The Grand Bazaar

Both Lauren and I have posted about Turkey. Lauren most recently when she was on R&R, and I a couple years ago (really just reread all of November and December 2010!!) so when I was in Istanbul last week for work I wondered if there was really anything left to post about? Of course there was. There always is. I think I may have touched only a little on the Spice and Grand Bazaars in one or two of my posts so this seems the perfect time to go a little more in depth.

But before we get there; just a little bit about the rest of my trip. I was there to spend money; that was the purpose of my work trip. And it's not as much fun as you might think. But because the purpose was to spend money, I stayed in one of the higher end hotels.

That is what $10,000 looks like

View from my hotel in Taksim

View of Taksim Square

Ahh lovely sunset

My hotel has no 13th floor. Just because it's not listed doesn't mean it's not there.

 

 
Despite the busy work schedule, I did get out a little. Thankfully, for me anyway, Turkey is secular enough that even during Ramadan restaurants and shops are open for business. Many places had set menus during iftar and large crowds gathered on the lawn in front of the Blue Mosque to celebrate picnic iftar every evening. I'm so glad I'm Catholic.

Public iftar in front of the Blue Mosque

Ramadan Krispy Kremes. Yes this happened.

So speaking of food...that's what most of my happy moments were about on this trip.

I don't even know what this was but it was yummy.

Turkey has the best baklava

Burek = true happiness

But back to the bazaar! I maintain that you really shouldn't ever buy anything in the Grand Bazaar-that better prices can be had just about anywhere else in the city; but it sure is fun to walk around. Basically, if you want it, they've got it.

So tempted by these hand painted bottles.

Who doesn't want a bejeweled elephant?!

Godiva...because I guess the Grand Bazaar is the best place for it?

The Grand Bazaar is theoretically sectioned off by ware. In some cases that's true like the few streets that are all about leather goods and the street that houses Godiva is where all the really pricey gold is; but really everything just gets a little jumbled up.

Of course Turkish delights everywhere.

What is salad spice anyway?

Better at the Spice Bazaar but they're here too.

Textiles of all sorts, from scarves to bellydance costumes and jeans are everywhere. Mostly scarves though. There are SO MANY scarves.

The inevitable scarves.

Boots made out of muppets. Best guess.

Pretty!!!

I'm determined that I will move to Turkey one day and furnish my place entirely out of things I find at the market. All the lamps and mosaiced candle holders make me drool. They're just so shiny and pretty!

Want the blue ones!

Those three big ones are like twice the size of my head.

Although I think using Turkish ceramics for everything might be a little cumbersome...not to mention wildly expensive.

Betting none of this is micorwavable.

Hand painted awesomeness

And naturally I will need separate Turkish tea and coffee sets. Because...well why wouldn't I? It's a proven fact that drinking out of elaborate vessels makes things taste better.

The bazaar itself is just fun to look at. The high arched ceilings, painted arches, windows, and sloping floors, and cafes give this maze-like market place something of a magical feel.

One of the fountains that still provide the market with water.

The everything shops often have hidden gems.

Like I said, don't buy here...but walk around and enjoy!

I Am My Own Damn Hero

Of the couple different ice creams I've already made this summer, I think my favorite so far is the goat cheese ice cream I made for Lauren's birthday. Lauren and I choose words for birthdays and Christmas and buy gifts based on that word. Her word this year was 'twist' so I thought it would be fun to take that to the birthday dessert as well.

6 egg yolks. SIX!!!

Making the custard is my least favorite part of making custard.

As much as I prefer custard based ice creams they are a pain in the summer, on a gas stove. I'm also not good at being patient about slooowly bringing the custard to a simmer and I always end up with bits of cooked egg in the custard. I don't have a strainer so usually I just decide to not care. This time I decided to use what I had on hand a poured the custard through a straining spoon.

Goat cheese is one of the greatest foods ever created.

This would have been good even without running it through the ice cream maker

But freezing it was a good idea

The custard on it's own was, upon first taste, utterly bizarre. But I had to taste it again. And  again. It was weird and addictive and weirdly addictive. It kind of tasted like cheese cake, but goaty. In a good way. So in order to both temper the strong goat flavor and tie in the season, I topped the ice cream with limoncello soaked strawberries.

Viva Italia!

Strawberries and lemon-perfect with summer and goat cheese.

Hero shot

Recipe:
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2/3 cup sugar
8 oz. fresh goat cheese
6 large egg yolks

Whisk egg yolks and sugar until creamy/frothy. Over medium heat, bring the milk to a boil. Remove from heat and whisk a small amount of milk into the egg mixture. Once that's tempered, add the egg mixture to the milk and thicken custard while stirring constantly. Pour hot custard through a strainer over crumbled goat cheese and stir until completely incorporated. Cool the custard thoroughly (I let it sit in the fridge overnight) and freeze per the ice cream maker directions.

Goat cheese; ice cream; summer fruit; limoncello...how could this not be just about the awesomest thing ever?

Roasted Vegetable Orzo

Even though it's 3,000 degrees in DC and turning on my gas oven increases the temperature in my non air conditioned apartment by another 1,000 degrees I had to make this recipe again. It's super simple, really tasty, and very summer appropriate.

Fresh summer vegetables are some of my favorite things. They almost make the 3,000 degree heat worth it (Okay so maybe it was only 105 F but come on! That plus the humidity and I was not a happy camper). Plus one of the great things about this recipe is it's versatility; you can use any vegetables you like. I settled on summer squash, red onion, asparagus, and sun dried tomatoes.

Between the chopping and roasting and boiling I was trying to stay as cool as possible, which meant dragging my large fan from the living room to the kitchen whenever I had to be in there.

Wish I could say these were from the farmers' market but it was too hot for that.

The more garlic the better is my motto.

If you can't get fresh then Trader Joe's frozen asparagus is really decent.

The luscious smells emanating from the kitchen were what got me to push over and over through the wet wall of heat that seemed to block the entrance to my kitchen. At least I didn't have to go in all that often. For a recipe that has such a nice complex flavor, it's remarkably easy to make. As soon as the vegetables were roasting in the oven I started boiling the chicken stock for the orzo; then added the orzo to the stock when I went back to stir the vegetables.

Reconstituted sun dried tomatoes are so much easier to chop.

For me it's the extras to the recipe that make it so fantastic. I used three different oils on the vegetables: a regular Spanish olive oil, roasted garlic olive oil, white truffle oil. Also, instead of adding mushrooms to the vegetable mix (the original recipe I found called for portabellos), I used wild porcini mushroom sea salt. In fact that's what inspired the entire recipe. I've had this salt for a while and could never quite figure out what to do with it; but it adds a fantastic smokey flavor to this recipe.

My secret weapons!

I also threw some chopped garlic in with the chicken stock :)

And a little more porcini salt before mixing!

Sunflower seeds-so much cheaper than pine nuts.

So my recipe isn't exactly exact...it's kind of a to your taste type of thing:

Roasted Vegetable Orzo Recipe:
1 lbs asparagus
1 large red onion
2-3 summer squash
sun dried tomatoes (reconstituting optional)
garlic

Chop all the veg and coat with olive oil and salt and black pepper to taste. Roast at 375 for 10-12 minutes, stir around a little, then roast for another 12-15.

For the orzo I used chicken stock. Not really necessary, water would do, but I feel that the stock adds a bit of richness. I also put some chopped garlic in the stock because I just really like garlic. Bring stock to boil and cook pasta. If you've never used orzo before be mindful that it plumps up a good deal so it's okay to use a little more stock than you might think you need. I let it summer until most of the liquid is gone so that I don't have to strain it.

Once the orzo and the vegetables are done, combine in a large bowl and add a little more spice to taste. The first time I made this I also roasted pine nuts...but then when I looked for them for this round and saw how expensive they are (holy cow!) I substitute dry roasted sun flower seeds which worked just as well. Top it all off with some grated hard Italian cheese (I used romano but a pecorino or parmesan would work just as well), and voila!

Isn't everything better with cheese?

Because it was so very hot I skipped the usual cup of coffee or wine I drink while cooking and instead made some Guarapincoco. One of my girl friends and I discovered Guarapincoco while having brunch at Cuba Libre in Chinatown. You should definitely go to Cuba Libre; the unlimited brunch deal was fantastic. The food and service were wonderful, portions quite generous, atmosphere is fun...I kind of thought I might die when we left though because we had to try everything. The Guarapincoco, which you'll find under the Aqua Frescas on the menu, was one of the best things we had though so I knew I was going to have to recreate it at home.

My recipe for this is also not exact. Despite some Internet searching we couldn't find a recipe so I just started mixing and stopped when it tasted good!

Guarapincoco recipe:
Pineapple juice
Sugar cane juice
Coconut milk
Lime juice

I used the entire can of sugar cane juice and about 3/4 of a can of pineapple juice. I'm sure you could use the entire pineapple juice; I just used what I had on hand. Coconut milk you don't need much of, maybe 1/3 to 1/2 the can. What you're looking for is for it to make the drink slightly creamy and to give it a pale, milky yellow color. The lime juice I added last. If you stop before the lime juice then you basically have a super sweet pina colada. The lime juice really tempered the pina coladay flavor.

This is totally my new summer drink.

Thinking the addition of a little mango rum would take this to a whole new level.