The Oldways Table Blog

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happiness, heritage,
and delicious,
nutritious food.

Mediterranean Diet Month Memory - Day 23

May 23, 2013 | Oldways Table

Ana Sortun Remembers a 'Turkey Potluck'...it isn't what you think!

As a chef I travel a lot to the Mediterranean for inspiration. My restaurants, both Oleana and Sofra, serve Mediterranean cuisine with an emphasis on Turkey and parts of the eastern Mediterranean. I love using bulgur wheat to make dumplings (kibbeh or kofte). I recently had a class on making many kinds of them in Lebanon in 2012. The recipe I share below for a red lentil slider has all the flavors of Turkey and is filling and as delicious as a hamburger. I also love these sliders as a great alternative to a veggie burger.

Some of my favorite Mediterranean memories are of Turkey. In 1997, I was working at Harvard Square’s Casablanca restaurant, cooking Mediterranean food mostly inspired by my travels to Italy, Spain, and the south of France. While at Casablanca, I was invited by Ayfer Unsal to visit Turkey for the first time and to study the cuisine from her hometown, Gaziantep. When I thought about going to Turkey, I imagined genies and flying carpets. I had no idea. But it’s the memory of a potluck she threw for me that is tattooed inside my head forever. It was a turning point and a revelation in my career as a chef.

Her friends graciously threw me a welcome lunch (potluck) in the park. Everyone prepared a favorite recipe (Ayfer made me make one too!) and there were 30 amazing dishes spread out from one end of the table to the other. I tasted every single one and it was all so unfamiliar yet very rich and complex. I realized that I had tasted 30 dishes, essentially making my way through a 30-course tasting menu and I didn’t feel terrible. Even though the flavors were complex, the dishes were light. This idea of food being rich but not heavy was something new for me. I’ve been hooked since that day and it has changed the way I cook forever. It became a study from there on and I explored ingredients, spices, recipes, and techniques, eventually coming up with my own style of Mediterranean cooking that is modern, interpretive but inspired by what I learned and continue to learn from travels to Turkey and other parts of the Mediterranean.

RED LENTIL SLIDER
Makes 8 sliders (that will fit in a regular burger bun)

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium white onion, minced
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped green cabbage
1 cup peeled & diced apples
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons hot paprika
1 cup red lentils, picked over and rinsed
4 cups water
1 ¼ cup fine ground bulgur
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Olive oil for pan frying
½ cup zhoug
1 cup apple pickle
8 whole wheat or homemade burger buns (or small whole wheat pita)
8 large spinach leaves, washed and finely shredded

Directions:
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the white onion, cabbage, apple and carrot and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 7 minutes.

Stir in the tomato paste, cumin and paprika, then add the lentils and water and bring to a boil. Simmer over moderate heat until the lentils are tender and have absorbed about ¾ of the liquid, about 12 minutes.

Stir in the bulgur and remove from the heat. Let stand until the liquid is absorbed and the bulgur is softened, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer the lentil mixture to a rimmed baking sheet and spread in an even layer to cool. Form into little patties.

In a small saute pan, heat olive oil and fry the sliders for 3 minutes on both sides until golden brown. If the mixture is wet and falling apart, use a little flour to coat the outside. Toast the brioche bun. Spread zhoug (recipe below) and apple pickle and top with red lentil cake. Sandwich with romaine or shredded spinach.

ZHOUG
Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:
4 cups of rough chopped Hungarian hot wax peppers, no stem
1 large bunch of cilantro, cleaned with a little stem left & roughly chopped
One half bunch flat leaf parsley, cleaned with a little stem left & roughly chopped
2 teaspoons chopped garlic, about 3 cloves
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon Spanish sherry vinegar
Salt to taste

Directions:
Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until very smooth and season well with salt.

Ana Sortun Remembers a 'Turkey Potluck'...it isn't what you think!

As a chef I travel a lot to the Mediterranean for inspiration. Some of my favorite Mediterranean memories are of Turkey.

Mediterranean Diet Month

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Mediterranean Diet Month Memory - Day 22

May 22, 2013 | Oldways Table

Antonia Trichopoulou Brings Us Back to the Beginning

"Present at the creation" has been a title that has been metaphorically used by several authors who were witnesses or contributed to events with substantial consequences of either scientific or political nature.

With an excusable dose of hyperbole, I can claim that I was "present at the universal recognition" of the Mediterranean Diet in a 1993 conference in Boston, by the Harvard School of Public Health and Oldways, attended by distinguished scientists and visionaries, including the late Dun Gifford, the then Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health Harvey Fineberg, Professor Walter Willett, senior WHO officer Elisabeth Helsing, as well as many others. Some of us, who had the opportunity to be familiar with the traditional Mediterranean Diet and had early but quite strong evidence of its health promoting consequences were also present.

Indeed, since the late 1980's I had the opportunity to introduce some of my non-Mediterranean friends to the traditional Mediterranean Diet in remote villages of Greece, where they have all appreciated the delight of this diet, replete with olive oil, in the confidence that they were also taking good care of their health.

-Antonia Trichopoulou

Antonia Trichopoulou Brings Us Back to the Beginning

Mediterranean Diet Month

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Mediterranean Diet Month Memory - Day 21

May 21, 2013 | Oldways Table

Carrie Balkcom Remembers Camaraderie and Culture

Because of a canceled trip to South America, I found myself on a last minute journey to Italy with Oldways at the beginning of the 2000’s.

The trip started with convening in Nice, and bussing to San Remo, Italy, and then with the guidance of Fred Plotkin and the other amazing historians on that trip, the journey began with Fred telling us how he had carefully unknotted the string around the grocery lists that were archived to find out the eating habits of earlier inhabitants of the region.

We found ourselves traipsing along small cobblestone streets that hold the footprints of generations of a people who care for the land and history of their place that was unmatched in my daily life in America. It did send me back to the memories of my family with their sense of place in the south. As we meandered through hill towns, and tasted the indigenous foods I was struck at the similarities to the tastes and textures of foods from my early childhood in the rural south. Dried pea fritters, greens, wild boar, rustic cooking techniques that spoke to the simplicity of the method, and the complexity of the flavors. Simple sweets so delicate and so so intense that small bites were all one needed to be full.

We ended our journey through the hill towns, Cinque Terre and seaside towns, to Geneva, where we dined at the villa of Andrea Doria. Again, a simple meal prepared with the local-ist of ingredients with such warm friends created over food and history.

I had one more opportunity to take an Oldways trip, this time to the Greek Isles, and this time again with the camaraderie of like-minded food folk, I witnessed and tasted the foods of a people who are passionate about saving their culture and foods. Again, I was struck by the simplicity of the preparation, the complexity of the flavors, and depth of the passion that surrounds them both.

-Carrie Balkcom

Carrie Balkcom Remembers Camaraderie and Culture

Mediterranean Diet Month

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Mediterranean Diet Month Memory - Day 20

May 20, 2013 | Oldways Table

Rosemary Stanton Breaks into Her Memory Bank

I have been a nutritionist, food writer and author, and lecturer at various Australian Universities for the last 46 years. I spent many years investigating Mediterranean and other traditional dietary patterns, all of which has morphed into my current interests in sustainable food production for the future as well as school and community gardens. I am more than happy to acknowledge that much of my work over the last 20 years has a direct link to the dozens of Oldways conferences, tours and meetings in which I participated, including contributing to the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid.

My memory bank holds many special moments related to Oldways, but perhaps the most important facet was the way Oldways fostered the inclusion of people from different specialties – always on an equal footing. Around the Oldways ‘table’, I enjoyed the company and contribution from many of the world’s top medical and nutritional scientists, as well as chefs and culinary experts, food writers and authors (including some who enjoyed worldwide fame), agricultural experts, ecologists, geographers, historians, food policy experts and growers of a wide range of foodstuffs. Together we discussed the issues relating to food and together we came to some important conclusions.

It is also fair to say that Oldways helped crystallize what has become my life’s work: getting people to look at whole foods and eating patterns rather than taking a reductionist approach to single nutrients. Oldways always promoted a whole food approach and I am forever thankful for that insight, so often missing in my own profession.

Among my many memories of Oldways meetings in Mediterranean countries, several stand out – Barcelona in 1992 (and again in 1996), Tunisia in 1993, Puglia in 1996 and Crete in 1997.

Barcelona has long been my favorite city with its amazing La Boqueria market and the work-in-progress on Sagrada Família, which I visited many times since 1979. Tunisia led to some long-term friendships (including with Marion Nestle, who continues to inspire me on an almost daily basis), more memorable friendships in Puglia and the start of my serious consideration of future food production. This was inspired by talks with Sidney Mintz, Tim Lang and Mary Taylor Simeti in Lecce and now dominates my working life.

My original initial interest in Mediterranean diets began after spending some time in Crete in 1979, so the Oldways meeting there in 1997 was particularly relevant for me. It wasn’t just the food scene that lingers in my memories, however. That April, Crete experienced a sudden cold spell and four distinguished (but shivering) professors (all male) and I went searching the shops for anything warm. After some scavenging in back corners, we emerged in a variety of garments, some not very well fitting, but occasioning great mirth. I was the lucky one, having found a woolen poncho that I have worn every winter since!

Food always featured so wonderfully in Oldways conferences and I loved the fact that every meal was so special in so many ways. There was never any attempt to go totally ‘vego’ nor would anyone find better examples of how to properly showcase the wonders of the plant world. Happy anniversary Oldways. And thank you!

- Rosemary Stanton

Rosemary Stanton Breaks into Her Memory Bank

Mediterranean Diet Month

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