Turkish Delights - Recipe

Vegetarian Journal, Sept, 2000 by Sally Bernstein

My guidebook warned that the concept of vegetarianism mystifies Turkish chefs. A dish will be described as meatless when it has been cooked in [meat] stock and has lumps of lamb fat floating in it." And all of this information was listed in a section labeled "Vegetarian Woes." Nevertheless, I was undeterred from visiting Turkey, a country graced with some of the world's most spectacular architecture and a pivotal role in human history. After all, the concept of vegetarianism mystifies many chefs in the US, too. At least the Turks, who boast an overwhelmingly Muslim population, would be familiar with the concept of dietary restrictions and prohibitions.

The Turks' worship of vegetables is obvious throughout their cuisine. Even Turkish artwork reflects this respect: one of the most celebrated attractions of Konya, the Central Anatolian city also famous for its mystical Whirling Dervishes, is the massive stone portal of the Stone and Woodwork Museum, with its bas-relief of artichokes. Here was a vego-centricity I could work with!

TURKISH CUISINE

Food looms large in Turkish history and culture. The Janissaries, the elite Ottoman military corps, were originally organized in ranks corresponding to different cooking trades. To signify revolt against the sultan, the Janissaries would dramatically overturn their pilaf cauldrons, and the revolt would commence.

Much of Turkey's food is similar to the better-known cuisines of the Middle East and Greece: lots of lamb, yogurt, eggplant, chickpeas, olives, mint, and super-sweet pastry. The country straddles two continents, Europe and Asia, and a few climatic zones. When I visited in March, it was snowing. Turkey typically imports very little food, so the availability of produce follows the seasons: winter brings remarkable citrus fruits, and the summer has its luscious melons. Year round, Turkish cuisine is famous for its use of fresh ingredients, and even today, few prepackaged meals are sold.

Despite the ubiquity of vegetables, vegetarians should exercise caution in Turkey. My guidebook was not far afield in its advice. "Stick to the soups," one chef advised me, upon learning that I was a vejeteryan. He then recommended his "best soup" to me--unfortunately, it was the tripe soup. The soups, stews, and simmered dishes that are the backbones of Turkish cooking may be vegetarian, or may not. Dishes that taste more or less the same may be vegan, or they may have meat stock, eggs, or butter. The staple red lentil soup (mercimek corbasi), for example, is very often vegan, but it also may be prepared with egg yolks, butter, and chicken or meat broth. Butter is commonly used for sauteing or frying, but olive oil is also frequently used. When eating out, I found it difficult to predict how a given dish would be prepared, since neither the cost of the meal nor the type of restaurant yielded any consistent indicators. I therefore developed a dining-out phrase list that I depended on when I ate out (see page 20).

Turkish restaurants go by many names, each relating to the foods they serve or their style of dining. There are kebapci (kebab shops), kofteci (shops selling kofte, or Turkish-style meatballs), pideci (Turkish pizza places), bufe and lokanta (buffets and cafeterias), pastane (pastry shops), firin (bakeries), and restoran (high-end restaurants). As a woman traveling by herself, I was pleased to learn that many restaurants have a "family room" or "ladies' salon" called the aile salonu where only families or women may dine. (Remember that women traveling alone in Turkey, as in many Mediterranean countries, may attract more interest than they desire.) Old style coffeehouses, known as kahve, remain a male preserve. Despite the world renown of thick, syrupy Turkish coffee, it is tea, or cay, that is Turkey's most popular drink and social lubricant. Tea is served in almost every social and commercial encounter, generally from beautiful tulip-shaped glasses. In the spring and summer, the country abounds with tea gardens. Turks like to boast that outdoor cafe dining began here before making its way to Paris and Vienna hundreds of years ago, and indeed the country is filled with people eating at cafes, on their balconies and in the parks.

Turkish food is, for the most part, mildly seasoned, although the southeastern part of the country shows signs of Kurdish and Arab culinary influences and is famous for its spicier food. Most Turkish dishes call for a generous amount of oil. One reliably vegetarian method of cooking is the simmering of beans or vegetables in olive oil. Dishes cooked this way, called plakis, are tasty but may be too rich for some. The celebrated eggplant dish, imam biyaldi (literally, "the imam [Muslim cleric] fainted") presumably draws its name from the pleasurable swoon the delicious food caused. But according to one chef, the imam fainted when he learned just how much oil was used in preparing the dish.

The Turks also love to stuff food with other food. Stuffed food dishes include dolma, stuffed vegetables (and the nickname for Istanbul's overstuffed minibuses); borek, dough or noodle pastries stuffed with meat, cheese, or vegetables; and the football-shaped, ground meat patties called kibbeh, available throughout the Middle East, but known in Turkey as kofte. Most of these dishes are not vegetarian, though you may occasionally find a vegetarian kofte made from red lentils and bulgur. Turkish meals typically begin with meze, which is hors d'oeuvres- or tapas-like appetizers that can be easily made into a meal. Meze may include many vegetarian options, including olives or pickled vegetables (tursu), humus, fasulye pilaki, and other bean purees, patlican salatasi (an eggplant puree similar to baba ghanoush), tabbouleh, and salads. Although most main courses feature lamb or another meat, I occasionally found all-vegetable stews, bean dishes, or pasta (makarna). The rice or bulgur pilav (pilaf) that generally accompanies the main dish is often vegetarian as well.