food and politics

There are lots of different ways to cook mussels; here is one of them: Midye Pilaki.

As far as I know it is a Turkish recipe. I learnt it from my mother. She learnt it from my grandmother.

I’m afraid that, like for most of the Turkish dish, there may be some other countries claiming it.
If your country was once part of a ginormous empire, then most of the food and drinks (or other cultural habits) that you have in country are going be claimed by other nations too. One of the worst aspects of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire; we couldn’t manage to define clearly what dish belongs to whose kitchen.
Anyway it would be impossible to define since all of us lived together for centuries. Reciprocal influence.
One of the best aspects of the collapse; the Empire left behind a very rich cuisine for us to enjoy.
I tried to search for its origins. I only found out that Mehmed the Conqueror liked eating seafood. Okay, so? Of course he should, he is conquering Istanbul.

I don’t really care about its origins as long as it tastes good.

The real name of this dish is: Midye Pilaki. Midye means mussel. Pilaki doesn’t really translate to English. I would define it as kind of a stew cooked with olive oil. Usually served cold. The main ingredients may change; it can be mussels, tomatos, beans or kidney beans.
Not just mussels, you can make pilaki out of most of the seafood.

Midye Pilaki is served as a cold, side dish. So if you don’t like cold food or you don’t even want to try, then it’s not for you.

Here are the ingredients:
– 20-30 mussels
– 1 onion
– 1 carrot
– 1 potato
– 1 or 2 tomatos, depends on how much you like tomato
– 1 celery
– Parsley
– Lemon
– Olive oil

Don’t ask me for how many people, I never know. I cannot know how much your guests are capable of eating. But I can say it’s at least enough for 4 people.

Wash the mussels with lots of water. You don’t want it to stay sandy. Sometimes no matter how much I wash it, soak it and wash it again and again, I can still taste a bit of sand. But it is not the end of the world. Eating two pieces of sand won’t kill you.

Heat the olive oil. How much olive you put is up to you. I usually put 4-5 tablespoon at the beginning. If it doesn’t seem enough, you can add more at anytime.
Dice the onions and peel the carrot. Start cooking them at a low heat. When you see the onions getting pinkish, you can add diced celery. Mix them all together. Celery is optional here but I think it goes good with mussels.
Once I heard that celery was minus calories. Guess it was bullshit.
Add half a glass of water. Don’t forget that heat is always low. When you think that everything is mid-cooked, add the mussels and 1/3 of a glass of water. Be careful, don’t make it too watery.

Grate the tomato and add it. (Try to pick red small or medium sized tomatoes with fresh smell, always)
Dice the potato and add that too. Put salt. I would say 2 teaspoons. At the end if it’s not salty enough it’s not my fault. Feel the salt when you are still cooking.
Squeeze half a lemon on it. (No it is not too much, you will see at the end that it’s not)
Cover the pot and let it cook. It should be completely cooked in 20-30 minutes. Don’t be afraid to take a spoon to check it.
If you think that you made it too watery, open the cover and let the water evaporate for a while.

I recommend you to put it in a pyrex when its cooked and sprinkle some fresh parsley leaves on it.
You can also add some more parsley when you are cooking, it is up to your taste.

Let it cool for 15 minutes. Either serve it after 15-20 minutes or put it in the fridge for later.
P.S.: I didn’t put a pilaki photo that I myself cooked. Two reasons;
1) I’m feeling too lazy to shop and cook.
2) I suck at taking photos. I can make anything look ugly on a photo.
So if you ever find a photo of a dish taken by me, it is probably not really taken by me.