!

Summer is coming in this part of the world, and “go to Turkey ad” is being shown on telly at nights.

It’s good, I mean let’s go to Turkey. It’s warm, it’s one of the most hospitable countries, it’s sunny, it has lots of ancient places to see, it has many different dishes to taste, it has plenty of clean and stunning beaches to lie down and rest, it is turquoise, and it is the one country in the world connecting two continents and different cultures.

Let’s go to Turkey, but do not spend whole your days in the hotels all inclusive, spare a few days to explore some local restaurants & food and locality. Don’t be afraid of the people, they’re really hospitable mostly; of course a few of them could try to cheat you, but nowadays which country is safe 100% ? If you are respectful to their traditions, places and beliefs, be sure they’re going to be helpful and regardful to you, too.

If you like the beach and sea holiday, go south where you wouldn’t want to get out of turquoise coloured sea. If you want to see some history plus the others go west, where you’ll be surprised to see that such thousand years of history can still be erected. If you don’t like swimming, but love history and night life, go to Istanbul, you won’t be regretful never ever. If you prefer to stay away from hot, go north rainy, cool, mountainous and green Karadeniz, where you’d be full of drinking tea, eating nuts and seeing stunning views. If you want hot days and cool nights, but dislike seaside go to Kapadokya, where peri bacalari (fairy chimneys) are waiting for you magnificently. If you want to have a gastro holiday, don’t miss Gaziantep, where you’ll find the best kebabs and baklava in the world.

Have a go, if you haven’t before… Go again; surely you missed some of them…

Ispanaklı Börek (Pastry with Spinach)

I wasn't well last week, so I couldn't go to the office and stayed at home. Then I was bored because of sitting useless, and I realized that I had some yufka in the fridge which I had spared for later use.

For this delicious pastry, you need spinach, cheese, 3 pieces of yufka (thin sheet of dough), some liquid oil, 2 eggs, a glass of milk, sesame, black seed, salt and ground pepper.

You can use frozen spinach balls, and if you are looking for a yufka, you should visit one of the Turkish Food Centres or this kind of small corner shops.

After you washed spinach and chopped it into small pieces, put it in a pan with a spoon of water and wait until they cook them for 10 minutes. Add plenty of cheese, salt and ground pepper. Then mix them well. In the meantime prepare a mixture with an egg, a glass of oil and a glass of milk. On the other hand, lay the one piece of yufka on the oiled cooking tray and pour some liquid mixture to make it wet.

Tear the other 2 yufka and put some on the first layer, wet again. Place the spinach with cheese so that it will be in the center of yufka layers. Put the other yufka pieces and wet them again with the mixture. On the top close the first layer of yufka and wet again. Spread yolk over the top layer of yufka. Scatter some sesame & black seed. You can cut the pastry into different pieces as well.

Place in the oven 180 C degree, and wait about 30-40 minutes, until it becomes fried. Check the bottom of börek to see whether it has cooked well. Bone apatite!

If I cook...

For the recipe; we picked peppers, some of greens, courgettes and tomatoes in the farm by ourselves. So the taste of meal was a different than the usual ones.

Dolma (Stuffed pepper)

Ingredients; onion, rice, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, ground pepper, dried mint, fresh mint, parsley, dill and peppers.

First chop the onion smallish and put them in a saucepan with 3-4 tsp olive oil. Fry until it becomes pink and add rice. (1 normal pepper needs 2 fully tsp rice) Roast them about 5 min by dry heat over a fire.
Then add 1 or 0.5 lemon's juice (depends on the amount of rice and your capacity for sour) and hot water (a glass of rice needs a half glass of hot water), salt, ground pepper and dried mint. Turn the fire to a low heat and leave them until water is absorbed.
Meanwhile, chop the fresh mint, parsley and dill. Cut the head of peppers and take out the seeds carefully. Don't damage the peppers.
After water is absorbed, turn the heat off and add greens: mint, parsley, dill and mix them. Wait until the mixture becomes warm, next fill the peppers with mixed rice and put them to a new saucepan. Add some water and olive oil to prevent burning, put a lid on the pan and cook about 30 min. Check the rice if they aren't soft enough to eat you should cook a bit more. Wait for it to cool down and try to eat with yogurt.

Bon appetite! (Afiyet olsun)

* You can try dolma with tomatoes, eggplants/aubergines or courgettes instead of peppers.
** tsp : table spoon

Pick Your Own!

I hadn't heard before the name of Hewitt's Farm, the place where we picked our own vegetables to buy and ate deliciously fresh fruit.

One Sunday morning we took a deliberate decision to indulge in a little nostalgia, like the times when we were children. Once upon a time my grandmother used to raise her vegetables and fruit in her garden. Although she still is, now it's not as well-kept as it was some years ago. We used to climb up the fruit trees such as plum, fig, almond, cherry and especially mulberry. The fruit on the lower branches were consumed first, the children of neighbours and I had a competition about picking up fruit, and a minute later we had really colourful face and sticky hands.Two months ago we had a craving for inartificial red tomatoes, so we made some investigations which gave us an idea where we to find those. In a relatively short time we got on our pink car towards Orpington, to Hewitt's Farm!

At first sight, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a really huge farm, and it was a really hot sunny day in London. We entered covetously in the farm area and picked lots of kinds of beans, spring onions, cauliflowers, cabbages and then we saw blackberries and raspberries. They were delicious, and soon we were really got tired of eating them. After that we sat under the apple trees, and tasted immature apples and plums. They needed some time to be picked.

It's not possible to forget the enormous corn field, but they're also still babies to have a go. There is an area for the picnic and barbecue as well. Lots of people were enjoying fresh products of the farm, sun, and nice Sunday.

In the exit area we found our red and fresh smelling tomatoes. There was a long queue at the cashier and fruit stalls along the way, so I had some time to choose any other greens which I forgot to pick.
At home I cooked my fresh vegetables, and prepared green salad with my red tomatoes. After dinner we ate the best tasting fruit in the UK. All of them delicious. Now I am waiting for the mature corns impatiently, and also next year's strawberries, too.

Is It Easy To Make A Bread?

I am always delighted to smell freshly baked bread. In my last holiday, I insisted my grandmother & my mother to make a bread all together. They both love me and fresh bread a lot. Which one do they like the most, me or bread ? I don't know, but I ate and smelled a lot.















First of all, my grandmother prepared dough using water, flour, yeast and salt. She knead all of them, and then let dough for rest and rise about an hour.

In the mean time the men of the house were collecting some wood for the fire. There is an old fireplace in my grandmother's house to cook bread, meat or pastry, such as börek, sura.

After they started the fire we waited until the oven cooled down to a temperature suitable for baking. The heat of hot bricks and base does all the work.

While waiting my mother started to give shape to dough as a round bread. She placed them in a big tray to put into the fireplace. My sister and I worked as helpers, and sprinkled some sesame and rose balls on the top of breads.














Now it was time for the trays to be put into the fireplace. One by one we placed them. It was really hot near the fire, so we let brawny men to do it.















Now we had to wait patiently. Three generation were together and we dressed our traditional scarfs to prevent our hair from falling down into dough. It would not be a good thing to eat hair in my meal.




















At the end we reached our goal. There were some fresh and deliciously smelling breads on the table. Some of them were burnt a bit, but it was men's fault. They couldn't manage the fire well. Despite of some burns, of course we were ready to eat like a wolf.

Have I learned to make a bread? I don't think so. Next time I am going to insist them again to make more bread.

Holiday and I

I am going to holiday this Saturday; to Turkey, to Bodrum, to Kusadasi, to Istanbul, to Antalya, to Izmir, to Burhaniye (Ayvalik)...

I have 3 weeks to spend my holiday in Turkey, so the more I get around the more I will be happy. I will have sunbathe, swim, see the people who I really miss, eat Turkish food; dolma, sarma, baklava, zeytinyagli fasulye, cacik, kizartma, borek, manti, fish...

I am doing some shopping for my family and friends nowadays. I am sure that they are waiting for some presents from me. I know, because when I was a child, I used to take presents from my relatives if they turned back from abroad or another city. Also, I am still keeping some of their presents as a remembrance.

I must have rest and relax enough on holiday because as soon as I turn back to London, I am going to start my new job. So, I am a bit excited and I am happy, too.

I must go now. I will make my luggage :)

English English...

I decided to write in English from now on.

I read a report in Hurriyet today, about "Why Turks don't learn a foreign language?" The reporter says that teachers don't let the students communicate each other in English. They just teach grammar, so students don't practice and speak.

I think, the reporter is right. When I was a student, our teacher always speak to us in English, but she didn't allow to talk. We used to listen to her and write down. I can remember just numbers, days and colours from those days. On the other hand I studied at a local secondary school. I'm sure this education system is different at private schools and colleges.

But if we don't pass the private school's exams, or our parents don't have enough money to send us to the colleges can't we learn proper English or have a dream of being an English teacher? At last we'll hate English language like me.

I studied vastly different grammar when I was in Turkey, and I felt that I know nothing about speaking English when I came to England. It was really hard for me to understand people and speak to them. As quickly as I could I found a college to learn English again. My friends in the class were from various countries and some of them were able to speak very well, but they couldn't write or read. Other Turkish students and I could write and read pretty well, but I could't understand and speak to anybody. Also I was shy and I didn't want to say something wrongly because I felt so ashamed of myself for making mistakes. I bet the other Turks were the same situaton with me.

It didn't change so much from those days. I still avoid to speak to other people unless I have to do.

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