John Gregory-Smith - Turkish Delights: Stunning regional recipes from the Bosphorus to the Black Sea

John Gregory-Smith is a chef and food writer who specialises in Turkish cuisine. He is passionate about Turkey having explored the country extensively over the last 10 years and regularly hosts Turkish pop-ups and secret supper clubs in London.

This is Johns third book and follows the success of Mighty Spice Cookbook and Mighty Spice Express. He is the founder of online magazine Eat Travel Live, a weekly columnist for Grazia and has presented programmes on TV in both the UK and USA.

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introduction

With so many wonderful regions and food so deeply steeped in culture and history, it is easy to be inspired by the cuisine of this magnificent country.

I first visited Turkey ten years ago with my father, who was brought up there. When he was a boy, he lived in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, in Central Anatolia, and he has beautiful black and white photos of family holidays to Ephesus, an Ancient Greek city on the Ionian coast, in the 1950s. He remembers the food of his home country only too well, and Ive certainly inherited his love for this exquisite cuisine. On that first visit, I took my dad to iya, a kebab restaurant on a busy backstreet on the Asia side of Istanbul, surrounded by vibrant shops selling piles of fresh herbs, vegetables, nuts, dried fruits, coffee and olive oil.

The menu at iya was very eastern Turkish, with stews, meze, kebabs and incredible homemade breads. They had a small display of tempting food laid out canteen-style as we walked in and a great wood-fired oven crackling away at the back.

We sat outside the restaurant, chatting in the sunshine and waiting for our food. I knew I must be in for a treat, but I was unprepared for just how good it was. I had ordered their speciality, the iya kebab. It was a minced beef kebab wrapped in thin pastry with mint, a stringy, mozzarella-like cheese (lor peyniri) and walnuts. The kebab was baked until golden and served with yogurt. Tasting the first bite of that kebab was a real revelation for me it was so delicious.

We also ate meze salads, stuffed dried aubergines, ili kfte (a fried meatball kfte), okra cooked in tomato and garlic, lentil soup and a wonderful chicken pilav that was baked in a dough case and turned out at the table. At first glance, it looked like a traditional British suet pudding, but as I broke into the crispy golden pastry the aromas of black pepper, allspice and cinnamon wafted up. A perfect pilav was inside, beautifully spiced, with shredded chicken and almonds. What a feast. I had fallen for Turkish food and good God, I had fallen hard.

I was hooked, and so began years of trips to Turkey to discover more about the cuisine, along with hours dining in the Turkish restaurants of East London thank you Mangal and Tas Tirin. My cupboards became stocked with Turkish ingredients as I explored more and more traditional recipes. My father was thrilled with my new-found love for the flavours of his childhood, and I loved hearing his memories. It helps that my partner, Murat, is also Turkish, and together we have had many great adventures discovering more of his beautiful home country.

It is the history of this part of the world that makes Turkish cuisine so interesting.

Turkey is a vast country of dramatically varying yet stunningly beautiful landscapes. Enormous, snow-capped mountains dominate the east, huge, lake-covered plains make up the centre, and tall pine forests roll down into the Black Sea in the north. The Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea hug the southern and western coasts. Here, the temperature is blissful, the rugged coves give way to white sandy beaches and the hills are littered with oregano-scented stone villages. Further up the coast lies Istanbul, one of the great cities of the world and the bridge between Europe and the East.

Turkish people are very warm and welcoming. Family is extremely important to them and so is food. Hugely varied, it covers everything from freshly cooked light coastal cuisine to fiery eastern kebabs and opulent Ottoman dishes.

It is the history of this part of the world that makes Turkish cuisine so interesting. Turkey is a relatively new country, born on 29th October 1923, when Atatrk founded The Republic of Turkey, ending the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire. Before this, the Lycians, Persians, Ancient Greeks, Romans and Byzantines all passed through, conquering and falling. Turkey was the link between East and West and the bridge of the Silk Road, which saw spices and other precious cargoes transported across Europe. Each culture brought their religions, customs and food, which were absorbed like a sponge into this melting pot of a country.

The Ottoman Empire had been one of the largest in the world the sultans reigned over all of Asia Minor and parts of Europe. Their religion was Islam, but as they conquered further East and West they assimilated new cultures and traditions. The reign of Sultan Sleyman in the 1500s was the start of a golden age for the Ottoman Empire, where art, culture and cuisine flourished. Taking influence from Anatolia, Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East and North Africa, Ottoman cuisine evolved and was refined. At its peak, during the 18th and 19th centuries, the palaces of Istanbul (then called Constantinople) set a new standard in lavish food. The kitchens of the Topkapi Palace housed 1,300 chefs, who cooked regular feasts for the sultans and their guests. They enjoyed lamb stews flavoured with paprika and walnuts, roasted pigeon, pilav with fruit and nuts, boreks, stuffed pepper dolma, spicy kebabs and smooth, milky puddings.

Istanbul was the centre of the world for an empire that spanned three continents. Trade was ruthlessly controlled and exotic ingredients flowed along the Silk Road. Hungry Ottomans, ever keen to impress, absorbed what they could into their cuisine. Today, Turkish cuisine has not forgotten any of this and the fertile country is blessed with incredible produce. The food is regional, seasonal and steeped in history. As you explore you will start to notice how the food varies from region to region, but also that firm favourites like kebabs, breads and baklava are enjoyed everywhere.