Recipes for foods in a novel

In my recent post, I discussed the many food references in The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak. I quoted several lists of Turkish foods enjoyed by both the Armenian-American family and by the Turkish family in the novel.

Binnur -- writer of TurkishCookbook.com -- helped me to identify some of the recipes for the favorite foods of the characters in the novel, and correct my mistakes. When I've tried Binnur's recipes, I find them easy to follow, with delicious results. Each recipe in Binnur's blog also has a mouth-watering photo.

To get the idea of what the characters are eating in the book, here is a key with links to Binnur's recipes:

• Fassoulye pilaki (fasulye pilaki). Fasulye means beans. This dish has kidney beans, pepper, onions, and other vegetables. For the recipe see: Kuru Fasulye Pilaki.
• Kadin budu kofte -- see Kadinbudu Kofte -- this is beef kofte with onion, egg, rice, and parsley, served over egg noodles.
• Karniyarik is eggplant stuffed with a ground beef mixture.
• Churek (corek -- in Turkish written çörek). Binnur writes: "it is a pastry, there is more than one corek recipe in Turkey. It changes from one region to the other, but it is certainly not pide." For her favorite recipe see: Turkish-style Breakfast Buns (Kahvalti Corekleri).
• Bastirma (pastirma) is a Turkish pastrami.
• Burma is a dessert like baklava.

You can buy Binnur's cookbook in printed copy or amazon.com Kindle editions as well:

Binnur's Turkish Cookbook: Turkishcookbook.com - Delicious, healthy and easy-to-make Ottoman & Turkish recipes by Binnur Tomay