TURKISH FLAVOURS – LEARN TO COOK IN ISTANBUL

Trying local food is one of the many joys of travelling abroad. Herbs and spices you may never have had before, fruits and vegetables that don’t form part of your usual day-to-day diet, and unique flavour combinations that excite the palate. All are part of experiencing a destination.

Eating the food is one thing, but learning how it is created is something else altogether, giving you a better understanding of the cuisine and the ability to replicate it once you are back home.

So, it made perfect sense to take a cooking course with Turkish Flavours while in Istanbul.

The lesson starts with a tour of the famous Spice Market, where you can taste spices, herbs, teas, dried fruits, and Turkish Delight (Lokum) and, of course, buy as much as you feel able to carry home!

Having learnt about the different spices and how they are used, it is time to head to the kitchen. Rather than cooking at a school, you visit the beautiful home of Selin Rozanes and cook with her, in her kitchen.

As a vegan I let her know in advance I didn’t want to cook with animal products, and Selin tailored her menu accordingly.

As we chopped and prepared the vegetables Selin offered tips and advice on kitchen tools that she has found particularly useful, from a gadget that will either crush or thinly slice the garlic depending on how it is used, to a tomato corer. All handy tips to take home to your own kitchen and favourite dishes.

Our menu included runner beans cooked with olive oil and fresh tomato, a purslane (lambs lettuce) salad, carrots with tahini and walnuts, crispy filo parcels with potato and herb filling, fresh peas with dill, and muhammara – a deliciously rich paste, bursting with flavour, which goes well with almost anything but is generally served on flat bread.

All the dishes were made from scratch with fresh ingredients from the local markets, and once prepared we sat at Selin’s long dining table and did our best to consume the feast we had prepared.

All the recipes for the dishes we cooked, and many more, were included in a little booklet for us to take home, so we didn’t have to spend time writing notes, or taking loads of pictures to remind us how to make something.

Having tried cooking Turkish food (albeit and very small sample of the delicious meat free dishes the cuisine offers), I now feel inspired to buy more spices in the market and give it a go once I get home. What a great way to bring my trip back with me.

FACT BOX
Turkish Flavours – turkishflavours.com
Social Media: @turkishflavours

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chantal Cooke is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster and co-founder of PASSION for the PLANET.
Chantal is passionate about tourism being used as a force for good.
You can follow her adventures on Facebook (@chantal.cooke) and on Instagram (@Chantaldcooke)