Mediterranean Vegetarian Cooking. Paola Gavin

– a dish of aubergines stuffed with onions tomatoes, garlic and parsley and dressed with so much olive oil that the priest was overcome – kabak mücveri (courgette and white cheese fritters) and zeytinyaǧli yaprak dolmasi (vine leaves stuffed with rice, currants, pine nuts and herbs and cooked in olive oil).

      All kinds of rice pilav are made, mostly with aubergines, courgettes, tomatoes, peas, currants, pine nuts, carrots and chickpeas. Pilav is also made with bulgur (cracked wheat) instead of rice. Börek (savoury pastries) are made with yufka, thin sheets of dough similar to filo pastry, as well as various puff and flaky pastries. Fillings include spinach, white cheese, potato and onion, pumpkin, courgette, mushroom, and green lentils.

      Bread is a staple, especially pide – a soft round bread with a hollow pouch. Pide is sometimes stuffed with cheese or vegetables. In the region around Antalya, pide is often spread with hibes, a paste made with crushed chickpeas, yoghurt, red pepper and onion. Misir ekmeǧi (corn bread) is popular in eastern and central Anatolia. Simit (ring-shaped rolls coated in sesame seeds) are sold by street vendors all over Turkey.

      Some traditional desserts include a variety of sweet pastries coated in sugar syrup with such evocative names as kiz memesi kadayif (young girls breasts), kadin göbeǧi (ladies’ navels) and dilber ekmeǧi (beauty’s lips). Aşure is a sweet rice pudding made with whole wheat, legumes, nuts and dried fruit that used to be made to celebrate Noah’s salvation from the flood. Today it is eaten on the tenth day of Muharren to commemorate the martyrdom of Mohammed’s grandsons Hasan and Huseyin. Turks are fond of all kinds of kompostosu (fruit compôtes) and muhallebiler (chilled milk puddings), which are flavoured with almonds, pistachios, coconut, and rose and orange flower water.