Did you ever search for a twist to the topic of ‘chicken soup with dumplings’? But would prefer the twist belongs to traditional cooking somewhere in this world? Search no further, the Turkish soup arabaşı is what you are searching for! This is a traditional soup in central and western Anatolia, mostly prepared on festive…
İzmir köfte 🇹🇷
Turkish kitchen is full of yummy variations on minced meat with veggies (one I already described in this blog, the Manisa kebabı). İzmir köfte, meatballs İzmir style, is another of my favourites. They are essentially baked meatballs with potatoes and red sauce. I made them several times with slight variations on the recipe below and…
Soğan kebabı 🇹🇷
If you associate the word kebap (or kebab) with what Turks call döner kebabı, and is a common type of fast food in many countries, then this might be interesting for you to try. On one hand, it is one of the very broad category of Turkish food called kebaps, on the other hand, this…
Ajvar 🇭🇷 🇲🇰 🇷🇸 🇲🇪 🇧🇦
Ajvar is a popular Balkan relish based on red peppers, and several local variations exist, the most famous one being the (North) Macedonian (n. b. strictly speaking, Macedonian ajvar is made only with peppers, while all the other versions also contain aubergines). Even if the variations are small, each country, even each family, tends to…
Mantı in Bodrum 🇹🇷
It is now a long time since I wrote an ‘on location’ article, but thank God finally I managed to travel again. Being now back to Turkey after 9 long months of waiting, it’s time to eat lots, and write about one more staple of Turkish cuisine, the mantı. They are often translated as ‘Turkish…
Farfalle alla puttanesca 🇮🇹
When I am stressed, sometimes making my own pasta can calm me down a bit. At least as long as it is not with more than 200 g flour, i.e. not for more than two persons 🤣 Yesterday I had one of such days so I took 100 g flour, a pinch of salt, an…
Pileći paprikaš 🇭🇷
This simple, but tasty chicken stew with peppers exists in several variations in the Panonic region. The most famous version is probably the Hungarian 🇭🇺 one. As far as I could check, the main difference with respect to my country’s, Croatian, one is that in Hungary you usually add sour cream, while we Croatians don’t….
Wiener Saftgulasch 🇦🇹
The word goulash is Hungarian, even if it means a different (more soup-like) type of stew in Hungary. Many countries have developed their own variations and one of my favourites is this Austrian, Viennese one. Like most goulash stews, you should make more than you plan to eat at once as it gets even tastier…
Polpete u toću 🇭🇷 / polpette al sugo 🇮🇹
One of the best-loved Dalmatian comfort-food dishes, for most Dalmatians bringing strong memories from childhood days with mom or granny, is polpete u toču. Dalmatia is the coastal part of Croatia, directly across Italy on the other side of the Adriatic sea. This is where this dish originally came from: its ‘parent-dish’ is the Italian…
Tortellini alla panna con funghi finferli 🇮🇹
Yesterday I realised – even if most of my cooking is either Turkish or Italian, and even if Italywas on the Simplon Orient Express route, I still had not publisbed a single Italian recipe! This omissionis hereby now removed 🙂 Yes, I often make traditional pasta dishes like spaghetti carbonara, or penne all’Amatriciana, or buccatini…
Cooker on the Orient Express 