Yoghurt is one of the most important components of the modern Mediterranean diet and there is rarely a table where it isn’t featured in some form or other; as part of a main dish, as a dip mixed with chopped herbs, in a dessert or even as a drink. On Mondays, our evening meal often consists of various…
Category: Breakfast
Greek Island Tzatziki with Dill and Mint
Originating from the Ottoman Empire, this is my version of the popular Greek dish, tzatziki (known as cacık in Turkey). It’s simply a bowl of great quality Greek yoghurt getting it on with little cubes of crunchy cucumber, lots of finely chopped garlic, briny sea salt, a glug of grassy Kalamata olive oil, a generous…
Turkish-style Baked Eggs with Biber Salçası
Here’s a very quick one for you. I’m dashing about all over the place right now so, for supper last night, I threw together these Turkish-style eggs. It’s another perfect dish for these cooler autumnal evenings or brunch. Ingredients 1 tsp cumin seeds A splash of extra-virgin olive oil 450g jar of roasted red peppers, drained…
Greek Island Feta and Tomato Saganaki
Last week, it was so hot I could barely face going into the kitchen let alone cooking in it so our evening meals had to be supper simple and quick to make such as this Greek feta and tomato saganaki (a term used to describe a variety of small dishes made in a frying pan) finished with a roasted…
Mallorcan Smoky Tomato and Garlic Dip
On a recent trip to Mallorca, breakfast consisted of endless cups of darkly strong black coffee, freshly baked ‘ensaïmada‘ – a beloved Mallorcan sweet pastry originating from Arabia – and ‘pan con tomate‘ (Spanish tomatoes on garlicky toast). I could happily live forever on the latter so I wanted to create something similar for this…
Aleppo Muhammara (Red Pepper and Roasted Walnut Dip)
It was coming to the end of a long and sultry day as I languidly lay upon a heap of vintage embroidered cushions, the candle-lit lanterns flickering in the warm breeze of the early evening; the music in the background was haunting and exotic as if it were calling me from a far away place….
Pide Ekmeği (Turkish Flatbread)
We used to live by Broadway Market in Hackney and pretty much every day, I would call by the local Turkish store to pick up a loaf of this Turkish flatbread known as pide ekmeği or ramazan pidesi. I love its light, chewy texture, the natural sweetness of the dough and the nutty, super-umami finish of…
Greek White Peach & Orange Blossom Spoon Sweets (Gliko Koutaliou Rodakino)
When I was a little girl, I had a babysitter named Barbara. She fell in love with a Greek musician called Costa who used to feed me and my little brother a style of preserved fruit originating from the Byzantine kitchen that is traditionally served as a gesture of hospitality in Greece, Turkey and the Balkans, usually on special…
Leyla’s Lyutenitsa (Spicy Red Pepper and Tomato Spread)
Leyla is a beauty and one of the most nurturing and interesting women I have ever met. She lives in a huge Bohemian apartment on the top of a quietly crumbling building with views of the Bosphorus and the Dolmabahçe mosque beneath. Books – and there are hundreds of them – are piled high upon ornate…
Jaffa Orange Blossom-infused Labneh
In his book, 88 Short Stories, the writer Guy de Maupassant wrote, ‘Did you ever sleep in a field of orange trees in bloom? The air which one inhales deliciously is a quintessence of perfumes. This powerful and sweet smell, as savoury as a sweetmeat, seems to penetrate one, to impregnate, to intoxicate, to induce languor, to bring…
