First of all let me introduce you to Elif. Since I met her early spring this year, Alanya has become an even sunnier place than it already was before. Getting used to living in Turkey has definitely been a lot easier and more fun with a new friend like her in my daily life. Elif is funny, intelligent, well behaved, ‘clumsy-dumsy’ (in her own words) and very beautiful. She’s European and Oriental. She’s ‘Copenhagen chic’ combined with Turkish charms. She’s a believer and social butterfly. She’s milles fleurs and polka dots and she makes people around her smile.
I’m not surprised anymore when I hear that an old man, a total stranger, follows her to her office only to ask her politely if she would be interested to meet his handsome single grandson. Or when the taxi driver compliments me on my kind and beautiful friend after she got off. Or when a police car stops at the bus stop she’s waiting at late at night to escort her home safely. All very normal anecdotes from Elif’s life around here.
I’m not surprised anymore when I hear that an old man, a total stranger, follows her to her office only to ask her politely if she would be interested to meet his handsome single grandson. Or when the taxi driver compliments me on my kind and beautiful friend after she got off. Or when a police car stops at the bus stop she’s waiting at late at night to escort her home safely. All very normal anecdotes from Elif’s life around here.
One of the great things about her is that she can always understand both sides of a European – Turkish relationship. And because she is Turkish herself she can explain to me a lot of things from a girls point of view and make everything complicated sound simple again. And we love to laugh together about the cultural differences and misunderstandings that are inevitable in our situation and make fun of them in a good way. So I learned new things and new ways of thinking from her for which I’m really grateful.
And she can teach me a lot about Turkish Cuisine too. So far my experience has only been based on tasting and enjoying the food. But Elif can actually make it. And she knows some nice traditional dishes. She’s committed and passionately about cooking, the way it was passed on to her by her dear mother and elderly sisters. No scales, counting and measuring in grams, ounces, tablespoons or teaspoons for her. And forget about using only half the vegetable or fruit. Smaller quantities are measured in çay glasses, if anything. ‘You can feel it. And if you want to make it a little stronger or make a bigger portion, just add a little bit more’ is what Elif has to say about that. So this is why I decided that if I was ever going to learn how to cook real Turkish food, I wanted to learn it from her. It’s the way most women still learn to cook in this country.. not through expensive cooking books, fancy magazines or celebrity chef tv shows. But by passing on the knowledge and the skills to each other.
And she can teach me a lot about Turkish Cuisine too. So far my experience has only been based on tasting and enjoying the food. But Elif can actually make it. And she knows some nice traditional dishes. She’s committed and passionately about cooking, the way it was passed on to her by her dear mother and elderly sisters. No scales, counting and measuring in grams, ounces, tablespoons or teaspoons for her. And forget about using only half the vegetable or fruit. Smaller quantities are measured in çay glasses, if anything. ‘You can feel it. And if you want to make it a little stronger or make a bigger portion, just add a little bit more’ is what Elif has to say about that. So this is why I decided that if I was ever going to learn how to cook real Turkish food, I wanted to learn it from her. It’s the way most women still learn to cook in this country.. not through expensive cooking books, fancy magazines or celebrity chef tv shows. But by passing on the knowledge and the skills to each other.
We started our cooking sessions a short while ago. The first thing we made was Kısır, one of my first favorite dishes in Turkey. And it’s great for summer. It’s similar to the Moroccan Couscous. It’s fine Bulgur mixed with chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, spring onions, pepper, paprika powder, salça, parsly, mint, lemon, salt and olive oil. You serve it with fresh yoghurt (or cacık), turșu and sometimes with börek and you can roll it up in long leaves of lettuce and eat it with your hands. Yam! It’s great for picnics and as a side dish as well.
Last week we thought we could do something a little more difficult. Something like Yaprak Sarma. The announcement of our plan to the guys brought us remarks of respect and delight. Clearly everyone loves Sarma here. But it’s known to be a lot of work and nobody makes it better than their own mother. Murat never misses the chance to remind me about his mother’s Sarma that I was lucky enough to taste during her visit from Adana. “Kat, do you remember how we ate the Sarma my mother made when she was here? How was it?” His eyes lit up as he suddenly thought of his mother’s cooking while answering his own question: “Ooh it was so good, she makes it really the best değil mi?” It was 7 years ago but yes, I still remember. And I agreed with him that it was the best Sarma I’ve ever had.
We reserved all afternoon for this event, just in case. Little did we know then that we were going to need it. Sarma is grape leaves filled up with a spiced rice mixture or with bulgur or minced meat if you like (sometimes it's also called dolma). But we went for the classic rice filling. We found fresh leaves on the marked. They have a natural sourness and it tastes even better in the end. The rice mixture was easy. We fried chopped onions and the rice in a pan with olive oil and later added some salça, herbs and salt. We put the leaves into boiling water for about 10 seconds just to soften them. Then we brought everything out to the balcony table and got ready to roll! It was 4 o’clock in the afternoon when we started. Little did we know then that 3 hours later we were still sitting there.. filling up every leave with 1 tablespoon of rice, while we had a pan of almost 1kg rice in front of us. It took forever. And with every leave my respect grew for all the Turkish women making Sarma by themselves. It’s fun to make it with Elif because we never run out of subjects to talk about but I’m not sure I will ever make more than 10 pieces if I would have to do it alone.
By the time the first pan was full, we started cooking the Sarma in a mixture of water, oil, salça and salt. And we got on with the second pan. It had gotten dark already and we lit the candles on the table. As the second pan slowly got fuller the Sarma rolls got bigger and bigger.
But something wasn’t quite right with the cooking.. the rice didn’t cook properly. Elif said that it normally takes 30 minutes to cook them. But it stayed raw for the longest time and so we kept adding water every now and then.. and with that some salt.. and some other things. And so another hour passed with waiting and adding and adding and waiting. Surely this wasn’t the way it was suppose to go but we had so much fun over it. We were patient, but also starving by the time they were done and I made a promise that I would eat anyone’s homemade Sarma more slowly and thankfully next time. But they tasted delicious and we ate a lot of them. Elif took a little bag of it home. We had made so much that I brought Sarma to school the next day to share it with girls during lunch. And to the restaurant for the guys the day after that (they liked it!) and still I had more left over's for the next three days that followed. I'm adding a few pictures of our Sarma marathon below to demonstrate.
By the time the first pan was full, we started cooking the Sarma in a mixture of water, oil, salça and salt. And we got on with the second pan. It had gotten dark already and we lit the candles on the table. As the second pan slowly got fuller the Sarma rolls got bigger and bigger.
But something wasn’t quite right with the cooking.. the rice didn’t cook properly. Elif said that it normally takes 30 minutes to cook them. But it stayed raw for the longest time and so we kept adding water every now and then.. and with that some salt.. and some other things. And so another hour passed with waiting and adding and adding and waiting. Surely this wasn’t the way it was suppose to go but we had so much fun over it. We were patient, but also starving by the time they were done and I made a promise that I would eat anyone’s homemade Sarma more slowly and thankfully next time. But they tasted delicious and we ate a lot of them. Elif took a little bag of it home. We had made so much that I brought Sarma to school the next day to share it with girls during lunch. And to the restaurant for the guys the day after that (they liked it!) and still I had more left over's for the next three days that followed. I'm adding a few pictures of our Sarma marathon below to demonstrate.
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