Background
I first began to write down my recipes when I thought that Feyzan, my daughter may one day wonder how I prepared certain dishes. She loved the idea and I gradually added to it, including some of our favourite baking, dessert and other recipes. By the time she went to University, Feyzan took with her a printed out copy of all the recipes. My husband thought they could be put in a better order and with his encouragement and help I now have a recipe CD 'book'. Here is the background to the compilation of Joan’s Recipe CD.
Having spent a good few years living in Turkey, my home cooking has become an unusual mix of British and Turkish. I was brought up in England on wholesome, plain British cooking, together with its wealth of desserts and home baking and my memories are of family meals together. My grandmother, who spent most of her working life in catering and as an excellent pastry cook seems to have instilled some of the passion of cooking into me! Seeing her help my mother in the kitchen, ensured that I never forgot what a pleasure it is to cook for people we love. Our family visits to my dad’s aunties were always highlighted by a roast dinner and afternoon tea. The highlight of the tea was the home-made cake selection. I remember the pleasure on their faces as they saw us enjoy every last crumb!
My move to Turkey when I married my husband opened up a whole new cuisine for me and what a treasure that was. I became familiar with the most unfamiliar vegetables at that time, aubergines, courgettes, bell peppers. They had just begun to be more available in England and were sold in ones and twos. I had no idea how to cook them! I had never seen fresh spinach, only when it came out of a tin, which bore no comparison to the vibrant, crunchy leaves we can now buy. The dishes to be made from such a variety of vegetables was an exciting prospect in those early days and has been a complete pleasure to learn since.
One of my most exciting discoveries was that of the Turkish pastry – yufka. The style and combinations of this pastry are seemingly endless. I have included only a few recipes here and at the moment, this is the only ingredient that I can’t find readily available in England. Otherwise the nearest substitute is filo pastry. The difference being, that yufka is thicker, not prone to dry out so quickly and is extremely easy to handle. In Turkey it is sold in large round sheets and makes amazing pastries and pies in any number of ways, frying, baking, soaking then baking - but all producing wonderfully different results. In the meantime, it has to be either homemade (not really an option in this busy age) or substituted with filo….and it is left to bringing it back from our visits! Update: However, since starting this CD, as at 2008, I have now found another good substitute - vacuum-packed yufka - which is available in some international grocers or via the internet! This is explained in the Information section.
So slowly, by watching, learning and tasting (!), I built up my repertoire of the two cuisines.
Some of the recipes are named as their Turkish counterparts, just because they have become such a familiar part of our lives over the years that we simply cannot call them by any other name. Others are written as English translations, but their Turkish name is bracketed beneath. Most of the Turkish recipes have been adapted to our kitchen to make them less time consuming to prepare.
In this new look version of my CD, I have added a lot more photos and new recipes, including one or two I enjoyed whilst on a recent Cookery Course in 2007.
During 2014 a Curries section was added.
Please look through the information section before browsing the CD.
I hope you will enjoy at least some of the recipes that we have enjoyed, as a family, over the years.
Joan
Jan 2008
(Update Jan 2015)