A taste of Turkey at home... we're back in the cooking game!

It has been a long, busy summer in many ways and fun cooking hasn't been a big priority. Matthew just spent nearly 3 months on tour with only a couple of days home, and cooking for one isn't very exciting. What is exciting, is tour souvenirs. Matthew tends to pick up cookbooks in countries where he has wonderful food experiences that he wants to bring home for us to try together. He was in Istanbul in June and picked up this little gem Istanbul: A Journey to the Heart of Turkish Cuisine. It's an accessible book that is in English and also helps you figure out how to make some of the dishes and spice mixtures that would normally be difficult, if not impossible, to find in the U.S. That's probably one of the biggest challenges about bringing books home from around the world - if they aren't meant for American/English translation, it can be virtually impossible to find ingredients or make things correctly, in which case, they just sit on a shelf. This book is really easy to follow and has a bit of everything Turkish we love.

For years, we've been wanting to make baba ghanoush (smoked eggplant dip). We are eggplant junkies, but let's be real - eggplants (or aubergines, as you Brits and Canadians call it) are not the easiest berry (yes, we just learned yesterday they are technically classified as a berry) to cook. We also learned that their bitterness, if not properly drained or prepared, comes from their lineage in the tobacco plant family. Cooking is for learning, kids! If not paired well in a recipe, they can also be smushy and flavorless. But if it's being smoked on the grill and paired with tons of olive oil and garlic, you really can't go wrong!

We also made chicken kebap - the recipe called for chicken livers, but admittedly, I'm a bit squeamish with animal guts. These simple skewers with turkish spices were delicious. Matthew did most of the heavy lifting on this recipe - his first since being back home from tour this week. We'll definitely be back in the cooking game over the next few months while he's on break, so stay tuned.

Scooping out smoked eggplant to be mashed through a sieve and mixed with yogurt, olive oil, and garlic.

Fresh garlic mashed in a mortar and pestle into a paste.

Skewered chicken. Next time we'll cut the chicken smaller for speedier grill time.

Grilled veggies and chicken over pita, sprinkled with sumac and a squeeze of lemon.

Cookbook: Istanbul: A Journey to the Heart of Turkish Cuisine

Soundtrack: Alan Shavarsh Bardezbanian Middle Eastern Ensemble - Oud Masterpieces

When in doubt, your favorite cookbooks will pave the way.

Some days, we have no idea what we want for dinner. When that happens, we'll grab a few of our favorite cookbooks and do a quick flip through to see if anything strikes our fancy. With Matthew having only one night left home before leaving for tour, we wanted to make this dinner count, but at the same time, didn't want to spend hours in the kitchen with a pile of dishes in the sink.

We are both into robust, heavily-spiced dishes -- we aren't typically excited about delicate flavors. Our spice cabinet isn't to be joked about (really, we have an entire cabinet filled only with spices). We opted for an Ottolenghi/Tamimi recipe from Jerusalem -- Turkey and Zucchini Burgers with Green Onion and Cumin. For a side, we opted for Lebovitz Lemon-pistachio Israeli Couscous, also in My Paris Kitchen.

Of course, when I was in a hurry to run to the market because we made a last minute dinner decision, I skimmed the recipes. This is always a formula for disaster -- I read lemon, but not preserved lemon (which couldn't be more different). I will definitely be making this again with preserved lemon, and making some to keep on standby as David does, but it was still absolutely beautiful and tasted great. I compensated with extra salt and a hefty squeeze of lemon juice. I'll report back when I make it correctly, although, this was still fabulous. I love everything about pistachios -- I'm even making pistachio ice cream this weekend! And the dried fruit was an unexpected sweetness in a typically savory dish.

Turkey burgers can be dry and tasteless -- these have to be the absolute best recipe for turkey burgers. Moist, well-spiced, with a sumac-lemon-yogurt-sour cream sauce that we basically want to put on all meat from now on.

This is going to be one of our weeknight go-to's from now on. 

Beautiful, unsalted Pistachios.

Dried Cherries, Cranberries, and Apricots

Nuts, fruits, herbs, and spices for the couscous.

Turkey burgers brimming with herbs and spices.

Greek yogurt, sour cream, sumac, salt, garlic, pepper, and olive oil for the creamy sauce.

Colorful, and deliciously balanced couscous.

We have leaps and bounds to go when it comes to beautiful plating, but what matters most is that it was absolutely delicious.