It was my last night at Camalo and Kartsen's house so I wanted to make them something nice. Here is the meal which I created based solely on ingredients procured from the aforementioned Turkish market.

Bulgar Wheat Pilaf with Olives, Dates and Pine Nuts

The inspiration for this dish

was the sweet and savory combination of olives and dates. I was originally thinking couscous but was intrigued by the bulgar wheat as I haven't really experimented with it much. For broth-to-grain ratio, you should consult the instructions on the package.

ingredients:

butter

curry powder

minced shallots

bulgar wheat

broth

chopped dates

olives

pine nuts

Heat the butter and add the curry powder. Stir it around for a minute or so.

Add the shallots and saute until they're soft.

Add the bulgar wheat and toast it for a few minutes before adding the broth.

Cook it for about 20 minutes until the grains are slightly al dente.

Stir in the dates, olives and pine nuts.

Chopped Salad with Mint-Lime Yogurt Dressing

Should I call this Mojito dressing?

Firstly I wanted to utilize the market's abundant selection of fresh herbs in this dressing. And the other main ingredient, yogurt, was just an obvious and unavoidable choice. You can get the creamy Turkish style in every supermarket here. (BTW there is even a chain of Middle Eastern supermarkets here about which I might have to dedicate an entire post.) Ghiselle, the almost 2-year-old with whom I've been cohabitating, is also a huge fan of yogurt. We generally have pretty similar food preferences, as her other favorites are tomatoes and cheese. Actually when she says the word for cheese in German, “käse”, it sounds quite similar to her pronunciation of my name, “Cheesa,” This has been a source of disappointment for me on a number of occasions, as it's always more likely that she's referring to cheese than to me.

salad:

radishes

fennel

cucumber

tomatoes

green onions

feta cheese

dressing:

minced garlic

lime juice

honey

finely chopped mint leaves

yogurt

salt

pepper

So obvious that you probably don't need me to tell you:

Chop all the vegetables into small pieces. Crumble the feta on top.

Combine dressing ingredients.

Toss the salad with the dressing.