Food Blog Recipes | whatsonourplates

Kalamar Tava with Tarator

TasteAtlas recently named kalamar tava as Turkey’s best-rated dish, and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. This recipe recreates the crisp, golden fried calamari that still reminds me of a memorable meal in Akyaka on Turkey’s southwest coast. Fresh squid, a quick beer soak and a bowl of creamy almond tarator make this surprisingly easy to prepare at home and every bit as delicious as the meyhane versions I remember.

Chilli-Roast Cauliflower with Sumac Dressing

Inspired by the chilli-roast cauliflower at Oklava, this salad has been a favourite in my kitchen for years. Cauliflower is coated in sweet and hot pepper paste, roasted until soft and lightly charred, then topped with crisp red onion, pistachios, parsley and a tangy sumac dressing. I roast the cauliflower longer than the original recipe, which makes it easier to digest and gives the dish a softer, more mellow texture that my family loves.

Köy Ekmeği (Turkish Village Bread) from Karakılçık

Some cookbooks quietly become part of your kitchen routine, and Karakılçık was one of those books for me. When it was first published, I baked from it constantly. Then, for a long time, it went completely out of print and disappeared from bookstore shelves. Over the years I received so many messages asking about recipes from the book, especially from people who had missed the first edition. So when I heard a second edition was finally coming, I immediately wanted to revisit o

Broad Beans, Pods and All

It took us four years to grow these broad beans. Every year before this, they were taken over by blackfly, but this time, with kale and broccoli flowering nearby, the bees arrived and everything changed. I cooked them the way I grew up eating them in Turkey, young and whole, pods and all. They took much longer than expected to soften, but the flavour was worth the wait, simple, lemony and finished with dill.