Turkish Delight

                                          

Two years ago, a friend and fellow foodie visited Turkey and brought back lots of edible treats for me to try.  This started my interest in Turkish food.  My favorite Turkish food is manti.  It's a tiny dumpling filled with a spicy meat mixture.  I buy it frozen; it cooks in two minutes and is delicious when I need something quick to eat. There are two sources of manti in the city; there were three but the third was a restaurant that closed last year. I've had a hankering for manti recently and on two dark winter evenings, my friend and I ventured out to two Turkish grocery stores in the city. The first was located in the downtown area but the second was in deepest suburbia. Sadly there was no manti in the two stores but we found other wonderful Turkish foods.  In the first store, we sampled the Turkish olives. They were delicious and I picked up a spicy mixture of green and black olives to try in the weeks ahead.  The olive oil from Turkey was described as the "best in the world".  Some may differ with this opinion but it is very good.  The one I sampled was fruity and light.  I would never cook with this but it is perfect for salads. I bought a large bottle and look forward to using it on salads especially in the summer months.  I also picked up pine honey to add to my honey collection.  Rose is an acquired taste.  I love rose tea and Turkish delight.  I think rose petal jam should be equally delicious and added it to my basket.  I'm also trying to cook with more whole grains.  I've tried Turkish lentils; they are richer and make a great soup.  Another grain found in the store is freekeh - a roasted greenwheat that has many touted health benefits.  I also found a bulgur mix with vermicelli that looked too tempting to pass up on.  As for spices...I love Spanish paprika but was told that Turkish paprika is rich and robust.  My final purchase was chocolate...this is February after all and who can pass up chocolate.

As for finding manti, my search continues...

A Special Banana Bread

One of my early posts has to be devoted to banana bread.  It's one of the first things that I learned to bake and I make this fairly often.  It's a great accompaniment to breakfast,  a fabulous mid-morning snack and always great with my favorite tea in the afternoon.  I've tried many recipes and this is my favorite standby.  You can add chopped walnuts, raisins or chocolate chips to the basic mix.  Because today is a cold February day, I made chocolate chips from a bar of Pierre Herme Madagascar chocolate that I brought back from Paris for a day like today to make this a truly special banana bread.

Banana Bread
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
2 eggs
4-6 mashed bananas
1/3 cup water
1 and 2/3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate (any will do but Pierre Herme's chocolates are simply the best)
(second option)
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease loaf pan.
Mix sugar and margarine in bowl.
Stir in eggs until well blended.
Add bananas and water.
Stir in remaining ingredients except nuts.
Stir in nuts or chocolate last.
Bake for approximately 1 hour 10 minutes (sometimes takes an extra 10-15 minutes)




For this bread, I used one cup of all purpose flour and 2/3 cup buckwheat flour and the results were amazing!

Winter Farmers' Market

 I love farmers' markets. These are great places to buy locally grown foods They are best in the spring, summer and fall months with an abundance of produce. However, a winter's farmers' market is special and has lots of hidden finds.  Today, it was quieter than usual after an overnight snowfall.  The fresh produce area had lots of root vegetables and the usual imports.  Today, I picked up parsley roots.  They look like parsnips but are darker in colour. I had never heard about this before but found a recipe for parsley root fries from My New Roots blog and will definitely make this in the upcoming week.  Because of the time of the year, the market was filled with citrus...kumquats, clementines, grapefruit, blood red oranges.  I stocked up on blood red oranges and grapefruit.  Another great find in a winter's market is locally made cheese.  I was lucky to pick up a two day old soft sheep cheese called pecorino fresco.  It's soft and not very tangy.  It seems to be a popular cheese that can be used in salads, pasta and I think it could be part of a great sandwich. I couldn't pass up the sign that heralded its arrival and after a small sample, I was sold.  It lasts for two weeks so I have both enough cheese and time to find many uses for this.  In the winter, I also have more time to spend in dried goods stores and there is a amazingly wide selection that can't be found even in the largest supermarkets.  I discovered mission figs today.  I was told that they tasted the same but were darker than conventional figs.  They were first grown in California and are still grown there.  Based on my sampling so far, I think they are sweeter and chewier than the other figs I've tasted.  They should go very well with my pecorino fresco cheese.  One of my cooking projects is to work with many types of flours and I  was able to get some millet flour today.   Some farmer's markets are also a great source of seafood. My last purchase today was fish for bouillabaise to warm up a winter evening in the week ahead!

Welcome to my blog!!!

After months of indecision, I've settled on a name and the blog has been launched.  Please join me on my culinary journey and discovery!