Ottoman chefs created delicious dishes for the sultans for centuries in culturally rich Middle East and left today's Turkey with an extraordinary culinary heritage. Some of today's popular dishes have their roots in recipes written 700 years ago. The Turkish cuisine is considered one of the top three world cuisines and offers a tremendous selection of authentic dishes.
These overwhelming variety of dishes, each with a unique combination of ingredients, a way of preparation and presentation can be categorized into: grilled meats, grain-based, vegetables, seafood, desserts and beverages. Before describing each of these categories, some general comments are necessary. Each category of dishes contains only one or two types of main ingredients. Turks are purists in their culinary tastes; the dishes are supposed to bring out the flavor of the main ingredients rather than hiding it behind sauces or spices. Thus, the eggplant should taste like eggplant, lamb like lamb, pumpkin like pumpkin. Contrary to the prevalent Western impression of Turkish food, spices and herbs are used with zucchini, parsley with eggplant, a few cloves of garlic has its place in some cold vegetables, cumin mixed in ground meat when making "köfte". Lemon and yogurt are used to complement both meat and vegetable dishes, to balance the taste of olive oil or meat. Most desserts and fruit dishes do not call for any spices. So the flavors are refined and subtle.
According to the historians Turks rolled their first börek and bread-type dough almost a millennium ago. Böreks are baked or fried variety of ways with using several types of dough (page 129and page 130). When you walk into specialty dessert and pastry shops "Baklavaci-Börekçi" in Turkey, you would find an extensive selection of these böreks as well as extensive selection of baklava type desserts. Börek is a special-occasion food which requires great skill and patience, unless you are able to buy thin sheets of dough already rolled out from your corner grocery store. Anyone who accomplish this delicate task using the rolling pin, becomes the most sought-out person in their circle of family and friends. The sheets are layered or folded into various shapes before being filled with cheese or meat mixes and baked or fried. Every household enjoys at least five different varieties of börek as a regular part of its menu.
There are more than 30 kinds of desserts made with sweet syrup using phyllo type dough, shredded dough (tel kadayif), and other types of dough (page 160 and 161). The most well known sweets associated with the Turkish Cuisine are the Turkish delight and the "Baklava", giving the impression that these are the typical desserts eaten after meals. This is not true. First, the family desserts is much richer than these two. Secondly, these are not typical desserts as part of a main meal. For example, baklava and its relatives are eaten usually with a coffee, as a snack or after a kabob dish.
Most wonderful contribution of the Turkish Cuisine to the family desserts, that can easily be missed by casual explorers, are the milk-based healthy desserts with unique tastes (page 162). These are "guilt-free" puddings made with starch and rice flour, and, originally without eggs or butter. In addition to this, There is a large selection of soft-gourmet candies made with pistachios and almond pastes, candies made with whole chestnut, chestnut pieces, chocolate and nuts "Sam fistigi ezmesi, badem ezmesi, kestane sekeri, çikolatali kestane sekeri" (page 173). Turkish delight (soft candies made from sugar or honey topped with coconut flakes and nuts) are part of the sweets in Turkish cuisine that can be found at baklavaci-börekçi (dessert and pastry shops) and sekerci (gourmet candy stores).In addition, you can find other types of desserts (including western interpretations) at pastahane (cake and dessert shops) in Turkey.
Kabob "Kebap" is another category of food which, like the börek, is typically Turkish dating back to the times when the nomadic Turks learned to grill and roast their meat over their camp fires. Given the numerous types of kebabs, it helps to realize that you categorize them by the way of the meat is cooked. Restaurants which specialize in kebaps generally have an extensive selection of kebaps (over 20 kinds). Meat grilling techniques are much the same around the world, but nowhere are they better used than in Turkey, justifiably famous for its shish kabob (Sis kebap-page 73). Sis kebap is grilled cubes of skewered meat. Döner kebap is made by stacking alternating layers of ground meat and sliced leg of lamb on a large upright skewer, which is slowly rotated in front of a vertical grill. As the outer layer of the meat is roasted, thin slices are shaved and served. There are numerous other grilled kebaps beside those cooked in a clay oven. It should be noted that the unique taste of kebaps are due more to the breeds of sheep and cattle, which are raised in open pastures by loving shepherds, than to special marinades and a way of cooking. "Izgara", mixed grilled meat is how main course meat dishes are prepared at a kebab restaurant. Mixed grills are likely to include lamb chops, köfte and sis. The way of preparing ground meat will be the "köfte" (page 69). These are grilled, fried, oven-cooked or boiled, after being mixed with special spices, eggs, and grated onions and carefully shaped into balls, oblongs, round or long patties.
Turkish cuisine has a large selection of vegetable dishes. Vegetables are also consumed in large quantities in the Turkish diet. The simplest and most basic type of vegetable dish is prepared by slicing a main vegetable such as zucchini or eggplant, combining it with tomatoes, green peppers and onions, and cooking slowly in butter and its own juices. Since the vegetables that are cultivated in Turkey are truly delicious, a simple dish like this, eaten with a sizeable chunk of fresh bread, is a satisfying meal for many people.
Cooking with olive oil is one of the fine and healthy ways to cook vegetables (page 55, 56 and 59). The vegetables and the oil work beautifully together, each bringing out the taste of the other. These dishes are refreshing, soft textured, healthy and not at all greasy. A whole class of vegetables is cooked in olive oil. Practically all vegetables such as fresh string beans, artichokes, root celery, leek, eggplants, pinto beans, or zucchini can be cooked in olive oil, and are typically eaten at room-temperature. So they are a staple part of the menu with variations depending on the season.
Then, there are the fried vegetables such as eggplant, peppers or zucchinis that are eaten with a tomato or a yogurt sauce (page 57). Yogurt, a contribution from Turks to the world, has also become a popular health food. A staple in Turkish diet, it has been known all along for its detoxifying properties.
"Dolma" is the generic term for stuffed vegetables, being a derivative of the verb "doldurmak" or to fill; it actually means "stuffed" in Turkish. There are two categories of dolmas: those filled with a meat mix or with a rice mix. The latter are cooked in olive oil and eaten at room- temperature (page 58). The meat dolma is a main-course dish eaten with a yogurt sauce, and a very frequent one in the average household (page 70). Any vegetable which can be filled with or wrapped around these mixes can be used in a dolma, including zucchini, eggplants, tomatoes, cabbage, and grapewine leaves. However, the green pepper dolma with the rice stuffing, has to be the queen of all dolmas, a royal feast to the eye and the palate. In addition to these general categories, there are numerous meat and vegetable dishes which feature unique recipes. The eggplant (or aubergine) has a special place in the Turkish cuisine. According to the Turkish cooks, there are 60 ways to prepare an eggplant dish. This handsome vegetable with its brown-greencap, velvet purple, firm and slim body, has a richer flavor than that of its relatives found elsewhere. At a party, a frustrating question to ask a Turk would be "How do you usually cook your eggplant?", a proper answer to this question would require hours! Here, it will have to suffice to mention two eggplant dishes that are a must to taste. In one, the egg plant is split lengthwise and filled with a meat mix "Karniyarik" (page 63). This is a common summer dish, eaten with rice pilaf. The other one is "Her Majesty's Favorite", a delicate formal dish that is not easy to make but well worth trying. The name refers to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, who fell in love with it on her visit to Sultan Abdulaziz. The name of the dish is also being used as "Sultan's Favorite" (page 77).
Four seas (the Black Sea, the Marmara Sea, the Aegean and the Mediterranean) that surround the Turkland are rich in seafood and residents of the coastal cities are experts in preparing their fish. Winter is the premium season for eating fish. That is the time when many species of fish migrate from Black sea to warmer waters and when most fish reach their mature sizes. So, the lack of summer vegetables is compensated by the abundance of fish at this time. Every month has its own preferred fish along with certain vegetables which complement the taste. The local seafood of Marmara and Aegean seas such as fishes: levrek, barbunya, karagöz, trança; shelled seafood: prawn and lobster are delicious and their tastes are unique to the region. Seafood dishes are cooked in several special ways which would also seal the flavor inside them.
If you plan to visit to Turkey do not forget to visit locals' favorite dessert and pastry shops, restaurants which specialize in authentic Ottoman/Turkish cuisine and kebaps. Also, do not forget to taste the famous KahramanMaras ice cream that is made with new age interpretation, offering variety of flavors.
Have a wonderful adventure, taste the most delicious cuisine, see the rich history and the culture, the beautiful nature; and meet the friendly people.
