Cooking up a storm in Turkey

Mardin is a charming town in the Turkish region of south­­­eastern Anatolia. Located high above the Tigris-Euphrates river basins, it’s rich with religious tradition, historical significance and ancient sandstone architecture.

It’s also home to tasty local snacks, from pomegranate salads to stuffed tripe to grape-syrup kebabs. Blending Turkish and Syrian flavours, Mardin fusion cuisine made for meals unlike anything I’d tried in other parts of the country.

Likewise, the celebrated Mardin eatery Cercis Murat Konagi isn’t your typical Turkish restaurant. Overlooking the vast expanse of the scorching Mesopotamian plain, this former Armenian mansion dating back to the 1800s not only serves succulent Turkish cuisine, it also offers hands-on cooking courses for tourists.

Cercis Murat’s four-hour cooking class began with a trip to market. Ebru Baydemir, a local celebrity entrepreneur known as the first female restaurateur in eastern Anatolia, took me to a lively commercial center, where vendors hawked ripe, colorful vegetables.

On the hunt for ingredients, side-stepping the occasional donkey, we carefully selected a handful of deep purple eggplants, blood-red tomatoes, eye-watering onions and warm flatbreads. Supplies in hand, we returned to the kitchen, slipped on cloth hairnets, tied our aprons and got cooking.

Ebru told me that classes and meals can be customized according to tourists’ interests but that icli kofte — fried, stuffed meatballs — is a classic dish. I followed her tutelage and got my hands dirty.

Wrist deep in cracked wheat, onion, mince and allspice, I shaped the falafel-like shells into egg-sized balls and plopped them into a skillet of searing hot oil. The fragrant smell of onion and steaming mince filled the kitchen, a good indication of the gastronomical delights yet to come.

Stirring, mixing, chopping and dicing, I learned cooking techniques from a crew of female chefs. In this region of Turkey, women don’t traditionally work outside of the home but Ebru has broken new ground, giving local women a chance at employment. 

The restaurant has become so popular that it’s won several awards for best views and has even attracted the attention of Prince Charles, who visited there with his royal entourage in 2004 for a private function.

As my kofte cooled, I was ready to dive into my next dish, Patlicanli pilav, a type of upside-down casserole made with lamb, chickpeas, onions, rice, eggplant and lots of cinnamon.

No doubt, the best part of a cooking class is eating your homework. Sitting at a rectangular table adorned with elegant silver cutlery and crisply folded napkins, I chowed down a delicious home-cooked feast.

Fingers drizzling with lamb juice, the chefs (and my taste buds) agreed that the meal was a success.  It was worth the charge of 100 lira (about $75 Cdn), a fee that includes a trip to the market, all the ingredients and lessons.

Mardin

How to get there: Turkish Airlines offers daily, direct two-hour flights from Istanbul to Mardin; see www.thy.com.

Where to stay: Erdoba Konaklari is a charming boutique hotel in the heart of the old town. The historic mansion has wide stone terraces and rooms over looking Mesopotamia; see www.erdoba.com.tr.

Where to eat: For more information about the Cercis Murat cooking school, visit cercismurat.com and click on “translate this” to see the English version.

Places to visit:
• Sultan Isa Medresesi, the town’s architectural highlight.

• Bazaar along Cumhuriyet Caddesi for some unique bargain shopping.

• Mardin Castle, a natural rock structure turned fortification.

• Mardin Museum for a look at 7th Century BC Assyrian pottery.

– Julia Dimon is co-host of Word Travels, airing Sundays at 8:30 p.m. EST on OLN; www.juliadimon.com.