Tag: Türkiye

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.

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.

Flower Power Börek

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.