From Turkey, Good Advice for What to do with Leftover Turkey

The EatingAsia blog's dispatches from their recent trip through central Turkey have been completely mouthwatering. Now, in honor of Thanksgiving, the blog's author, Robyn Eckhardt, is offering up a Turkish recipe gleaned during her recent travels that is perfect for cooking up leftover Thanksgiving Turkey. From her article on the Zester Daily website, which features the recipe for the uncomplicated dish, called "islama:"

In October, the koy sections of markets in the fishing towns of Inebolu and Sinop and in Erfelik, an overgrown village set in a bucolic river-shot valley 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the coast, showcased the eastern Black Sea's autumn bounty. There were deep russet apples, black and green figs, Bartlett-like pears, black grapes, tiny red sweet-sour fruit called kizilcik and last-gasp mulberries, plus tubs of syrupy pekmez, a fruit molasses, and spreadable recer made from the same fruits.

What from a distance appeared to be chunky beaded necklaces turned out to be strings of alic, crab apple-like fruits eaten so ripe and mushy they're almost applesauce. Vendors used handsaws to quarter big dusty olive pumpkins, revealing nasturtium-orange flesh. "Tursuluk" ("for pickling"), advised hand-lettered cardboard notices balanced atop mounds of long slender yellow-green chilies with curled tips, knobby finger-length cucumbers, green tomatoes and fleshy broad beans. Sacks held coffee-brown bulgur and wheat berries from the previous month's harvest, a rainbow of dried beans, dried corn for soup and pilav and corn flour -- plain and wood oven-toasted -- to turn into bread and coat the region's beloved anchovies before frying.

At least a quarter of each market's koy section was given over to the area's biggest autumn vegetable harvest after wheat and corn: nuts. Chestnuts are graded according to size; one vendor displayed nine grades, from kuzu kestane (small "lamb" chestnuts, surprisingly sweet and reminiscent of fresh coconut) to kebablik kestane (chestnuts to be boiled or roasted). There were baskets of hazelnuts, shelled specimens dear at about $24 per kilo (about 2 pounds), and ceviz or walnuts, brown and black, raw and roasted, shell on and off. Perhaps the region's most beloved nuts, ceviz are baked into breads and added to pilav. This early in the season, freshly harvested and so oily they verge on juicy, Kara Denizli (Black Sea-ites) love to eat them out of hand or lightly crushed and sprinkled atop autumnal desserts such as candied pumpkin. They also add them to savory foods like the wickedly delicious dish islama.

Full article and recipe here.