Turkish

Turkish pide is a popular summer snack; this version uses sheep’s-milk cheese.

These gozleme are stuffed with a mixture of three different cheeses to mimic the feta-like Turkish white cheese that’s often used for these flatbreads.

A popular sweet in Turkey, candied pumpkin requires few ingredients and a little time.

In this recipe for classic Turkish kebabs, lamb marinates in tomato paste and a mix of spices—including cayenne pepper, cinnamon, and cumin—before hitting the grill.

This frothy salted Turkish yogurt drink is endlessly refreshing.

Given my very high regard for a grilled naked lamb chop, all juicy and charred, when I do go for something more elaborate, it's got to be worth it. This dish is. Here, the meat is coated in toasted whole spices—fennel, coriander, and cumin seeds—that have been very lightly crushed. The seeds retain their texture, giving the meat both a heady scent and a good crunch. For serving, a tahini-lemon sauce adds a rich nuttiness, while a dash of sumac provides its berrylike tartness.

A good soak in buttery tomato sauce gives this ultra-juicy burger—a popular late-night Turkish street eat—its name.

These warmly spiced lamb meatballs are so juicy, light, and flavorful—not to mention easy—they'll be rocking your party world this holiday season.

I rarely rave about my own recipes, but this is one I can just go on and on about. It is the definition of freshness with its sweet-and-sour late-summer flavors, and it is also an utter delight to look at. But the most incredible thing about it is that it uses a few ingredients that I have been lovingly cooking with for many years, and believed I knew everything there was to know about, yet had never thought of mixing them in such a way. That is, until I traveled to Istanbul and came across a similar combination of fresh tomatoes and pomegranate seeds in a famous local kebab restaurant called Hamdi, right by the Spice Bazaar. It was a proper light-bulb moment when I realized how the two types of sweetness-the sharp, almost bitter sweetness of pomegranate and the savory, sunny sweetness of tomato-can complement each other so gloriously. I use four types of tomato here to make the salad more interesting visually and in flavor. You can easily use fewer, just as long as they are ripe and sweet.

Worth It If you're anything like us, the first thing you think of when you hear "Turkish delight" is Edmund, the jerky younger brother from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe who's plied with Turkish delight by the evil White Queen. We never really had this candy growing up, and so it has a bit of a magical association. How could something be so good that it would cause you to betray your family? Well, to be fair, the queen's Turkish delight was actually magical—we can't promise the same for this. But we can promise a delightfully soft and chewy sweet that's better than any store-bought version you've encountered. Rosewater is the traditional flavoring, and is available at many specialty and gourmet stores, but feel free to replace it with the same amount of whatever pure extract you like, such as orange or vanilla. Do note that this recipe requires expert timing (don't worry: that doesn't mean you have to be fast as lightning)—read it through a couple of times before you start! It's not a difficult recipe, but if you don't have a good idea of how everything gets put together before you begin, it's easy to bamboozle yourself in the middle. Be a good Scout and be prepared!

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other Mediterranean classics, check out the video classes.

Köfte (KAAF-tee) are Turkish meatballs, usually made with lamb, herbs, and spices. This vegetarian version is sure to become a weeknight standby. Try it with steamed carrots and a romaine-based salad.

These stuffed flatbreads are shaped much like meat-filled galettes. Lamb is the meat of choice in many Mediterranean cuisines, and here it is combined with other key ingredients of the region—eggplant and pomegranate—along with the warm aromatics often used in Turkish cuisine.

Lamb sausage spiked with pine nuts and raisins, masterful fare from Turkey found around the Mediterranean, is exactly right for a summer grill party. The figs and fennel practically insist on being combined into a marmalade to accompany the lusty sausage. It can also be used as a compote for pork or chicken dishes or as a topping for toast or scones. If you happen to have a fig tree, or know someone who does, use its leaves to wrap the sausage. They impart an aroma and flavor of cinnamon that greatly enhances the lamb and evokes the Garden of Eden, after the Fall.

Imam bayildi, as this dish of Turkish origin is called in Bulgaria, Albania, and Greece, and its story have a special place in my cooking repertoire and in my heart. It was introduced to me by Susanna Hoffman, my longtime friend and sometimes cookbook coauthor, who is, among other things, an esteemed social anthropologist whose special field of endeavor is Greece. The story of imam bayildi has many versions, but details aside, it is essentially a tale of love and household thrift. A bride new to the house of her new husband, an imam, came with a dowry of olive oil. But there was only a certain amount. And the imam loved eggplant above all other foods. In practice, because eggplant, as it cooks, is a great gulper of olive oil, and olive oil is the equivalent of kitchen gold, the dish was using up too much of the bride’s dowry. What to do? How to please the husband and keep the eggplant rich and unctuous without blowing the kitchen budget? Susanna solved the dilemma by having the thoughtful bride coax the eggplant into softening with the addition of some water, thereby requiring less of the precious olive oil and with equally excellent results. Was the imam thrilled? Did he faint as the original story line suggests? We don’t know, but we presume the clever, money-minded bride kept her place and the imam was happy. In yet another, latter-day telling of the story, I call the beef and eggplant filling a sausage and the eggplant shells the casing, and imam bayildi winds up in a new sausage cookbook.

This is a stew of carrots, spinach, and rice cooked, you might say, to death. I first ate it at a Turkish lunch counter and was taken by its depth of flavor. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.

Boiled chicken may seem a thing of the past, but if the chicken is good to begin with, you don’t overcook it, and you serve it with this classic walnut sauce— sometimes called tarator or skordalia—it can be quite fabulous. Make the chicken and the sauce in advance if you like; both are good at room temperature. And, if you prefer, sauté the chicken and serve it with this sauce; see, for example, Chicken Escabeche (page 294) for the cooking technique. If you want to make the sauce without stock, see page 600. Walnut sauce, or tarator, is good not only with chicken but also with plain steamed vegetables— that’s what I’d serve with this, perhaps along with a rice or potato dish.

I’d heard of hunkar begendi and even tried it in Turkish restaurants elsewhere before I went to Istanbul, but I was not prepared for the reverence it inspires. Not only is this dish delicious—its name means “Sultan’s Delight”—but its appearance causes a hush to fall over a table. This is great stuff, a creamy, eggplant-laced béchamel topped with tender braised lamb. It’s a fair amount of work, but worth it.

Made throughout the Balkans, into Russia and Turkey, this is essentially a chopped vegetable—it can be almost anything—combined with a strong version of Tarator (page 600). It can be eaten alone or used as a spread or as a dip for pita. Most people let it sit for a few hours before serving, which allows the garlic to mellow and the flavors to marry. This isn’t a bad idea, but if you’re in a hurry, plunge right in. Other vegetables you can prepare this way: eggplant (roasted or quickly boiled, as in Eggplant Salad with Mustard-Miso Dressing, page 185); red beans, cooked until tender; green beans; spinach or other greens.

A simple little thing (the hardest part is cleaning the leeks) but delicious. The sweetness of the carrots really comes through, and the reserved olive oil adds a nice touch. Good with sautéed or roast poultry or meats. Other vegetables you can prepare this way: Belgian endive (cut in half the long way), bok choy, and chard are all good.

Bulgur, which is precooked cracked wheat (see page 525), needs only to be reconstituted to be ready to eat. Usually this is done with water or stock, but here freshly made tomato juice is the liquid. (I had no idea what I was tasting when I first had this, but fortunately it was explained to me so I could experiment.) The nuts add a welcome crunchiness to this wonderful salad.