One of the ways I cope with my wife being in Turkey for her grueling 15 month tour of duty is to try my hand at Turkish recipes from time-to-time.  It helps the family feel somehow connected to her through food, knowing that she can probably purchase many of these recipes in the shops right off base.

It doesn’t hurt that most of the recipes I’ve tried are fabulous. The flavor combinations sometimes seem odd, but the end result are dishes with flavors that can best be described as both ethereal and haunting.  Turkish food so far has been a wonderful and enlightening journey for my family, and one I’m glad we’ve taken together.

This particular dish is my favorite so far. This is no mean feat considering how much I and my family adored both the Havuçlu Haydari and Nane Limon that I’ve written about previously.  This dish just somehow surpasses them.

Tasting this was like discovering the soul of Turkish cooking.  The flavors are simple, but surpassingly complex on the palate.  This is the kind of perfection that Anthony Bourdain says can only come from peasant food.  In this case, I agree. (Do you hear that, Ruhlman?)

The over the top part of Turkish soups is the use of a very thin custard in their making.  This adds a mouth feel unlike anything I have previously eaten.  It is both creamy and sumptuous, yet light enough for an extremely hot summer day.  In fact, I find that I lack the words to properly describe it.  You’ll have to try it to see why, but I assure you it will be worth it.

Do you have a favorite lamb dish?  A favorite dish from another cuisine?  We’d love to hear about them.  Drop a comment and share.

Read more…

Popularity: 3% [?]

I’m glad that my wife loves talking with people.  Everywhere we go either she or I is asking a waitress or a cook how they prepared something.  In most cases the cook or chef is happy to oblige.  This dish is a result of my wife’s insatiable curiosity regarding new recipes and her ability to charm the socks of of anyone… Even if that someone happens to be a chef in Izmir, Turkey.

Haydari is a fairly common dish in Turkish Meze.  Generally it’s a mix of yogurt, garlic, mint and olive oil.  I’ve seen some recipes that call for sumac as well.  This one is a slightly less spicy version that uses carrots (Havuçlu) and omits the garlic and dill usually found in the dish.

Just 5 ingredients and about 10 minutes of prep will get you something spectacular, especially if you’ve gone ahead and made a batch of flatbreads to slather this wonderful dip on.  of course, you can always just eat it with a spoon, too.  (I may have eaten most of it that way…  It’s possible.)

This is a dish that you just have to try!  it rivals turkish style yogurt hummus for yum-factor and is just as simple to make, but has a much lighter and fresher flavor.  If you’re looking for the perfect way to get a few carrots on the table.  This is it.

Read more…

Popularity: 2% [?]

One of the benefits of running a pretty successful food blog is that every once in a while people make me a few offers I can’t refuse.  In this case, the Safeway family of stores suggested that I give Yoplait’s Fiber One yogurt a try and tell you guys what I thought about it.  They also gave me the option of offering a Safeway Fiber One gift pack consisting of a $50.00 gift card valid at Safeway, Von’s, Dominick’s, Tom Thumb, Genuardi´s or Randall’s.

To me that sounded like a win-win, so I said sure!

I got my gift card from Safeway and Fiber One through MyBlogSpark, along with a coupon for a package of yogurt in the mail yesterday, headed down to my local Safeway and picked up some yogurt (and other stuff.  I mean hey, I had $50.00 to spend.  I took advantage of it!)  I just gave the Strawberry yogurt a go for breakfast and…

It tastes like strawberry Yoplait.  It’s exactly what I expected.  Thick, rich and creamy. No funky aftertaste or strange textures.  It’s good yogurt, suitable for whatever it is that you use flavored yogurt for.  The plus’ are that this particular yogurt has only 50 calories, 5 grams of fiber and 0 grams fat.  It’s a great way to ensure that you or your family members are getting the recommended amount of fiber in their diets.

I gotta say that I can’t find anything bad to say about the product, I’d recommend it to family and I recommend it to you if you like Yoplait. You get a little added benefit from the fiber and still get a good cup of yogurt in the process.  If you hit your local Safeway before the 9th of February you can get 2 4-packs for $4.00 and give a couple of flavors a try at just about half the regular price, too.

Now on to the fun part!  The peeps at Safeway want me to give one of you guys a $50.00 Gift certificate good at any one of the Safeway family of stores, and I want someone to get it!

All you have to do is leave a comment letting me know what flavor of yogurt is your favorite, which you’d like to try, or how you use flavored yogurt (other than just eating it straight out of the container, that is.)

I’ll pick a winner at random from the comments on Thursday morning. I know it’s short notice, but I have other things to give out over the course of the next week as well.  The fun just never stops around here!

Get those comments in.  I really want someone to get the card!

Popularity: 3% [?]

I had my first taste of tzatziki about 400 feet from the main gate of The Great Lakes Naval Training Center in the city of North Chicago, Illinois just about 20 years ago at a local Gyro stand. I’ve been in love ever since. It probably helped that there is a huge Greek population in that part of the U.S. Had there not been, I may have been greeted with one of the sad and rather pathetic attempts at this condiment that I’ve had since. Had that been the case I never would have tried it again. If tzatziki is made incorrectly it is, quite simply, rather foul.

It was the first time I’d eaten a gyro. I still remember the joy I felt at the incredible melding of flavors from the gyro meat (A combination of lamb and beef, with some extras added…), the lettuce, tomatoes, and this wonderful cucumber scented sauce. It was such a sublimely beautiful experience that I ate there at least twice a week for the rest of my time in Illinois. (much to the delight of the owners, I might add. I personally made them a few thousand dollars while stationed there.)

I’ve attempted to make my own tzatziki several times since then, but always with questionable results. When I saw that my friend and fellow foodbuzz featured publisher Peter over at Souvlaki for the Soul had just made a batch of his own tzatziki, I decided to give it another go. I’m very glad that I did.

I didn’t use Peter’s recipe, but rather adapted one I found on the Food Network Website. The result was everything I’ve been longing to make for years, and will be the basis for my next several attempts, hopefully with some Greek Style yogurt on the next round. (I couldn’t find any here, which is not surprising in a section of Texas populated with mostly German immigrant families. Ask me for fresh Bratwurst and I can do that for you!)

Tzatziki is most commonly associated with gyros and is sometimes mistakenly referred to as gyro sauce here in the states. While it is most certainly wonderful on a gyro, limiting this wonderful condiment to just that purpose would be a complete shame. It goes wonderfully as a substitute for mayo on a sandwich, as a dip for my wife’s Greek style chicken wings. (Those get posted tomorrow, folks), as a dip for pita chips (or white corn tortilla chips), the uses are really only limited to your imagination. Since making this batch of tzatziki, I’ve used it in three different ways, two of which I’ll be featuring here over the next week or so.

So what are you waiting for? Grab the recipe and bring a little bit of Greece into your day!

Read more…

Popularity: 5% [?]

Due to my recent round of heath issues, this round of Your Pantry or Mine has gotten off to a slow start. I want to apologize to everyone who’s been waiting, it took me a few days to get back into the swing of things.

This round of Your Pantry or Mine highlights the ingredients in dew’s pantry, which was more challenging because it holds almost the same ingredients I have in mine, with the exception of just those few I would have normally used to finish off a dish.

With this in mind, and the fact that dew appeared to have an eye for healthy fare, (and an allergy to nuts) I decided that the first round of Your Pantry or Mine, No. 2 should be something on the lighter side, using the freshest ingredients from her list.

Read more…

Popularity: 1% [?]