• mcvl on April 17, 2014

  r=CAsia

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Fresh fava bean soup with yogurt-dill cream (Taze bakla corbasi)

  • mcvl on March 22, 2022

    Tasty. I zhuzhed up the yogurt-dill cream in my KitchenAid 3.5-Cup Food Chopper (which I highly recommend) with scallions plus a few fennel fronds and a little mint and cilantro.

• Fresh cranberry beans stewed in olive oil (Taze barbuna pilakisi)

  • Yildiz100 on March 12, 2017

    This turns out a slightly sweet, rich, but very fresh tasting bean dish. This was my first time cooking with fresh cranberry beans, and they didn't end up quite as meltingly tender as I would have liked. I don't think longer cooking would have remedied this-I think they were just a bit on the mature side, so if I do this in the future it will be only if I can get smaller beans. I didn't weigh my beans before shelling them and I suspected I was a little short, so I didn't add the full amount of water-it was probably 1 cup. I kept the extra by the stove in case the dish dried, but I didn't need it. 5 stars for this recipe as the only issue was one with my ingredients.

• Gülümay's walnut-garlic spread with hot and sweet peppers and pomegranate syrup (Muhammara)

  • Yildiz100 on July 02, 2015

    Yum! Absolutely delicious. I used roasted red peppers purchased from a deli. In the future, If I am using purchased roasted red peppers I will reduce the amount of lemon juice since the peppers have a bit of acidity. Used Panko for the breadcrumbs. I did everything in the food processor-no mortar and pestle. The texture turned out great. With freshly roasted peppers this would probably be even better. Edit: have made this with both panko and finely ground breadcrumbs. Panko is definitely better. Brought this to a part and it was a huge hit!

  • Apollonia on June 14, 2021

    The absolute best muhummara. Sweet, sour, rich, filling--- all the good things. I use bread crumbs made from my homemade sourdough, and it produces the best dip, especially with veggies. Don't skip the recipe's recommended overnight rest, it does make a difference in how good it tastes.

• Feta-cream cheese filling

  • Yildiz100 on August 18, 2018

    Made the book's phyllo cheese rolls with this, one of two filling options. This filling is excellent for people who sometimes like feta and sometimes find it too strong. I used Turkish beyaz penir, which is pretty mild, so together with the cream cheese this was a very mild and delicious filling. I found there to be not quite enough filling and I had to make a second batch after making half the rolls, though I was a bit generous with the filling. As for assembling the rolls, start with about half of the required butter, I did not use nearly the full amount, and if you want really brown rolls, the tops need to be brushed with an egg wash. The butter alone did not brown much, though they still tasted great.

• Chicken with bulgur, tomatoes, peppers, and tarragon (Domatesli bulgurlu pilic)

  • wester on October 03, 2012

    A good, though a bit soupy stew. It's a pity the tarragon got a bit lost in there.

• Celery root and potatoes in olive oil (Zeytinyagli kereviz)

  • wester on January 11, 2010

    Cold vegetable soup. Quite tasty vegetable soup, but completely unspecial.

• Fresh fava beans in dill (Zeytinyagli taze ic bakla)

  • Yildiz100 on May 30, 2019

    I used frozen favas, so I used less water, about 2/3 of what the recipe indicated, anticipating less cooking time. This worked well. Still, I wasn't wild about this. I think fava and dill just isn't my personal favorite combo. It looks beautiful though. Rustic and springy.

• Green beans (Yesil fasulye zeytinyagli)

  • Yildiz100 on March 05, 2015

    I love these. They were exactly like the ones I had in Istanbul. Depending on the tomatoes, sometimes a little extra is needed. Add a few tbsp canned puree tomatoes.

• Zucchini cakes with green onions, cheese, and herbs (Kabak mucveri)

  • Yildiz100 on October 30, 2012

    Good, but I prefer the recipe from the blog "almost Turkish"

• Leek fritters (Peynirli prasa)

  • Yildiz100 on April 13, 2015

    I liked but didn't love these. I will try some other leek fritter recipes before repeating these.

• Cabbage stew with lamb and jalapeños (Kapuska)

  • wester on February 19, 2010

    A lovely slow-cooking winter dish. Comforting but with a mediterranean twist. I left out the hot peppers and slightly increased the red pepper paste. The result was still spicy but not too hot.

• Potatoes baked with tomatoes, peppers, and herbs (Patates oturmasi)

  • wester on September 03, 2010

    Home cooking for people with a lot of time. It tastes pretty good, but I'm not sure it's worth the work. First it takes about an hour before you can put everything in the oven, during which you can't leave the kitchen for more than a few minutes, and then nearly an hour in the oven as well. Also I'm not too happy about adding parsley before something spends such a long time in the oven, there was not much left of it. And first the potatoes are fried and then there's so much water in the dish that they're boiled as well, not optimal either.

• Caramelized onions with eggs (Soganli yumurta)

  • wester on May 08, 2010

    A very interesting twist on eggs with onions. Fragrant, slightly sweet-sour. I will put more onions into this next time - it was near impossible to make "depressions" in the onions to put the eggs in. And do make sure not to overcook the eggs.

• Cauliflower stew (Karnibahar musakka)

  • wester on April 02, 2011

    This was really good, much better than I'd expected from the ingredients. Light and fragrant, but hearty as well. I will definitely make this again.

• Chick-pea salad with garlic-cumin vinaigrette (Nohut salatasi)

  • wester on January 01, 2010

    Strong flavors but well-balanced.

• Potato salad with cumin vinaigrette (Patates salatasi)

  • mcvl on August 12, 2013

    Good, easy as pie (cook the potatoes in the microwave instead of boiling them), very nice side dish with Yotam Ottolenghi's saffron chicken & herb salad.

• Lentil and bulgur salad (Bulgurlu mercimekli köfte)

  • wester on January 01, 2010

    These little lentil/bulgur balls are ideal for vegetarians and even vegans, and meateaters will enjoy them too. Serve with a salad (a real one) and some bread. Mine were a bit dry. I think next time I will put a tiny bit more oil in.

• Grated carrot salad in yogurt and dill (Yogurtlu havuc salatasi)

  • wester on January 01, 2010

    Simple and good. Soft and aromatic. Easy to make. Don't grate the carrots too coarsely or they won't soften properly. I found it unnecessary to peel the carrots. Dried dill instead of fresh worked fine.

• Bulgur pilaf with chick-peas (Hindi suyuyla nohutlu bulgur pilavi)

  • wester on May 13, 2010

    No surprises here - just what the title says. Nice and unspectacular.

• Hazelnut baklava (Findikli baklava)

  • djrgvc27 on January 10, 2026

    A beautiful, easy to make, delicious baklava!

• Chilled summer fruit in rose petal-infused syrup (Yaz meyveleriyle komposto)

  • wester on August 28, 2010

    I replaced the rose petal syrup with 1/4 cup sugar and a tablespoon rose water, and left out the nectarines. I suppose it will look even better if you have the rose petals in, but it did taste excellent, sweet and fragrant, the fruit flavors really enhanced by the subtle rose flavor. The melon I used could have been sweeter, but in the finished salad that wasn't noticeable at all. I will make this one again.