I feel very honoured that Claudia has allowed me to revive her baby “Seasonal Cook in Turkey” which I know she treasures and had a fear of losing one day due to obsolescence.
Claudia gave 5 years of her life to this marvelous blog and it will be foremost in my mind that I have to treat it with complete TLC and maintain the standard to the highest degree.
Claudia’s recipes inspired me to try Turkish dishes which I may not have thought to try otherwise. I enjoyed her writings enormously along with her countless observations of everyday life.
Hopefully you will enjoy the recipes I add to Seasonal Cook in Turkey. I love tasty food and I love to cook but I’m not overly thrilled by over-complicated recipes.
I love easy recipes using fresh produce that pump out tasty results and haven’t left you with your kitchen looking like a tornado has whipped through it. Nobody likes a mountain of kitchen equipment and utensils covering every inch of countertop space.
Lulu Witt in Turkey
My story in Turkey goes back to 1984 when I first moved here and fell in love with the country, the food and the people. I can happily say that that love affair continues today and I am forever learning little things about the culture and about the food which I never dreamt possible. I have not been in the country continuously since ’84 but in total, I have spent over 19 years in Turkey up to now (2017).
I live the village life in Turkey with my husband Henrik. We live in Yaniklar, 17km out of Fethiye. Our house is perched on a hill. We are the second of 4 houses in a hamlet called Aydinlik Mahallesi. Our hill is edged with a forest on either side of us and the beach is less than a kilometre away, at the end of the road. A seven-minute walk away.
The Eastern view from our hill-perch
We are quite remote here with the only normal sounds being those of cows mooing, goats’ bells ringing, the mosque calling to prayer and the occasional dog letting us know someone is passing.
Once a fortnight a market farmer truck sings out his wares down the bottom of the hill. A little while ago we had a sweets and baklava seller shouting through his megaphone about his tulumba but actually he was lost and we have never been graced with his presence again.
Our neighbours live off the land, rarely leaving this little enclave and nearly everyone in the vicinity is related. On our hill of 4, two houses share an old jalopy, a 1983 navy blue Renault to be exact, which I think was once a police car and it seems to me they spend more time under the car than in it!
Chickens run through everybody’s garden but never lay any eggs in ours!… and every household has a dog and not one of them is tied up. It’s something quite remarkable and we love the fact that all the dogs pop in an out of everybody’s place checking up on who is doing what.
We walk our dog morning and night and invariably have at least 2 other dogs and up to 7 who join us for part, if not all of our treks.
On a sunny morning, our preference is to walk down towards the beach then take the dirt track through the nature reserve.
There is a large freshwater lake that just misses out on reaching the sea and many birds call this home. There is also a family of geese that try to keep us at bay and provide some entertaining moments with the dogs.
Most mornings on our way back up the hill we pass the lovely family with their pregnant cow and a one-year-old calf. For some reason, the calf has a crush on me and will turn and follow me if I am going the opposite direction. I don’t really want to think what that is about but it is very sweet.
When we need to buy milk, this is where I get it. Two litres of steaming hot milk straight from the cow each day and through such ease of access I have been playing with making interesting kinds of labne and cheeses and this is where I will add my first, very simple recipe.
Labne is so incredibly easy to make and if you want to be rewarded with something made exactly to your taste, then this is a good place to start.
So following in Claudia’s footsteps I will begin. Here is a truly easy, tasty recipe with which to begin. Labne with Herbs.
Thank you for joining me and I really look forward to hearing from many of you over time.
Lulu Witt