It only seems appropriate that I post about Turkish food today as I�m headed to Istanbul this afternoon.
I know it�s only been two months since my last visit when I enjoyed my Breakfast by the Bosphorus, but I simply cannot stay away! Like a first love, Istanbul completely stole my heart when we lived there, and I miss my friends.
Funny enough, I probably have cooked more Turkish food at our home here in Warsaw than I even did in Istanbul. I no longer can call up Ali Baba and get a quick dinner delivery or stop by the kebab vendor down the street. If I want Turkish food, I best make it myself.
Sure, Warsaw is full of d�ner kebab vendors all over the city, but it�s definitely not the same. I don�t want some strange tomato or yogurt sauce in my d�ner.
I�ve always loved Turkish mezes! So a few weeks ago, I invited a new couple over for dinner and decided to make kabak yogurtlu (zucchini with yogurt), patlican salatasi (roasted eggplant with yogurt) and Turkish shakshuka/saksuka (fried eggplant with tomatoes and yogurt). Luckily, I�ve found several brands of thick Greek yogurt here that works quite well to substitute for Turkish yogurt.
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| Here are my meze dishes of patlican salatasi and kabak yogurtlu. |
I turned to three of my favorite Turkish food bloggers for my recipes and inspiration � Claudia of A Seasonal Cook in Turkey, Ilke of Ilke�s Kitchen and Ozlem of Ozlem�s Turkish Table. Luckily, I�ve met all of these lovely ladies in person when I lived in Istanbul and love reading their blogs from afar. I highly recommend checking them out for delicious Turkish recipes!
I used a combination of recipes for the shakshuka/saksuka from Ozlem and Claudia. Check out both recipes here: Fried aubergine eggplant, courgette and peppers with tomato sauce and Shakshuka Aubergine Meze.
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| Be sure to serve plenty of bread with this meze as you'll want to eat every last drop of it! |
We can find decent eggplant here in Poland so I�ve used Claudia�s recipe several times now to make my own patlican salatasi. So simple and so delicious! I use a mortar to crush my garlic with salt before mixing in with my yogurt.
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| My market haul to make to make this Turkish meal at home. |
For the third meze, I used Ilke�s recipe for kabak yogurtlu. This is another simple, but delicious recipe.
For a salad course, I made this summery Turkish tomato-pomegranate salad called gavurdagi salad. I realize we also tried this yummy salad when we were on our southeast Turkey road trip last year in Gaziantep.
Finally, for our main course, I made stuffed peppers Turkish-style�otherwise known as biber dolmasi, which is my version. I�ve made these dolmas so many times now that it�s easy enough to make vegetarian versions as well as differently spiced ones depending on what I have at home.
Looks like no matter, where I live, I�ll always find a way to make some of my favorite Turkish recipes too.
Smacznego!