Dolma & sarma of Turkey

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CORRECTION

A report in the Life, etc., section Wednesday included an incorrect telephone number for Turkish cooking classes at the Divan Cultural Center in Cary. The correct number is 386-3464.

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Oznur Hatip grew up in a country that was an ancient crossroads of culture and food. Now, she lives in another crossroads community -- the bustling Triangle -- but finds it very different.

It's quiet in her Cary neighborhood. She misses the sounds and scents of her home in Ankara, Turkey, where vegetable vendors call out to the apartments from the street, and each building has a man whose job is to go door to door, taking orders for groceries or anything residents might need.

During this time of year, she says, every balcony is festooned with strings of eggplant drying in the heat. Such a thing isn't possible in North Carolina's soggy humidity, so she must purchase dried eggplant at a Mediterranean market for the dolma -- dried eggplant stuffed with a meat mixture -- that her sons, ages 9 and 5, like to eat.

"Food is culture," she says. "It's the taste you know and you like."

Hatip, who moved to the United States from Turkey with her husband seven years ago, teaches Turkish cooking classes at Cary's Divan Cultural Center. At home, she prepares Turkish meals -- she even makes her own yogurt -- along with American foods her sons enjoy, such as pancakes and hamburgers.

Perched between Europe and Asia, Turkey has food influenced by both worlds. There are Greek touches in the use of thyme and oregano, and in stuffed grape leaves

called sarma. A stuffed pasta called manti is similar to Italian ravioli. There are Turkish versions of hummus and tabbouleh, too.

The Turkish way of cooking meats, often using fruits in stews, comes from Iranian cuisine. Turks also prepare their version of Greek gyros. Because Turkey is a primarily Muslim country, pork is not widely used, but chicken, beef and lamb are common.

Fish is prepared in areas near the coast, in part because of the Turkish emphasis on freshness. Hatip says people prefer that vegetables be fresh -- you don't see a lot of canned or frozen items used. Many dishes are prepared simply, to emphasize fresh flavors.

Salads, which are served at every meal, are often dressed merely with olive oil and lemon juice. One of Hatip's favorite salads is made up of chopped onion, tomato, green bell peppers and cucumber tossed with olive oil, lemon juice and pomegranate juice and, sometimes, parsley or mint.

"In hot weather, we would eat cold dishes with no meat," Hatip says. "In Turkey, vegetables you eat are seasonal. You can find summer vegetables in the winter, but the winter vegetables like leeks and spinach are what is good. My mother used to cook in this way."

Summer or winter, meals begin with soup, she says, and mezze, or appetizers. Dolma and sarma can be mezze or a main dish; Hatip usually serves them as a main dish.

Turkish pilaf, or pilav, is another main dish, using bulgur wheat instead of rice.

"My grandmother, how I miss the smell of her pilav," Hatip says.

Dried beans might appear in hearty wintertime dishes, such as kuru fasulye, a stew that includes either beef or lamb with a beef sausage similar to pepperoni.

A large spice market in Istanbul that dates to the 15th century Ottoman Empire is still a center for spices, herbs and good food. Although herbs and spices are important in Turkish food, it's not a spicy cuisine. Dill, parsley, garlic, mint and oregano are common and used in ways that enhance the foods rather than dominate it.

The tart flavor of lemon is a favorite, as is the lemony seasoning sumac. Unlike the pest weed with the same name in the United States, Turkish sumac is the dried berry of a plant that grows wild in the Middle East.

While fiery food isn't common in Turkey, the medium-hot red Aleppo pepper is served in the southern part of the country, dried and ground, on the table as a condiment.

Turkish desserts are very sweet and are often soaked in sugar syrup, like the Turkish version of baklava. Fruit -- figs, apricots, watermelon or peaches -- often appear along with a baked dessert.

Hatip said her mother used to make a dessert for breaking the fast during Ramadan in which she made phyllo-like dough by hand, rolling and rolling each sheet until it was paper thin.

Hatip says it's important to have dessert when guests are present. In Turkey, she says, the greatest honor for a guest is to be invited to share a meal at home.

"Others, most of the time, when they invite friends to eat, they go out," she says. "We want to invite you to our home."

Hatip visits her family in Turkey once a year and looks forward to being in the kitchen with everyone.

"We talk about what happened during the day. We take time preparing the meal," she says. "To make everyone feel I am a part of this as a family."