Dede: Your Local Picture Library

Mmmm a fine sticky mess of maple syrup and Urfa chilli, fantastic and what do ya know? I've got the perfect photo to illustrate; taken in situ in May as I wandered through the market at Sanilurfa, the prefix 'Sanli' meaning 'great, glorious, dignified' was bestowed upon the city recently in recognition of its resistance during the Turkish War of Independence.

The chilli is wonderfully illustrative of Turkey's gastronomic parochialism; I visited Urfa with people from Antep, a city an hour's journey from Urfa, and though encouraged to buy various of the peppers on offer, I was told in no uncertain terms that I couldn't possibly recreate the kebabs we'd made at Antep using this stuff. Of course there was a huge gulf between theirs and Urfa in flavour. Having used both I can detect no difference whatsoever - but who am I to question? Though in Antep's Culinary Museum a quote on the wall, just below that of Moro's Sam Clark, read:'Some people believe the Garden of Eden was located near Urfa. If so, the people living there probably ordered their food from Antep'.

I'll give you those kebabs next..............

Caz

After much chat, here we go...

 

To get the ball rolling I offer up a very Ottolenghi inspired barley salad. Ooh, how I love Plenty.

 

This was baked chicken & butternut in lemon, maple syrup, red chilli, with wilted spinach with lemon tahini dressing, rice and aduki beans and a cucumber, mint, dill and cucumber raita. The chicken had a real kick so the raita was a medical necessity. 

Of course this was all last week so my memory of what exactly I threw onto what is hazy...this week I'll write it all down. These fantastic smokey Urfa chilli flakes went in - I'll send you some to try soon. Notebook at the ready, promise. Any aduki bean ideas, chuck em my way, do.  I'm back off everything for the next month, so creative veggieness is my challenge while yours sounds entirely more meaty. (Mind you, I thought that since I had cracked last night I might as well have the slow-roasted pork belly at The Eagle today. Delicious.) I've got Maddhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian from the library as my bedtime reading inspiration. It looks great. It's huge. Perhaps I should use that to bash my Ganglion. Over to you now... x