Bringing Istanbul to Philadelphia

A couple of years ago my true love and I vacationed in Istanbul and had an absolutely wonderful time. The trip predated Kilt in the Kitchen, but if I had started Kilt in the Kitchen earlier, I would have been posting every day if not twice a day.  The architecture, art, people, food, culture – everything was lovely.  I highly recommend it.

This was also the trip where we changed our approach to restaurants while traveling.  Before going to Turkey, we always looked for a different place every night where we could sample all aspects of a city’s cuisine.  In Istanbul, we opted for a more relaxed approach where we found a couple of nice places close to our hotel and kept returning to them for pleasant, friendly meals that let us wind down after a day of being tourists.

One feature of every restaurant that we visited was an appetizer various described as eggplant salad or eggplant yogurt salad.  It was pretty simple – eggplant, yogurt, garlic, salt, and that’s about it.  We had it once, loved it, and kept ordering it everywhere.  Usually served with pita bread, we also had it with Turkish pide bread but it didn’t matter – it was the salad that was so great.

When we returned to Philadelphia one of the first things I did was to try and duplicate it.  I failed.  Miserably.  The first time I tried, it came out brownish/greenish and tasted a little flat.  The next time, it was soupy too tart.  I could never get the proportion of eggplant to yogurt just right or picked the wrong kind of yogurt or cooked the eggplant incorrectly or something, but after a half-dozen tries I gave up.

So fast forward a couple of years and I’m in a delightful cookbook store in London and I see Turkish Flavours by Sevtap Yüce and it has a recipe for eggplant and garlic yogurt salad.  Of course I bought it and the first thing I did when I got back to my own kitchen was to try it.  By the way, this also gave me a chance to try out my new mortar and pestle, which I have grown to love.

The first thing that shook me a little was cooking the eggplant.  It wasn’t roasted, but placed directly on the grill over the gas flame, which freaked me out a little.  The little tendrils of blue flame danced directly over the purple skin of the eggplant with charred bits of skin dropping every so often to the stovetop.  In fact, though, this technique works pretty well and by the time the skin is entirely charred, the eggplant is soft and fully cooked.  Let it sit for a bit to cool off, then peel, chop, and place in a colander with a generous amount of salt and let sit for about a half-hour.  The salt will draw the water out of the eggplant and make it taste more, well, eggplant-y.

While all that’s going on, take a couple of garlic cloves and mash them to a paste with some salt.  I love  doing this in the mortar and pestle but you can also do it with the flat edge of a knife.  Mix the garlic with the yogurt (1/2 lb/250 g per eggplant).  When the eggplant is done draining, mix it with the yogurt  but don’t puree it – leave some texture to the eggplant.  Add a little olive oil and paprika to serve.  I’m in heaven.

After serving it as an appetizer/snack a couple of times, I decided to incorporate it into a light Sunday meal by adding it to another couple of Turkish salads.  The watermelon and feta salad is pretty common. It’s just what it sounds like – watermelon, feta cheese, some chopped sweet onions, mint, olive oil, and a touch of lemon juice.  The salad at the bottom is also very simple but very flavorful – parsley, mint, tomatoes, sweet onions, and cucumbers, all chopped together and then dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.  I added a little sumac for style.  The olives add a little saltiness to the overall presentation.

I don’t know why the recipe in Turkish Flavours worked and my improvisations didn’t.  It could be the way I cooked the eggplant, it could be proportion of eggplant to yogurt, who knows?  All I know now is that I have the key to making this beautiful dish that reminds me of that week in Istanbul any time I want and that is truly precious.

Recipe – Eggplant with garlic yogurt

Ingredients

1 eggplant (aubergine for you Europeans)

8 oz (250 g) plain yogurt (Greek yogurt is too thick – use a thinner style)

2 garlic cloves

salt

olive oil

paprika

Directions

Turn the heat on one of the stove’s burners to med/high and place the eggplant directly on the grill just above the flame.  Turn it frequently to get the entire surface charred (don’t forget the bottom).  Give it a squeeze with the tongs to make sure it’s soft all the way through and then set aside to cool for bit.  When it’s cool enough to peel, peel it and then roughly chop.  Place the chopped eggplant in a colander over a towel and sprinkle with salt.  Let drain for about 30 minutes.

Make a past out of the garlic and a very generous pinch of salt.  Mix the garlic and yogurt.

When the eggplant has drained, mix it with the yogurt.  Don’t use a blender or food processor.  If you have a mortar and pestle, use that and crush the eggplant without quite pureeing it.  If you don’t try to mash the eggplant a little with a large spoon.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of paprika, and bread.

Parsley mint salad

Ingredients

Large handful of parsley

Large handful of mint

Medium tomato

4-5″ of cucumber

1/2 small sweet onion

olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper to taste

Directions

Finely chop all the solid ingredients together.  This can be done in a food processor if you stop short of creating a paste/puree – the ingredients should all be identifiable.

Dress the salad with the oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.  Serve at room temperature.

Watermelon feta salad

Ingredients

2 cups seeded watermelon chopped into bite sized pieces

1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1/2 sweet onion, roughly chopped

1/4 cup chopped mint

salt, olive oil and lemon juice to taste

Ingredients

Mix all solid ingredients together.  Dress with salt, olive oil and lemon juice.  Can be served cold or room temperature.