Cooking notes

While most of the ingredients used in Turkish cooking are readily available, there are a few essential items that you probably won’t find in your local supermarket. Make a trip to a Turkish or Middle Eastern grocer, specialty food store or good delicatessen to track them down.

The following notes will be helpful to those who are unfamiliar with Turkish cuisine.

amardine Sheets of dried apricot paste, available from Middle Eastern stores and specialty food shops.

ayran A drink made from yoghurt and water, often with a little salt.

beyaz peynir A soft white cheese, very similar to fetta. Can be made from cow, sheep or goat’s milk.

börek Generic name for savoury pies and pastries.

bulgur (cracked wheat) Comes in numerous grades, from coarse to medium or fine, and is also available as the whole grain. Bulgur is a staple widely used in Turkish cooking, often as an alternative to rice.

çay Turkish tea. Always served black, and sweetened to taste.

çemen A pungent paste used to coat pastirma. Usually made from fenugreek, cumin, garlic and hot paprika.

dolma Generic name for stuffed vegetables.

freekeh Whole wheat grains harvested while ‘green’, or immature. They are fire-roasted, which burns the chaff but leaves the young kernels intact. Freekeh is most often used to make into pilav.

hamsi Anchovies from the Black Sea.

kahve Turkish coffee.

kaymak Very thick, rich clotted cream made from water buffalo milk. Used as a filling for desserts, or sometimes as an accompaniment to them. As a substitute use clotted cream or cream mixed with mascarpone or créme fraîche.

kirmizi biber Turkish red pepper, either flaked or ground. Used as a popular seasoning in Turkish cooking, its flavour ranges from mild and sweet to fiercely hot.

köfte Loosely translates to a group of minced or pounded dishes. They can be made from meat or vegetables, flavoured with herbs and spices, and sometimes combined with bulgur or rice. Köfte come in numerous shapes and forms. Some are eaten raw, others are baked or fried. The most commonly found köfte are minced meatballs.

kaar peyniri (kasseri) Semi-hard pale yellow cheese made from sheep’s milk. Similar to cheddar, it ranges from mild to sharp. The best substitutes would be a strong, sharp cheddar or pecorino.

mahleb A coarse powder made from ground cherry kernels. It is often used to flavour sweet breads, cakes and biscuits.

mastic The resinous gum from the acacia tree. It is sold as small crystals and has a subtle pine flavour. Mastic is used in Turkish ice-cream to give it a chewy consistency, and is also used to flavour milk puddings and ice-creams.

pastirma Air-dried beef coated in a pungent, bright red paste. Similar to pastrami, it is cut into very thin slices and eaten on its own or in savoury pastries. It is often fried with eggs as a popular breakfast dish.

pekmez A thick syrup made from boiled and concentrated grape juice. Also called grape molasses, it is widely used as a sweetener and is sometimes mixed with tahini and spread on bread.

nar ekisi A thick syrup made from boiled and concentrated pomegranate juice. Also called pomegranate molasses, it has a sweet-sour flavour and is often added to dressings, salads or meat dishes.

raki Turkey’s national drink. It is made from distilled grape juice, flavoured with aniseed. Similar to ouzo or arak, it is transparent in its ‘neat’ state, but turns milky-white when diluted with water.

rosewater Distilled from rose petals, rosewater is used to flavour milk puddings, sherbets and syrups.

sahlab The ground root of an orchid that grows in eastern Anatolia. It has thickening properties and is often added to dondurma, the distinctively chewy Turkish ice-cream. It is also added to milk to make a thick, sweet hot drink. Pure sahlab is almost mpossible to find, especially outside Turkey and the Middle East, but powdered ‘instant’ sahlab is available from Middle Eastern stores.

sivi tas Standard set yoghurt made from full-fat cow, goat or sheep’s milk. As a substitute, use thick tub-set Greek-style yoghurt.

sucuk Spicy Turkish sausage.

sumac A dried dark-red berry with a sour, citrus flavour. It may be ground and added to meats or salads. Sometimes the roughly crushed berries are steeped in water and the aromatic liquid is used in cooking or to make sherbets.

süzme Thick yoghurt made by hanging sivi tas to drain away the whey. It is often used to make herb-flavoured spreads or dips and is also used in cooking.

tahini A thick paste made from ground sesame seeds. It is used to make spreads or dressings and is sometimes mixed with pekmez and spread on bread.

tarator A thick sauce or dressing made from ground nuts, garlic, bread, oil and vinegar. The nuts may be walnuts, hazelnuts or almonds, depending on the region.

tarhana A mixture of yoghurt and ground bulgur that is sun-dried and ground to a powder. In some parts of Turkey it is pressed into sheets and sold as wafers.

Turkish red pepper paste A concentrated paste of red peppers, available from Turkish and Middle Eastern food stores. It comes in mild (sade) and hot (aci) versions and is used to flavour meat or vegetable stews.

yufka Thin pastry sheets used to make sweet and savoury pastries. Filo pastry can be used as an acceptable substitute in some recipes, but yufka pastry is increasingly available from Turkish or Middle Eastern stores.