Turkish Mezes: Albanian (Style) Liver (Arnavut Cigeri) with Onion-Sumac Salad

A very popular Turkish meze is a liver dish called Albanian (Style) Liver ("Arnavut Cigeri" ). To my surprise many years ago, in a conversation with an Albanian friend, I learned that there was no such dish in Albania. Ever since I kept wondering where the name came from. Couple of weeks ago, I finally had my answer!

According to Evliya Celebi, a well-know 17th century Turkish traveler, Albanian workers throughout Ottoman land were the poorest and could only afford this street food served inside a sandwich. Thus, this dish became associated with Albanians.

A must with Arnavut Cigeri is onion, sumac and parsley salad. Sumac is a Middle Eastern spice with a tart, sour lemon taste.

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Poached Eggs Turkish Style (Çılbır)

You might think that yoghurt and egg will be an odd combo, but all it takes is one serving of "Çılbır" to change your mind. Çılbır is a great comfort food you can eat any time of the day. It can be prepared in no time and all you need is some eggs, yoghurt and fresh-baked crusty bread!

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Turkish Mezes: Samphire Salad (Deniz Börülcesi Salatası)

Samphire Salad is a very popular meze served in fish restaurants in the Aegean coast of Turkey (i.e. Izmir, Cesme, Kuşadası, Ayvalık, Cunda Island). Samphire is a vegetable found in sea shores around tidal creeks. It’s quite salty as it absorbs a lot of sea salt (so no need to add any salt when cooking!). You can find it in farmers’ markets in abundance especially in spring and summer months.  

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Strawberry Jam: With a little help from the sun

When I was a kid, I was lucky enough to spend time with my great grandma who not only had great stories to tell, but was also a great cook. I remember watching her make pickles in winter months and jam from all sort of fresh fruits in summer. She made it look like it was a lot of fun…

Jam is a great way to preserve fruits and it is so easy to make that I think everyone should give it a try. It makes a great gift as well. After all, who could say no to homemade jam?

When making jam, I don’t use pectin and I always get a little help from the sun (yes, you can use solar energy when jam making!). That’s how my great grandma used to make it… She used to say that this way the jam would end up having more flavor and aroma and I couldn't agree more. Here's how I do it- I cut the cooking time and instead pour the jam into a pan, cover with cheesecloth or muslin cloth and place it under the sunshine for 1 or 2 days until it has a gel like, thick consistency.

I was at the farmers’ market the other day and when I saw fresh strawberries which were small, but packed with intense strawberry aroma, I knew that I need to take some home and turn into jam to enjoy all year long.

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Zucchini Fritters (Kabak Mücver)

Zucchini is one of my favorite summer vegetables and these fritters are great as meze or as a meal on their own. You can also make sandwiches for an easy and tasty lunch. Wholewheat sandwiches made with zucchini fritters, feta or hellim cheese and tomato are to die for!

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Red Lentil Kofte

Since there are 291 different kinds of kofte in Turkish cuisine, here’s a tasty vegetarian one which is extremely rich in fiber! I love wrapping these lentil koftes in lettuce leaves and eating like that. 

You can adjust the amount of herbs and spices to your taste. I like it with lots of spring onions and herbs and prefer a slightly stronger cumin flavor.

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Turkish Kofte (Meatballs)

If you've ever been to Turkey, you must have come across many types of kofte, the Turkish meatballs. I wondered how many there were. Well, according to a research done by Pinar Et, a well know Turkish brand, there are 291 different kinds! I don't think i can list more than 20, but now that I have this information, I will for sure put an effort to try as many as I can.

In the meantime, my mom's meatballs will do just fine to satisfy my kofte cravings.

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Turkish Mezes: Sauteed Zucchini with Garlic Yoghurt

Mezes are appetizers served in small portions mainly to complement drinks in Turkey. Whenever I go to a fish restaurant or a kebab house, I’m torn between the mezes and the main dishes. There are so many cold and hot mezes to choose from and most of the time I end up choosing way too many mezes and skipping the main or regretting to have ordered it…

Yoghurt is widely used in Turkish cuisine and mezes are no exception. Here is an easy meze dish. You can replace the zucchini with carrots, spinach, eggplant, etc.

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Artichoke Bottoms With Olive Oil

Once it’s April, you start seeing farmers selling fresh artichokes in little stands across the city. Artichokes are piled up on one side of the stand, a big bucket full of water with lemon juice sits in the middle. You watch the farmer skillfully shaving off the outer petals until all he’s left with is the artichoke bottom. He then throws it into the water to prevent it from discoloring.  When you purchase some, he puts them in a plastic bag with some of the water. Now the artichokes are ready to be taken home to be cooked.

Eating raw, fresh artichokes is quite popular as well. You can often see people buying artichoke bottoms from the stands, squeezing a bit of fresh lemon juice on them (yeah, they bring along their lemon!) and eat it right there like a fruit. I can’t tell you how nutritious this is. So if you have the chance to get your hands on fresh artichokes, try it raw. You’ll love it!

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Green Beans (With Olive Oil)

Green Beans cooked with olive oil (Zeytinyagli Fasulye) can be treated both as a main or as a cold meze (Turkish appetizer). It’s  an easy to cook summer dish if you're looking for something light to eat in hot summer days.

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Baked Rice Pudding

If you've ever been to Turkey, you must have seen the special dessert shops that sell dairy desserts called "Sütlü Tatlılar" in Turkish. They are a nice alternative to heavier and sweeter desserts like baklava. One of the most popular dairy desserts is rice pudding (sütlaç) and it's fancier version- baked rice pudding (fırın sütlaç). It tastes like a sweet rice congee with milk.

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Stuffed Green Bell Peppers (with Olive Oil)

Couple of weeks ago, I’ve reunited with three of my friends when they came to visit me in Istanbul. The last time we were all together was 12 years ago in Beijing. Needless to say, there was a lot of catching up to do! Before they left Turkey, they wanted to learn couple of new Turkish dishes to try back home, so we ended up cooking stuffed green peppers (dolma). Why this dish? Well, besides being extremely tasty, once you learn how to prepare the rice, you literally learned to cook many other dishes simultaneously- stuffed eggplants, red bell peppers, zucchini flowers and my all time favorite stuffed vine leaves!

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Purslane with Rice

Purslane, a native to the Indian subcontinent, is extremely rich in omega-3 fatty acids and has a mild sweet-sour flavor. I wanted to eat something light and healthy and luckily had some purslane in the fridge. This is such a simple dish to cook!

You can replace purslane with spinach if you can’t find it or don’t like the taste.

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