Turkish Tuesday #22

Over the year, Margot, Clayton and I have watched a lot of Food Network episodes....one of our favorite shows is Iron Chef, maybe because it can sometimes feel like every meal cooked here is done Iron-Chef-style (aka in a time crunch, with limited ingredients, and multiple judges ready--or otherwise willing--to vote on whose food was the best-executed).

My 22nd Turkish Tuesday, though, was really the combined work of two Yalovan Iron Chefs--Margot and myself. For this week's challenge, we embarked on a true battle of perseverance: a vegetarian barbeque using only readily-available Turkish ingredients and no mechanical equipment.

I mention the lack of mechanical equipment only because it turns out that making veggie burgers requires a TON of finely dicing and grating.  In a normal, modern American kitchen, you would have a cuisinart with multiple blades and multiple settings. The walnuts, the parsley, the carrots, the beans, even the crackers to become breadcrumbs, could be perfectly processed in a few finger presses.  In Yalova, though, we had no such luck. I chopped and chopped and chopped. My fingers got numb, the cutting board was dyed green. Margot endured the worst possible onion tears, following the directions and grating a full onion, using the cheese grater (only one we had). I improvised a mortar and pestle for breadcrumbs, using a cereal bowl and the top of a Jack Daniels handle.


Our commitment to culinary success didn't stop there. While Margot julienned some colorful vegetables, I made a new Turkish recipe (Patlican Salatasi--garlic, yogurt, eggplant salad), and we worked together on the mehane pilavi (bulgur).


It took almost 2 hours, a lot of creativity and round of seasonal Efes', but the results were worth it. I've never really had a homemade veggie burgers, but these were delicious. And the eggplant yogurt sauce was great to have on them, too.

We impressed the judges (ourselves) and had leftovers, but not too many. The best part of all? Having fun together while sharing our kitchen in Yalova one last time... (awww.) :-)