Turkish Flavors for American Menus
With their heavy reliance on beans, grains, olive oil, yogurt, nuts and fresh vegetables, Turks have a naturally healthful diet. Clearly, American chefs can find much to borrow from this ancient and rich cuisine that took shape where Europe meets Asia. In this workshop, you'll learn about some of the ingredients and techniques that help define the Turkish kitchen and discover some tantalizing recipes for beans and grains.
In the Turkish Pantry
"We in the States have only the barest idea of how rich and varied Turkish food is," says Margo True, food editor at Sunset magazine. In 2005, True spent several weeks in Turkey working on stories for Saveur magazine, her former employer, and came away "knocked out" by the depth and breadth of its cuisine, she says. Turks have hundreds of ways to prepare kebabs and countless recipes for eggplant, not to mention the endless dolmas, breads and vegetable meze. It is a new frontier for American chefs in Mediterranean-inspired kitchens.
Here are just a few of the exotic flavorings and ingredients that give Turkish food its signature taste. Most of them are available online from www.kalustyans.com.
- Fenugreek: Both the leaves and seeds are used. Ana Sortun, chef of Oleana restaurant in Cambridge and author of Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean (Regan Books), describes fenugreek seeds as resembling brown gravel. Toasting releases their bittersweet caramel-like flavor. (Fenugreek is the spice in imitation maple syrup.) Use sparingly; too much can make a dish bitter. Sortun prefers the leaves, which are a little sweeter. She pounds them and uses them to season mashed potatoes, cauliflower, béchamel and feta.
- Hazelnuts: Familiar in the U.S., fo course, but underused. Turks use rich, buttery hazelnuts in their tarator, a creamy pounded-nut sauce with garlic, bread crumbs, olive oil and lemon juice or vinegar. Tarator accompanies fried, grilled or poached fish as well as with fried vegetables.
- Mahleb: The highly aromatic light-brown seeds from the kernels of a type of sour black cherry. Mahleb has a sweet, faintly floral fragrance and is used in Turkish breads and pastries. Buy whole and crush to order.
- Mastic: A resin derived from the mastic tree, it looks like rock candy and must be pulverized to use. It has a licorice-like aroma, and Turks use it to scent ice creams, custards and puddings. Wrap pounded mastic in cheesecloth and simmer in milk to extract its character.
- Red pepper: Turks use a great deal of red pepper, especially the moderately hot red pepper from Urfa in southeastern Turkey. Urfa chilies are sundried and have a smoky quality. Use with eggplant, eggs, tomato sauces, roast chicken.
- Pomegranate molasses: The concentrated juice of a sour pomegranate, pomegranate molasses adds a sweet-tart tang to marinades and dressings. As part of a basting sauce, it gives roast chicken and lamb a beautiful color and caramelized surface. It is essential to muhammara, the Turkish sweet red pepper and walnut spread.
- Roses: Turks use rose petals, rosewater and rose hips to add fragrance to many dishes. Rose petals scent sherbets, syrups and ice cream. Rosewater flavors puddings. Rose hips are made into aromatic jam to offer with toast at breakfast or use on a glaze for duck or pork.
- Yufka: Similar to phyllo, flaky sheets of yufka are still rolled by hand by older women in Turkey. Yufka is made with flour, olive oil and water has the texture of a thin flour tortilla. It is used to wrap cheese pies and Turkey's many other böreks, or filled pies.
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