helou

it is a root (shirsh al halaweh) and not from the mallow plant but from soapwort. we (helen Saberi, pombo villar and myself, under the aegis of alan davidson) did a whole investigation on that soon after i finished writing my lebanese cookbok. it was published in PPC and then in the wilder shores of gastronomy, the best of ppc. i am not sure how shirsh al halaweh is used in the sesame halva but it is used to make natef, a sweet dip used with karabij halab (a semolina cake filled with pistacchio nuts). the root is boiled in water for quite a while. when the water has reduced, it is whisked until it becomes white foam which is then mixed with sugar syrup to produce natef. the whole process is quite miraculous as you can't believe that very dark brown water can become like shaving foam. charles perry wrote an article about it for the LA times and he used the bark of the quillaja tree to make natef. as for other types of halva, there are lots. the persian one described in one of the posts, many turkish variations and greek ones as well. i love one of the turkish variations where the flour is cooked in butter with pine nuts until it is golden before sugar syrup is added. you eat the halvah warm -- 1000 calories a bite but absolutely delicious. nevin halici has a great recipe for it in her turkish cookbook.

Useful step-by-step instructions on this thread and accompanying links here from the "The Technical Support" forum. ← thanks ludja. i posted them but i'm not sure where they went. as for sweet pepper (b'har helo), it is allspice nicolai and not a mixture a la allspice. ← i kind of stalled at the more options stage. anyway, if you want to see the pics, they are in my new album called cicoria. by the way, is anyone interested in attending the oxford symposium of food and cookery. the theme this year is eggs. let me know and i'll pass on the details of the organiser.

Useful step-by-step instructions on this thread and accompanying links here from the "The Technical Support" forum. ← thanks ludja. i posted them but i'm not sure where they went. as for sweet pepper (b'har helo), it is allspice nicolai and not a mixture a la allspice.

i transferred the pictures of the italian cicoria or hindbeh on my computer but i'm not sure how to post them here.

swiss chard is called silq in arabic. i'm just back from rome where there was a lot of cicoria in the market and it is defintiely hindbeh. it looks like the hindbeh we have in lebanon and tastes like it. had some in a trattoria one evening. i took a picture but am not sure how to psot pictures here. i'll try to send the pics by bluetooth from my mobile to my computer and then will try to post them before i go off again.

"radikia," (sing. radiki), wild chichory, according to Sazji. One of Greece's most popular greens. This is from the Hydra. ← interesting but it is not hindbeh. would like to try it though. have you tried cooking it? if i am not mistaken, the hindbeh one buys outside the lebanon is not the same. i will check with my mother who happens to be over here and will report back. ← OK, do they look like the green in the bottom left? ← this is more like it but i'm not sure. i remember the leaf greener and coarser. i think my mother is coming to lunch tomorrow. i'll show her the picture and ask her. where did you take the picture and what are the other greens?

"radikia," (sing. radiki), wild chichory, according to Sazji. One of Greece's most popular greens. This is from the Hydra. ← interesting but it is not hindbeh. would like to try it though. have you tried cooking it? if i am not mistaken, the hindbeh one buys outside the lebanon is not the same. i will check with my mother who happens to be over here and will report back.

if i am not mistaken it is maramiyeh and it is indeed sage. when i did my lebanese cookbook, alan davidson very kindly let me use his library and he had a FAO manual/dictionary or whatever (for some reason i don't list it in the bibliography but it was my first book) that gave the arabic names to all kinds of vegetables, herbs, etc. and i list maramiyeh in the par on herbal teas as sage. also i was just in morocco recently and my great friend hajj mustapha who makes the best mechoui in marrakesh gave me a winter variation on mint tea wtih sage in it. i don't remember exactly it it was only sage or mint and sage, i think the latter. adam, what is the herb you posted a photograph of?

i guess these are koulouria which are the greek, slightly sweet and softer version of simit and actually quite different. bagels are definitely boiled before being baked. in fact, according to charles, they are left to rise in the hot water. i don't remember what egyptian simits are like and how they differ from the turkish or greek version. anyone knows? ← here is an interesting snippet from the olive and the caper by susanna hoffman "the tradition of baking bread in rings, then stacking them up high upon a stick, goes back at least to sparta. there the poor and orphaned who had no foodto contribute to communal tables were required to bring long reeds to the dining halls as the token for their share. tehy would cut reed batons from teh marshes and with them carry bread rings to the diners."

i guess these are koulouria which are the greek, slightly sweet and softer version of simit and actually quite different. bagels are definitely boiled before being baked. in fact, according to charles, they are left to rise in the hot water. i don't remember what egyptian simits are like and how they differ from the turkish or greek version. anyone knows?

you're very funny swisskaese. i tend to think like you but i'm going to ask charles perry. if anyone knows, it would be him.

they are dipped in a mixture of pekmez and water before they are dipped in the sesame seeds and baked but that is not the same thing. the pekmez is to give them a hint of sweetness and the water to help keep the sesame seeds stuckk to the dough. taralli (those with fennel seeds) are dipped in very hot water befoere being baked. am not sure why exactly but they are baked until they become as hard as bisuits. i doubt they are related to bagels. my hunch is that there are similarities between baked goods in different countries but not always direct influences. i may be wrong. it would be interesting to look more into it.

They use the word "ser u pepik" (lit. "head and hooves" / Turkish, "kelle paça") to characterize the entire dish. As you say, the tripe is sewn around the filling. Here the food is a bit plainer; the stuffing was plain rice. I think tomatoes, meat and chickpeas would have made it better. Still, it is one of the favorite dishes here; many people eat it a couple times a week. But I have a feeling it wasn't cleaned as well as it might/could have been, because the innard/lamb smell was *really* strong, to the point where if I smelled my fingers (it's mostly eaten with the hands) I almost lost it. I've eaten lamb intestine soup, and of course kokorec, which I like when it's well made. Tripe is a bit difficult but this was really over the top! Much of the rural cooking is much plainer than that of the cities. Silopi has been a city for about 3 years, 10 years ago it was hardly even a large village, and most of the people here have come from other places. Our hosts are from villages the Sirnak area and only moved into the city during the fighting with the PKK when their village was burned. There is a new installment on the blog. Last night's dinner was amazing; grilled lamb, stuffed bulgur köfte, a dish with meat and green beans, a different take on red lentil soup, salad, "ser be dew" (a sort of fine bulgur mush topped with "kishk" and melted butter, which was wonderful), and bread made by slapping flat rounds of dough on the walls of a "tandir" oven. And Pepsi of course. Unfortunately I was right in the middle of a rather unpleasant intestinal bug (it would come on for the two best meals of the week). Tomorrow Leigh Ann and I are making a late Thanksgiving dinner, complete with fresh cranberries brought from Oregon. (The idea of sweet/sour with meat is pretty odd here, we'll see how it goes over.) They do make a pumpkin sweet here so I think they will like pumpkin pie. ← interesting. you're right about them not having washed it properly and this may have accounted for your stomach bug. it shouldn't smell at all, well at least not an off smell. when my mother makes ghammeh, she washes the different meats many times in soap and water and there is no off smell or bad taste whatsoever. i recently made lamb's heads here for a radio programme and funnily enough, i didn't have to wash them so much. i suspect they were already cleaned. they were wonderful. i bought the best ones from a turkish butcher who didn't speak a word of english. i also bought some from an algerian butcher but they were less clean and quite bloody. i will read the next installment on the blog and i'll try to go there next year when i come to turkey.

hey sazji, this is really interesting. the meal you show in the picture is exactly like our ghammeh in lebanon. we cut up the sheep's stomach, sew it in pouches and fill it with rice, tomatoes, meat and chickpeas. we use the same stuffing for the intestines and then we boil the whole lot with the head and feet. some people may recoil at the idea of all this offal but it is absolutely delicious and we consider it festive eating, given the time it takes to clean and prepare the different bits. we season the stock with garlic and lemon juice and serve it as a soup alongside the tripe, etc. do you know what the kurds called the dish? and for anyone who's interested, there is a recipe for ghammeh in my book on offal, the fifth quarter. sadly i don't have a picture. yours is great sazji.

try this http://www.galaxylink.com.hk/~john/food/co...akligozleme.htm I just Google 'gozleme recipe' quite a lot came out, there are a few mentions in my cookbooks but no recipe. ← there is a recipe for it in nevin halici's latest book: sufi cuisine, p 135. according to nevin, gozleme is eaten as borek when it is filled and folded over in a half moon. there is a recipe for that version in my med street food book(see saj borek). i adapted the recipe from one of nevin's in her turkish cookbook. she is a great writer and her books are definitely worth getting, if you don't have them that is.