I was looking for something easy to bake using it. Haven’t found anything yet to my liking, last I looked. Or easy enough for me to make.
I do get a slight bitterness from walnuts, yes. Not sure if they’re of all varieties.
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I like to blanch walnuts to remove some of that tannin taste. Place the walnuts in a single layer in a microwave dish. Add enough water to cover the walnuts halfway. Let boil/ simmer for a couple of minutes. Pour off water, it’s good to clean the dish, but not totally necessary. Microwave again for a few minutes until nuts are lightly toasted and starting to feel dry.
They are now ready for baking purposes, or candying, snacking. If used in a yeast bread, the walnuts will not stain the dough.
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walnuts taste like dirt to me: they are my least favourite nut, although I actively dislike most nuts. This means that I generally don’t enjoy baklava, and most turkish delight. I did have some turkish delight without nuts in turkey… and realized that they tasted like jujubes ( a candy that I haven’t had in decades) without the nuts?
Ahhh, the tooth filling puller-outer. 
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The nut -free lokum is often rose, mint or mastic. There are also fruit flavoured lokum. Lokum just means sweet. Yep, it’s something like a ju jube. The Greek bakeries in Toronto like Serano sell the nut-free type as well as the nut type. I didn’t try the nut type until I visited Turkey.
Liu Loqum sells some nut -free versions. The Liu Loqum are much chewier and stickier, and contain more fruit, than the typical type of Lokum/ Loqum.
Re: baklava (tangent because I’m making this more general than Turkish baklava)
I guess walnut baklava is predominant at Turkish, Greek and Serbian restaurants when only one type of baklava is available. I find pistachio baklava is the predominant type at Middle Eastern restaurants. At bakeries, there are often several types of baklava. Liu Loqum has several types that are not walnut baklava, including pistachio versions, and a cream (Şöbiyet) version.
There is also a nut -free baklava at Serano bakery (a Greek bakery in Toronto), that is essentially baked buttered rolls of filo filled with nothing inside, and drizzled with syrup, as well as coconut baklava, date -filled baklava, chocolate- filled baklava, and apricot baklava. Without nuts inside any of them. I’ve also tried coconut and Rosewater baklava at Persian pastry shops.
I would think some Turkish pastry shops in Toronto also have some nut -free baklavas, as well!
This listicle is pan-baklava, from all regions. I tried the Havuç Dilim/ carrot slice, a triangular Turkish type, which contains pistachios but no carrots, at Liu Loqum in the summer. It’s mentioned in the listicle
Liu Loqum also has this pistachio mussel -shaped type, Midye.
Visneli (sour cherry / vissino) baklava
visneli/ cherry baklava- recipe in Turkish, I use Google Translate
Kestaneli /chestnut baklava (from the Marmara region, recipe in Turkish)
In terms of nuts, hazelnuts and filberts are my least favourite, followed by cashews and walnuts.
I like almonds, chestnuts, Brazil nuts and pine nuts.
My favourite nuts are pecans and macadamia nuts.
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A lunch we had today at a cute, family-owned breakfast/lunch spot in Pittsburgh. A nice, but rather small selection of Turkish breakfast classics, and an amazing looking crèpes selection, for which we (naturally) had no real estate left after sharing the potato, sucuk & eggs plate, and a breakfast panino with Turkish cheese and MOAR sucuk 
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You will be in Germany soon, yes?
I would think you will a lot of Turkish Restaurants to choose from then.
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Jawollowitsch! Already dreaming of REAL Adana kebab, midye, lamb ribs grilled over charcoal, and all the lovely mezze a girl could dream of.
There’s also a fabulous Turkish place that serves brunch until 4 PM where the tables are bursting under various stewed vegetables & egg dishes alongside German cheeses, cold cuts, breakfast rolls, cereal, granola, fruit, salads…
I’ll be more than happy to share my culinary adventures here 
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name of place, please!
The joint in the 'burgh? Alihan’s.
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I’m finally stocked up for a kebab-fest 
— Tepsi, Adana, Beyti, who knows what else 
But I forgot long peppers and tomatoes to grill alongside 
.
If anyone has tried and tested favorite recipes that they use themselves for any of these (or other kebabs), I’m all ears.
In the meantime, I’m enjoying reading Istanbul and Beyond and The Turkish Cookbook for inspiration.
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RED LENTIL SOUP / MERCIMEK ÇORBASI
(Istanbul & Beyond)
This is a tough one for me to have followed a recipe for, given that dal is such a core dish. But I’ve enjoyed Turkish lentil soup out many a time, and so I did.
There’s no spicing other than a bit of red pepper. I used both urfa and aleppo chilli flakes, and then warmed some brown butter with them to top the soup.
I cooked the soaked lentils and diced vegetables in the pressure cooker and simmered everything for a while to meld after pureeing.
The addition of vegetables to the lentils brings lovely flavor along with a bit of bulk. Oh, and of course there’s butter to help the flavor too!
Very tasty.
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SPICY EGG SALAD / BIBERLI YUMURTA SALATASI
(Istanbul & Beyond)
Can’t get much simpler – boiled eggs, olive oil, red pepper flakes, and parsley. Again, I used both urfa and aleppo for the red pepper.
I also added some of the chilli brown butter I had made for the soup, why not.
Very tasty and more than the sum of its parts.
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I enjoyed a take-out Turkish breakfast from the The Cappa in Hyde Park, London, Ontario for another trip around the sun. I split the Mediterranean omelette and the Egg Platter. Photos from the online menu, pictured below.
Everything was great.
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The following, Ekşili köfte, is the Turkish equivalent of Greek yiouvarlakia.
Smyrna Meatballs/ Izmir Meatballs / Izmir Köfte in Turkish / Soutzoukakia in Greek, in a tomato sauce with cumin and other herbs
I’m making meatballs tonight and maybe dill pilaf.
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