🥢 A Cuisine That Bridges Continents
Turkish cuisine bridges continents — Ottoman palace dishes, Anatolian home cooking, and the meze culture of sharing, unified by a national obsession with grilled meat, fresh bread and strong tea.
Kebab
Grilled Meat
Turkey's gift to world cuisine—countless regional variations.
Ingredients: 500g lamb or beef, minced or cubed, For adana: fat, red pepper, sumac, Lavash bread, Grilled vegetables, Yogurt, sumac onions.
Preparation: Fore şiş: cube meat, marinate, skewer. For adana: mix mince with fat and spices, mold on wide skewer. Grill over charcoal. Then serve on lavash with vegetables. Finally, add yogurt and onions with sumac.
💡 Adana kebab needs fat (20-30%)—lean meat makes dry kebabs.
İmam Bayıldı
Stuffed Eggplant
Eggplant stuffed with tomatoes and onions—'the imam fainted' from delight.
Ingredients: 2 small eggplants, 2 onions, sliced, 4 tomatoes, diced, Garlic, parsley, Olive oil (lots), Sugar, salt.
Preparation: Partially peel eggplants in stripes. After that, slit lengthwise, salt, rest. Fry onions in olive oil until soft. Then add tomatoes, garlic, cook down. Stuff eggplants with mixture. Bake with water and more oil.
💡 The name means 'the imam fainted'—from pleasure, or from cost of oil!
Baklava
Layered Pastry
Layers of filo, nuts, and syrup—Ottoman sweet perfection.
Ingredients: 1 pack filo pastry, 300g walnuts or pistachios, chopped, 200g butter, melted, For syrup: sugar, water, lemon, rose water.
Preparation: Layer filo, brushing each with butter. After that, add nut layer halfway. Continu layering filo with butter. Then cut into diamonds before baking. Bake until golden. To finish, pour cold syrup over hot baklava.
💡 Cut before baking, syrup cold on hot pastry—never reverse.