Photo by Luke J Albert
I adore and admire many cookbooks whose authors have an approach and a sensibility that differs markedly from mine, but there is something about coming across a foodwriter whose take on food and life seems to chime so commodiously with my own that makes me feel instantly reassured and greedily galvanised. Palate comes into it, too, of course. Meliz Berg’s eating and cooking history may not be mine — her glorious food stems in the main from her Turkish-Cypriot heritage — but the ingredients she draws on, the flavours she produces, are so very much (to borrow a phrase I always associate with the late, great Anthony Bourdain) in my wheelhouse. I’m not a complete egomaniac, so I know this is not actually the case, but with every recipe in Dinner Tonight I felt that Berg had conjured up a dish so perfectly tailored to my own tastebuds as to seem like a personally chosen present to unwrap in my own kitchen. Her particular gift is, I rather feel, to make so many of us feel that way!
I couldn’t agree with her more when she writes in her introduction “I might not have much time but I refuse to compromise on flavour.” If this is a mantra you also subscribe to, or would want to live by, then this book is the ally you need as you feed yourself, your family or your friends at the end of a busy day. The recipes are straightforward but vibrant — think maximum impact with minimum effort — and she thinks like a proper home cook, which is to say her focus is on coming up with meals that make life easier and more delicious, making the most of leftovers and — crucially — curtailing the amount of washing up. “Simple Meals, Exciting Flavours” is what the subtitle promises, and so pleasingly delivers, but there is another key element, a kind of upbeat cosiness that made my heart smile: Vermicelli Soup with Fried Hellim (Halloumi); Hummus Soup; Chicken, Leek and Pasta Broth; All-in-One Creamy Sausage Pasta; One-Pot Chicken and Rice (Tavuk Kapama); Creamy Chicken and Vegetable Stew; Whole Chicken Traybake; Caramelised Apple Yogurt Cake; and Spiced Fruit Baklava Crumble. But the recipes that won my heart conclusively are the ones based on mince (ground meat), by which I mean, yes, lovely Köfte (meatballs) and a low-effort, slow-cook meat sauce known pleasingly as Bolonez, but also her One Pot Spiced Mince Linguine; a Pea and Mince Stew (Kıymalı Bezelye), the brilliant Loaded Crunchy Spicy Mince Wraps, the pomegranate-and-almond-flecked Spiced Mince and Rice, Mash-Topped Mince Börek, and the recipe I’m delightedly and excitedly sharing with you today — Spiced Mince and Chips!
Extracted from Dinner Tonight: Simple Meals, Exciting Flavours by Meliz Berg (Ebury Press, £22).
Photography by Luke J Albert.
