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A Tribute to Malmesbury and The Potting Shed Pub

Greetings from Weybridge, Surrey! We have just moved, busy with unpacking and settling down. We don’t have the internet connection yet, so my sister-in-law kindly let me connect to the world and share this with you, thank you Judith!:)

First a little, special tribute to the wonderful town of Malmesbury, which we called home for a year. A very special town packed with incredible sights; 12th century Abbey, the Market Cross, the wonderful Abbey Gardens, the lovely Bell Hotel (England’s first hotel!) and many more. Malmesbury deserves a visit for sure, if you are in Wiltshire, our home county in England. Malmesbury will be a very special place for us with our family connection and with the wonderful friends we made there, we very much look forward to keeping in touch and visit every opportunity.

Another special note goes for our favorite spot, the Potting Shed Gastro Pub, 5 minutes to Malmesbury. The atmosphere is very quaint and the food is superb. We had to have lunch there again just before we left – in between packing!- and what a special break it was. The service is impeccable, very welcoming too. Here are a couple of what we enjoyed: Smoked Salmon with pickled cucumber, crushed garlic and ginger salad; Home made lamb, rosemary and redcurrant burger with chips and mint mayonnaise (what a great idea!) and for dessert, blackcurrant and lemon cheesecake with yoghurt and lemon sorbet – what a great, affordable feast! Highy recommended – www.thepottingshedpub.com

Within 10 minutes drive from Malmesbury, there is wonderful pubs and eateries, here are a couple of our favorites:
The Vine Tree Pub, The Trouble House, The Chefs Table (by the Michelin Starred Chef) in Tetbury and the Michelin Starred Whatley Manor. A visit to Wiltshire will sure be a delight to all senses, hope we all make it there again!







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Mevlubi; Cevirme Pilav -Upside down rice with meat and eggplants

 

Mevlubi; Upside down rice with layers of meat and vegetables, from Ozlem’s Turkish Table cookery book; image credit: Sian Irvine Food Photography






I am planning to make my mother’s signature dish Mevlubi again this weekend for our family’s Eid, end of Ramadan celebrations. The recipe comes from Antakya, the Southern part of Turkey, where my roots are from. This special dish makes an appearance in every special occasion on my parent’s table and I have been lucky enough to enjoy it with some of you over the years. As you can cook ahead of time, this wonderful all in one dish makes an impressive main course and you get to spend more time with your company. For maximum results, please cook on low heat, at least 2 hours before serving and let the Mevlubi rest. We may not be all together physically, but through our food, we will capture and remember special memories.

Our Bayram meal a few years ago, Istanbul

My mother’s mevlubi

My cookery book, Ozlem’s Turkish Table focuses on southern Turkish recipes and includes southern Turkish classics such as Mevlubi, as well as many other Turkish classics. Signed copies of Ozlem’s Turkish Table now 30 % Off at this link and delivered worldwide including the US

Signed copies of  Ozlem’s Turkish Table cookery book, available to order here

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

Serves 4 people (generously)

About 500 gr/1 1/4 lb chicken thighs or breasts or pieces of steak or lamb, flattened
2-3 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced as half moon shape
2 small/medium eggplants (aubergines), sliced crossways
1 small onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
350 gr/12 oz/ 1 3/4 cups medium grain rice
900 ml/ 3 3/4 cups hot water
Bowl of warm salted water to wash the rice
1 tablespoon of butter
Sunflower oil for shallow frying
Salt and pepper to taste

For marinating the meat:
15 ml/ 1 tablespoon plain yoghurt
15 ml / 1 tablespoon olive oil
5 ml /1 teaspoon cumin
5 ml / 1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 tablespoon of red pepper paste or
10 ml/ 2 teaspoon tomato paste + 5 ml/ 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

Marinate the meat pieces mixing all the marination ingredients above a day in advance, making sure that all meat pieces are well coated. Chicken thighs work better than the chicken breast, bring out more flavor. Cover and keep in the fridge until cooking.

Slice the eggplants (aubergines) in half moon or circle shape, about 2 cm thick. If possible cut the eggplants a day in advance, lay on a tray and sprinkle salt over. Let them dry. Squeeze any water remained on them with paper towel. If you don’t have time, you can slice the eggplants and put them in a bowl of salted cold water for 15 minutes. Then squeeze and dry them with paper towel.

Sauté the eggplants (aubergines), potatoes, onions and the meat (all separately) in the casserole pan you will be cooking with the rice. We shall be using this very same pan to cook our dish. Do shallow frying not deep frying (make sure you have enough oil for eggplants though, since they soak oil a lot). Drain the excess oil by placing them on paper towel. You can do this phase a day in advance and keep all these in the fridge if you’d like.

On the casserole pan, layer the meat pieces to cover the whole surface. Then layer the eggplant slices over the top and then the potatoes slices and the onions evenly.

Soak the rice in warm salted water for 15 minutes, then drain this water and rinse the rice with cold water. Spread the rice over the potato layer evenly. Add hot water over, season with salt and pepper and cover. First start cooking on the medium heat, once it starts bubbling, keep on cooking on the low heat until the rice is cooked and all the water has been absorbed. Then put a tablespoon of butter in the middle of the rice and push down towards the middle. Add two tablespoon of hot water over the rice and cook for another 10-15 minutes on a very low heat. Once the rice is fully cooked, turn the heat off, put a paper towel over and cover with the lid tightly. The rice will keep on cooking with this steam. Make sure you cook the Mevlubi about 2 hours before you serve. That will give  it a chance to rest and all the flavors blend together.

15 minutes before serving, reheat the casserole pan on a very low heat. Once it is hot, turn the casserole pan over a big serving plate or tray gently. With the moisture it has, it should come out like a cake. Non-stick pan work well, steel is good too.

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

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Let's Do Lunch; Delicious, Healthy and Affordable – Turkish Style




I had to share this experience with you. My friend wanted to prepare a Turkish mezze lunch for her guests. So we took the morning off from the daily chores and very much enjoyed a couple of hours of preparing and sharing delicious Turkish mezzes. This was my friend’s first experience of Turkish cooking and I am delighted to say that she is now a Turkish food fan:)

In a couple of hours, we prepared the bulgur wheat salad with pomegranate molasses (under “Salads” in the blog), Corgette/Zuccihi fritters with feta and dill, the Walnut and red pepper paste dip and the Lentil&bulgur; patties (all under “Appetizers and Mezes” in the blog). My friend couldn’t believe how easy it was to pull these together, how delicious, healthy and affordable all these were. Indeed it is very true; Turkish food makes use of fresh produce, nuts, olive oil and spices. We don’t use cream or other rich ingredients. Instead we use spices to flavor the dishes, so at the end, you don’t feel heavy.

And another great news is that you can prepare all these a couple of days in advance and keep in the fridge, a very convenient, hassle free way for entertaining (these mezes actually taste even better the next day!)

I know many of you really enjoy following the recipes and I hope this may encourage you to try to make them. Why not getting together with friends or family and prepare a Turkish meze lunch? I feel once you give it a go, you will keep on making and enjoying them.

As always, your questions are always welcome, I would be very happy to help.

Happy Cooking and Afiyet Olsun!

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