After taking a break from cooking to move into a new apartment and job, I am back at it and looking to prepare Turkish, Japanese, Portuguese, Oaxaca, Cretan, and Peruvian meals in the coming weeks. I particularly would like to highlight fresh seafood from some of my local markets now that the mushroom foraging season appears to be very much over. Today, I decided to build a meal around some fermented Turkish pickled string beans I made back in August. According to Robyn Eckhardt’s Istanbul & Beyond, these pickles can be served along with pan-fried sardines, anchovies, or sand dabs to make a classic lunch served on the Black-Sea coast of Turkey. I particularly like how it includes both quick & cold pickles as well as stir-fried fermented pickles; in this way it reminds me of one of my all-time favorite dishes, Cumin-Scented Lamb from the Mission Chinese Cookbook.

Panfried Little Fish (Istanbul & Beyond)
I found these at Courthouse Fish Market, which has a wide variety of whole fish (relative to New Deal Fish Market down the street) and serves the local Portuguese community near Inman Square. I also noted very good deals on salt cod, Portuguese sausages (like linguiça), and frozen fava beans for future use. The fishmonger offered to remove their heads, which saves a lot of time (this also removes the guts and leaves them ready to fry). I used med-high heat and they came out good.

Sautéed Green-Bean Pickles
These Turkish pickles are very sour, but also very shelf-stable as a result. I fermented them for 10 days and left them in the fridge for 3 months and they still tasted great. I used a medley of my friend’s garden-grown string beans. The recipe is simple and benefits from high heat / minimizing liquid.

Hot-Pink Quick Pickled Cabbage, Griddled Corn Breads, Garlicky-Herbed Yogurt
I was unable to form the corn breads into the suggested ring without breaking them. I also wish I had made double the corn bread. Finally, the quick-pickled cabbage benefits from only a very light rinse so as to retain more salt.

The resulting meal was fun and required mixing and matching the 5 different components in every bite. The best involved the sardines, corn bread, and at least one of the acidifying accompaniments.
Joe’s Rating: 5.5
Difficulty: 4 (6 if you include making the pickles from scratch)

It’s Wednesday, and I need to sustain myself through the rest of the week once again! I’m a bit stressed about a grant application I am writing, so let’s not get too complicated. For a quick and satisfying meal, I’m going with something from Istanbul & Beyond: a triple-batch of Spicy Okra & Lamb Sauté. Dishes from I&B are always very simple and usually quite good (especially with some added yogurt and bread).

I decided to make the recommended garlic yogurt and bulgar pilaf. You really only need a 2x bulgar recipe for 3x (or even 4x) this main dish, whereas you can do with the full 2 cups of yogurt for every 1x this dish. Take extra care to not pierce the okra (that’s how you avoid the okra goop). This is a concern during cutting, but also with over-steaming and any vigorous stirring at the end of the sauté. I think I overcooked my okra a bit so be sure to keep a close eye on it.

The dish was a great everyday preparation because it has a strong lamb flavor; however, like many of the Turkish dishes in this cookbook, it is only flavored with a few ounces of ground lamb. You get the best of both worlds: It’s tasty, healthy, affordable, and good for the environment.

Joe’s Rating: 7
Difficulty: 4.5

Here’s another tasty-healthy lamb-yogurt stew from I&B. Note that I’ve already made the Turmeric-Scented Lamb & Chickpea Stew as well as Creamy Yogurt & Lamb Stew with Grains, which were both pleasant (see those posts, coming soon). My housemate, Meryll, was around, so I made some for her too.

Overall, the dish was good, but I liked it less than the other two lamb stews (particularly the grain one) in I&B. I’d recommend cooking the stew longer than it says. For a double batch, use only about 7 cups of hot water total, then boil for 2-2.5 hours, uncovered if needed.

Served with Rice and Orzo Pilaf, Strained Yogurt, and onion, cucumber, tomato salad. I highly recommend these accompaniments to elevate the dish! Served with a qualitätswein (earlier harvest / less ripe / usually cheaper) riesling from Sybille Kuntz. This was a fine pairing, but could have been better. I didn’t take notes on it, but I’m guessing this didn’t have the fat/heat to call for a riesling. Maybe a light red or rosé a bit earthy and acidic could compliment the gaminess of the lamb, freshness of the salad and earthiness of the chickpeas?

Joe’s Rating: 6.5
Difficulty: 5.5