Stevie Parle's New Year’s Eve feast: Our chef recreates the sensational street food he sampled in Istanbul
We've all had enough of roasts, and Stevie Parle's recipes are perfect to cook for a New Year's Eve or any time
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Your support makes all the difference.Istanbul is one of the great food cities of the world, right up there with Tokyo and Paris, in my opinion. You can walk the streets and wander the markets finding all sorts of amazing street food, delicious produce and intriguing ideas. The restaurant scene is great, too, offering the full gamut, from the challenging but delicious – such as whole wood-roasted sheep's head and fried sweetbreads – to the more conventionally delicious, such as grilled mackerel sandwiches, wonderful soups and, of course, the best kebabs in the world.
My most recent trip to Istanbul was at the end of the autumn, while it was still warm. I took a couple of chefs from Dock Kitchen and we set off to find a market I hadn't been to before, using the brilliant food/travel app by food blogger Katie Parla (if you're going, it's a must-download; just search under her name). We found it easily; drawn by the hustle and bustle on an abandoned railway line, we discovered a huge and magnificent food market, mostly produce, and great quality, too.
I saw one man with a cart dispensing mysterious liquid into cartons and selling it with bread and chilli. Intrigued, I bought some and continued my walk. It was a soup called corbasi. Clearly, you can't eat soup properly standing up, but before we knew it, other traders had upturned a box, laid some brown paper as a cloth and given us rocket, lemon and tea as accompaniments. The soup turned out to be every bit as good as the hospitality.
Here's a mix of recipes from the trip and ones inspired by it. Perfect to cook for a New Year's Eve or any time – we've all had enough roasts for a while now. The main is a grill; I'm always up for a winter barbecue, but this will work well in a grill pan if you're not as hardcore as me. Add extra bits and pieces as you like: liver, pickled chillies, grilled chillies, grains, salads, flatbreads, tea, drinking yoghurt, beer; everything is welcome. You don't really need to find many special ingredients, but try to get some Turkish chilli, or pul biber.
Stevie Parle is chef/owner of Dock Kitchen, Rotorino and Craft London (stevieparle.com, @stevieparle)
Mercimek corbasi or Turkish market soup
Preparation: 10 mins
Cooking: 80 mins
Serves 4-6
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp cumin
100g dried red lentils
1 litre chicken stock
To serve
1 lemon, quartered
1 bunch large-leaf rocket
Turkish chilli flakes
Olive oil
Make a base for the soup by slowly frying the onion, carrot, garlic and cumin for 20 minutes in olive oil. Throw in the lentils and cook for 2 minutes. Add the chicken stock and cook long and slow until it's mushy and delicious – this might take an hour; you will need to keep topping up with water. Stir occasionally so it doesn't stick. Serve with lemon wedges on top and lots of chopped rocket, a sprinkle of Turkish chilli and a good slosh of olive oil.
White cabbage, anchovy and sumac salad
This salad is great as a starter or as a side. It's not really a Turkish salad at all but one I made up when I didn't have much food in the house. I always have a big tin of anchovies in the fridge. Instant flavour. I often use sumac as the main acidity in a salad. It's great.
Preparation: 5 mins
Cooking: 0 mins
Serves 4-6
½ small white cabbage
Squeeze lemon
½ bunch parsley, coarsely chopped
6 anchovy fillets, chopped
2 tsp sumac
3 tbsp olive oil
Thinly slice the cabbage with a big knife or the thin slicing attachment of a food processor. Coarsely chop the parsley. Mix all the ingredients well and serve.
Andana kofte and cumin lamb chops
Serve this with lots of little things, such as grilled chillies, pickles, grains, flatbreads, yoghurt, hummus, whatever you have.
Preparation: 20 mins
Cooking: 5 mins
Serves 4-6
8 small lamb chops
2 tbsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp oil
400g coarsely minced or hand-chopped lean beef
100g minced-beef fat
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and very finely chopped
Handful parsley leaves, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp sumac
1 tsp paprika
1 heaped tsp Turkish chilli flakes
½ tbsp ground cumin
½ tbsp ground coriander
4 skewers
Put the cumin and cinnamon on the lamb chops with a little oil to help them stick.
For the kebab, combine the rest of the ingredients and season generously with salt and pepper. Mix well with your hands, then divide into 4 and shape into long sausages around metal skewers.
Heat up a griddle pan or barbecue. Once nice and hot, grill the kebabs and chops, turning frequently until browned and slightly charred – this will take 4 to 6 minutes. Pull the kebabs off the skewers and squeeze over a little lemon before serving with the chops, grilled flatbread, salads, pickles and so on.
Rose and pistachio cake with pomegranate seeds
This is a new version of one of my favourite cakes. It's actually Syrian in origin, but it's a perfect way to end this meal.
Preparation: 15 mins
Cooking: 45 mins
Makes 8-10 servings
200g pistachios, finely ground, plus 75g coarsely chopped, to serve
150g ground almonds
220g soft brown sugar
120g butter, softened
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
250g Greek-style yoghurt
1 tbsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 tsp rose water
1 tsp baking powder
To serve
Yoghurt
Rose petals
Pomegranate seeds
Preheat the oven to 160C. Line a 20cm springform tin or baking tray with 3 layers of baking paper; this extra paper helps the cake not get too dark.
Mix the ground pistachios, almonds, sugar, butter and salt with a wooden spoon. Spread half over the pan. Combine the remaining mixture with the eggs, yoghurt, nutmeg, rose water and baking powder. Beat until creamy. Pour into the pan.
Bake until golden; this will take 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Scatter with the coarsely chopped pistachios, rose petals and pomegranate seeds and serve with the yoghurt.
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