Istanbul 2

The taxi ride into town from Attaturk Airport is only about 12 miles but the ride took over an hour. Our introduction to the horrendous traffic of Istanbul. We stayed in the new district at the Pera Palace Hotel. Most of the tourist areas are in the old town on the south side of the Golden Horn. In the late 19^th century, Greeks, Jews, and others settled to the north in an area called Pera, ‘the other side.’ The Pera Palas was built in 1892 to serve the westerner’s coming to the exotic east via the Orient Express. Agatha Christie wrote her famous novel, Murder on the Orient Express, there. 

The train landed in the old town at the still operative Sirkeci Station, but the trip to the Pera Palas used the many boats to cross the Golden Horn, maybe a ride then in the Tunnel to the top of the hill---the third oldest subway in the world (after London and New York). We used it and the Metro and the trams to get all about in the city.

Night one after the long trip found us in the Orient Bar of the Pera Palace to have a great martini. We then had mezzes at the bar for our dinner. They were the best part of every meal.

Our second night we had dinner at Istanbul 1924, formerly Rejans. After the Russian revolution, many Russians settled in Istanbul and this Russian restaurant was begun then. It is in the new town and a short walk from our hotel but we liked to have never found it. It is located up a flight of stairs off a small alley, off a short street, off the main drag, Istiklal Cadesssi. One small sign next to the door.

We were not disappointed. With period music playing we had cocktails and decided on the tasting menu: Russian styled mezze, beef Stroganoff, and the dessert! It was styled as Chocolate Faberge, a chocolate egg filled with a chocolate sponge and raspberry ice cream and topped off at the table with the waiter pouring hot vanilla custard melting the egg! It was truly an over the top dessert!

We ate most all our meals in the New District and were able to walk to all. Views are important in Istanbul and we had drinks and a meal at a bar overlooking the Bosphorus as the sun set and the lights come on.

One restaurant we liked enough to go twice was across the street from the hotel. It was called The Lemon Tree but their specialty was mezze. One could pick from a counter the number of cold mezzes and also order hot mezze. This is where I had my first Shephard’s Salad and fell in love with it and ordered it at every meal afterward. The recipe is so simple and is given below. You should add this to you salad recipes.

Another was a café that celebrated the food of Anatolia, the eastern part of Turkey. We had noticed it on several occasions and on our last night we gave it a try. Our mezze consisted of Cretan style mashed cheese with Zahter, basically a cheese mashed with thyme and rolled in sesame oil and seeds, fava bean hummus, falafel with yogurt and garlic sauce: so you can see some good stuff! 

A real treat was a cruise for 6 hours on the Bosphorus. The cruise lasted two hours going almost to the Black Sea and two hours for lunch and two hours back to Istanbul. A wonderful, beautiful sunny day and a lovely lunch by the water of fish just caught and grilled (bonita) Shepherd’s Salad, and fried mussels in a yogurt sauce, a local specialty,  for an appetizer. 

One meal we had in the Grand Bazaar began in a carpet shop and the usual chatter about where are you from? Etc. Turns out the owner knew a physician that we knew in Wilmington, NC. The carpet dealer had spent 2 weeks in the physician’s home. He then stopped the carpet sale and invited us next door to lunch as his guest. We had donner kababs (like gyros), my favorite Shepherd Salad, and we had Ayran for a refreshing drink—yogurt with water and a little salt. A favorite everywhere in Istanbul. A small world as we discussed all the people we both knew. He’ll be back in the states this winter. Maybe we will see him.

The trip was fantastic and if any of you care to venture abroad this is a terrific, easy, and dare I say safe, destination!

Shepherd’s Salad

Serves 2-4

Can use any amount of ingredients and that is the beauty of this salad. Good ripe tomatoes would be best.

Chop two cucumbers in small bites. Chop three tomatoes into small bites. Can peel and seed if you wish. Add a small pepper (hot or not) and cut into small rings. Add a handful of parsley chopped. Pour some oil, vinegar, and lemon juice over the salad (The waiters in Istanbul would come to the table with 3 cruets: oil, lemon juice, and vinegar). Toss and grind some salt over all. You can add some feta cheese over the salad if you wish. This is your salad and it is so good and simple.

Istanbul 1

We had been planning a trip to Istanbul for several years and finally got there. Most Americans do not travel there but is has always held a fascination for us and we were not disappointed.

Istanbul is the crossroads of civilizations, where Europe meets Asia, and where West meets East. Truly one of the world’s historic cities, Istanbul was once called Constantinople, named for the fourth-century roman Emperor Constantine the Great. Over the centuries, the city has been the capital of two grand empires. The Byzantine Empire was born here in the fourth century A.D. and lasted until the 15^th century, when the Ottoman Empire took over, ruling through the end of World War I. Even though Turkey isn’t actually governed from Istanbul (Ankara, in the east, is the official capital), the city remains the historical, cultural, and financial center of the country.

Istanbul has almost 15 million people and sprawls over an enormous area on both banks of the Bosphorus Strait. The Bosphorus runs north to south (from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara) through the middle of Istanbul, splitting the city in half and causing it to straddle two continents: Asia and Europe. Asian Istanbul (east of the Bosphorus) is mostly residential, while European Istanbul (west of the Bosphorus) is densely urban and contains virtually all the city’s main attractions.

We were so impressed with the enormous amount of people at the major attractions. It was a sea of people everywhere we went. You had to wait in line for a long time to get your entrance tickets. I decided Istanbul was not for the faint of heart!

The major attractions which we did not miss were The Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, and the Grand Bazaar. Hagia Sophia impressed with its age and history. It was a Christian church for almost a 1000 years, built by Emperor Justinian in A.D. 532. When the Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror converted it into an imperial mosque and it remained Istanbul’s most important mosque for five centuries. It was converted into a museum in the 20^th century by Attaturk and the new Turkish Republic. Unfortunately one’s experience there and at the Blue Mosque (1609) is marred by the fact that a lot of the grand architecture is covered with scaffolding and screens as they are being restored, and by the huge crowds. Lines everywhere. We much more enjoyed the Mosque of Sulieyman the Magnificent (1557) which equals the Blue Mosque in size, architecture and design and it has been restored and has no scaffolding to mar the spaces and there are fewer visitors. One author calls it the finest mosque in Istanbul and one of the finest in all of Islam.

Topkapi Palace, built in the 1470’s, served as the sole administrative palace for the Ottoman Sultans for more than 400 years until a new European-style palace was built on the Bosphorus in the mid-19^th century and is now an impressive museum with impressive collections. The ancient trees in the courtyards appear to have been planted when it was built.

The Grand Bazaar, dating from the Byzantine era is the world’s oldest shopping mall. And with Its 4,000 shops which have everything you can imagine, it is certainly one of the largest. One needs a map if you are looking for something. It is great to just wander but you may need that map to get out. Certainly you can ask directions but beware engaging the merchants in conversation!

I loved the displays of Turkish delights or sweets. They use lots of honey, nuts, rose scented jellies, and the displays are out of this world. It just makes you want to try some. I did bring back some delights for my choir members and they loved them.

The typical Turkish breakfast consists of three cheeses, some cold meats, honey, olives, raisins, cucumbers and some bread. It is very filling and I could only eat it for one morning. My husband ate the Turkish egg dish called menemen every morning. It is delicious and consists of tomatoes, chilies, and eggs. Recipe below. We never had the Turkish coffee or tea that was offered everywhere. Just stuck to the Americano coffee offered at the restaurants.

I was so impressed with the beautiful looking fruit and vegetable stands. Wonderful tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and corn could be found. There were stands all over the city selling roasted corn on the cob for 3 Turkish lira, about 50 cents. More about Turkish food next week.

 

From the cookbook, Istanbul & Beyond: Exploring the Diverse Cuisines of Turkey, by Robyn Eckhardt.

Eggs in a Chunky Tomato and Pepper Sauce, Menemen

Serves 2

3 tablespoons oil or unsalted butter, or a combination

2 or 3 mild green chilies such as Anaheim or Holland, seeded and sliced crosswise into 1-inch pieces, or 1 medium green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 small-medium onion, halved top to bottom and sliced crosswise into ½-inch thick slices

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

½ teaspoon dried oregano or thyme, crushed or 1 heaping tablespoon fresh oregano leaves, coarsely chopped

2 medium-large ripe tomatoes, peeled if you like, coarsely chopped (1 to 1 ¼ cups)

Freshly ground black pepper

2 to 4 teaspoons tomato paste (optional)

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

Turkish or regular crushed red pepper flakes

Heat the olive oil and/or butter in an 8-inch skillet over medium-low heat. Add the chilies or bell pepper and onion, sprinkle over the salt, and stir. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan, and sweat the vegetables until they soften, about 5 minutes. Do not brown.

Add the dried oregano or thyme, if using, and the tomatoes. Grind over a little black pepper and cook until the tomatoes release their juices and start to soften, about 3 minutes. If your tomatoes have released a lot of juice, stir in 2 teaspoons tomato paste (you can add more right before adding the eggs if need be). Cook for a few minutes, until the tomatoes are soft but still hold their shape. Stir in the fresh oregano now, if using. The contents of the pan should be saucy but not watery. Add up to 2 more teaspoons tomato paste, to thicken.

Stir the beaten eggs into the sauce and raise the heat to medium-low and cook until the eggs are incorporated into the sauce about 2 minutes.

Sprinkle over red pepper flakes and serve immediately. Delicious!

Hurricane Food

Florence was a Cat 4, maybe it would be a 5? We spent all day Wednesday preparing: secure the shutters, remove porch furniture, go to the grocery to get food. We have a gas stove and hot water so we bought some things that we could cook before they would go bad without a refrigerator. And we got the stuff that we did not need to refrigerate.

One also wants to keep up with what is going on during the storm. We went shopping for radio batteries. That took a couple of stops but we got 2 radios going and three flashlights. We had candles and matches, but the matches were so damp with humidity that we should have had a lighter. And we needed something to light the stove. Next time. Candles don’t provide much light. Our ancestors had a darker world.

We also needed to board up the beach house. It is ocean front on Wrightsville Beach, the ultimate location of the landfall of Florence. We have plywood precut for the windows and doors on the ocean side. We moved some stuff out of the storage area under the house (that had totally gone in Fran in ’96). We moved all the furniture off the porch (the waves had covered the first level in Fran). We put some things on the second floor. We took out the art work that was important to us.

Thursday morning---wait. We took a walk downtown in Wilmington. Anderson Cooper was in town. They took our name to call us during the storm (they didn’t). The winds and rain started Thursday afternoon. The middle of the night was the worst. The shutters were blowing off the north side. The front door blew open breaking the latch and blew the pictures off the piano and wet the entrance. Our alarm notified us and we got there fairly soon and managed to close it. I listened to the radio a good portion of the night. The eyewall hit Wrightsville Beach (about 10 miles east of Wilmington and our house) at 7:15 Friday morning. We still had electricity so made coffee and had eggs and toast for breakfast. Then the power went out.

By daylight we could see the many limbs down and the huge oak that lay across our historic iron fence and front yard. The wind and rain continued off and on as the bands of the storm passed. The storm had come in as a Cat I. Then after hitting land it slowed to a 2 mph forward speed. Sunday morning it was still going---day 4.

I began to lose track of the days by that time. We did get power back fairly soon and that is always a really positive time. Some friends didn’t get theirs for a few more days.

Over several days many came to our front door wanting to take down the huge oak in our front yard. The tree was on the city right of way and I wanted to see what the city would do. I knew it would not be soon. Then one afternoon someone knocked. My husband was trying to access the beach to see when they would reopen. I couldn’t open the front door. He yelled it’s just someone about the tree, but he finally came and pulled the door open. There was a young man who wanted to take the tree down. Free! This was a group from Atlanta who regularly did this after storms. They came with dump trucks, back-hoes, graders, chippers, chainsaws---ready to roll. They had just come to town through high water since the town was technically cut off from the outside by road due to flooding. They saw this as the biggest tree they had ever done. It was a little while before they could get all their trucks together. After opening a van loaded with water and food, they had a prayer and a meal and started. It was six men for two days but they cleaned it all up, down to raking the lawn. The fence was destroyed but a huge mess had been cleared.

I needed a tarp(s) for the roof of the beach house and was unable to buy any. The federal government was opening three distribution centers; one of them downtown. I drove down and got in line. It was moving fairly fast. I said I needed 2 tarps only. Our orders: “You get one case water, one case of MRE’s, and one tarp,” and they loaded them. Our government at work. My husband saw an old couple pulling a cart with their supplies. He gave them the MRE’s. After lunch he decided to go through the line again to get another tarp. He got the water and MRE’s again----but they were out of tarps!

Compared to many we were lucky. We got our beach house tarped (borrowed from a friend) and set our loyal carpenter to work on our other problems which included two ceilings down, some windows out, buckled floors, etc. Now to get out of town and back to Mississippi with so many roads out due to flooding. We got word that there was a road just opened south to Myrtle Beach and then to Florence---only about an hour out of the way. I was afraid we would have to go north to Virginia and then back south and west.

For a non-cook, this beans and tuna dish is a good meal. I call it my hurricane beans and tuna and sometimes we eat it just because we like it.

Hurricane Beans and Tuna

For 2

1 can 15.5 oz. Cannellini Beans (white kidney beans)

1 can 12 oz. solid white albacore tuna (in water or vegetable oil)

Chopped red onion (about ½ cup)

Red pepper flakes

Basil (if you have any)

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

Drain beans and rinse and divide into two bowls. Drain tuna and divide into bowls with beans. Add your chopped red onions equally and use whatever amount of salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to your desire. Any available herbs can also be used such as basil, thyme or oregano, but during a hurricane they may be hard to fine (unless you have your herbs in a close by herb garden). HA! Drizzle olive oil over beans and tuna. Add the vinegar over the tuna. Delish!

Though my husband decried the MRE’s. I had to try them. Well, you have to be really hungry so I did not actually eat one but ate a cookie (dry) and some gummy candy! I looked at the sodium content and carbs and that was enough to turn me away. But I have a supply of 12 meals and I am sure they will still be ready to eat for the next hurricane.

My husband has to have his coffee in the morning. So we boiled water and poured it into the coffee maker. It worked quite well.

Next time get batteries and tarps early on. And a lighter for the candles and gas. Batten those shutters down better.

Secrets of the Southern Table

I received a very nice cookbook from Michele a few months ago and decided it was time to cook from it. Secrets of the Southern Table, by Virginia Willis was totally unknown to me but the book is really good reading and beautifully photographed. Ms. Willis is a chef, and an award-winning cookbook author, and her recipes really vary from good Southern recipes to some really diverse recipes from Thailand and China. I really like that kind of cookbook where one can mesh Southern with other cultures. She calls the book “a food lover’s tour of the global south”.

In two weeks I am going to prepare her black pepper biscuits with ham and Moravian sugar cake for coffee hour at church. Bur recently I tried her chicken larb with Georgia peanuts. I just love larb, a Southeast Asian salad from Laos and Thailand. The South isn’t known for its Thai food, but a family from Atlanta is developing an outsize reputation for this cuisine. Charlie and Nan Niyomkul own Nan Thai Fine Dining and Tamarind Seed Thai Bistro; their daughter Dee Dee and her husband opened Tuk Tuk rated as one of the top Thai restaurants in the United States. You don’t have to use Georgia peanuts in this recipe since I know Alabama has good peanuts. But as Ms. Willis shows in her book, you can use Southern products in very international recipes.

This is a really good dish. Lots of flavor and low in calories.

 

Chicken Larb with Georgia Peanuts

Serves 4-6

1 pound ground chicken or turkey

2 cups cold water, more if needed

2 cups fresh mint leaves, washed and dried

1 cup fresh cilantro leaves, washed and dried

¾ cup unsalted roasted peanuts

Juice of 2 limes

3 tablespoons fish sauce

2 Thai red chilies, or to taste, seeded and finely chopped

2 shallots, very thinly sliced (about ½ cup)

3 green onions, chopped

1 cup carrot matchsticks, or 3 carrots, grated

¼ cup finely chopped fresh ginger

1 head cabbage, cored, leaves separated

Place the chicken in a small saucepan. Add cold water to cover (about 2 cups). Bring to a (boil and then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. Cook gently, breaking up the chicken with a wooden spoon as it cooks, until the chicken is opaque, 5 to 7 minutes. (Skim the foam that rises to the top while cooking. It’s simply coagulated protein and doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with the chicken.)

Remove the chicken from the heat and drain well. Reserving the cooking liquid for another use. (You can use it as a light stock to cook with or even season it and sip it.) Transfer the well-drained chicken to a medium bowl and set aside to cool just slightly.

Add the mint, cilantro, peanuts, lime juice, fish sauce, chilies, shallots, green onions, carrot, and finger. Stir to combine. To serve, spoon a few tablespoons or so of the larb into a cabbage leaf, fold the cabbage somewhat like a taco, and eat.

San Miguel

San Miguel is a Spanish colonial town in Mexico begun in 1542. It had a prosperous period when Spain was mining silver. It was very important in the rebellion from Spain as the revolution began there in 1810 by Ignacio Allende and the town of San Miguel el Grande was renamed. Its historic colonial centro was declared a national monument by the Mexican government in 1926.

In 1938 artists began to arrive in the small town. Stirling Dickinson of Chicago became the first art director of a new school and he lured a few American students down to study. His efforts got a boost when the GI bill accredited the school for US veterans in 1946. Since those days, San Miguel de Allende has continued to build its reputation as an artist community. Today, expatriates compose an estimated 10 percent of the town’s population.

It is a charming, walkable, colonial town located in the mountains so the temperature is also more inviting.

We had booked a great colonial style B&B, Antigua Capilla, which we would recommend. Drinks on the roof at sunset were especially memorable.

 

We also had to check out Hotel Matilda.

 

We are familiar with Matilda Stream who has a home on Esplanade in New Orleans which used to contain an exceptional collection of Fabergé Eggs which are now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. We have also been privileged to see her art collection which includes several Diego Rivera’s. It seems her aunt, Matilda Grey, was an artist who studied with Diego Rivera. One painting he did of Matilda Stream hangs in New Orleans. Another known as ‘The Archer’ hangs in Hotel Matilda in San Miguel, owned by her son Harold Stream III, better known as ‘Spook’ as he was born on Halloween. A 1972 Mexican law made works of Rivera, national treasures. The Rockefeller family’s painting, ‘The Rivals’ by Rivera recently sold for 9.7 million. Another on Antiques Road Show ‘El Albañil’ was estimated at 1.2—2.2 million.

The Hotel Matilda is a modern luxury hotel in El Centro. We went to have a drink at the bar but wound up having lunch at their poolside restaurant. And we saw the painting and chatted with the manager about it and the others the Stream’s own.

Nopales, the pads of the prickly pear cactus, is a popular vegetable throughout Mexico and abundant in the highlands around San Miguel. It is used to stuff gorditas (thick corn flatbreads) and chopped with garbanzo beans and cilantro in a tasty stew. It is also served as a grilled side dish and chopped in salads.

We ate around town but decided the best Mexican restaurant was El Correo where we were directed the first night and we returned our last night. It was here we had our nopal stew. Our best meal was a Moroccan mezze at Casa Blanca.

Our major takeaway as far as food is concerned from San Miguel was the use of nopales in salads. They can be found now in jars where they are chopped and cooked. They are easy to find in Mexican groceries and some large supermarkets.

This salad is delicious and nutritious, but if you cannot find nopales you can substitute green beans.

 

Cactus Salad Recipe

Serves 4

1 fresh tomato

1 small white or purple onion

2 cups finely chopped, cooked nopales

½ cup finely chopped cilantro (leaves and stems)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons lime juice (freshly squeezed)

1 tablespoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon salt

Garnish: crumbled Queso fresco cheese, thinly sliced onion, sliced avocado

Chop the tomato and onion into small pieces.

Pour the canned napoles into a strainer to drain. Rinse them under running water until the jar liquid is washed off. Leave the napoles in long strips (if that’s how they came), or chop into pieces of about the same size as the tomato and onions, as you prefer.

In a large glass, ceramic, or stainless steel bowl, toss together the tomato, onion, nopales, and finely chopped cilantro.

Place the olive oil, lime juice, oregano, and salt into a small jar with the lid on. Shake vigorously until the mixture comes together. Pour this dressing over the salad and toss again, gently but thoroughly.

Cover the bowl and refrigerate your salad for at least an hour and up to 24 hours for the flavors to meld.

Shortly before serving your cactus salad, place it in a nice serving dish or individual salad plates and decorate with crumbled cheese, onions, and a sliced avocado.

 

 

Yelapa-Style Banana Pie

The Mexican meal last week needed a dessert so I chose another recipe from the ‘Food and Wine’ Issue on Mexico. 

This dessert was a lot like banana pudding with a crust. So, that is not bad.

Yelapa, a tiny beach community about, 45 minutes from Puerto Vallarta via water taxi, is known for its tropical pies. The sturdy crust for this pie has some salt and has a short-bread like taste because the pie can be eaten while sunbathing, with no utensils around. So if you want a banana pudding on your next picnic, choose this and you don’t need utensils.

The pie was loved by all the guests and was easy to prepare in the morning and I served it cold out of the fridge. On a hot night that just seemed appropriate. Enjoy!

 

From August 2018 issue of ‘Food and Wine’ Magazine.

Pay de Plátano de Yelapa (Yelapa-Style Banana Pie)

Serves 8

2 cups all-purpose flour (about 8 ½ oz.)

½ tsp. fine sea salt, divided

1/3 cup salted butter (2 2/3 oz.)

1/3 cup vegetable shortening

¼ cup water

3 large bananas (about 1 lb.), cut diagonally into 1/3-inch thick slices

2 large eggs, at room temperature

¾ cup whole milk

½ cup sweetened condensed milk

1 vanilla bean pod, split lengthwise, seeds scraped (very expensive and getting rarer) You can use real vanilla extract.

¼ cup granulated sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Whisk together flour and ¼ teaspoon salt in a medium bowl, and make a well in the center. Set aside.

Combine butter, shortening, and ¼ cup water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-high, stirring constantly, just until butter and shortening are melted, about 2 minutes. Bring to a gentle simmer, and cook 30 seconds to 1 minute. Pour butter mixture into well in center of flour mixture. Working quickly, use a rubber spatula to stir mixture until a shaggy dough forms. Transfer dough to a clean surface, and knead until smooth, about 1 minute.

Place dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper, and roll into a 12-inch (1/4-inch-thick) circle. Remove top sheet of parchment; discard. Use bottom sheet of parchment o lift up dough circle, and carefully flip dough over into a 9 ½-inchdeep dish pie plate. Remove and discard parchment. Patch tears in dough, if needed. Line pie dough with parchment; and fill with pie weights.

Bake in a preheated oven until crust is set, about 18 minutes. Remove pie weights and parchment, and continue baking, pricking crust with a fork to deflate bubbles if needed, until crust is lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Transfer pie crust to a wire rack to cool completely, about 45 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 325°f. Line piecrust with banana slices. Whisk eggs in a medium bowl until completely blended. Add milk, condensed milk, vanilla bean seeds (or extract), and remaining ¼ teaspoon salt; whisk until combined. Carefully pour milk mixture over bananas. Bake at 325°F until edges are set and center is slightly jiggly, 45 to 50 minutes. (Banana slices will rise to top during baking.) Transfer pie to wire rack to cool.

If desired, sprinkle sugar evenly over top of pie. Using a kitchen torch, caramelize sugar. Serve immediately or chill overnight.