Week 56. Turkey. Ispanakli Pide

I think I need I need a holiday. In fact I know I need a holiday. The winter has been here for a long time now and this morning walking out of the house to minus 5 degrees was the last straw. My body needs to get into the sun and drink a long soothing cocktail of vitamin D. I need my skin to tingle, not crumble. I need to sweat because the sun is too hot, not because I am curled up next to a radiator. I need to wear shorts outside (I wear them inside throughout winter). I need to drink cold crispy Sauvignon Blanc with beads of condensation rolling down the side. I need to jump into a swimming pool to cool down, not jump into the shower to warm up. I need to be covered at night in a sheet and to hear a fan in my room and I want to eat Moules Marinières – outside.

I just don’t want to be in winter any more.

When I drew Turkey this week and began my usual trawl of the potential recipes available to me I came across how to make the red pepper paste which is used in this dish. One of the instructions was to “leave the paste out in the sun for 8 hours to further reduce”. To what?  The sun probably popped out for 8 minutes today, not 8 hours and the power it contained could reduce nothing more than a man to tears. Had I left it outside it would have grown not reduced, as ice would have built up on it. My sun jealousy was starting to build…..but then I thought that we should get away. Why couldn’t we head off to Turkey for some early summer sun in a couple of months? Why couldn’t we walk down the sun drenched streets and look at all the plates of reducing red pepper paste. Well we could – and we are going to and that is thanks to my jealously of some paste.

Look up online what the national dish of Turkey is and you get flooded with Kebab options, but I wanted to go past that and look at something I hadn’t eaten before. Pide is a form of Turkish Pizza which is topped differently and shaped differently to the pizza we know in the UK, but taste wise wasn’t too dissimilar.

I opted for a vegetarian dish and I was largely swayed by loving the combination of spinach and feta. I love the salty flavour of the cheese amongst the vitamin powered spinach. Added this were two staples in garlic and onion and the special red pepper paste. I didn’t add (as I don’t think it is traditional) black olives or pine nuts, but they would have even further enhanced the dish I believe.

The result of the dish was somewhere between a pizza and a calzone  but allowed far greater quantities of filling than either of the aforementioned. It was delicious and the poached egg on top worked fabulously. I don’t often make pizza at home, as I don’t think they compare to the taste you get form a Pizza oven, but this really wasn’t far off. Take careful note of how I basted the dough with butter as this made an enormous difference.

Make this. It’s not as difficult as it looks, and it tastes great. It will impress.

Recipe (to make for 4)

Red Pepper Paste.

1. Take 4 Red Peppers and 1 Red Chilli
2. Boil them for 25 mins
3. Take out the seeds and core
4. Remove Skin
5. Blitz in a Blender.
6. Add salt and a glug of olive oil and “leave in the sun for 8 hours” or simmer for 10 mins.

Pide

• 2.5 Tbsp Dry yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 + 3/4 cup warm water
• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil + 1 tsp olive oil

1. Disolve the yeast in ¾ Cup Warm Water
2. Leave for 15 mins
3. Mix everything else together in a bowl and then kneed for 15 mins on a floured surface.
4. Leave to prove for 1 hour.
5. Cut into 4 and then leave for another 15 mins.
6. Shape into ovals and then turn up the sides and tie the ends in a knot.
7. Filling:

Filling:

I used frozen spinach, boiled it and then drained and squeezed all the water from it. Set aside

I gently fried 1 Onion and 3 cloves of garlic and once done I added the red pepper paste and then stirred through the spinach.

Preperation

Once the pide and filling is complete, brush the pide with warm butter (all over) and then spoon an equal measure into each, followed by crumbled feta over the top. Mix it in a bit so it doesn’t all sit on top, but be liberal.

IMPORTANT

You need to bake this on very high. Pretty much as high as your oven will go. The pide will dry out unless you brush a lot of butter on it at the start.

It will need to bake for about 15 minutes so with 5 mins to go poach an egg for each one.
When you take out the final dish, brush with butter again. It will make a huge difference.

Week 49. Madagascar. Akoho misy sakamalao & Sakay

Next week I will be cooking my 5oth dish in this journey. Honestly I’m pretty impressed with myself. I had no idea if I would stick to it, but it has consumed me. I look forward to the next dish, the research, the new ingredients and new blends of ingredients I already know. I like the thought that I might hate some of the dishes (Vanuatu) or love them (Sri Lanka). I enjoy ticking off new countries or adding new (South Sudan). It will take a long time to do this but when I finish it will I be the only person in the history of the world to have done this? Maybe.

Back to this week.

It’s firework night in the UK and my mouth is conducting fireworks of its own. My tongue is burning, my nose is running, even my teeth hurt a bit and it has little to do with the mountain of chilli in this dish. I’m burning with garlic overload. If I wasn’t married and wanted to nip out tonight and try and secure the lips of a young lady I wouldn’t have a hope. I stink.

I’ve eaten 8 cloves of garlic in one dish and whilst delicious it’s just not practical if you have to see people within a week. Dishes from Madagascar are characterized by powerful flavours and once I had peeled and squashed the garlic I then blitzed a few chilies for the sauce…..30 chilies. Oh, and then just to continue with the theme I chopped a piece of ginger about the length of my arm.

As you can see from the picture (which I took about 20 minutes trying to style and look even the slightest bit interesting) this is not the most beautiful of dishes. It looks bland. It isn’t!

According to all the facts I looked at Madagascar is the 4th largest island in the world after Greenland, Borneo and New Guinea. What about Australia you scream at me. I thought the same. Australia, despite technically being an island, is actually a continent and that supersedes island status. I wonder if Australia would be happy being classed as the smallest of all continents rather than the beast of all islands?

I was tempted to cook a dish called Mo-Fo just because of how that would translate into the street language of today but instead if chose a different Mo-fo..ing dish.

Based off the East Coast of the African continent, Madagascar has a blend of colonial history which influences cuisine, but typically meat and rice are eaten for main dishes when available.

I chose Akoho misy sakama as it was simple and could be made from readily available ingredients.

To make the chicken (this covered 4 pieces) I poured approximately 6 tbsp of vegetable oil into a bowl and then added 6 cloves of chopped garlic and two inches of grated ginger. Adding a tbsp of salt I then just rubbed all the chicken in this marinade and set apart for a couple of hours.

I baked the chicken which took about 40 minutes and whilst they were heating I made the Sakay. All you need to do is blitz about 30 chillies with 3 tbsp of oil, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 tbsp of ginger powder, 2 tbsp and 1 tsp of sugar. You will make far more than you need but I bottled the rest and will use over the next few weeks on different dishes. It is brutally strong so use in minute moderation. I stirred some through rice and used the rest as a dipping sauce.

Overall this dish is powerful but delicious. Do be aware you won’t be able to speak to anyone close up for a few days after though.