Turkey’s Unexepectedly Vegan Meatballs

10 October 2024

On the surface, Turkey’s çiğ köfte, which translates as “raw meatball”, doesn’t sound too promising for veggies. Originally made from raw meat and fine bulgur wheat, since 2008 only sales of meat-free çiğ köfte (pronounced: chee kofteh) have been permitted in Turkey, following numerous tapeworm infections from the raw meat version.

This is good news for veggies and vegans as this popular snack is now guaranteed to be totally plant based. It consists of bulgur wheat mixed with tomatoe paste, red pepper paste, red onions, lemon, olive oil, pomegranate syrup (nar ekşisi) and spices, all kneaded into a smooth consistency. The kneading is what gives the dish its special taste. If you’re pressed for time, then you can use a mixer or a food processor to blend the mixture.

This dish hails from Urfa, a city in south-eastern Turkey near the border with Syria. The food from this part of the country tends to be spicier than that found in the west with the local isot biber, a mild chilli pepper with a distinctive, earthy flavour with a hint of smoke, and other spices, such as cumin and sumac, liberally used in the local cuisine.
Bulgur wheat is cracked, parboiled wheat and comes in various forms, but for çiğ köfte look for the fine variety of bulgur (called “köftelik”) not the coarser variety (called “pilavlık”). If you can track down the dark, fine bulgur (“esmer”), then this is more authentic in this dish, but if you can’t, then the paler version works just as well.

As bulgur is derived from wheat, this recipe is not suitable for people on a gluten-free diet. You can replace the bulgur with boiled quinoa to make this recipe gluten-free.

Çiğ köfte is traditionally eaten with a lettuce leaf as the wrapper, but is now common in a wafer-thin flatbread, such as lavaş or a tortilla, and served with a wedge of lemon, pomegranate syrup and shredded lettuce and fresh parsley. This version is called Çiğ Köfte Dürüm in Turkish, or a wrap.

Ingredients (makes 16 -20 köftes)

125 g esmer köftelik bulgur
125 ml hot water
50 g red onion (finely diced)
25 g tomato paste
25 g red pepper paste (sweet)
10 ml olive oil
25 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
25 ml pomegranate syrup
One teaspoon cumin seeds
One teaspoon isot pepper
One teaspoon sumac

Method: Four steps to çiğ köfte:
1. Cover the bulgur wheat with hot water, stir and cover. Leave for 15 minutes or so until the liquid is mostly absorbed. Check that it has the right consistency; squeeze some bulgur in your hand – if it stays together it is wet enough, if it falls apart then a little more liquid is needed.

2. Add the spices and knead the mixture by hand on a baking tray (or a ridged çiğ köfte tray if you have one) or put in a blender. One-by one add the chopped spring onion, tomato paste, red pepper paste, olive oil, lemon juice and pomegranate syrup and knead or blend after each ingredient is added. The process should take 30 minutes or so until you have a smooth mixture – it will be quicker in the blender.

3. Take a teaspoon of the mix and shape the individual köfte in the palm of your hand to achieve the ridged shape.

4. Serve the çiğ köfte in a lettuce leaf and garnish with lemon juice, parsley and pomegranate sauce or serve as a wrap in a thin flatbread.

Peachy Green Tea Spritz

15 August 2024

Summer is that time of the year when you just want to kickback and enjoy a sundowner or two. As the heat of the day begins to recede, there’s nothing better than a refreshing fizzy cocktail.

In KCC’s great tradition of unusual summer drinks, that in the past have included the Hibiscus Heat Haze, the Mesudiye Mule, Dark Shadows:The Cocktail, Summertime Meloncoolia and the Prickly Pear Pick-Me-Up, this year is no exception with this offering, a Peachy Green Tea Spritz, that combines homemade peach vodka with cold green tea and tonic water.

Start by stepping peach slices in vodka in a glass jar – leave in a cool, dark place for a least two weeks. Brew a pot of your favourite green tea, let it cool, and then add 100 ml to 25 ml of peach vodka in an ice-filled glass. Top up with tonic or soda water, kickback and relax!

Courgette GrillFest

24 July 2024

With the rain finally relenting here in Almaty, Kazakhstan, it’s time to hit the great outdoors for the BBQ season. Courgettes, zucchini to our North American friends, are in their prime at the moment and this versatile vegetable makes a great addition to a barbecue platter.

One thing about courgettes is that they contain a lot of liquid, so before cooking you can remove some of the excess by cutting the courgette into two slices down the middle and then use a knife to cut diagonals into the fleshy side. Sprinkle with salt and leave for 30 minutes then squeeze out the excess liquid.

Pour some olive oil over the courgette halves into the diagonal cuts and then cook on the grill, turning to brown both sides. These courgette slices can also be baked in a hot oven (180 c) for 30 minutes or fried in a pan until browned. We served them with some parboiled new potatoes, finished on the grill, and a slab of char-grilled halloumi. Add a green salad for a great outdoor meal.

Flower Power Börek

18 June 2024

If you’ve ever been to Turkey, or eaten in a Turkish cafe, then you’ll probably be familiar with the börek, a tasty treat consisting of wafer-thin sheets of yufka (filo pastry) brushed with lashings of olive oil, stuffed with cheese or vegetables and sprinkled with black seeds.

Börek is found in all corners of Turkey and comes in a variety of shapes – sigara, like a cigar, gül, like a rose, triangle-shaped or as a layered pie, tepsi böreği, among others.

As for the fillings, alongside the more familiar white cheese (beyaz peynirli), spinach (ıspanaklı) or potato (patatesli), it’s worth looking out for the lesser-spotted leek filled version, known as pırasalı börek in Turkish, and the elusive kabaklı, prepared with courgettes. (Veggie warning – there are meat-stuffed ones too).

Ingredients for the filling – makes 2

100 g radish leaves

100 g spinach

25 g parsley

25 g walnuts

25 g olives

25 g capers

50 ml olive oil

One teaspoon of dried rosemary, cumin seeds, sumac, nigella seeds

Four big sheets of filo pastry (approx 30cm x 50 cm)

Ingredients for yufka (Filo Pastry) – makes 4 sheets

300 g all-purpose flour

100 ml olive oil

20 ml vinegar (apple or white wine)

150 ml warm water

Method

To make the filo pastry, combine the sieved flour with the olive oil and vinegar. Slowly add the water a bit at a time and mix it all together with a wooden spoon until the dough forms into a smooth ball. Knead for 10 minutes on a lightly-floured surface to make the dough more stretchy. Separate into four tennis-ball sized pieces. Lightly coat with olive oil, cover with clingfilm and leave for an hour at room temperature.

Heat 25 ml of olive oil in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat. Add the cumin seeds and fry until starting to pop. Reduce the heat to low and add the chopped greens (radish leaves, spinach and parsley), rosemary and sumac. Stir fry until the leaves are wilting. Stir in the toasted, chopped walnuts, capers and minced black olives.

Roll out the filo sheets as thinly as you can using a rolling pin or the palm of your hand. They should be around 30 cm by 50 cm and become clear in places. Brush one sheet with olive oil and then place another on top.

Add half the filling along the shorter edge. Roll up the mixture into a long cylinder and then roll around in a spiral to make the rose shape. Brush liberally with olive oil, sprinkle nigella seeds over the börek, then bake for 20 minutes at 200 c until they turn a golden-brown colour. Serve hot or allow to cool – they taste great both ways.

More Adventures with Asparagus

24 May 2024

It’s that asparagus time of year once again. These tasty green spears are a harbinger of the warmer months of Spring and Summer – the first tips are ready for harvest shortly after the ground temperature hits 10°C.

Here in Almaty, Kazakhstan, locally-grown asparagus is currently having its moment in the sun, with many restaurants offering seasonal dishes featuring these flavour-packed spears of goodness.

Over the years, KCC has featured a number of asparagus dishes, such as a bulgur pilaf with asparagus (KCC’s first ever recipe), Mr Alan’s Top Tips, and in a stir-fry. This time round, after tracking down some locally-grown asparagus in Almaty, we’ve cooked it with chickpeas, capers, walnuts and tagliatelle:

Ingredients (for 2 servings)

150 g asparagus
175 g chickpeas
30 g walnuts
20 g capers
50 – 100 ml aquafaba (chickpea cooking liquid)
25 ml olive oil
150 g dried taglaitelle
One teaspoon fresh or dried rosemary

Method

To make the green sauce, blitz 50 g of chopped, raw asparagus in a blender with 75 g chickpeas, the chopped walnuts and capers and olive oil. Keep adding aquafaba slowly until the sauce had a creamy consistency,
Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions in a pan of boiling, salty water. Slice the remaining asparagus into 3 mm slices and cook with the pasta for the last five minutes. While the pasta is cooking, add the remaining chickpeas to the green sauce in a heavy-based pan, warm over a low heat and stir in the rosemary.
Drain the pasta and asparagus, reserving some of the cooking Waterloo to loosen the sauce, if needed, and add to the green sauce and chickpeas, combine well and serve.

Getting Back to our Roots

25 April 2024

Recently, Knidos Cookery Club was back in its spiritual home on the Datça peninsula in Turkey, getting back to its roots in the place where its culinary journey began eight years ago.

Getting back to our roots… carrots, celeriac and kohlrabi

This blog was named after the ancient Greek city of Knidos, the ruins of which are located on the tip of the peninsula. KCC started out exploring the veggie and vegan dishes eaten around this point where the Aegean Sea meets the Mediterranean Sea.

Since 2016, it has expanded its exploration to Central Asia and many other corners of the globe, seeking out new dishes to tickle your tastebuds!

Now, in addition to its WordPress blog, KCC is making its debut on Substack, where a regular newsletter will keep you up to speed with KCC’s latest culinary adventures, along with updated posts from the archive.

Zeytinyağlı carrot, celeriac, kohlrabi and leek with rice

After spending the winter in Kazakhstan, it was a treat to get back to Turkey with its wider choice of ingredients – it was time to move on from the winter staples, such as pumpkin and potatoes, and dig up some root vegetables that are less seen in Central Asia.

The local market turned up trumps with celeriac, kohlrabi and leeks on sale, perfect for making a zeytinyağlı (with olive oil) dish, so-called as these dishes are prepared with lashings of olive oil.

Standards include green beans (taze fasulye), artichoke (enginar) and leek (pırası). They are a staple of ev yemekleri (home-cooked food) restaurants, lokanta in Turkish, cheap and cheerful canteen-style eateries.

A selection of *zeytinyağlı* dishes – green beans, leeks and aubergines, green peppers and potatoes – from Datça’s Korsar/Erkin’nin yeri restaurant, located by the harbour

The last few years have seen the price of the key ingredient, olive oil, soar. This is due to numerous factors, including unexpectedly cold and wet conditions at the start of the growing season and drought and forest fires in the summer, that have led to poor harvests in the main olive-producing regions.

Global olive oil production has dropped by a third in just two years, which in turn has led to higher prices for consumers. However, we think it’s still worth shelling out that bit more for a bottle of extra virgin olive oil, as its fruity, peppery flavour adds so much to a cornucopia of delicious dishes, such as this carrot, celeriac, kohlrabi and leek zeytinyağlı one:

Ingredients (makes 3-4 servings)

One medium-sized kohlrabi (approx 200 g)
One medium-sized celeriac (approx 200 g)
One bunch of baby carrots (approx 200 g)
One leek (approx 200 g)
One small lemon
75 ml extra virgin olive oil
100 ml vegetable stock
Two teaspoons dried oregano
One teaspoon sumac

Method

Wash the leek well and then cut it into 2 cm slices. Top and tail the carrots, kohlrabi and celeriac, put the leaves and stems to one side, and then peel off the hard outer skin of the kohlrabi and celeriac and chop both into 1 cm cubes. Slice the washed carrots into 2 mm rounds. Roughly chop the leaves and stems from the carrots, kohlrabi and celeriac.
Heat 50 ml of olive oil in a heavy-based pan over a low heat and then add the leeks. Stir fry for five minutes and then add the carrots, kohlrabi and celeriac and cook for another five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chopped leaves and stems and cook for another five minutes, continuing to stir every now and then.
Add the vegetable stock, the juice of the lemon and oregano and cook over a low heat for 15 minutes until all the vegetables are soft but still holding their shape. Stir in 25 ml of olive oil, garnish with sumac and serve with rice and some crusty bread to mop up the juices.

When Veg Barmak met Su Böregi

20 March 2024

To celebrate Navruz this year, KCC has gone for a Kazakh mashup with a loose variation on Kazakhstan’s national dish, Beshbarmak. Lurking at the back of the cupboard was a pack of zhaima, the pasta sheets used in the dish.

Beshbarmak refers to the method of eating this meat and pasta dish, using your hand, or “five fingers.” There are iterations such as “Fishbarmak,” so we decided it was time for a variation on the theme of “Vegbarmak.”

Pasta sheets (*zhaima*) for Beshbarmak from Kazakhstan

On closer inspection, the pasta sheets looked good for a lasagne-style dish, but the dish that eventually emerged was closer to Turkey’s su böreği. This consists of layers of boiled pastry sheets with a cheesy filling. We used different layers of vegetables and pulses to achieve something between a veg barmak and a su böreği.

Put a layer of mixed greens on top of the chickpeas that have been covered with pasta sheets

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

300 g cooked chickpeas
400 g roasted pumpkin
50 g spinach
50 g rocket
50 g tahini
50 ml chickpea water (aquafaba)
16 pasta sheets (the ones used were 6 cm x 11cm)
Sprinkling of pumpkin seeds
Three teaspoons dried oregano
One teaspoon dried sage
One teaspoon cumin seeds

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180 c. Put 150 g of chickpeas in a blender with the tahini, aquafaba and one teaspoon of oregano and blend until smooth. Mix with the remaining chickpeas and then put this mixture into the bottom of an ovenproof dish. Place the pasta sheets in hot water for a minute and then arrange over the chickpea mixture.

Put the washed greens on top of the pasta, sprinkle another teaspoon of oregano over the greens and then put another layer of sheets on top of the greens. Mash the pumpkin and mix with the sage and cumin seeds and oregano. Smooth this over the pasta sheets and decorate with pumpkin seeds.

Bake in the oven for one hour at 180 c – cover with tinfoil for the first 40 minutes and then cook uncovered for the last 20 minutes. Cut into four slices – it can be served either hot or cold.

Winter Warmer: Cauliflower, Spinach and Tahini Soup

15 February 2024

It’s been a crazy winter here in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It didn’t really get going until after New Year and has seen short cold snaps interspersed with rapid thaws as the temperature creeps into positive territory. This has made it particularly dicey when walking by buildings, as chunks of ice have a tendency to fall from roofs as the temperature rises. Usually, this is a once in a winter event, but this year it seems to be every few days.

A tahini-infused cauliflower and spinach soup

We’ve been getting through a lot of tahini recently, using it as a salad dressing, a pasta/noodle sauce, in variations on hummus, and, in this case, as an earthy, nutty base for a thick soup – he intermittent cold snaps call for a comforting bowl of hearty, seasonal goodness.

Crazy Almaty weather for 15 Feb 2024 onwards

Tahini is easy to make if you can’t find it in your local Middle eastern store – you just need some white sesame seeds, some olive oil and a good blender. Here’s a link to our tahini recipe from a few years ago.

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

500 g cauliflower
150 g spinach
100 g celery
5 g fresh coriander
500 ml vegetable stock
50 ml tahini
25 ml olive oil
one teaspoon soy sauce
one teaspoon caraway seeds
one teaspoon dried oregano

Method

Heat the olive oil and then fry the chopped celery and caraway seeds in a large pan. Cook over a medium heat for five minutes and then add the cauliflower, broken into small florets, and the oregano. Stir fry over a medium heat for five minutes and then add the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for ten minutes.
Put half the soup in a blender, add the soy sauce and tahini and blend until smooth. Add to the other soup in the pan, stir well and add the spinach leaves and cook until the spinach wilts. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve piping hot.

Almaty Apple Spritz: A Cocktail for the (Old) New Year

11 January 2024

We’re almost two weeks into 2024, but in some parts of the world the new year is marked according to the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian, which means that Old New Year’s Eve is celebrated on 13 January. This date is still marked in many parts of Eastern Europe. It’s also celebrated in parts of Wales, where it’s called Hen Galan (old new year), and some parts of Scotland, on 12 January .

Cheers, and Happy Old New Year, with an Almaty Apple Spritz!

Here at KCC, we regard old new year as the end of the holiday season, allowing a few weeks of respite before Chinese New Year! To mark the occasion, this cocktail combines cloudy apple juice with a cinnamon-infused cold brew. To see off the old year with a kick, add some shots of vodka to this apple spritz.

Any apple juice can be used – we used a local one from Almaty, Kazakhstan that’s free from extra sugar and other additives and is naturally cloudy. Almaty, whose name translates as “place of apples”, is where the antecedents of today’s apples evolved.

To make the cold brew, add a cinnamon stick, or a teaspoon of powdered cinnamon, five cloves, two teaspoons of fresh ginger and a pinch of nutmeg to a litre of cold water. Shake well and leave overnight in the fridge.

For one serving of the the Almaty Apple Spritz, put some ice cubes into a tall glass, pour in 25 ml of any vodka of your choice (or 50 ml if you want to get a jag on, if you’re doing dry January, just omit the vodka!). Add 75 ml of the cinnamon cold brew, 50 ml of apple juice and top up with fizzy water, garnish with a slice of apple and stir before drinking.

This cocktail also works well warmed up (you don’t need the ice or fizzy water).The spices and apple juice evoke a cosy mulled cider vibe. Simply heat until it’s just about to boil and serve asap. A recommended food pairing is with KCC’s coleslaw variation or a traditional new year Olivier salad.

Some Striking Salads for the (not so)Bleak Midwinter

29 December 2023

As 2023 draws to a close, let’s take a look at some striking winter salads to liven up the end-of-year table. To complement our perennial favourite, our Olivier (with an Edge) salad, we’re looking to a coleslaw variation to add some colour to the New Year’s Eve spread. With the new year just around the corner, KCC wishes all its readers a prosperous and peaceful 2024, full with culinary adventures and many more mouth-watering meals!

KCC’s take on Olivier salad uses olives instead of meat

This winter has been a strange one here in Kazakhstan. We should be in the depths of winter now, but the snow didn’t arrive until the first week of December. Then there was a week or so of freezing weather with the temperature dipping to -28c, but now, as we approach the end of December, there’s very little snow on the ground in Almaty – it’s even been raining, which is really unusual at this time of the year.

KCC’s coleslaw variation with pear and rocket

The purple hues of red cabbage pair so well with the orange of carrots and the green of rocket. For a bit of bite, we’ve added some grated radish (we used green radishes, but you can use red radishes or mouli if you can’t find green ones), along with some grated pear and pomegranate seeds for a sweet and tart note. Add in some pumpkin and sunflower seeds and raisins before dressing with tahini and pomegranate sauce.

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

100 g shredded red cabbage
100 g grated carrot
50 g chopped rocket
50 g grated green radish
50 g grated pear
25 g pomegranate seeds
25 g raisins
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons pumpkin seeds
2 teaspoons sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon tahini
1 tablespoon pomegranate sauce
a slice of fresh lime

Method

In a large bowl mix the red cabbage, carrot, rocket, green radish, pear and pomegranate seeds together. Add the raisins, oregano, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. Make a dressing with equal parts pf tahini and pomegranate sauce and thin with a bit of hot water to obtain a smooth consistency. Pour over the salad, stir well, give it a squeeze of lime and serve.