I haven't had much to blog about these past weeks, which I guess you can tell.
My out-laws are here for the week. Although it's a bit cramped at home, it's nice to come home to a warm house with the smell of delicious home cooked food floating in the air, not the mention the three large boxes or food, including meat, dry ingredients and fruit and veggies they bought with them. My fridge, needless to say, is busting at the sides due to the fact that we stocked the near empty thing prior to their arrival in order to avoid the embarrassment that would follow when his mother inspected the fridge!
Cooking is a chore for me, especially since I work full-time and dinner is never on the table before 8pm, unless we called out for it! It's hard to be inspired about food when you have slaved over your job all day and then need to muster up some energy to do it all again at home. I wish I didn't feel this way about cooking as I love food and love all that Turkish food has to offer. I find it hard to think on the spot about something to cook and feel that cooking a meal is a great effort.
Recently though I have been thinking about taking a cooking class. I'm not totally hopeless in the kitchen, don't get me wrong, but living in Turkey requires some know how in the basics of Turkish cuisine in order to whip up meals any night of the week without sending myself into a panicked frenzy.
I've made an inquiry about a cooking class and hope to be able to take some casual classes in the coming months. It's not easy to find the time for that also with Turkish classes on Saturday and Sunday. But it might be a nice break away from the languages classes maybe once or twice a month in order to give me some time for something that I want to be good at, ah, not that I don't want to be good at Turkish, but, you know, something else. And also something that I can impress my husband with. He always says how good my lasagna/pasta/roast lamb is, but I can't keep cooking those same things all the time.
For you Turkish cooks out there, what are some easy Turkish meals that you whip up in no time? I'd be interested to hear.
4 comments:
I'm no turkish cook, but tonight I whipped up stuffed red peppers. It's so easy. Just brown some onion, mince in a little oil, add some cinnamon, paprika, roasted pine nuts, currants, stock cube, cook till brown. Then had 1 cup rice and 2 cups water, put lid on till rice cooks. Meanwhile halve your peppers brush with oil, little garlic, bake till softish. Fill with mix and bake for a bit longer and you are done! Delish, easy, tasty. You can do that oids!!
I think I have pretty much failed at Turkish cooking :( And with no oven roast lamb and lasagna are off the menu too - Greg Malouf's cookbook Turquoise has some beautiful Turkish recipes in it though (he puts his own spin on them but uses lots of Turkish ingredients - like pekmez!). I have a copy here so if you ever want to have a look...
Verity, I saw that book at my mums house and thought it looked divine. I might just have to have a look at it and try and find something "easy"...
btw, how do you get by without an oven?
The peppers sound easy enough, might give them a go! Maybe I can use the dried eggplant and peppers I have from the village?
Turkish cooking is very time consuming. My kids love Dolma and Kofte, but I have to be really inspired to prepare these dishes, as the preparation and cooking time in quite long.
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