About
Behind every great Turkish cook is a neighborhood community – a baker, a third-generation milkman, a greengrocer with fresh seasonal produce, a butcher who’s owned the same shop for decades. Nowhere in Istanbul is this local culture more alive than in Kurtuluş, where our cooking experience takes place. This neighborhood, once home to religious minority groups during the Ottoman Empire, has maintained its unique, community-oriented soul even as fast food chains and megamalls have started to dominate areas nearby. Before we start to cook, we’ll explore the shops of Kurtuluş as we gather our ingredients. Visiting the simit stand where the neighborhood lines up for a morning snack, the liver butcher favored by chefs all over the city, a cheese shop, greengrocer, a traditional bakery and a cured meat and maze shop that this neighborhood is known for, slowly, a vision emerges of a community life that revolves around food. Welcome to Kurtuluş. Back at the kitchen, we’ll teach you how to cook six of our favorite Turkish recipes from all over Turkey in our Istanbul cooking class – dishes like Circassian chicken, stuffed eggplant from southeastern Turkey, Aegean-style mincemeat pastries and more. Once lunch is ready, we’ll open a bottle of raki, the traditional liquor of Turkey, and celebrate the food that we’ve prepared. For a sweet finale, we’ll enjoy a pumpkin dessert laced with tahini and walnuts and some revitalizing Turkish coffee.
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