This recipe is really thanks to Zeliha İrez, Özge’s mother, but I’m naming it after Özge as she helped make it while we stayed with them.  In fact, Özge has not (yet) taken after her mother kitchen-wise, but does know how to boil an egg.  This is a great little starter or amuse bouche, and so simple to make. Go on, try it!

This wonderful appetizer made from dried 'bakla' (broad beans) was one of dozens of beautiful meze which Zeliha Irez cooked for us at her guesthouse in Turkey.  The recipe is hers, and I have yet to make it myself at home.  Let me know how it goes if you try it…

The aubergine (patlıcan) must be the Turks’ favourite vegetable.  It is prepared 100 different ways and features in appetizers, mains and even desserts.  The zeytinyağlı method of cooking is common in western Turkey, along the Aegean coast where olive oil is plentiful.  

Patlıcan zeytinyağlı could be served as an appetizer, lunch dish or accompaniment to meat.  In Turkey it would be a meze, with which you would drink rakı turned cloudy with water.  The recipe comes from the wonderful Zeliha Irez, who runs a superb guesthouse in the hills east of Istanbul.

This recipe for topik, as it is called in Turkish, is thanks to Zeliha İrez, who delighted us with them when we stayed at her gorgeous guesthouse in the hills east of Istanbul.  Turkish cuisine bears some influences from its neighbour Armenia.  These balls make a very elegant starter, and can be made and frozen in advance, which is a bonus.  I haven’t tried making them at home yet, so let me know how it goes if you try them…