| |
|
|
|
Turkey is in a unique
geographical position, straddling both
Europe and
Asia, and thus the national cuisine combines both
European and Asian influences. In fact, Turkish cuisine owes much of its heritage
to the cuisine of the vast Ottoman Empire, which encompassed not only
what is today modern
Turkey,
but also territorities in the Middle East,
North Africa and southern Europe.
As a result of this Ottoman heritage, Turkish cuisine combines influences from
Arab and Middle Eastern cuisine, as well as
Armenian cuisine,
Greek cuisine,
and Persian cuisine, with
traditional Turkic elements from Central Asia such as yogurt.
In would incorrect however to assume that Turkish cuisine
was homogenous throughout the entire country. This is very
far from the case - there are specific dishes and flavors
unique to each region of
Turkey:
- Olive trees are grown in
the densely populated region of Marmara (the area around
the Bosphorus, Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara), as well as near to
the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, and these regions are known
for their Mediterranean style cuisines.
- Northern Turkey, near
the Black Sea coast, is known for anchovies and corn.
- Central Anatolia is famous for its pastry dishes: gözleme, keskek and manti.
- Southeastern Turkey
is well-known for mezes, kebabs and desserts such as
baklava, kadayif and künefe.
Here are some popular Turkish dishes:
- Tarhana - A dried food based on a fermented mixture of cracked wheat, yogurt
and vegetables - its dryness and acidity means that it preserves well for a long time.
Tarhana is eaten in the form of a soup.
- Domates - Tomato soup.
- Iskembe çorbasi - Tripe (edible offal from the stomaches of cattle) soup. Often
served season with lemon juice or vinegar.
- Cacik - The Turkish version of Tzatziki - Yogurt with cucumber, mint and olive oil, served cold and eaten as a side dish.
- Hummus - A dip made from ground chickpeas with sesame tahini (ground sesame seeds), lemon juice
and garlic.
- Lahmacun - Sometimes known as "Turkish pizza",
lahmacun is a round flat piece of dough, topped with ground (minced) beef or lamb,
and served rolled up with vegetables (most commonly onions, peppers or tomatoes) or
pickles.
- Gözleme - A savory pastry made by thinly rolling dough and repeatedly folding.
It is then filled and browned in a pan. There are many different variations, each
with their own names, including
Etli (meat filling),
Ispanakli (spinach),
Karisik (mixed filling),
Katmer (plain),
Kiymali (ground lamb),
Mantarli (mushrooms),
Patatesli (mashed potatoes) and
Peynirli (filled with feta cheese).
- Börek - Dough stuffed with cheese, meat or vegetables.
- Manti - A Turkish pasta made from dough balls filled with ground (minced) meat.
It is served with yogurt, flavored with herbs and spices, and warmed in olive oil
or butter.
- Keskek - A stew made from meat with wheat or barley.
- Kuskus - The Turkish version of Couscous.
- Dolma - Stuffed vegetables. There are two main variants: a meat ("kiyma") mixture
containing ground (minced) meat, onions, rice and spices, which is served warm,
and vegetables mixtures, which are served at room temperature.
- Imam bayildi - Eggplant (aubergine) stuffed with onions, tomatoes and garlic, then simmered in olive oil, served cold.
- Karniyarik - Very similar to Imam bayildi, but also containing ground (minced) meat, and served hot.
- Patlican salatasi - Literally translated from
Turkish, the name means "eggplant salad".
There are quite a few variations of this dish, the eggplant (aubergine) may be baked or broiled (grilled) over
a open flame before peeling so it has a smokey flavor, and then mixed with yogurt, olive oil and garlic, or with olive oil, lemon
juice and garlic, and served at room temperature.
- Patlican begendi - A hot eggplant (aubergine) dish, also containing meat, cheese, milk and flour.
- Menemen - Eggs with green peppers, onions and tomatoes.
- Adana kebap - A long grilled kebab made from minced lamb, originally from the city of Adana,
where it is known as "kiyma kebabi".
- Döner kebap - Literally translated from
Turkish,
döner kebap means "turning roast". It is meat (lamb or mutton, beef, or chicken) cooked
on a rotating spit. The meat is usually served in a pide (Turkish pita bread).
Versions with salad and sauce added were
invented by the Turkish community resident in
Germany, in a (extremely successful)
attempt to broaden the dish's appeal
- döner kebap has become a popular fast food throughout the world.
- Bursa kebab - Originally invented by Iskender Iskenderoglu, and known as
"Iskender kebap" (which is a trademark), this
dish is a variant of döner kebap. Grilled lamb slices
are based with tomato sauce and layed over pide (pita)
bread, and covered with melted butter and yogurt.
- Shish kebab - Grilled chicken or lamb, marinated and cooked on a skewer over an open fire. Lamb
from milk-fed lambs is particularly favored.
- Arnavut cigeri - Fried liver.
- Köfte - Meatballs made from ground (minced) meat with bread and egg.
There are many variants such as "kadinbudu köfte" which contains
rice, and "Çig köfte" which contains raw ground (minced) meat.
- Mahmudiye - Chicken with almonds, apricots, black pepper, currants and honey.
- Sujuk - A sausage made from ground (minced) beef with spices, and allowed to dry for
several weeks. It must be cooked before eating, and is a popular at breakfast and in
fast foods.
- Baklava - A sweet pastry dessert made with phyllo dough, filled with chopped walnuts
or pistachios, and sweetened with syrup or honey.
- Kadaif - A dessert made from shredded dough or phyllo pastry. There are quite a few variants of
this dish, including "künefe" which contains melted cheese and is served hot with pistachios
and walnuts.
- Helva - A sweet made from tahin (sesame seed paste), flour or semolina.
- Lokum - Turkish delight.
On this page, you'll find a great selection of Turkish Cook Books.
By Ozcan Ozan
Periplus Editions
Paperback (160 pages)
 | List Price: $21.95
Lowest New Price: $13.57
Lowest Used Price: $9.71
Usually ships in 24 hours
(As of 03:48 Pacific 15 May 2008 More Info)
Click Here | Book Description:
Tangy egg-lemon soup. Vegetable-stuffed eggplants sautéed in fragrant olive oil. Richly stewed lamb on a bed of pilaf. These are the flavors of Turkey, whose fabled cuisine evolved in Ottoman kitchens: those traditions are rendered by expert chef Özcan Ozan in The Sultan's Kitchen. Over 130 tantalizing recipes, complete menu suggestions, and stunning images will inspire any cook to create dishes fit for a sultan. |
|
By Joan Peterson
Ginkgo Press
Paperback (140 pages)
 | List Price: $11.16
Lowest New Price: $8.19
Lowest Used Price: $8.06
Usually ships in 24 hours
(As of 03:48 Pacific 15 May 2008 More Info)
Click Here | Amazon.com:
Joan and David Peterson have their priorities straight: in Turkey as in most places, it's food that comes first. A dictionary of menus and market foods of Turkey, this book is also a paean to Turkish cuisine. The history and culture involved in kebabs and yogurt is fascinating and the food glossary is a great help. Finally, the recipes are a delightful bonus because it's impossible to take an eating tour of Turkey without wanting to sample the goods again and again without having to fly half way around the world every time you crave sirkeli patlican. |
|
By Ayla E. Algar
William Morrow Cookbooks
Released: 1999-04-07
Paperback (320 pages)
 | List Price: $17.00
Lowest New Price: $9.43
Lowest Used Price: $8.75
Usually ships in 24 hours
(As of 03:48 Pacific 15 May 2008 More Info)
Click Here | Product Description:
Turkish food is one of the world's great cuisines. Its taste and depth place it with French and Chinese; its simplicity and healthfulness rank it number one. Turkish-born Ayla Algar offers 175 recipes for this vibrant and tasty food, presented against the rich and fascinating backdrop of Turkish history and culture. Tempting recipes for kebabs, pilafs, meze (appetizers), dolmas (those delicious stuffed vegetables or vine leaves), soups, fish, manti and other pasta dishes, lamb, poultry, yogurt, bread, and traditional sweets such as baklava are introduced here to American cooks in accessible form. With its emphasis on grains, vegetables, fruits, olive oil, and other healthful foods, Turkish cooking puts a new spin on familiar ingredients and offers culinary adventure coupled with satisfying and delicious meals. |
|
By Sarah Woodward
Interlink Publishing Group
Paperback (32 pages)
 | List Price: $20.00
Lowest New Price: $12.88
Lowest Used Price: $12.88
Usually ships in 24 hours
(As of 03:48 Pacific 15 May 2008 More Info)
Click Here | Book Description:
Nowhere has there ever been a city more famous for its bazaars than Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey. Standing at the gateway from Europe to the East, the once-fabled Byzantine capital became the center of the vast Ottoman Empire, which at the height of its glory spread East-West from Baghdad to Tripoli and North-South from Budapest to Cairo. Every Ottoman city was a shopping center, and as early as the sixteenth century Western travelers wrote of the glories of the bazaars across the Eastern Mediterranean and from beyond. The Ottoman Kitchen explores the culinary traditions of the region, and offers a collection of practical recipes for up-to-date versions of classic dishes. Interwoven with illuminating tales of history and culture, over 100 photographs are featured-stunning recipe pictures and evocative location shots of modern-day life. Much-traveled recipes include the luscious pastry baklava from Armenia; the egg and lemon sauce known to the Greeks as avgolémono, with its Byzantine origin; and the boregs or pastries for which the Turks have long been famous, modeled on the dumplings of Mongolia and China from where the Turkic tribes came west. Then there are the dishes, such as Circassian chicken and Albanian liver, whose very names denote their origins. This is food that was brought together in the bazaar and perfected and refined in the palace kitchens of the Ottoman sultans. One of the earliest exponents of fusion cooking, the Ottomans elaborated and refined the culinary traditions of the entire Eastern Mediterranean region to create one of the world's greatest, and most eclectic, cuisines. |
|
By Carol Robertson
Frog Books
Released: 2001-02-16
Paperback (200 pages)
 | List Price: $15.95
Lowest New Price: $9.52
Lowest Used Price: $1.87
Usually ships in 24 hours
(As of 03:48 Pacific 15 May 2008 More Info)
Click Here | Product Description:
Robertson relates a series of captivating and delightful travel adventures in the first half of the book, unveiling the wonders of Turkey--from the ancient cities of Ankara to the spas at Bursa to the small village bazaars, where fresh vegetables line stone pathways and aged stucco homes. The second portion is dedicated to vegetarian foods and recipes. Over one hundred Turkish dishes, including Spinach with Yogurt Sauce, Eggplant Puree, assorted Sis Kebabs, Minted Pea Pilav, and the ever popular Baklava, await the cook wanting to explore Turkish cuisine. |
|
By Dani Valent & Perihan Masters
Lonely Planet Publications
Paperback (262 pages)
 | List Price: $11.99
Lowest New Price: $4.40
Lowest Used Price: $2.90
(As of 03:48 Pacific 15 May 2008 More Info)
Click Here | Book Description:
For the traveller, Turkey is a feast even when you're not eating; a banquet of plenty expressed in colours, smells and customs. In this unique guide to the culture of food and drink in Turkey, you'll discover that with every scoop of pilav, or swig of raki, you learn more about the essence of Turkish culture. Afiyet olsun! - an exploration of the regional influences which make up Turkish cuisine
- an intimate guide to home cooking, traditions and celebrating with food
- the definitive culinary dictionary, a quick reference glossary and useful phrases for every food & drink occasion
- tantalising photography & recipes
|
|
By Ghillie Basan
Lorenz Books
Hardcover (256 pages)
 | List Price: $29.99
Lowest New Price: $21.81
Usually ships in 24 hours
(As of 03:48 Pacific 15 May 2008 More Info)
Click Here | Product Description:
In this exciting and comprehensive new book, Ghillie Basan explores the rich culinary history, culture and traditions of the Turkish people, the evolution of their cuisine, and the classic dishes that are known and loved all over the world. |
|
By Filiz Zorlu
Citlembik Publications
Paperback (312 pages)
 | List Price: $44.95
Lowest New Price: $4.00
Lowest Used Price: $3.69
Usually ships in 24 hours
(As of 03:48 Pacific 15 May 2008 More Info)
Click Here | Product Description:
Contemporary Turkish Cooking is a new take on one of the world's richest and most flavorful cuisines. Turkish author Zorlu's synthesis of traditional Turkish home cooking and modern world cuisine is presented in an attractive and easy-to-follow format, along with colorful photographs. The 174 recipes emphasize healthful, fresh ingredients and cover all occasions and types of dishes. Recipes are bilingual in English and Turkish. |
|
By Nur Ilkin
Hippocrene Books
Hardcover (300 pages)
 | List Price: $24.95
Lowest New Price: $15.62
Lowest Used Price: $10.50
Usually ships in 24 hours
(As of 03:48 Pacific 15 May 2008 More Info)
Click Here |
|
By Greg Malouf
Chronicle Books
Hardcover
| List Price: $50.00
Lowest New Price: $31.50
Not yet published
(As of 03:48 Pacific 15 May 2008 More Info)
Click Here |
|
| |