Like Strawberry Wine...

On my trip to Turkey a few weeks ago, I stayed one night in an adorable old stone hotel, called the Taş Otel in the town of Alaçati (Ah-la-cha-tuh).  Every afternoon they serve their guests homemade cakes and çay (black tea).  When I went into my room, there was a cookbook laid out on the bed.  What?!  To an avid baker, this was basically the best gift ever.  Who needs mini soaps or lotions or a mint on their pillow?  Give me the cake. 

So, last weekend I was up in Cape Cod visiting my parents, relaying the details of my trip to them – seemed like the perfect time to test out one of these recipes.  My mom is also a baker and my parents love sweets.  My mom picked this recipe for us (and wrote down another to try later herself).  This cake was super easy to whip up.  My dad is allergic to nuts so we left them out, and frankly, I think the texture of the cake was a bit too soft to handle them.   

I made this in a loaf pan thinking it would have the texture of banana or zucchini bread, but it’s actually much lighter and fluffier than that.  The loaf pan was okay, but I think next time I’d use a 9" round or 9x9" square pan and eat this with a fork.  Loaf pan/round pan/nuts/no nuts – do what you prefer, but definitely give this a try.  The orange flavor comes through nicely but isn’t overpowering, and the ricotta provides that perfectly satisfying crumby texture.  No icing necessary.

And of course - when in Turkey, stay at the Taş!  Alacati Tas Otel

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter, softened

225g sugar

3 eggs

450g AP flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla

Grated zest of 2 oranges (I used 1)

2 spoonfuls orange marmalade (I used 2 rounded Tbsp)

100ml orange juice

100g chopped walnuts (I omitted)

125g ricotta (I used lowfat)

Instructions

Ok first let’s set the mood…listen to this while you read this post:  Zaynah - Kate Linn

This song was on the radio in almost every cab I took in Istanbul.  In fact, I “Shazamed” it during one of my rides because it was so familiar by that point I had to know what it was.  I kinda love it.  Anyway, let’s get to the trip…

Basically, I spent two weeks eating my way through Istanbul (and parts of southwest Turkey) with some friends, and I loved every minute.  We got a ton of sightseeing in too.  It was rare if we made it home before midnight.  We’d leave the house before noon and tool around all day, generally starting with a big traditional breakfast, tea and coffee, and then ending the day with wine and mezze.

Items of note:

1) Turks absolutely love yogurt, eggplant, meat (beef and lamb) and bread.  Lots of other things too obviously, but those three things play a prominent role in their diet.

2) You start your day with tea (çay – pronounced chai), have breakfast, then move on to coffee afterwards.  If you start with coffee, chances are, you aren’t Turkish.

3) It’s perfectly acceptable to have at least 5-10 glasses of çay per day.

4) Simit is sold everywhere for about $0.37 each (1 Turkish Lira).  The easiest way to describe it is a large, skinny, sesame bagel that’s a little dry.  It is truly a staple.  I found it much tastier when slathered with jam, honey or olive tapenade.

5) In addition to simit, another favorite treat is kaymak - clotted cream made from water buffalo milk.  Yes, seriously.  Our food tour guide referred to this as "The Queen" of Turkish breakfast.  Generally, a large glob of it is placed on a plate and surrounded by honey.  You take a smear of the cream and honey, smear it on your simit then groan in delight.  Typically it is eaten maybe once a week or so - its not an everyday thing by any means, but I'll tell ya - every place I had breakfast had kaymak!  Here's an article about it: Kaymak

6) Baklava does not have honey in it!  Who knew?  I think here in the States, it usually does, but traditionally it gets its sticky sweetness from simple syrup (sugar dissolved into water).

7) You will be hard pressed to find other types of food in Istanbul.  Turks love Turkish food – why would they eat anything else?!  I’m down…

In addition to eating out for every meal for two weeks, a friend and I did a culinary walking tour around the Beyoğlu neighborhood, including parts of Cihangir and Taksim.  It was really interesting and fun to check out some little mom & pop places tucked into the neighborhoods.  I highly recommend doing one if you have the time.  Here is the site we used:  Culinary Tour

Ok - I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.  The moral is, Turkish food is fresh, full of flavor, and relatively healthy compared to other cuisines.  

Ok so maybe shape-wise these don’t look so great, but hey, everyone has to start somewhere.  Before these, I didn’t even think homemade English muffins were an option.  Not really sure why, I have made tons of other bread products over the years, but when Thomas’ makes them as tasty as they do, why mess with it?  But you know me, I’ve gotta see for myself…

Well, other than a little time for this dough to rest, these were SO easy.  Like for real.  Mix up the dough, let it sit for an hour or two.  Scoop them into a pan to brown for a few minutes on each side, then transfer them to a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 more minutes.  Before you know it you have some really delicious muffins.  And I know exactly what ingredients I put in them – nothing fake or preserved about them.  Now that’s my kind of nooks and crannies.

Here are the ingredients and a link to play-by-play instructions:

2 ¼ tsp instant (rapid rise) yeast

⅓ cup warm water (between 100º-110ºF)

¾ cup buttermilk, room temperature

½ cup low-fat Greek yogurt, room temperature (I used nonfat)

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 ½ tsp honey (Optional)

1 tsp kosher salt

2 cups white whole wheat flour (King Arthur Flour, of course!)

½ tsp baking soda

Yellow cornmeal, for sprinkling on the baking sheet

English Muffins

I’ve been craving a good home-cooked, home-style meal.  These gray days just make me want to turn on Netflix, get under a blanket and eat something warm and comforting.  Enter the Crockpot – a little work with a bigger return.  This time, I put an entire chicken in it and wow, it was literally falling off the bone when it was done.  Now this isn’t your beautiful, golden, crispy skinned chicken – this one is all about tenderness and flavor, and it delivers on both.

While a big pile of mashed potatoes would have been amazing with this, I opted for a slightly healthier, lower-carb option – mashed cauliflower.  I cut up an entire head and steamed it.  Admittedly, I did include one Yukon Gold potato, just to help with the texture – I mean come on, try as I might, that cauliflower is not going to turn out like potatoes do.  At any rate, when it was all tender, I followed the same process that you do with potatoes – a little butter, a splash of milk, some salt & pepper, and in this case some garlic powder….quite tasty if I do say so myself!  Tasty enough to fool my stomach (this time at least).  It’s definitely worth a try, if you haven’t already done it.

But back to the chicken.  It’s pretty simple – you cook up some onions, garlic and tomato paste, add a few other flavor components, then pour it all into the Crockpot.  Place the chicken on top and let it go.  The recipe calls for cooking it for 4-6 hours.  I went with 5, and I think I easily could have cut off at least 30 minutes, but it will depend on the size of your chicken as well as your Crockpot.   Get ready to enjoy the amazing aroma that will soon fill your house.

Here’s the recipe:

Brown Eyed Baker

By the way, this says to skim the fat from the cooking juices, then strain it and serve with the chicken.  I went ahead and cooked it down with a little flour to make it more of a gravy than juice.  I highly recommend that method.

And if what you’re looking for is that crispy-skinned version, look no further than this one – Oh. My. Yum:    The Bitten Word