sazji

So they use hyacinth bean there. I grow it every year and have heard that it is edible but requires some sort of processing before it's safe to eat. Information I've found on the internet seems to conflict, so it would be good to hear it from someone who actually has cooked and eaten it and is here to tell the story. So baqli is chickweed. They eat that one here, and just to keep things confusing, they call it "pancar," (panjar) which is the same word as "beet." Common names are always confusing...

Two Turks go to the US. They have heard that they eat strange things there, but they were determined to try new things. So as they were walking down the street, they saw a hot dog stand. "Vayyy, Temel, they eat dogs here!" says Dursun. "Yeah....but we said we'd try new things. Let's try it!" So they ask for two hot dogs. Temel opens his up, looks in suspiciously, and says "E...Dursun...which part of the dog did you get?"

A traveling salesman is driving through the country and suddenly notices that there is a three-legged chicken running alongside his car. He's going about 25 mph, and decides to see just how fast this chicken can go. So he ups to 35, and the chicken keeps right up, then he goes to 45, still there...he's about to try 50 when the chicken passes him, roadrunner-style, and goes into the drive to a farmhouse. He decides he needs to find out about this chicken, so he goes up to the farmhouse and knocks. The farmer opens the door, and says, "What c'n I do fer ya, sir?" "I noticed this three-legged chicken and wondered if you could tell me about it." The farmer said "Why sure! Y'see, there's me, an' there's my wife, an' there's my son, and we all like drumsticks. But one chicken's not enough, and two's too much, so we bred these here three-legged chickens so we'd all git one!" The guy asks, "and how do they taste?j" "Don' know," says the farmer, "We ain't caught one yet!" ================== Same guy's going through the country, and finds a farmer, groaning under the weight of an enormous pig, which he's holding up into an apple tree. The pig's happily eating apples off the tree. The guy stops, and says, "What are you doing?" --Feedin' m' paig!" says the farmer. - Why don't you just pick the apples and let him eat them off the ground? --Oh, he don't like 'em that way, he likes 'em this way! - But doesn't that take a lot of time? --What's time t' a paig? =================== Salesman driving through the country, and sees a pig, standing in a field, with a wooden leg. Touched that someone would care that much about a farm animal, he decided he wanted to meet the farmer. He knocked on the door, and when the farmer came to the door, he told him why he was there, and wondered about the pig. "Wail," said the farmer, "that's one mighty special paig! Y'see, last year, our daughter fell in th'creek there, and she don't know how t' swim, and if that paig hadn't jumped in there an' pulled 'er out, she wouldn't be with us t'day! An' we're so grateful, we're only eatin' 'im one piece at a time!"

So finally the big day arrived, to make Ling's Caramel Apple Pie. Checked off the ingredients...cinnamon, got it; flour, got it; shortening, need to get it (actually there is no such thing as shortening here, just a very neutral margarine, which contains water, but it works). Went out and got my stuff, granny smith apples are way pricey so I got our local red sour apple, "Arap Kizi." Made the filling, balked at the Tablespoon of vanilla but it didn't overpower it. Two tablespoons of cinnamon for a cinnamon explosion - yes, I'll be getting my fillings replaced next week. So then went on to make the crust - well, I *thought* I had flour... I needed 2 1/2 cups and only had 1 1/2. And it was midnight. (Yeah, I cook at odd hours...) So running out and buying flour was not an option, and I did have the oven heated after all... What to do - I had some oatmel so I used that the fill out the flour. Never tried an oatmeal crust, but it came out wonderfully, and balances the very strong flavor of the filling nicely. Anyway...that's definitely a winner and will be made again soon. Thanks, Ling!

How fascinating, that peppers originally came from the old world (relatively) not all that long ago, and have diversified into so many local varieties, with enough of a range of flavors and characters that without the right one, so many local dishes are just 'not right.' I don't know what I'd do if I lived somewhere where I couldn't get my hands on Maras pepper and isot.....

I just made one, using Turkish prepared phyllo (yufka) which is a bit moister and thicker than the typical american product, with bittersweet chocolate and a bit of orange marmelade. Crisp and brown and buttery on the outside, with a softer dough layer, and then inside.... I'm going to have to try the tahini one..

Interesting thread, and how these names come to mean different things. In Turkish, Bakla is broad beans/fava beans. Dandelion is karahindiba (black hindiba) Which leaves the question,what the hell is hindiba? One person showed me dock and called it hindiba but another called that labada. In Greek, lapatho is sorrel, but sorrel in Turkish is kuzu kulagi (lit. "lambs ear"). Purslane, by the way, is semizotu, and is usually represented by a very wide-leafed commercially-grown variety, not the wild stuff. In Greek it's known both as "glystridha" (which refers to its slick texture) and "andrakla." Radikia (wild chicory) is radika in Turkish. In the last picture, though it could also be a really serrated form of chicory, the greens in the lower left hand corner look like "zohes" or "zohos" or "agriozohos" in Greek. (But the first two terms can also refer to wild lettuce, the last meaning 'wild zohos'...but they are all wild. Go figure.) I'll be back with the latin names of this and others for clarity. This green grows commonly in Istanbul and surrounding areas as well but the only person I knew who used it was a Kurd from Adiyaman, and they call it pincik (punjuk). Now I'm wondering if that may be the "real" hindiba. Though these borders are new, perhaps these terms change all over Turkey as well. I'm writing a piece on wild greens here and in Greece, I'll post a link to it when it's done. But that will be in spring.

I'm usually one to try to make all sorts of things not normally made at home, but this one doesn't tempt me. Flour is browned in butter, and put in the center of a very wide round metal griddle that is heated from underneath. The syrup is boiled to the right stage, a bit of lemon juice is added, and it is then dumped onto the oiled metal counter with the pile of flour in the middle, in a big circle. It's then pulled like taffy, but by many hands at once, repeatedly across the flour, so that it picks it up and instead of sticking together again, separates into finer and finer strands with the pulling. The heat under the griddle must be just right, if it's too hot it burns, if it's not hot enough it all just falls apart into pieces instead of pulling out into filaments. If you don't know, Pismaniye comes from the word "pisman" (regreful) though the words origins are probably different. They say it's called pismaniye because "you are pisman if you don't eat it, and if you do as well." Another explanation is that it takes such energy (very strong arms) and hassle to make it. It's a specialty of Izmit, which seems a bit funny as it needs to be kept very dry otherwise it collapses...and yet there is hardly a more humid city in Turkey than Izmit... You can get it from www.tasteofturkey.com

It wasn't the light socket. It was the end of the cord that went from the wall into the back of the hand mixer. That was what fell out of the mixer and into the batter, and what she licked...

....still, a custard-on-cookie-base concoction sounds perfectly heavenly to me....

She doesn't work. She just goes back and forth from dining room to gym to dining room to gym, taking time out for sleep of course. I'm going to try the caramel apple pie tomorrow...unfortunately my freezer is big enough to take two ice trays only, not an apple pie, so I'll have to do it the traditional way.

Where I live, we don't have buttermilk in any form. We do have kefir, but it's a bit pricey, so I usually just use yogurt. It makes great pancakes at least.

Tonight: orange infused flan. Made the milk/egg/sugar mixture and then held orange peels close to the surface and squeezed them double as I whisked it. (You know, like you do when you shoot them into a candle...I assume everyone has done this..) It gave the whole thing a delicate orange aroma, with no bits of peel floating around in it. I had extra mixture (I sorta winged it) so I poured it into two custard molds, sans caramelized sugar, and added a small bit of saffron to one. Then couldn't wait for it to cool completely but still, it's a keeper. Technically I can't wait for the main flan to cool either, but I have a big verbose translation project, and free access to an internet cafe 15 minutes from my house...so I figure if I work here, I can keep away from it long enough for it to actually cool and fully set.... Okay, time's up I'm outta here.. bob

blessyoublessyoublessyou I have been fantacizing about this thing for 2 weeks now. Edited to mention my dessert (sorry no picture my camera is defunct). Took half a piece of Turkish yufka (phyllo but tenderer and moister and a bit thicker), brushed it with butter, then spread a thin layer of homemade orange preserves on a rectangular area of it, followed by chopped bittersweet chocolate. Folded it up, brushed the outside with butter, then flipped it onto the cast iron skillet till it was crispy outside, tender inside. Chocolate-orange gözleme! (you can get Turkish yufka from www.tasteofturkey.com by the way)

You obviously didn't watch the video. Apples and oranges, wot's the diff? bob

Umm....you might appreciate this. I'd say that boy's a pretty stiff competitor for your nickname.... A personal experience: The secretary at a shop I help out at once and a while has a very strange hangup: she can't stand to see anyone squeeze a lemon. When we go out for lunch, the boss loves to squeeze the lemon over the salad with Asli there just to watch her squirm and go "arrrrrgh!" If we ask why, the answer is "because they're sour!" But she eats the salad. So...one day as I was going to the shop, I happened to see a guy selling lemons on the street and of course Asli popped into my mind. I bought one, went into the shop, said "Asli, I have a present for you," and pulled the lemon out of the bag. She shot me the "oh, very funny" look. Then with no warning I crammed the entire lemon into my mouth and chewed hard and frantically, juice not only running down my chin, but also squirting in several directions. It was pretty spectacular. The reaction was well worth the not so nice taste. There was a new guy working in the shop who didn't really know me yet; he just looked on (he told me later) thinking "should I laugh...should I not laugh...who the hell is this guy?" I can't claim to have actually eaten it though...

Re: Cinnamon Don't know how many of you have watched the fillm "A Touch of Spice," but it has wonderful references to the use of cinnamon... :)

As long as you keep it cool and don't let it dry out, it could be good for a week or so. If it has black spots on it, you've waited too long. The next best thing would be to make things like small cheese or spinach pies and freeze them for another occasion. The advantage is that you don't need to thaw them before cooking them; just put them straight into the hot oven.

Yes, I've also made several traditional Turkish puddings (my favorite being keskul) with cow's milk. They are good and well worth making. Buffalo milk is different though; in a way that's hard to really describe. Also getting really *whole* milk in the US is a problem. If you used real whole cow's milk, the result would be a bit yellow; buffalo milk is pure white.

An old thread but a fun one. I have no trouble with vegetarians or anybody else who chooses to limit their diet; people should be able to eat or not eat whatever they like. But I do get tired who feel the need to announce the fact every five minutes, or less. I went to a Cambodian party once with just such a person (who otherwise is a wonderful person); there were giant bowls of amazing different foods. The friend in question had said "bla bla bla ...because I'm a vegetarian" about 8 or 9 times to us as we went through the line. She found a dish she really liked - looked like noodles, and it had ground fish (she ate fish) in it. It also had little bits of pork here and there, which I pointed out to her; she said "oh, I am just pushing them to one side, no problem." As I look at these "noodles," it appears increasingly clearer to me that they are...not noodles, and I mention this to my friend. She said "of course they're noodles, what else could they be?" Convinced by the odd "ridging" on one side that they were just a bit more protein-packed than we originally thought, I decided to ask our hostess. Me: Ros, this dish is wonderful, what is it?" Ros: Oh...you like that one?" Me: Yes, it's great! What's it made out of? Ros: [with the definite look of a person who would love to change the subject] Ah...you like that one? Me: Yes....I really like it. What is it? Ros: Oh...that's make from pig skin! The reaction wasn't nearly as spectacular as I'd sort of hoped, though there was a bit of "ulp" in her voice as she said ".....pig skin? Oh well, I didn't know, never mind!"

I had never used an immersion blender till a friend gave me one last year when someone gave him a new one. ("I didn't like it anyway, it was white and showed dirt to easily...") Now I wonder how I got along without it for so long. I've made hummous, baba ghanouj, all sorts of sauces. It's great for pureeing soups without having to pour them into a blender, saving lumped pudding, you name it.

I went through that many years ago, right over Christmas too. Sounds like you've pretty much already figured it out though. Purees (yech), soups (hearty stuff is more satisfying than clear broths "meal in a can" things. They're probably more nutritionally complete and better tasting than what was around then. Also, depending on your son's anatomy - I have a bit of an overbite - not everything has to be liquid. Jello, puddings, custard all got sucked through. Being quite in love with creme caramele, I milked my mom's sympathy for all it was worth on that count! I can still remember my family laughing at the way cubes of jello sort of turned around and went "chup chup chup chup" before they disappeared. Emily Post would not approve, but then who asked her. Also being able to slip a piece of chocolate through my teeth to melt inside was something I was quite grateful for! Actually the worst thing for me was not the food, but rather being unable to brush my teeth on the inside. Can you say "fur?" And as we say here, "geçmiş olsun" - may it be past! bob

Ha, and I was just going to ask, "what are the factors that lend chewiness to a brownie?" As in, is there a good thing to look for in a recipe that will give a hint? I like the Fantasy Brownies form Lora Brody's "Basic Baking" for flavor, and it does have a nice texture, but if it were just a little more chewy, it would be perfect.

Oh yeah, chocolate and ginger is a combination that is not nearly common enough. Especially if the ginger is really strong.

Yes, after being here a year or so and having gone through what we affectionately call "the gurgles," I traveled with some friends to the Black Sea. We ate musakka one afternoon, it tasted a bit "off" to me in a difficult-to-pinpoint way. That night my friends were both sicker than I *ever* want to be in my life; I got off cheap with a bit of "gurgles" several days later. My little brother had the same problem though after coming back to the states from several years in the Philippines. Seems it can work both ways at times.