The Sultan’s Kitchen

Turkey may be nervously waiting in the wings for membership of the European club, but Turkish food has been steaming on the European table for a long time now. In South-eastern Europe, it arrived centuries ago via Ottoman colonialism to transform local cuisines; in the West, through immigrants, their corner shish-kebab shop and refined restaurants such as London’s Sofra.

Özcan Ozan’s 16-year-old Sultan’s Kitchen restaurant, selected for two years running as the best Turkish restaurant in Boston, belongs to the latter category. Özcan, who trained in Turkey and Europe, grew up on the shores of the Aegean, and it is to his childhood landscape that he turned for inspiration when putting together his restaurant menu and now this book of the same name.

Following a short forward on the author’s life, toing and froing between three continents, and an introduction to Turkish ingredients and kitchen practices, the book gets going with enormous energy and gusto, dishing out reams of recipes, often accompanied by down-to-earth photography and, in the case of böregs, even diagrams. Some will be familiar to non-Turkish-speaking residents of the island, if not by name (Zeytinli, Kekikli ve Biberiyeli Ekmek) then by content (olives, flour, herbs – the humble eliopita), but even then it would be worth foraying into the regional variation, in this case fresh or dry oregano and rosemary, as well as cornmeal for dusting the top.

Dear old staples, such as stuffed vine leaves, hummus, spinach and feta cheese böregs and char-grilled chicken shish-kebab are here as you might expect; but so are uncharted delights such as shrimp baked in a clay pot, rice pilaf with vegetables in pastry, fillet of sole in Swiss chard leaves, and mint split pea soup. There are also delicacies to delight a Sultan, such as spiced lamb with creamy eggplant, and desserts such as Bülbül Yuvası (Nightingale’s Nests) and mastic pudding to send your sweet tooth into rapture.

With raving reviews from the Boston Globe (“Not to be missed…a gem”), Gourmet (“Özcan’s versions of red lentil soup and shepherd’s salad are the most richly and complexly flavoured I’ve eaten”) and even the New York Times Book Review, Özcan Ozan may well be feeling that the long commuting hours from Old to New World have all been worthwhile.

The Sultan’s Kitchen is published by Periplus Editions and is available from Moufflon Bookshops (£15.75)

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