Persimmon Pudding Cake

After the success of the persimmon bread I made I decided to try out a persimmon dessert recipe: persimmon pudding cake. It's as easy to mix up as the bread was-easier in fact as there are no dates to pit and chop!

Sherlock wanted in on the baking action

I do love persimmons but they are a bit of a pain to work with. Often if I can find persimmons with perfect skin I just chop them into quarters and give them a whir in the food processor. However this last trip to the market didn't result in the nicest of persimmons; they were all fairly heavily damaged so I had to skin them before tossing them in the food processor.

Despite my annoyance with the state of the persimmons; I love the cozy feeling I get from baking in the autumn and winter. Part of it is that the window in my apartment doesn't seal so it's freezing in my kitchen. Strong wind often forces it open, knocking over my electric kettle and making a mess of my (admittedly only sometimes) clean counter. So keeping the oven working, especially when it emanates the rich, warm aromas of cinnamon and clove not only heats up the kitchen but makes the entire apartment feel that much warmer.

Using fleur de sal, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove

This recipe by Simply Recipes is a nice, quick little bake that results in a really moist, slightly spongy cake that I enjoyed not only as dessert but for breakfast. Aside from anything involving bacon, dessert for breakfast is one of my favorite things. I had to use a few short cuts from the original recipe skipping spices that I don't have but it still turned out pretty well, especially when highlighted with fresh whipped cream. Although what doesn't fresh whipped cream improve?

Persimmon Pudding Cake (adapted from Simply Recipes)

• 2 cups Hachiya persimmon pulp (about 4 persimmons)
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp fleur de sal (or 1/2 tsp regular salt)
• 2 tsps cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp clove
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

1.  Preheat oven to 400F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the persimmon pulp, eggs, melted butter, milk, and vanilla (I used Tahitian).
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients (expect the nuts).
4. In three additions, incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet then fold in the nuts.
5. Bake in a square pan for about 50 minutes*.

*My cake ended up more cake than pudding so I think I let it bake a little too long. Maybe check it first at 40 minutes then keep an eye on it.

Georgian Eggplant with Walnuts and Garlic

I returned from Georgia with a pretty good stash of contraband; largely wine and cheese but I also picked up some Georgian spices: marigold and blue fenurgeek. The massive amount of cheese I'll address later and for reviews of all those lovely wines check my website ParMieux Wine Adventures because today we're talking about cooking with those spices.

I love Georgian food. If it weren't for the copious amounts of cilantro they use then I'd say Georgian food was pretty darn perfect.While I was in Tbilisi I made sure to buy a lot of the spices I need to make Georgian food at home, namely dried marigold and blue fenugreek.

I really have absolutely no idea what blue fenugreek is but it's a vital ingredient in my favorite Georgian side dish-the eggplants with walnut and garlic paste. This appetizer, served cold, is an amazing melding of flavors. I particularly like to garnish it with pomegranate seeds which, while entirely optional, really add just an extra pop of flavor that brings it all together.

I can, and have, eaten an entire plate of these on my own. I believe that on our recent visit KMac and I ordered this at least once a day. So when I got home with my stash of Georgian spices and wine it seemed like the perfect thing to pair with the Tsitska wine I brought-and it rather was quite a perfect pairing!

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do! They're a little fussy to make, especially if you use the pomegranate seeds, but so worth it!

Georgian Eggplant with Walnuts

Ingredients:

• 500 grams of eggplant (5-ish eggplants)
• 250 grams walnuts
• 1 teaspoon dried blue fenugreek
• 1 teaspoon dried marigold
• 1 teaspoon dried coriander
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 4 large cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• salt
• oil
• water
• pomegranate seeds (optional)

Method:

1.  Using a food processor, blend the walnuts and garlic. In a medium sized bowl combine the walnut garlic mixture with the spices, salt, and vinegar, Add enough water to bring the mixture to a paste-like consistency (5 or tablespoonsful).
2. Slice the eggplants fairly thinly. In a frying pan heat the oil and fry on both sides for 3-4 minutes. Place eggplant slices on paper towels to absorb the extra oil.
3. Once the eggplant slices have cooled, spread the walnut mixture on half the eggplant, fold (in half) then spread more walnut mixture on top.
4. Garnish with fresh cilantro if you're crazy or pomegranate seeds. Serve cold.

Persimmon Date Walnut Bread

It's fall! Today it really feels like it; the temperature in Istanbul dropped about 10 (Celsius) degrees overnight. So now it's cold and grey but cold fall weather means fall baking! Fall also means persimmons which I love.

Homemade orange blossom water from Lebanon!

We only get one kind of persimmon here, the hachiya persimmon. For me the trickiest part about working with these persimmons is making sure to not smash them while getting them home! Hachiya persimmons aren't at their full ripeness until they're so soft they feel like they've rotted.

Thank goodness this recipe calls for persimmon puree because there's no way a fruit this soft and delicate is getting sliced nicely! Other than chopping the dates this was a super fast and easy recipe. I ended up using mini loaf pans to bake it and shared it around with my friends-I think this is the most popular thing I've ever made! Everyone went nuts for it. It is really good; it tastes like autumn.

 

Pitting and chopping the dates takes forever, they're so blasted sticky. Between that and the molasses I'm not sure I'll ever de-stick my counter. Brown sugar as we know it in America doesn't exist here so I have to make my own; which I can do thanks to the gift of molasses from a friend in Germany (as regular molasses also doesn't exist here) and the food processor E&M lent me that I kind of never returned. Oops.

The other great thing about fall baking? It warms up the apartment! My building has central heat which is annoying on several levels but it only works in two rooms and the window in my kitchen doesn't quite close so it's always cold in there.

Between the bread's resounding popularity, how blasted easy it is to make, and the warm and cozy feeling I get with the baking aromas wafting out of the oven...yeah I'll be making this again!

Persimmon Date Walnut Bread (adapted from The Little Epicurean)
Makes one 9 inch loaf pan or five mini loaves

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp fleur de sal*
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
several dashes of ground clove
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla (I used Tahitian)
4 eggs, room temp and slightly beaten
1/4 cup orange blossom water*
2 cups persimmon puree (about 4 hachiya persimmons)
2 cups toasted, chopped walnuts
2 cups chopped dates

*optional

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Whisk together all the dry ingredients (flour, salts, baking powder, cinnamon, clove, and sugars).
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the melted butter, beaten eggs, and persimmon puree. Whisk until combined. Fold in the walnuts and dates.
4. Pour into greased loaf pan(s) and bake for about 45-50 minutes.

Turkish Breakfast Review - Saade Kahvaltı

I read about Saade Kahvaltı in the August issue of Time Out Istanbul. Ever on the lookout for a new breakfast place, I made a date with R for breakfast last Saturday. Saade Kahvaltı is located at the Darussaade Hotel in Sultanahmet near the Arasta Bazaar.

Because it doesn't seem possible for to provide full/helpful information on Turkish websites, nowhere on the hotel website or Time Out article listed Saade Kahvaltı opening times, reservation needs etc. So we went on the information provided on Zomato.com - which turned out to be wrong. According to Zomato Saade opens at 10:00 (nope, it's at 11:00) and they do not take reservations (incorrect-reservations required). However because we'd trekked there, getting lost several times, the lovely staff arranged for us to have the breakfast in their ground floor cafe while they set up the terrace.

We followed some very bad Google Map directions, getting lost at least three times before we found Darussaade Hotel but it was entirely worth the trek. So much so that R and I, this time accompanied by E&M, made a reservation and went back the next weekend.

The price is a little steep at 40 TL/person (not including drinks or extras like eggs) but for what you get it's a fantastic value. All of Saade's products are organic and come from across Turkey. Many things, like the cheese blended with nuts and herbs and cheese blended with peppers are made in house. Everything is incredibly fresh and delicious. The tomato paste is some of the best I've ever had, the Tulum cheese is sharp and delicious, and even I, raw tomato-hater that I am, fought over the fresh tomato and pumpkin seed salad.

My personal favorite dish is the soft white cheese topped with diced plums. The sweet-tangy combination is gorgeous. Even the seemingly never ending fresh bread was some of the best we've ever had at a Turkish breakfast cafe.

It was much easier to find Saade the second time around as they kindly sent me directions on What's App that were easy to follow. Basically, if you're facing the Blue Mosque, go down the road [that runs in front of the mosque] to the left. Turn right in front of the Blue House Hotel, then the first left, then the first right. At the end of that street you'll see the pale purple Darussaade Hotel.

E said she thinks this is hands down the best Turkish breakfast she's had here. I don't think she's wrong. The food alone was amazing but coupled with the terrace view overlooking the Bosphorus on one side and the iconic Blue Mosque on the other...yes. We will go back to this place and take everyone. Saade Kahvaltı is not to be missed.

Saadde Kahvaltı (make a reservation!)
Darussaade Hotel
Sultanahmet Mahallesi
Akbıyık Caddesi 90
+90 212 518 3636

Turkish Breakfast Review - Kahvedan

Today we're having breakfast at one of my favorite Cihangir restaurants - Kahvedan. I'm sorry to say that right from the out I was a little disappointed.

Kahvedan features a very extensive menu that includes typical Turkish dishes as well as pretty decent falafel,  pad thai, and pork chops. Yes, pork chops. The breakfast options are also quite extensive offering traditional Turkish breakfast plates, a variety of eggs, pancakes, and toasts. And there's bacon.

My friend R and I both went for bacon options, naturally with home getting bacon sahanda (fried eggs) and me taking a chance on yet another restaurant's eggs Benedict. What is my obsession with eggs Benedict? I don't really know but if its on a breakfast menu I invariably order it.

For a Sunday afternoon Kahvedan wasn't overly busy. Most of the outdoor tables were full but there were only maybe one or two tables filled inside. So why did we have to wait so long for our eggs? My eggs were actually slightly less than warm. I considered sending them back but it took so long to get them to begin with that I decided against it. I wonder if sending them back would have resulted in them being better or worse than they were? The English Muffins under the eggs were so touch and obviously stale that I had a hard time cutting them with a knife. I had to deconstruct the Benedict a little so the yolks could soak into the bread in hopes of softening it a little (didn't work). 

For all that, the eggs Benedict still tasted pretty good and R was happy with his eggs and bacon as well. Considering how good all my other experiences at Kahvedan have been I choose to view this as a fluke. Everyone gets and off day, right? And Kahvedan still has the best damn mint lemonade (I've found) in Istanbul.

Overall I heartily recommend Kahvedan for any meal of the day. If you go for lunch or dinner though get the Çökertme - trust me, you'll thank me!

Kahvedan
Akarsu Caddesi No 38
Cihangir, Beyoğlu
Istanbul

Turkish Wine of the Week - Arcadia 2012 Pinot Gris

Recently I let the guys at La Cave talk me into another bottle of wine. I do need more whites now that summer is on and at only 49 TL I wasn't risking too much with this one. Plus I liked the art work. I'm not usually a huge fan of Pinot Gris. Like Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, also known as Pinot Grigio, wines have a wide range of flavors depending on whether they were grown in cool climates (Italy and most of the USA/Australia) or warm climates (the Alsace, France, Turkey). And as with Sauvignon Blanc I prefer the warmer climate "riper" styles but usually as a food wine.

Arcadia's 2012 Pinot Gris is a pretty nice example of a warmer climate style and given the price is actually a great bargain if you like this style of wine. While I was largely pleased with the flavor, again for me it was a food wine and my over all experience with this was enhanced a great deal by accompanying it with one of my favorite summer foods: chicken salad with red grapes and walnuts.

In the glass this estate-bottled Arcadia 2012 Pinot Gris is a beautiful gold color. For this particular wine, Arcadia uses limited filtration so there was some sediment in the glass-something I had not before encountered in a white wine. The nose was very citrusy which also came through on the palate-citrus, melon, honey, and a bit of something from the oak but I couldn't quite identify that. Like a cooler-climate Italian-style Pinot Gris, I also detected some minerality at the end of the finish. It seemed fairly high in acid, in fact that was my very first impression, but it smoothed out a little.

To be honest I liked this more than I thought I would and for only 49TL it's not a bad white to have on hand. However for me it was definitely a food wine and it definitely needed to be served quite cold.

Turkish Breakfast Review - Limonlu Bahçe

It's been a while since I posted about breakfast in Istanbul. It takes a surprising amount of dedication to eat breakfast out once a week and since I'm really lazy and am usually not even rolling out of bed, let along looking presentable, until about lunch time it's a dedication I don't really have.

However recently I met up with a friend and former neighbor E at Limonlu Bahçe which is a local favorite and conveniently located just up the hill from my old apartment. The cafe gets its name from the lovely, partially enclosed garden filled with lemon trees. While the food can be a little hit or miss it's a lovely place to sit for a drink, enjoy the atmosphere, the omnipresent cats, and the garden's two turtles. Who also enjoy the garden-especially during mating season.

That's not what you want to eat breakfast next to!

Limonlu Bahçe has a pretty good selection of breakfast foods and you also have the choice between big or small plate breakfasts. E and I both went with the small plate option of yurmutalı ekmek (Turkish take on French Toast) with bal kaymak (honey and cream). It was definitely a better version of yurmutalı ekmek than what I previously had at Mavra Cafe. I could definitely have used a more generous portion of kaymak though.

Decent food, friendly service, and a great atmosphere - Limonlu Bahçe is worth a visit for any meal of the day!

Limonlu Bahçe
Yeni Çarşı Caddesi
Istanbul

Turkish Breakfast Review - Aşşk Kahve

Getting a late start on this week's breakfast review because I completely forgot that it was Monday! Either the heat and humidity have finally succeeded in melting my brain or I haven't had enough coffee yet.

Speaking of coffee...Saturday morning M and I ventured up the Bosphorus to Kuruçeşme to try the highly reviewed Aşşk Kahve. While traffic along the Bosphorus road is usually a nightmare Saturday and Sunday mornings it's clear sailing. I think we may have waited for the 42T in Taksim longer than we were actually on it.

Aşk is the Turkish word for 'love', so aşşk is kind of like saying 'loove' and when we first arrived at the cafe I was ready to be in love with it. It's in a beautiful garden, sits right on the water, and is decorated with bright colors. It was a nice breezy day so sitting on the water was a very relaxing and refreshing change from my stuffy oven of an apartment.

Aşşk Kahve gives you the option of building your own breakfast platter offering all it's cheeses and spreads individually. Instead of doing that though M and I went for egg dishes, although of course with an order of bal kaymak on the side because life should always have bal kaymak!

Our drinks, the bal kaymak, and a bag of mixed breads came out pretty quickly making a favorable first impression. The portion of kaymak was quite generous and I really loved that it not only came with honey on it already but that they brought us a bottle of extra honey (of which I made judicious use!). My latte was only meh but M said his Americano was good. We were slightly horrified that his small orange juice cost 12.50 TL but whatever it was I paid for my passion fruit lemonade was well worth it.

Both of us paid the extra fee to have real ham with our eggs. M's choice was sunny side up eggs with ham and potatoes while I went for the Eggs Benedict. He quite enjoyed his order but I had mixed, leaning toward negative, feelings about my order. The salad and potatoes served on the side were better than the eggs themselves. While the dish looked promising the bechamel had virtually no flavor. Fail.

While we started out with great service it quickly took a huge nose dive. Yes the cafe was super busy but we also saw a lot of waiters avoiding eye contact with people and wandering around aimlessly in an attempt to look busy. It took M several minutes to flag down a waiter to order a water and when we were finally able to get someone's attention to ask for the bill it took another 15 minutes to come.

We both left with mixed feelings but in the end I think we decided that, while we wouldn't go back for the food, we would go back (especially on a weekday when it would theoretically be slower) for a drink and to sit in the garden by the water. Seriously it's worth the trip for the lemonade which comes in multiple flavors aside from the passion fruit (I'm addicted to anything passion fruit flavored); but for breakfast...meh. I've had better.

Aşşk Kahve (right next to the Macro Center)
Kuruçeşme Mahallesi, Muallim Naci Caddesi, No 64/B 
Beşiktaş, İstanbul

Turkish Breakfast Review - Marmelat

Last Monday I had a mission. Well it was something of a dual mission: 1. Go to CherryBean Coffees to replenish my coffee bean stock and 2. Have breakfast at CherryBean's neighbor cafe Marmelat. I've been walking by this bright cafe for months now when I go next door for my caffeine mix and last week M and I went in to try them out.

Service was a little slow and they didn't have everything listed on the menu in stock-but it was still a pretty hearty thumbs up from the two of us. Marmelat offers traditional Turkish breakfast foods-no pancakes, paleo anything, or eggs benedict here-the difference between Marmelat and all the other Turkish breakfast places though is that they offer you a choice.

For 25TL you get Marmelat's breakfast plate and get to choose! three cheeses, two meats, two marmalades, and two olives and it comes with a boiled eggs, tea for two, and tomatoes and cucumbers. We also ordered sucuklu menemen which was very good, and a side of cigara borek (they were out of the pachanga).

Everything was excellent but we were most impressed with the marmalades-which apparently you can buy from the cafe! We chose raspberry and quince with clove and I will be back to buy them both. Often store-brand jams and marmalade are sweeter than candy. Marmelat's were gorgeous. We were full from breakfast but asked for more bread anyway because we couldn't leave the jams lying.

Thumbs up for Marmelat-well worth the visit. And after you've stuffed yourself with breakfast you can go next door to Cherrybean for a great coffee.

Marmelat (near the Galata Tower)
Bereketzade, Camekan Sk. No:8 
34421 Beyoğlu