The Turkish Cookbook: The Culinary Traditions & Recipes from Turkey

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A disclaimer: this isn't a book that tries to Westernize Turkish recipes into fun, blog-worthy bites with quirky names that sidestep umlauts and unfamiliar sounds... It is an exhaustive, almost encyclopedic manifesto of nuanced, regional Turkish cuisine... A book that savors culinary history instead of rushing through and condensing it."― KKUP/KUSF

The Turks were culinary plunderers. Where ever they conquered, they went looking for the best ingredients and the best recipes." Becoming friends after finding the same common in love for Turkish food, the two authors had been accompanied together in a cultural adventure tour of Turkey that spanned ten years. Returning from this journey, they decided to call upon Anatolia’s flavors not just by cooking meals every day for friends and families but incorporating in writing a recipe book. With influences from the Mediterranean, Southern Europe, and the Middle East, Turkish-Cypriot food offers incredible flavor combinations unique to its region. Celebrating the culinary delights of this area in a way no cookbook has done before, Oklava: The Cookbook brings up recipes that all simply come from the “rolling pin” of the author’s grandmother. Written by a journalist and photographer couple who have spent almost twenty years discovering the country’s very best dishes, Istanbul and Beyond is the most extensive and lushly photographed Turkish cookbook.Healthful and tantalizing, simple and delicious, Turkish cuisine is well on its way to becoming the next big trend in cooking as more and more attention is being paid to it as the original Mediterranean diet Turkey has made an enduring contribution to the world's cuisine with its diverse and important gastronomic history and classic--simple yet rich in flavors--recipes. Turkish cuisine is a colorful mosaic, enriched by the recipes and techniques of many ancient cultures--Phoenician, Hittite, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Persian, Chinese, and Greek--and the creativity of the cooks and the geography of the regions they lived in. And it is economical. For example, they will never put a roast on the table. Instead, Turkish cooks will take a pound of meat and mix it with vegetables, grain, rice or lentils, and it will feed six to eight people." read more.... Right after we bought the book, we decided to put it to the test. We made a fresh herb pilaf, a pear kebab, almond rice pudding, lahmacun and sour okra. All recipes were new to us. We had eaten similar foods before, but never these. Since most dishes didn’t contain a photo that did involve some guess work. However, all in all, the recipes turned out well. Impressive [and] comprehensive... The breadth of the work is astonishing... This outstanding, deeply researched investigation works as both a cookbook and guide."― Publishers Weekly

Chef Musa Dagdeviren [has] travelled throughout Turkey to find its best regional specialties and food traditions."― The Scotsman Besides, he is the author of Mighty Spice and Mighty Spice Express. Readers can find his recipes in several famous publications and on TV programs in both the UK and the US. The Essential Middle Eastern Cookbook: Classic Recipes Made Easy But more than just recipes, this book will show you different ways to use ingredients like meats, poultry, and fish. It also emphasizes the use of vegetables and whole grains in a plethora of hearty and home-cooked family staples. And besides all this, the book spends time exploring the country’s dynamic cultural heritage, with an introduction dedicated to he vast culinary history of Turkey. Beginning with Istanbul with the fusion cuisine from the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Asia, now they invite readers to an unforgettable adventure to the lesser-known provinces, boasting rich and diverse culinary traditions and opening a vivid world of flavors influenced by neighboring Syria, Iran, Iraq, Armenia, and Georgia.

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the recipes are good, authentic AND it offers advice and info — everything you’d want” – OxfordWillows Interweaving with 150 of the most delectable recipes is history, stories, and her own observations. Whether they are new discoveries or recreating of classic dishes, all of them made even more accessible and delicious for today’s home cook by the author’s translation of the subtle play of flavors and simple cooking techniques. Turkey is a huge country and as such does not have one cuisine. Every region has its own specialties, based on the main religion in that area, whether the people are nomadic or agricultural, the climate as well as the proximity of water, to name just a few. Even though various common dishes exist, such as dolmas, pide, kebabs and k öfte, each region might use different ingredients or slightly different preparation techniques. The author: Musa Dağdeviren In general, Turkish cuisine is "healthful and easy to prepare using readily accessible ingredients found in most American supermarkets or ethnic markets," the author says. A new cookbook... that takes a deep dive into the cuisine of [Musa Dagdeviran's] homeland."― Departures Magazine Online

About the Author:The author of this cookbook is Musa Daĝdeviren. He is a famous chef in Istanbul, where his three restaurants were located, including the first one named Çiya. Together with his wife, he set up and runs a foundation devoted to rediscovering Turkish culinary heritage and publishing his findings in a quarterly journal. Readers can find him featured in the international press and regularly lectures at food conferences and culinary schools. Istanbul and Beyond: Exploring the Diverse Cuisines of TurkeyThere are many cookbooks that explore Turkish food, but Musa Daĝdeviren... Takes it a step further... This is clearly a definitive guide to Turkish cuisine."― Eater The instructions for the recipes were easy to follow and not too complex. All in all they turned out very well.. Despite not knowing how the food should taste (which makes it harder to adjust at the end) all recipes turned out delicious. The tomato sauce with the okra recipe was especially good. From a country rich in culinary traditions comes an exhaustively researched, written and photographed book."― The Sunday Times We LOVE a good kebab though it's not something we normally make at home, but now that Musa Dagdeviren (who you may have seen on Chef's Table) has released The Turkish Cookbook, it's something we're going to be doing more often..."― London on The Inside We've referred to Daĝdeviren as "Master Chef of Turkey", and now... you'll be able to try 550 of his recipes."― Food & Wine Online