133 Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7 and grease a 23cm/9-in round cake tin with butter.Put the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder (baking soda) and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir together. Add the chilled butter to the mixture and rub it in with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. Mix together the milk, lemon juice and eggs in a separate jug or bowl, then pour over the dry ingredients and stir together until you have a batter. Add the grated cheese and chopped fresh herbs, as well as the nigella seeds, if using, and stir.Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 35 minutes, or until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, then turn out, cut into wedges and serve with plenty of butter to spread on it. Cornbread is not great the next day, but you can refresh it by popping it in the oven for a few minutes to warm back through.Herb-Flecked Cornbread Cornbread is quintessentially ‘Black Sea’ in Turkey. It is a dense bread, best served warm. I first tried it with red cabbage soup, in a tiny family-run cafe in Istanbul called Hatice that serves Black Sea food to just 20 or so loyal lunch-breakers. I have added Parmesan and herbs to this recipe as I feel these additions, while not authentic, move it up another level and stop the bread from being quite so dense and dry.MAKES 1 MEDIUM LOAF225g/1½ cups fine cornmeal140g/1 cup strong white bread flour1 tablespoon caster (superfine) sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder (baking soda)1½ teaspoons fine salt50g/3½ tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into small pieces, plus extra for greasing350ml/1½ cups full-fat milkjuice of ½ lemon2 eggs45g/1½oz Parmesan or Grana Padano, grated2 tablespoons chopped basil2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley1 tablespoon nigella seeds (optional)134 ISTANBUL - TURKEYFirst, make the citrus cure. Gently toast the peppercorns and fennel seeds in a dry pan, then lightly crush them in a pestle and mortar. Add them to a mixing bowl with the sugar, salt, lemon zest and lime zest and stir together well. Pour the mixture into a tray large enough for the mackerel. Place the fish fillets on the cure, flesh-side down. Cover with cling film (plastic wrap) and refrigerate for 2 hours.Just before you remove the fish from the fridge, make the salad. Simply combine the ingredients, with pepper to taste, in a large serving bowl. Rinse the mackerel fillets under cold running water to remove all of the cure, then pat dry with kitchen paper. Heat a griddle pan until very hot.Lightly rub the mackerel skin with the olive oil, place skin-side down on the griddle and cook for 2 minutes, then remove. Serve the mackerel fillets while still warm, next to the salad. Citrus Cured Mackerel with Gherkins In recent years, mackerel in Istanbul – filling the famous fish sandwiches (balik ekmek) for sale along the Bosphorus – has been more likely to be Norwegian than Turkish due to depleted local stocks. Therefore, I was happy to learn recently of the return of Turkish mackerel at Hayat Cihangir, a fish and meze restaurant run by Tarkan ˛Sahin in the Cihangir neighbourhood. ‘We didn’t see mackerel since 2009, but now it is back in the Black Sea, and it is better than that of Norway,’ the owner assured me. It was wonderful to hear this news as I ate a lively salad, possibly containing the most mackerel-y mackerel I have ever tasted, and listened to Greek Rebetiko music on a hot summer night. This is a version easy to recreate at home. SERVES 4 AS A MEZE OR SIDE 2 fresh mackerel, gutted and filleted (ask your fishmonger to do this)1 tablespoon olive oilFOR THE CITRUS CURE1 teaspoon black peppercorns1 teaspoon fennel seeds25g/2 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar50g/3 tablespoons saltgrated zest of 1 lemongrated zest of 1 limeFOR THE SAL AD50g/1¾ oz sun-dried tomatoes, halved 80g/3oz gherkins, quartered lengthwise50ml/3½ tablespoons olive oil2 tablespoons chopped dill2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsleyfreshly ground black pepper135 Half and Half Manti Sinop’s famous manti tend to be large and soft, half topped with melted butter and chopped walnuts, and half with thick, silky yogurt. Sinop’s manti makers wouldn’t dream of cheating, but manti makes for such a good weeknight supper that this lazy version – using ready-made gyoza wrappers – makes them a cinch. These are for sale in Chinese and Far Eastern supermarkets and you can buy them online. I had hesitated at this cheat but I then spotted that gyoza wrappers feature in two Turkish cookery books I have at home, one being the masterly Turquoise: A Chef’s Travels in Turkey by Greg and Lucy Malouf, so I’ll stand by the substitute. MAKES ENOUGH TO FILL 25 ROUND GYOZA WRAPPERS25 Gyoza wrappersFOR THE FILLING300g/10½oz minced (ground) lamb1 onion, finely grated3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley½ teaspoon salt½ teaspoon black pepperFOR THE YOGURT SAUCE AND TOPPING2 garlic cloves1 teaspoon flaky sea salt1½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil300g/scant 1½ cups Greek yogurt1 tablespoon lemon juice30g/2 tablespoons butter½ teaspoon pul biber (Turkish pepper flakes)15g/½oz walnuts, crushedIf your wrappers are frozen, the first thing to do is to let them defrost thoroughly. Then combine the filling ingredients in a bowl, cover and set aside in the fridge.Next, prepare the yogurt sauce. Use a pestle and mortar to grind the garlic with the salt until you have a paste. Heat the olive oil in a pan over a low heat, add the salty garlic and sizzle until barely coloured. Transfer to a small bowl, whisk in the yogurt and lemon juice and set aside. Heat the butter in a small pan and stir through the pul biber, then set aside.Lay out your wrappers on a clean surface with plenty of room to work.Place a scant teaspoon of filling in the centre of each wrapper, taking care to keep the edges clean and free of filling, otherwise they won’t seal properly. Don’t be too generous with the filling – it can prevent you sealing the dumplings properly, and they might pop open during cooking.198 TURKEY’S BLACK SEA REGION - SINOPWith damp fingers, fold them into half moons, taking care to make sure there is no trapped air in the filling pocket, which can cause them to pop. Continue until the filling is used up. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Lower in the manti with a slotted spoon and cook until they rise to the top and are cooked through; this should take 4–6 minutes. Drain and serve, topping half the manti with the yogurt sauce, and half with the crushed walnuts, pouring over the pul biber butter. We hope youenjoyed this EYB Book PreviewThe complete book is available from all major booksellers. Or use the "Buy Book" button and help support EYB.Next >