A few days ago the garden gate creaked and the familiar figure of our nextdoor neighbour Leyla appeared round the corner. She was bearing a tepsi/tray full of produce from her garden and what a ...
Assos
Roasted Red Peppers in Olive Oil, Balsamic and Garlic
I mentioned roasted red peppers in my last post about oven-roasted tomatoes on toasted crusty bread - here is how to do them: This is a meze that I regularly make in summer. How can you not, when ...
Oven-Roasted Tomatoes on Toasted Crusty Bread
oven-roasted tomatoes on toasted crusty bread Another firm family favourite especially for lunch in summer. If you were in Italy this would of course be called bruschetta! But we ...
Shakshuka: an Aubergine Meze
shakshuka/şakşuka in garlic yogurt with fresh tomato sauce I am confused. Seems there’s a huge difference between Turkish shakshuka/şakşuka and what the rest of the world calls ...
I’m in Assos!
And where exactly is that, you may well ask – well, from Istanbul it takes 5 ½ hours to drive down. You cross the Dardanelles to Çanakkale and then down past Troy. This is a great area to visit if you ...
Elderflower Cordial: a Very Special English Thing
I say this because in Turkey it is virtually unknown. I would go even further to say that the whole concept of a cordial - something to which you add water – is not familiar. Here, you ...
Cheesy Toasts with Tomato and Thyme
Assos is an ancient village dating back to the 4th Century BC and is perched on top of a hillside with a spectacular view of the Greek island of Lesbos. There is a temple to Athena at the ...
Beautiful Turkish Olives
If you have travelled along the Aegean coast of Turkey, you will have seen scores and scores of gnarled silvery-leafed olive trees clinging to hillsides and lining every little country road. ...