As promised several months ago, today I am kicking off Turkish Muse's newest feature, Recipe Review, where I will attempt to cook, bake and saute my way through the mainstays of Turkish cuisine (and some American dishes now and again). I've always wanted to learn how to cook, and now that I finally have this totally rocking kitchen, I have no excuse not to do so.
See?
And that's only half of the kitchen.
Wanna see the other half?
See? I really have no excuse.
So last week when my friend Chole was in town visiting and we saw some fresh hamsi (Black Sea silver fish, sometimes translated as "anchovy") and sardalye (sardines) at our local fish market, we snapped them up and took them home. If you live in Turkey, you probably already know that September 1 is the official start of the sardalye season (at least it is here in Izmir, the fishwife told us), but starting in July you can find the fish at your local fishmonger. (To find out what fish is available when in Turkey, check here.)
When we brought the fish home, we were at a bit of a loss as to what exactly to do with them when I suddenly remembered that I had seen a recipe for fish on one of my favorite Turkish cuisine recipe websites, Binnur's Turkish Cookbook.
Technically, the recipe calls for gumus baligi (smelt), but since they're all silver fish, I figured it would work out just fine.
We started with blanching the tomatoes for the sauce that we were going to put on the fish. I would have happily skipped this step, but Chole insisted it be done, so I let her take over.
We put the tomatoes in a big pot and added olive oil, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper and let it simmer for a while. (Sorry the lighting in these pictures is so bad, we're working on getting better lights for the kitchen.)
While the tomato sauce worked its magic, Jeff coated the fish in flour and laid them out on a plate.
Then it was time to fry them. Be sure to use sunflower oil, NOT olive oil for this part. Why? I have no clue, but that's what the fishwife told us at the market.
The fish only need a few minutes on each side, so flip them about every two minutes or so. Watch out for flying hot oil!
After the fish is cooked, lay them on a plate lined with paper towels.
And you're done! It really is that simple.
We spooned the tomato sauce over the fish and served it with some simple rice and fresh, warm Ramazan bread. So simple and yet so divine.
To get the recipe, find it here at Binnur's Turkish Cookbook.
