Turkish
Delights
 An
old Turkish saying advises one to "eat sweetly and speak
sweetly". Sweets and desserts have always been an
important and distinctive element of Turkish cuisine.
That was true in Ottoman times and is just as true today.
Interestingly enough however, they also fulfill an
important social and ritual function. Halvah, a
confection made from semolina, is offered on the
occasion of major changes in people's lives: a birth, a
death, induction into the army, return from pilgrimage,
upon settling in a new home, enrolling and graduating
school; and also on special occasions such as praying
for rain.
One of the most important holidays in
the traditional calendar is the one that marks the end
of the 30-day period of daytime fasting during the month
of Ramazan. A popular Turkish name for the Ramazan
festival is "Seker Bayrami" (literally "Sugar Holiday'),
which is a sort of caps-tone to the lavish desserts
prepared for the sundown meals during the holy month.
These desserts are elaborate not only in their
ingredients but also in their visual impact and
presentation.
The desserts
and confections of Turkey bear witness to the rich
history of its people's cuisine and geography. The
dessert known as "Tavukgogsu", made with the milk-white
meat of chicken breast was introduced into ancient Rome
from the Mediterranean and reintroduced into Anatolia by
the Romans. The blanc mange made in Turkey and known as
"Kazan dibi" must certainly be one of the loveliest
parts of the mosaic that Turks have inherited from the
ancient civilizations of Anatolia.
 Then
there's "asure", a festive pudding of cereal grains,
sugar, and raisins. According to a legend, it was
originally concocted in the galley of Noah's ark from
whatever was left in the pantry. (Perhaps the recipe is
what NASA was searching for on Agri Dagi; they needn't
have bothered, the Turks discovered what they needed to
make good "Asure" ages ago.) The pudding is served
traditionally on the tenth day of the month of Muharrem,
when preparing a batch of "Asure" and distributing it to
neighbors and acquaintances is still a common custom in
many areas. The Ottoman palace kitchens produced a
refined version of "Asure" that was blended and strained;
more common folk had to chew through the grains. They
still do, to great enjoyment. Many different parts of
the Ottoman Empire contributed their own local
specialties to the palace kitchens where they were
refined and transformed into a distinctively Ottoman-Turkish
cuisine
Turkish
desserts usually fall into one of three categories.
Desserts made with fruits and
vegetables
Many fresh and dried fruits are stewed
into compotes in which the fluid is as important an
element as is the fruit itself. Desserts made from
apricots or figs are given a topping of fresh clotted
cream and sometimes-crushed walnuts. The same topping is
used on "Kabak tatlisi", an unusual dessert made by
cooking pieces of pumpkin in syrup.
Milk-based desserts
 These
include a wide variety of puddings, some of which are
baked. "Keskul" is a milk pudding made with coconut. "Gullac"
is a lovely confection of thin sheets of pastry in a
milk sauce to which rosewater is added. Mention has
already been made of "Tavukgogsu" and "Kazandibi".
Pastry-based desserts
These include world-famous baklava, as
well as "Kadayif' (made from shredded pastry baked in
syrup), "Revani" (a sweet made from semolina), "Hanim
gobegi" and "Sekerpare" (two kinds of small sweet cake),
"Yogurt tatlisi" (made with yogurt), "Badem tatlisi" (made
with almonds), and "Lokma" (deep-fried lumps of batter
served in syrup).
Altogether there are about 25-30 basic
recipes for desserts known but with the addition of
local variations the number becomes enormous. In 1539
Suleyman I gave a huge feast to celebrate the
circumcision of his two sons Cihangir and Beyazid.
Archival records tell us that fifty-three different
desserts were offered to guests including different-flavored
and colored puddings, a variety of halvahs, pastries and
cakes, and a large assortment of jams and compotes.
We'll close this article with an
anecdote that brings together the elements of Turkish
desserts and the Ottoman court. During a Ramazan in the
early 19th century, Sultan Mahmud II decided to pay a
surprise visit to the mansion of Durrizade Esseyid
Abdullah Efendi just before the cannon-shot signaling
the end of the fasting went off. By custom, he would
have to be entertained there and Abdullah, a cultured
intellectual as well as an accommodating and experienced
host managed to take care of his unexpected imperial
guest brilliantly, marshalling the kitchen of the
women's half of the mansion to the support of the men's
side. The individual courses were done to perfection and
the service came off flawlessly all until it was time
for dessert, fruit compote that arrived in a clumsy,
illformed bowl. Appalled by the sight, the sultan asked
those near him "So far everything has been served in
crystal and porcelain and eaten with gold cutlery; what
is that ugly-looking bowl doing here?" The host
overheard this of course and immediately explained "Your
majesty, my butler goes up to Camlica mountain every day
to fetch drinking water from a particular spring. Rather
than throw ice into the compote and risk spoiling its
flavor, he fashioned a bowl of ice out of Camlica spring
water."
The essence of traditional Turkish
cuisine lies in the importance given to details be it an
elaborate pastry or a simple stewed fruit.
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