Fascinating Istanbul

Treats for Seker Bayrami, Eid Al-Fitr – Gullac, Baklava and more

Wonderful blue tiles at the Blue Mosque

There is a wonderful excitement in my parent’s home in Istanbul, as the holy month of Ramadan is now reaching to its end soon. My mother has been fasting, and we are all look forward to being together this year to celebrate the end of Ramadan in Istanbul. Ramadan is a time of spiritual reflection, improvement, charity, as well as increased devotion and worship. I love seeing family and friends visiting each other, elderly eagerly waiting for the young ones to pay a visit; little ones eagerly waiting for their sweet treats. Ramadan is a wonderful opportunity to give back to the community, share what you have and visit one another. A wonderful time when feelings of tolerance and charity are foremost in people’s minds.

Inside of the Blue Mosque; a special time to visit during Ramadan

Gullac

My mother has so many treats in her mind for the family and friends to share. One of her favorite dessert for this time of the year is the traditional dessert, Gullac. This lovely, light dessert is prepared with Gullac wafers which is made with corn starch and wheat flour. You can find Gullac wafers at specialty or Middle Eastern stores, or at Turkish online shops like Tulumba or Marketurk in the UK.

Güllaç contains walnuts or almonds between the layers which are soaked in milk. It is light and wonderful dessert for warm summer days. You can decorate Gullac with pomegranate seeds in winter or dried fruits like apricots in summer; crushed pistachios are also wonderful over gullac.

Delicious and refreshing Gullac dessert, very light too

Ingredients:

1 pack gullac wafers

600gr sugar

3kg milk

6 tbsp rose water

400gr crushed almonds

Chopped dried apricots and crushed pistachios to decorate

Combine milk and sugar in a heavy pan and bring to a boil. Add the rose water to the boiling milk.

Moisten the gullac wafers with milk. Spread the half of the wafers on top of each other on a wide tray. Sprinkle crushed walnuts or almonds in the middle, and stack the rest of gullac layers, soaked in the milk mixture. Pour the rest of the milk mixture over the top wafer and let it cool. Garnish with dried apricot and crushed pistachio and serve.

Here are some more ideas for end of Ramadan treats; who can resist baklava? It is easy to make home made baklava using fillo sheets.

Scrumptious baklava with pistachios

Here is Ekmek Kadayifi – Turkish bread pudding dessert, served with kaymak, our thick clotted cream.

Ekmek Kadayifi; a traditional dessert especially at the southern Turkey

How about our dried fig dessert with stuffed with walnuts? Here, the dried fig is first poached in hot water for a few minutes to soften up then stuffed with nuts.

Poached dried figs stuffed with nuts, decorated with pistachio nuts

As you see, the sweets are the stars for the end of Ramadan festivities. If you rather prefer savory to sweet, then boreks are your best bet. Su borek made with paper thin yufka sheets or with fillo pastry sheets, with cheese and parsley filling, may be just the thing.

Cheese and parsley filled borek; lovely treat

Whatever treat you may choose, I hope you enjoy them and have a chance to share with others.

Blue Mosque from the terrace of the Armada Hotel

Afiyet olsun!

Ozlem

Hellos from Istanbul & Turkish Feast at Istanbul Culinary Institute

By Ozlem Warren on August 15, 2012 in Fascinating Istanbul, Turkish Cooking Classes 6

Our group photo at our cooking class, Istanbul Culinary Institute

Warm greetings to you all from Istanbul, Istanbul’dan merhaba! It has been over a week since we did our Turkish cooking class at Istanbul Culinary, I just had a chance to share some wonderful photos from the class. It was a delicious class, with wonderful, hardworking participants, and we knocked up 4 courses in 2 hours; many thanks to all the participants for their hard work 🙂

Each course took below 30 minutes to prepare – with tray kebab to bake for about 45 minutes -; you can prepare healthy, delicious food in a short period of time and it is a lot of fun to share with others. Above we are making the cevizli biber, red pepper paste with walnuts and olive oil.

Here is dear Oznur, chopping and prepping for the tray kebab

Here is tray kebab ready to enjoy

Everyone worked hard and pleasantly surprised to create dishes in a short period of time; why not you have a go tonight to make the Patlicanli eksileme – smoked eggplant salad with garlic yoghurt? It may be a delicious treat for you too:)

It was lovely to cook and share Turkish food with dear foodies like Nejla

Istanbul Culinary's lovely cafe

Istanbul Culinary Institute also have a lovely cafe with freshly prepared Turkish and international dishes by the Institute’s students, very well worth visiting. Also, do keep an eye out for Joy’s wonderful pastry classes at the Institute!

I would like to say farewell with Kandili Iskele’s – ferry stop- shot; Kandilli is a very quaint village on the Asian side of Istanbul, famous wiith its yoghurt; make sure to stop by there : )

Look forward to saying hello again soon, until then, warm wishes to you all from Istanbul!

Ozlem

Ozlem's Turkish Table at the Hurriyet Daily News! – 7th August, 2012 –

By Ozlem Warren on August 7, 2012 in Fascinating Istanbul, Travels, Turkish Cooking Classes 6

UK-based Turkish chef returns home to teach in Istanbul

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Turkish cook and blogger Özlem Warren has been giving workshops on Ottoman cuisine. Warren is visiting Istanbul to conduct a class at the Istanbul Culinary Institute

“Warren is not only a cook but also an admirer of Ottoman cuisine. She is conscious of the fact that it owes much to diversity of cultures that nurtured it through the centuries.

It may sound a little exaggerated when an expatriate says she has become a cook just because she could no longer do without her national dishes, but this is the story behind the longing that brought Özlem Warren back to her homeland to teach a workshop at an Istanbul’s culinary arts institutes…..”

Hellos and Merhabas again from Istanbul! I am delighted to share that we had an interview with the Hurriyet Daily News. It was wonderful to be able to talk about Turkish cuisine, express the great interest abroad and what can be done furthermore to promote Turkish cuisine. You can read the rest of the article at UK based Turkish chef returns home to teach in Istanbul

Today is my Turkish cooking class at the Istanbul Culinary Institute, and we have a full house : ) I very much look forward to sharing an evening of Turkish cuisine with Turkish and foreign participants, many thanks for all your support and interest.

Fasulye piyazi; a delicious, substantial salad for warm summer days

And here is a refreshing salad idea for the hot summer days; Fasulye Piyazi – Beans with red onion, tomato, boiled egg, olives . This salad is ready within minutes, it is substantial as well as delicious and healthy.

Below are a few photos about our time in Istanbul, hope you enjoy them:

I am getting the dried peppers and aubergines ready for the class tonight!

Dried peppers and aubergines not only make great decoration, they are very tasty too. You need to soak them for a few minuted at boiling water to soften up. Then you can stuff then witrh rice, herbs and ground meat, if you like. They are wonderful when baked with a dollop of yoghurt by the side.