Almond Party Time in Datça

12 February 2025

Almonds are on the agenda in KCC’s spiritual home of the Datça Peninsula this weekend as the Turkish seaside town hosts its annual Almond Blossom Festival.

The festival, which celebrates the blossoming of the peninsula’s almond trees, takes place between 13-16 February. Alongside live entertainment, with local faves Rampapa performing on Thursday and Anatolian psych rock legends Moğollar headlining on Saturday, there are cookery competitions, sports events and a speedy almond cracking contest.

Datça’s tasty almonds, badem in Turkish, are rightly famous all over Turkey – I remember sitting on a terrace in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district, back in the days when it still had tables on the street, when a guy came round selling ice-chilled Datça almonds.

Bademli havuç tarator (carrot and almond tarator)

In Istanbul and along the Aegean coast tarator is a yogurt-infused meze made with carrots or courgettes and walnuts (recipe link here). Tarator started life in the eastern Mediterranean as a tahini-based dipping sauce for falafel. In Ottoman times it referred to a sauce made from walnuts, breadcrumbs and lemon juice (often served with kalimari), before it took on its yogurt iteration in the modern day. In Bulgaria, Tarator is the name of a yogurt-based, cold soup.

We adapted the recipe to make it vegan by replacing the yogurt with almond cream and gave it more of a Datça vibe by using almonds instead of walnuts and throwing in some local capers to give it an umami kick. The resulting dip had a thicker consistency than the yogurt version – it came out more like a savoury carrot halwa, but was still delicious.

Ingredients

100 g blanched almonds
50 ml cold water
Two teaspoons apple cider vinegar
20 capers (with brine)
150 g carrot
One or two garlic cloves (optional)
Pinches of herbs and spices of your choice (e.g. oregano, black pepper, salt, sumac, red chili flakes)
One teaspoon nigella (black cumin) seeds

Method

If your almonds have skins on, then pour hot water over the almonds and leave for a minute or two. Drain off the water and peel the nuts between your fingers. Set aside 20 g of the nuts. Cover the remaining almonds with cold water and leave to soak overnight.
Drain the almonds and put in a blender bowl. add the vinegar, capers and water and blitz to a smooth cream. Add more water if needed (10 ml at a time) to get the required creamy consistency.
Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan, grate the carrot and saute it in the oil for ten minutes over a medium heat. Add diced garlic (if using), the remaining almonds (crushed with a rolling pin or wooden spoon) and pinches of herbs and spices (as needed).
Allow the carrot mix to cool and then blend with the almond cream. Garnish with nigella seeds and some unblanched almonds. Serve as part of a meze set or as a dip.

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.

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.

Bean and Beetroot Shakshuka

14 September 2023

This time round on KCC. we’re experimenting with a tomato-free twist on shakshuka, that North African breakfast staple.

Rip Red Shakshuka with beans and beetroot

Our latest shakshuka (click here for our grip green one from last year), replaces tomatoes and onions, which have a high acid content, with beetroot and red beans as the base to poach the eggs in.

This makes for a dish that is easier on the stomach and is ideal for people suffering from GERD, Gastroesophageal reflux disease, which occurs when excess stomach acid flows back into the tube connecting your mouth and stomach.

Ingredients

150 g cooked red beans
100 g diced cooked beetroot
25 g celery
150 ml vegetable stock
A pinch of fresh thyme
2 teaspoons sumac
2 eggs

Mix the beetroot, red beans, celery, carrot and thyme together in a frying pan and add the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat so the mixture is simmering.

Cook for five minutes and then make two wells in the mix and break the eggs into these wells. Cover the pan and cook over a low heat for 4-5 minutes until the eggs are set. Sprinkle with sumac and serve with crusty bread or fresh pitas.

Meet the Hasselback Potato

21 December 2022

Winter Solstice is upon us once again so it’s time to kick off the holiday season. If you’re looking for something a bit different for your festive feast this year, then look no further than the Hasselback potato, an attractive dish that tastes like a jacket potato crossed with a roast potato.

This method of preparation involves cutting the potato into thin slices that fan out while baking. It can be used for other vegetables like beetroot, carrot and butternut squash, as well as a sweet version using fruits like apple and quince.

Hasselback potato with a pasty and salad

Hasselback potatoes originated in Sweden with the dish featuring in a 1929 recipe book “The Princesses’ Cookbook” by Jenny Åkerström. In 1953. Lief Elisson, a rookie chef at Stockholm’s Hasselbacken restaurant, revived this method for preparing the humble spud.

To prepare the fruit or vegetables of your choice, place chopsticks or wooden spoon handles on either side and cut into thin slices until the blade hits the wood.

Ingredients

Four medium potatoes
25 ml olive oil
One teaspoon rosemary or thyme (fresh if available or dried)
One teaspoon cumin seeds

Method

Put two chopsticks or the handles of two wooden spoons on either side of the potato. Cut into 1-2 mm slices, cutting until the blade hits the wood.
Put the potatoes in an ovenproof dish with the cut side facing up. Drizzle liberally with olive oil and sprinkle cumin seeds and thyme (or rosemary) over them.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 c for one hour. Serve on their own or as part of a main course with a pasty or nut roast along with your choice of side vegetables or a salad.

Apricot and Lentil Courgette Roundels

13 October 2022

It’s that in-between time of year as the nights grow longer and thoughts turn towards more substantial meals after a long summer of salads and lighter fare. The last of the seasonal vegetables such as tomatoes and courgettes are perfect for stuffing and baking in the oven, making a bridge between summery salads and the heartier soups and stews of winter that are coming up.

Apricot and lentil courgette roundels drizzled with pomegranate sauce and served with a seasonal salad

We stuffed some courgettes with a mixture of red lentils, apricots, tomato, onion, bulgur wheat and lemon juice to make a versatile roundel that can be served as part of a main course or eaten on its own as a meze, a fully vegan alternative to the sausage roll!

Apricot and lentil courgette roundel – a vegan alternative to the sausage roll?

The autumn fruit is at its best at the moment, and we’ve added some pear and pomegranate to an autumnal red cabbage, carrot, celery and radish salad to accompany these apricot and lentil courgette roundels to make a great lunch or supper. By adding a jacket potato, you can make it into a more filling main course.

Ingredients (makes enough mixture for 10-12 roundels)

Three medium sized courgettes
100 g red lentils
50 g dried apricots (or four fresh apricots if available)
One small red onion (approx 75 g)
One medium tomato (approx 100 g)
50 g fine bulgur wheat
25 ml olive oil
200 ml vegetable stock
Juice of half a lemon
One teaspoon cumin seeds
One teaspoon red chilli flakes
Black pepper to taste

Method

Cut the dried apricots into eight pieces and soak in hot water for at least 30 minutes. While the apricots are soaking, heat the oil in a heavy based pan and add the cumin seeds. When they start to sizzle, add the finely chopped onion and fry over a medium heat until they start to soften. Grate the tomato into the fried onion and cook over a low heat for five minutes or so, stirring occasionally.
Now add the washed lentils, pour in the stock and stir. Cook over a low heat for 15-20 minutes until most of the water has been absorbed. Add the fine bulgur wheat, mix it in well and leave covered for 15 minutes. Drain the apricots and stir them into the mixture. Add the lemon juice, chilli flakes and black pepper to taste and mix well.
While the lentils are cooking, start to prepare the courgettes by slicing off the ends to make them flat. Cut into 3 cm slices. Gouge out the seeds with a small spoon, leaving a little bit of flesh at the bottom of the roundel.
Pre-heat the oven to 180 c. When the lentil mix is cool, pack it into the courgette roundels and stand them on a baking tray with the filling topmost. Bake at 180 c for 30 minutes or so – the courgette should still be firm and not too squidgy and the lentil mix should rise slightly and be beginning to brown on top.
Serve alongside a salad of red cabbage, carrot, celery, radish, pear and pomegranate and a jacket potato, drizzling pomegranate sauce over the roundels or allow to cool and serve the roundels as a snack on their own.

Nauryz Noodles

21 March 2022

Happy Nauryz – the day of the Spring Equinox that marks the start of the new year in some parts of Asia. it’s a big celebration in Central Asia with a focus on things coming back to life after the long winter months. This year we’ve made some green noodles inspired by shivit oshi – dill noodles from Khiva, Uzbekistan, to mark the coming of spring.

As you may recall, here on KCC we’re not huge fans of dill, aka the devil’s weed, so we replaced it with spinach to give our noodles their distinctive green colour. We served our noodles with an orange and green stir fry made from pumpkin, carrots, spring onions, beansprouts and broccoli.

Shivit Oshi – dill noodles in Khiva, Uzbekistan

We washed our Nauryz noodles down with some Turan Tiger beer as a nod to the year of the tiger.

Ingredients (makes four servings)

For the noodles

300 g plain flour
100 ml water
40 ml olive oil
120 g spinach

For the stir fry

100 g spring onion
300 g pumpkin
200 g carrot
300 g broccoli
200 g beansprouts
50 ml olive oil
20 ml soy sauce
Two teaspoons cumin seeds

Method

For the noodles

Pour boiling hot water over the washed spinach leaves and leave for one minute. Drain and then cover with cold water. Drain again and put in a blender with the water and blend to a smooth paste.
Stir the oil into the flour and then add the blended spinach. Mix well and knead the dough. Make sure it is neither too sticky (add more flour if so) or too crumbly (add more liquid if so). Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge until you are ready to use it.
Roll the dough to 1 mm thickness on a lightly floured surface. Fold the dough over three or four times and then cut off 2 mm slices and pull out the noodles by hand.
Cook in a pot of boiling water for five minutes – taste to check that the noodles have the texture that you prefer (e.g. al dente or softer). Drain and serve immediately.

For the stir fry

Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan and add the cumin seeds. When the seed begin to pop, add the chopped spring onions and stir fry over a medium heat. Add the pumpkin, cut into 1 cm cubes and stir fry for five minutes.
Next add the broccoli and stir fry for another five minutes over a medium heat. Add the grated carrot and beansprouts along with the soy sauce and cook for a few more minutes. Serve on a bed of noodles.

Chocolate Chilli Chana

3 February 2022

This time round on KCC we’re going for a chickpea, aka chana, chilli that includes a slab of dark chocolate to balance out the acidity of the tomato sauce – a combination that works surprisingly well.

We first came across the dark chocolate infused mole sauce many years ago in a Mexican restaurant in Barcelona. It’s been on the list of things to cook for a while and having received a selection of Green and Black’s chocolate that included an 85% cocoa bean bar there were no longer any excuses not to try it out.

We served our chickpea chilli with some pearl barley – it’s also good with brown rice, couscous, bulgur wheat or some flatbread to mop up the chocolate rich sauce. We also recommend washing it down with a margarita or two.

Ingredients (makes 3-4 servings)

300 g chickpeas (cooked)
150 g carrot
150 g onion
50 g red lentils
250 g tomatoes
20 g dark chocolate
25 ml olive oil
150 ml aquafaba (chick pea cooking water)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon paprika (smoked if you can get it)
1 teaspoon chilli powder (or chilli flakes)
2 cm cinnamon stick
5 cloves
1 bunch fresh coriander

Method (Cooking time approx 45 minutes)

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based pan and add the cumin seeds. When the seeds start to pop add the diced onion. Stir fry for five minutes over a medium heat and then add the diced carrots. Cook for five more minutes and then reduce to a low heat. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for another five minutes.
Add the aquafaba, ground coriander seeds, cinnamon, cloves, paprika and chilli powder and stir well. When the mix starts to bubble, stir in the red lentils. Simmer the mixture and after 15 minutes add the cooked chick peas. Cook for another 10 minutes over a low heat and then add the dark chocolate.
Serve with pearl barley or a grain of your choice and garnish the Chocolate Chilli Chana with fresh coriander. Take a slug of margarita and enjoy!

Modern Day Plovers

17 June 2021

This time round on KCC we’re turning our attention to plov — Central Asia’s favourite rice dish. There are no hard and fast rules for plov, with regional variations prizing different ingredients and each family having its own take on what should go into the dish. One thing is for sure — this spicy rice, carrot, onion, garlic and dried fruit concoction makes for a great centrepiece for any party and is perfect for sharing with family and friends.

KCC travelled up to Kazakhstan’s capital Nur-Sultan to visit a modern day plov-meister who has perfected a tasty, meat-free take on this classic Uzbek dish. Our plov-meister learnt his trade on the mean streets of Hojeli, Karakalpakstan and in the student dorms of Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

There are no strict cooking times for this recipe — it’s more of a feeling than an exercise in clock watching. Apart from the holy trinity of onion, carrot and rice, our plov-meister deploys whatever is to hand in the kitchen, adding dried fruits and spices along with a surfeit of garlic. For best results, your plov should be cooked in a kazan, a cast iron cauldron, but a deep, heavy-based saucepan or a casserole dish will suffice at a pinch. The pan should retain the heat to enable the plov to cook slowly and for the myriad flavours to meld.

*Achik Chuchuk* – add chilli pepper to taste

Serve the plov alongside a spicy achik chuchuk tomato and onion salad, steaming bowls of green tea and Uzbek bread, non, cli ck here for a recipe from Caroline Eden’s excellent Central Asian focussed cookbook Red Sands.

Ingredients (makes enough for 8-10 servings)

100 ml cooking oil (For the authentic Uzbek taste track down some cottonseed oil, but failing that sunflower, rapeseed or olive oil works just as well)
500 g onion
500 g carrot
500 g short grain rice
6 heads of garlic
150 g currants /raisins /sultanas – or a mix of all three
100 g dried apricots (with stones)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon coriander seeds

For the salad:

250 g tomatoes
250 g onion
One teaspoon dried basil
1 – 3 Chilli peppers, finely sliced (adjust as to how hot you like your food)

Method

Heat the oil over a low heat in a heavy-based pan and then add the sliced onion. Fry the onion until it gets a golden-brownish colour so that later the rice will get its distinctive orangey colour. Cut the carrots into 5 cm long slices, a few millimetres wide and then add to the onions. Cook until the carrots are very tender so that they can easily be cut by a spatula or a wooden spoon while stirring.
Now add the spices, the whole dried apricots, currants, sultanas or raisins (or all three) and whole heads of garlic. Cook for a few minutes to allow these ingredients to absorb the oil and the carrot/onion juice.
Rinse the rice carefully until the water runs clear and then put the washed rice on top of the spicy, fruity vegetable base and then pour water over the top through a fish slice to allow an even distribution of the liquid.
Cover the rice with an extra 1 cm of water and then cook over a high heat and when the water disappears from the top of the rice, turn it down to a very low heat, close the lid and allow it to steam for about 20 minutes.
Serve with a spicy tomato and onion salad — achik chuchuk — a salad made from thinly sliced tomato and onion, a sprinkling of dried basil and diced chilli peppers, according to how hot you like it, and oven-fresh non bread.

String Hoppers à la Qazaq

9 July 2020

With no end in sight to the COVID-19 pandemic – infections continue to rise steadily here in Kazakhstan, averaging around 1500 new cases a day over the last week – it’s time for some more culinary escapism. We’re transporting our taste buds to Sri Lanka for our take on string hoppers, a super tasty noodle, dhal and chutney combo.

SAMSUNG CSC — String Hoppers à la Qazaq with mung bean dhal and coconut and carrot *sambol*

It’s usually served for breakfast on the island, but in our opinion it also works really well as a main meal. Our version features some locally sourced kespe, or noodles, as we couldn’t find red rice noodles in our local supermarket (!) and a dhal made with mung beans – check out KCC’s dhal recipe here (simply replace the red lentils and pumpkin with 200 g mung beans – soak the beans for 3 – 4 hours before cooking).

Green hot chilli peppers

Coconut and carrot sambol

Breakfast Sri Lankan style – string hoppers with coconut sambol and dhal in the background

The sambol, a quick and easy chutney, is an essential part of the string hopper experience. It saves on waste, as you can use the dried coconut left over from making the coconut milk for the dhal – click here for our coconut milk recipe.

Kespe – noodles from Kazakhstan

Carrot and Coconut Sambol

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

50 g desiccated (dried) coconut
150 g carrot
One small onion
One small tomato
One fresh green chilli
One lemon

Method

Grate the tomato and mix with the finely chopped onion in a large bowl. Add the dried coconut and the juice of the lemon and then add the grated carrot and combine all the ingredients together. Gradually add the finely chopped green chilli, tasting every now and then until you reach your chilli heat tolerance levels.
Serve alongside the mung bean dhal mentioned above and with noodles or spaghetti — use about 75 g of dried pasta per person, cooked according to the instructions on the pack.