Cooking at Home: Turkish
Continuing on the theme of my last post on cooking Asian food at home, I tried my hand at replicating a couple of the recipes I learned at my cooking class in Istanbul. I shouldn't have been surprised by how easy it was to get all of the ingredients in the Netherlands, given the amount of Turkish people living here. The phone company KPN, for example, specifically and exclusively calls out Turkey as one of the countries included in its calling plan.
At a store called Istanbul Market adjacent to Woenselse Markt, I found a selection of bulghur wider than one can ever imagine. Similar to the rice selection at any Asian market. I also got my dried mint and red lentils there there. But the thing is, at my local Albert Heijn XL there's a Turkish section with these items, in addition to the dried hot peppers and red pepper paste I bought there. (Side note, the ubiquitous Albert Heijn has become my go-to market for everything, and it's actually part of the company Ahold. Ahold also owns Stop & Shop and Giant supermarkets in the US, making it one of my big customers in my previous life. Albert Heijn XL is the "large" format of Albert Heijn, but XL here equals a small Kroger or Safeway or Stop & Shop in the US).
I'm happy to report that the braised green beans (Zeytinyağlıtaze fasulye) turned out perfectly. Basically you just combine green beans, chopped onion, garlic, and diced tomatoes, and braise them in water, olive oil, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt, sugar, and pepper, mixing in chopped dill at the end. Great eaten cold or at room temperature. Ezogelin çorbası, the spicy lentil and bulghur soup that I loved in Turkey also came out really well. Recipe along with the review of the Istanbul cooking class is here.
