Cod with Fresh Tomato Sauce and Arborio Rice

This is our first meal cooking with the spices that we bought in Istanbul.  What I learned after the first bite is that spices purchased in Turkey are AMAZING compared with spices purchased in the United States.  The red pepper flakes and saffron did not disappoint AND we were able to use the oregano, bay leaves, and parsley from our balcony garden!

Food & Wine, once again, has given us a perfect recipe!

INGREDIENTS
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
5 large garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3 pounds tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1/8 teaspoon saffron threads, crumbled
5 oregano sprigs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Zest of 1 orange, in 1-inch-wide strips, plus finely grated zest, for garnish
5 bay leaves
3 whole cloves
1 cup arborio rice
Four 4-ounce skinless cod or halibut fillets
Chopped parsley, for garnish

In a large, deep skillet, heat 1/4 cup of the olive oil. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper and cook over moderate heat until the garlic is golden, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and saffron and cook over moderate heat until the tomatoes just begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the oregano and season with salt and black pepper. Cook the sauce over moderately low heat, stirring and crushing the tomatoes with a spoon, until the sauce is thickened and the liquid is reduced, about 35 minutes. Discard the oregano.

Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, combine the orange zest strips, bay leaves, cloves, rice and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and cook until the rice is al dente, 15 to 18 minutes. Drain the rice, discarding the zest, bay leaves and cloves. Return the rice to the pot. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt.

Nestle the cod in the tomato sauce and cook, turning the fillets once, until just opaque throughout, about 12 minutes.

Spoon the rice into bowls and top with the cod and sauce. Sprinkle with parsley and finely grated orange zest and serve.

Warm Scallop Salad with Mushrooms and Zucchini

Here's another Food & Wine favorite!  Perfect for a Sunday night dinner in the summertime.

INGREDIENTS

2 anchovies, minced
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise
1/4 inch thick
1/2 pound oyster mushrooms
16 large sea scallops
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 small head of Boston lettuce, torn into pieces
2 tablespoons minced chives
2 teaspoons chopped tarragon
Finely grated bottarga (optional)

In a small bowl, combine the anchovies with the lemon zest, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Add the zucchini, season with salt and cook over high heat until browned in spots; transfer to a large plate. Add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and the mushrooms to the skillet; season with salt and pepper, cover and cook over moderate heat until starting to brown. Uncover and cook until tender and browned; transfer to the plate.

Season the scallops with salt and pepper. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the skillet until shimmering. Add the scallops and cook over moderately high heat until browned on the bottom. Turn the scallops and cook for 1 minute longer; transfer to a small plate. Add the shallot to the pan and cook until softened. Add the wine and simmer, then stir in the zucchini and mushrooms and reheat. Swirl in the anchovy dressing, any scallop juices and the butter.

Arrange the lettuce on plates and top with the scallops and vegetables. Garnish with the chives, tarragon and bottarga and serve.

Memorial Day Weekend 2012

On Memorial Day Weekend, we were out in the bay area to celebrate Pat's graduation from Sacramento State and his 30th birthday party in San Francisco.  Fortunately, we also got to squeeze in a wine tasting day in Napa too!

Michael's good friend Schieffer hooked us up with wine tasting and gave us a very detailed tour of Keever Vineyards, where he currently works.

Schiffer knows a lot about wine... more than I ever wanted to know... haha!

But it was really cool to see how a small, family-owned winery makes its wine compared to a large-scale operation.

My childhood friend Jen and her husband Drew also joined us in Napa with their new bundle of joy, Miss Zelda!  She was just perfect and I couldn't not get enough of her chubby little cheeks!

The next day, we got to hang out with my other childhood friend Janelle and check out her awesome new apartment just steps away from Fisherman's Wharf.  It was such a gorgeous day walking around with her and boyfriend Greg after they had us over for a wonderful brunch at their swanky new pad.

Then we met Ming-Cee and Pat at the W Hotel for the celebration!  If you don't already know, Pat has a twin so it was double trouble as we celebrated both Pat and Matt's 30th birthday with siblings (and a cousin) with our significant others from both sides of the family (16 of us in total!).

Matt's wife did a great job organizing the dinner reservations and Ming-Cee did an awesome job organizing the hotel accommodations and the after party at the Wreck Room on Nob Hill.

Friends drove and flew in from all over California and we had a super fun evening.  And of course Eva, our oldest childhood friend, was there too!

We all had such a great time... complete with funny photos!

The rest of the weekend we recovered in Walnut Creek with mom and dad.  We cooked dinner one night and Michael played doubles tennis with daddy at one of his tennis clubs while mom and I went to the garden store and spruced up mom's balcony garden for summer.  And lastly, for those of you that live in DC, we saw a marionberry pie at Whole Foods!

It turns out that a marionberry is a variety of blackberry, but for those of you that don't know the notorious DC Councilman and former DC mayor, Marion Barry, you can read about his very interesting political career, crack cocaine scandal, and recent Asian American controversial comments on wikipedia.  He's a character.  Unfortunately, the marionberry pie is not sold in DC area Whole Foods Markets... we checked!

It was a fantastic trip with perfect weather and we wish we could have stayed a few more days.  There's always a part of us that misses the bay area, but especially in the summertime when we have to return home to high humidity and temperatures in the 90s in DC!

Ziti with Portobello Mushrooms, Caramelized Onions, and Goat Cheese

This recipe is now in our new mid-week dinner rotation!  Quick and Easy... our favorite!  (From Food & Wine)

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 onions, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 pound portobello mushrooms, stems removed, caps halved and then cut crosswise into 1/4-inch slices
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
3/4 pound ziti
3 ounces soft goat cheese, such as Montrachet, crumbled
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

In a large frying pan, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter with 2 tablespoons of the oil over moderate heat. Add the onions, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, and the sugar and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are well browned, about 20 minutes. Remove from the pan.

In the same pan, melt the remaining 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon of the oil over moderate heat. Add the mushrooms and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and brown, about 8 minutes. Add the reserved onions, the parsley, the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and the pepper.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the ziti until just done, about 13 minutes. Reserve 3/4 cup of the pasta water and drain. Toss the ziti and 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta water with the mushroom mixture, the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, the goat cheese, and the Parmesan. If the pasta seems dry, add more of the reserved pasta water. Serve with additional Parmesan.

Personal note: We love our balcony in the late summer and early spring and sitting outside eating appetizers and drinking wine before sitting down for dinner.  The only way it could be more enjoyable is if I could create a force field that would keep out all the bugs without obscuring the view!  But until I figure that out, it's still pretty nice... until the summer heat comes to DC...

Istanbul: FOOD!

FINALLY!  The food post!  Sorry for the delay... May was a hectic month.  So of course you know we fell in love with the spice market and were overwhelmed with the variety!  We finally decided to purchase Iranian saffron, smoked paprika, sweet paprika, red chili flakes, turkish delights (pomegranate was our absolute favorite flavor), figs, and the best dried apricots I've ever tasted in my life (and if you know me, you know I'm addicted to dried fruits... so you know those apricots had to be amazing)!

And now about breakfast... you see the little cart in the street below?

These are simit vendors and they are everywhere... morning, noon and night.  For 1 TL (Turkish Lira) you get this Turkish bagel that tastes like a toasted sesame bagel with a bigger hole in the middle.  No cream cheese, no peanut butter... it's most delicious eaten plain while walking down the street.

Now the highlight of our first hotel in Taksim Square was the breakfast buffet.  This put American continental breakfasts to shame!  EVERYTHING was delicious: yogurt, 4 types of homemade jams, fresh bread, pastries (although not sweet pastries like I'm used to), turkey bacon (Michael appreciated the effort they made in this Muslim country), olives, cheeses, quince (my new favorite fruit!) and great dried apricots and figs that we stashed in my bag for snacks the entire week!  We must have devoured like $40 worth of dried apricots and figs that week... the figs were especially good.  


I must also mention the brunch at Yıldız Palace with a raw honeycomb sheet on the buffet table.  You just took the knife, sliced off a piece of honeycomb, and popped it in your mouth!  It was fabulous! 

Next we move on to appetizers.  Unfortunately from this point on, I don't remember most of the names of the dishes but I can guarantee that they were great if I took a photo of them.  I mean, fried meatballs with yogurt and tomato something-or-another??  How amazing does that look?  Mmmm...

This is a good segway to let you know that we updated our Istanbul google map to reflect "M+M Notes" that give our opinion of all the places we went to, most especially restaurants.

The bean dishes were always delish... cold or hot.

The Turkish really love their mezes and presentation seemed to be really important too!  Look at those little lids with the crescent moon lid tops... so cute!

Speaking of presentation, this was our most memorable waiter of the entire trip!

He even humored me by helping us take photos of the food!  All kidding aside though, the food was really good even though we were the only people at the restaurant.  Literally.

Did I mention the yogurt??  Amazing on everything!

Even on this sausage ravioli pasta dish that I recall being surprisingly light!

This isn't a great photo, but the grilled vegetables were out of this world!  If there's one thing Turkish know, it's how to cook over an open flame.  Perfection.

This was the restaurant we went to for Sania's birthday... I just loved how everything looked lit up... especially the bridge.

Maybe the best duck and poached pear I've ever had.

And MAYBE this would have been the best grilled fish intestines that I'd ever have... but we decided not to try it that night.

Instead, we got two of the fresh fish caught that day.  Since this restaurant was on the bridge right over the Bosphorus, and the fish were caught from the Bosphorus, it was a great experience and yummy too!  So easy to de-bone!!!

Now before I move on to desserts, I need to introduce you to Iskander Kabab with yogurt (of course).  We ordered this dish all the time!  In fancy restaurants like the one below:

And in hole-in-the-wall restaurants like below:

You couldn't go wrong... it was always a good choice!

And now for desserts.  You know Turkey is known for Turkish delights, baklava, and halva (well, you may not know about halva, but it's definitely more common than Katmer).  Katmer is pistachios and philo dough... always served warm... always delicious.

It's much thinner than baklava and you can really taste the pistachios, which is fitting because Turkey is very well known for its pistachios and hazelnuts!

This next dessert is also rather traditional and tastes like shredded wheat in sweet milk.  It wasn't bad even though it doesn't look like much.

On the contrary, here's a traditional pudding with sour cherry sauce... with tulip!  LOVE sour cherry!  I just don't understand why it's not more popular in the US.

OOOOOH.... and the ice cream!  Could not get enough of the ice cream!!!

And the chocolate pudding from Mado's (only the location on Istiklal Avenue) was addicting!  Sania and I tried another Mado's up in Ortakoy and it tasted like a jello pudding pack!  Can you believe it??? You can imagine my rage after my first bite.  Still upset about that.

All desserts pair well with Turkish tea!  (Beware, the little bowls with the cookie and the crunchy things are savory... not sweet!  I was not a fan.  Michael rather liked savory cookies.)

But if you'd rather drink beer, it was really simple!  You could choose from two: Efes and Efes Light.  Sometimes the menu only said "beer" and you knew exactly what beer you were getting... the national beer of Istanbul!

The national liquor of Istanbul is Raki, an anise-flavored spirit that tastes like licorice.  It was a little intense for me, so Michael had the hard task of tasting different brands every night so we could pick the best one to take home as a souvenir.  (Spoiler Alert: All the brands pretty much taste the same so we bought the cheapest).

As you can see, here's our raki bottle, our pomegranate turkish delights, and Michael's favorite candy bar in Istanbul: tadelle!  It was dark chocolate and hazelnuts.  That's pretty much always a recipe for success.

And that concludes our food post and our Istanbul trip posts.  This was such an amazing trip, but now back to our regular programming... mainly the backlog of recipes that I have to post!  Cheers!