Istanbul: The Spice Market, and Two Restaurant Recommendations

I had the opportunity to travel to Turkey this spring with one of my best friends, Lauren, and her mom. They really showed me a great time, and it's a trip I won't forget.


(mmm Turkish Delight!)

While we were in Istanbul, we stopped in the spice market. It's definitely worth visiting the spice market. There are all kinds of Turkish sweets, spices from Turkey and all over the world, and of course, Turkish specialties like baklava and pastrami. Please enjoy some of the photos I took a little farther down in this post.



Above the spice market is a famous restaurant named Pandeli. A couple of people had recommended it to me before my trip, so Lauren, her mom and I made sure to make Pandeli our lunch stop that day. Pandeli is most famous for it's sea bass en papillote (sea bass cooked in a parcel, photo below). That's what I had, and it was truly delicious.



I must mention one other restaurant I went to in Istanbul; Balikci Sabahattin. This restaurant is a seafood place, and every single thing we had there was excellent. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos, but it would be the first restaurant I would head to if I was back for another visit to Istanbul.

Please enjoy the photos of the market; it was a lot of fun to visit, and a great place to pick up some Turkish Delight to bring home to friends and family!

Turkish Delight and other tasty treats...



Lots of spices...



Peppercorns...



Turkish Saffron...



Baklava...



Something else that looked tasty but I don't know the name of...



Dried vegetables including dried aubergine (eggplant) which I had never seen before...



A huge wheel of goat's cheese...



Pastrami, which was more cured and more spicy (but less peppery) than the American version...



Finally, pomegranate tea... so pretty!

Pork Chops with Toasted Spice Rub and Apple Dressing

Taylor sure got a treat this week: steak and pork in the same week. Very unusual in our kitchen. Maybe because I’ve always been biased against pork, and steak (at least the good pieces) are too expensive to eat on a regular basis. This is the reason you’ll always see more lentils and tofu on our plates than meat. That is, except for this week.

Taylor’s verdict: this is good. I shall not sway your opinion of this one way or another by saying what I thought of it. If you like pork, this is a great fall dish that’ll have your kitchen smelling delicious for the next few hours.

Pork Chops with Toasted Spice Rub and Apple Dressing

Makes 4 servings. Recipe from Michael Chiarello.

INGREDIENTS
For Honey Roasted Apple Sauce:
12 apples, Gravenstein or McIntosh
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon finely ground sea salt, preferably gray salt
1/3 cup honey

For Spice Rub:
1/4 cup fennel seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon peppercorns
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup pure California chili powder
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

4 (12-ounce) center-cut pork chops
Gray salt
2 tablespoons Toasted Spice Rub, recipe follows
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup Honey Roasted Apple Sauce, recipe follows

DIRECTIONS
Make apple sauce: Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Peel the apples with a vegetable peeler, remove the core and cut into 1-inch chunks, place in a large bowl. Heat a large skillet or roasting pan over medium-high heat. Add the butter. When the butter begins to brown, add lemon juice, then add the apples and salt. Cook until the apples just begin to color, about 4 minutes. Stir in the honey. Roast the apples in the oven until soft and lightly caramelized, about 12 minutes. Fork mash for a chunky version or puree in food processor for a smoother sauce. Set aside.

Make spice rub: Toast the fennel seeds, coriander seeds, and peppercorns in a small, heavy pan over medium heat. When the fennel begins to turn light brown, add the red pepper flakes, and toss several times. Immediately turn the spice mixture out onto a plate to cool.

Put in a blender with the chili powder, salt, and cinnamon and blend until the spices are evenly ground. If you have a small spice mill or a coffee grinder dedicated to grinding spices, grind only the fennel, coriander, pepper, and chili flakes. Pour into a bowl and toss with the remaining ingredients. Keep the spice mix in a glass jar in a cool, dry place, or freeze.

Note: If you have an exhaust fan over your stove, turn it on before you start toasting the spices. Be careful not to inhale the fumes once you add the red pepper flakes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Season both sides of the pork chops with salt and toasted spice rub.

Heat the oil in an ovenproof skillet over medium heat and sear the pork chops until golden brown, about 4 minutes on 1side and 1 minute on the other side. Place pork chops on baking sheet. Remove excess oil from skillet.

Bake the chops until just cooked through, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove to a serving platter.

Over medium heat, add the wine to the skillet, stir, and reduce to 1 to 2 tablespoons; add the apple sauce and bring to a simmer. Spoon over each chop.

The Solution to the Spice Capades

Problem: Solved.

Before:

After:

Pretty big difference, eh?

I probably spent about 5 hours scouring the internet for spice containers. Granted, there are some pretty nice spice racks out there. But I’m cheap, and knowing just how many spices we had to deal with, paying $3-$4 per container or $50 for a 16-spice rack was just not reasonable. And then I found these. At just $.68 a piece, the price was right. We bought some of the 8oz ones as well, for some of our bulkier spices, and they are stacked nicely in the cabinet. The 4oz container is the perfect size for your typical spice jar, there were only a few abnormally large jars whose contents didn’t quite fit. I don’t know how well these would work if you wanted to do one of those fancy magnetic racks – the lid just slips on and I wouldn’t trust it to stay on when positioned horizontally. They are probably not as airtight as they could be either – but they are just too pretty in that drawer!

I made up some pretty labels for all the spices we had, and got some clear stickers to print them on. An hour or so later a voila! No more spices gone wild!

I’d love to start purchasing better quality spices, preferably that come in bags instead of bottles, since I’ll just be dumping them into these containers anyway. Anyone know of a good online source for reasonably priced spices?