Thanksgiving in Turkey.
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| hmmm, and where might you be going? |
As exciting as that statement was upon arrival to this strange and fine-smelling country, the thought made me a bit homesick. Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday, and the one on which I tend to see the majority of my immediate family.
And to state another obvious reason as to why it's a favorite: it's completely centered around eating. And maybe you didn't know this about me, but I like eating.
So not only would we
miss out on our plans to meet up with my Mom and Dad in Israel for turkey day, now we would be in a completely new country with no family and absolutely no idea what we would be doing come Thursday.
But plans happen in an instant. After about 50 e-mails to various hosts signed up with
Workaway.info (a website that sets up work opportunities for volunteers in exchange for room and board), I finally heard back from a permaculture farm just north of Istanbul, near the Black Sea.
After reading their profile, what hooked me was one simple sentence, "We will live all together in the farm and we will eat organic delicious Turkish food from the experimental cuisine of Nar."
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Radish "hummus" (more on that later)
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| Turkish pasta with lentils, yogurt, a spicy olive oil glaze, and fried noodles to garnish |
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| Pan fried potatoes, eggplant, and peppers smothered with lightly sauteed fresh tomatoes and ground cherries |
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| Bulgur pilaf, a fresh red chile paste, and flatbread stuffed with sauteed greens |
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We landed in Istanbul from Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning, and we were seated at the large wooden picnic table in Nar's garden by lunchtime.
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| This is going to be a little awkward, but when I said "we were seated," I wan't exactly meaning to invite you... |
Nar, it turns out, is the farm's feisty "grandmama," and yes, the woman can cook. With a team of two to three other Turkish women at any given moment, these ladies go to town in the kitchen.
And by "go to town," I mean they take us all to the town of Heaven.
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The magic cabinet
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Another view of traditional Turkish pasta with lentils,
yogurt, a chili olive oil sauce, and fried noodles to garnish |
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The farm is one of the larger ones we've worked on and sells at farmers' markets in Istanbul two days a week, so the first two days consisted of five to six hours picking, planting, and cleaning vegetables...However, the work always seems like a blur because really all you're thinking about is the meal that is soon to follow.
On the third day, to celebrate Thanksgiving for the sake of John and me, Nar and her husband Ahmet gave all the volunteers the day off. I chose to spend this free time in the kitchen, because a Thanksgiving day where the majority of my time has not been spent near ovens and cutting boards is fundamentally wrong in my book.
Since there were already three to four women moving in and out of the kitchen throughout the day, I tended to stay huddled in the corner, nodding my head vigorously at intervals and pointing at things while saying "yes" in Turkish and probably annoying everybody by taking too many pictures.
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White bean stew flanked by radish hummus and cauliflowers being readied to be floured, egged, and fried
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| Fresh parsley, mint, lettuce, apple, ground cherry, green onion, tomato, and pomegranate salad. EVOO, lemon juice, and salt for the dressing--and that's all ya need. |
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Somehow, in stumbling upon this small farm in northern Turkey, we had found traditional Turkish Slow Food at its finest and a group of people who value food for the way it feeds the soul and not simply for its functionality.
Jackpot. Jackpot of Turkish soul food.
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| Using a natural weed (?) that grows all over the surrounding land as the filling for the traditional Turkish borek |
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| Cooking borek in a wood burning oven while the ever-present black tea awaits perched atop another kettle of water |
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The beautiul borek, made with sauteed greens and onions layered in phyllo dough
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But back to the festivities. We planned on a large holiday dinner, but the ladies made a big lunch anyway, because that is simply what they do.
Two huge meals on Thanksgiving? I can be thankful for that.
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| Farm fresh vegetables fried in olive oil and garnished with parsley and a lemon, EVOO, and garlic sauce |
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Our pre-Thanksgiving dinner lunch spread
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We had yet to have any meat during the two days up to this point, and I was admittedly a bit saddened at the idea of a vegetarian Thanksgiving.
And then Nar and Ahmet decided to kill one of their backyard chickens for us.
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Soaked in boiling water for ten minutes, feathered, and waiting for the gutting
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| The finished product, Turkish style: stuffed with sauteed onions and peppers, sewn up, boiled, then pan fried to crisp the skin |
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It wasn’t a turkey, but it certainly did the job.
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| John helps while Fatma sews up our Turkey Day chicken |
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Here Fatma runs the feathered chicken over a
live flame to remove any stubborn feathers |
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I also made my first pie crust, which was frustrating, experimental, and somehow fruitful. John used it to make a vegetable tart with all fresh things from the farm, and I made a Pecan Pumpkin Pie hybrid, except with hazelnuts and walnuts instead of pecans.
Both were amazing.
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| John prepares the vegetable tart with eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, onion and garden herbs |
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Doesn't this just make you crave french fries?
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The layer of pumpkin pie over a thick, syrupy, and nutty filling faithfully did the job of making us feel like we had had a real Thanksgiving.
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Beginnings.
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| A little rough looking, but everything becomes beautiful when you see the inside |
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| Battle to the finish |
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| Why don't all pecan pies use hazelnuts? |
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Since I used a wood burning stove and an extra large pie pan, I’ll have to perfect the recipe for normal measurements once I get to Greece (three weeks and counting!). Brace yourself.
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| Thanksgiving lunch spread |
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| Thanksgiving dinner spread |
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So despite the absence of my loved ones, we evaded too much heartache with a table full of loving people and an endless supply of lovingly-cooked food.
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| Looks like that hand in the bottom left corner is getting a little antsy |
And then we were made tired and slept. Contentedly.
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| One of the 18 cats sleeping on you? Completely normal. |
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| Even his tongue was too tired to function properly |
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Happy Turkey Day, y'all.
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| Thank you, Ahmet, for being the coolest man in Turkey |
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