Sis Kebabs and Koeksisters
A South African talks Turkey
It's dinner time under the palms and magenta bougainvillea blossoms at Club Perili, an exotic, Ottoman style resort on Turkey's Turquoise Coast. As usual, the guests are murmuring appreciation of the sublime Turkish food - the buffet of colourful meze (hors d'oeuvres), tender lamb sis kebabs, and fresh grilled sea bream.
What none of the guests at this remote spot on Turkeys Aegean coast would guess is that the man behind this finger-licking Middle Eastern meal is not a native Turk: he's Russell Pellow, a sun-tanned 34-year-old from Durban, South Africa.
"You must try those," Pellow says with a Natal cadence recognized immediately by this former Durbanite. He points to a platter of sticky morsels called Ozel Lokma, on the festive desert table. I taste one. It's just like a South African koeksister. "They are part of Turkish cuisine - but here they come in a different shape."
In fact, says Pellow, the similarities between South African and Turkish food are plentiful. The produce is similar, both cultures love grilling outdoors, lamb is popular and spicy sis kebabs of Turkish cuisine are not unlike sosaties.
"What surprised me most were two very popular deserts that you find in any restaurant here. One is Kazandibi. Sweetened milk thickened with flour, corn flour and egg and seasoned with vanilla. Slap a crust on it and you have melk tert." The second was the koeksister-like bites of deep fried dough soaked in syrup.
This is Pellow's second year in charge of catering at Perili, one of six watersports clubs run by British-based Sunsail, the largest yacht charter company in the world. Most of the Perili guests are European sailing families, drawn as much by the sheltered bays and unspoiled coastline as they are by the region's ancient ruins and rich culture. At peak season, mid-August, Pellow is feeding 275 guests and a staff of 130 every day.
The Perili Club is about 600 km from Istanbul, and a lot further from West Ridge, Durban, where Pellow grew up. Always interested in cooking, he first became a "professional" at the age of about 12 when his aunt paid him pocket money to make curry. He trained at the International Hotel School in Durban and held a variety of jobs in food service in South Africa before he went to the UK in 2001.
His inspiration, he says, was his mom, Pam Pellow, "a fantastic cook and possibly the best baker I know." Mrs. Pellow, a retired administrative manager for Old Mutual in Durban, now volunteers for hospice, doing nursing and cooking. When Russell visits home he helps her cook, but admits there is sometimes "confusion" as to whether mom or son is in charge.
At Perili there's no doubt: Pellow supervises ten chefs, four porters, nine waiters and seven barmen, all of them Turkish. He has developed a deep regard for the Turkish people he works with. "They are very proud, but also very accommodating. They love to learn, but also to teach their language. They are respectful of elders, and they love children."
Pellow never put Turkey in his life plan. "I had known it was in the Middle East. But I wasn't sure where..." That changed in 2001. "It was one of the wettest winters in the UK in years. It rained almost every day." The very word Sunsail improved his spirits. He applied for a head chef position with the company and got a job at their watersports club near Bodrum, an ancient city and sailing centre on Turkey's Southwest coast, where the sun shines every day, all summer.
Pellow learned the local cuisine hands-on, from the Turks in the kitchen. They also taught him the Turkish words for the local produce - the same fruit and vegetables he found in South African markets: aubergine (patlican), courgette (kabak), tomato (domates), onion (sogan), spinach (ispanik) and sponspek (karvun.)
When the Bodrum club closed two years ago, Pellow was offered the job at Sunsail's resort at the exotic Perili Kosk, Turkish for Fairy Castle, on the Datca Peninsula. The buzz among Sunsail regulars, some of whom return year after year, is that the food under Pellow's reign is "excellent" - the best in Sunsail's stable of clubs (two in Greece, three in Turkey and one in Antigua in the Caribbean).
On his day off, Pellow sails with his girlfriend, Catherine Matthews, a British law student who works at the club, or he tries wind-surfing. But, in a heresy in this watersports world, he admits he prefers cricket and rugby.
With the summer season almost over Pellow intends to leave Turkey and return to the UK to work for Sunsail's managing directing, Chris Gordon, running a pub restaurant. But his bountiful knowledge of Turkish cuisine won't go to waste. Pellow is planning to scale his recipes for 400 down to family size and enshrine them in a domestic cookbook.
Recipes for three of Russell Pellow's Turkish favourites.
Turkish Hummus
Ingredients
tin cooked chick peas (about 200g)
1/3 cup Tahini (Sesame Paste)
Juice of 3 lemons
100ml olive oil
cloves garlic
salt and ground chilli pepper to taste
Preparation
Skin chick peas and puree with all ingredients. If hummus is too thick, add lemon juice. Cool to set. Serve with bread.
Yogurtlu Semizotu Salatasi
Ingredients:
I med bunch watercress
2 cloves garlic
2 cups plain yogurt
olive oil
salt
Preparation:
Wash and drain watercress. Chop coarsely. Combine with yogurt, crushed garlic and salt. Chill. Just before serving, drizzle with olive oil.
Sis Kebab
Ingredients :
I kg Boneless lamb leg
3 medium onions
1/2 cup Milk
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 medium tomatoes
6 medium green peppers
Servings: 8
Preparation :
Cut meat into 2 cm. cubes. Peel, wash and grate the onions, drain the juice and mix it well with milk, olive oil, tomato paste, salt and black pepper. Refrigerate the meat in this mixture for 24 hours. Wash the vegetables, remove the stems of the peppers. Chop the peppers 2 cm. thick and the tomatoes into 2 cm. cubes. Pass the meat, pepper and tomatoes alternately over skewers. Broil each side over charcoal fire or in an electric grill for 3-4 minutes, turning until all sides are broiled.
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Published: Independent on Saturday, 2004