Let’s go to Turkey…

Somer Sivrioglu from Efendy

I went to Turkey with my taste buds on Monday night at the Sydney Seafood School. Somer Sivrioglu head chef/owner of Effendy Restaurant in Balmain, Sydney presented Turkish meze dishes.

Kadayifli Karides with Muhammara

Somer made Kadayif-wrapped Prawns with Walnut Capsicum Dip which was easy to reproduce when it came to our turn to cook. I will be making this for Christmas. The prawns are wrapped in kataifi pastry and baked and served on top of a walnut capsicum dip which originated from Syria.

Asmada Sardalya

We also had Sardines Wrapped in Vine Leaves, delicious and easy. The butterflied sardines are stuffed with parsley, mint, pine nuts and currants and then wrapped in vine leaves and char-grilled.

Midye Tava with Tarator

Beer-battered Mussels with Walnut Sauce was a real hit with our group.  Mussels are an underutilized seafood and not expensive, once you get the hang of shelling the mussel meat it is a quick dish to prepare.

All the dishes we made and happily ate are served at Effendy. If you haven’t been to this Modern Turkish restaurant do your best to get there and if you want to learn how to do some Turkish Meze Somer will be back at the Seafood School in January 2012.

I would love to go back to Turkey. I toured there in my backpacking days and found the Turks to be the friendliest people, especially if you were an Aussie. I especially loved hanging out in the rug shops drinking mint tea….let’s go to Turkey!