Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Turkish Delight

Tom told me that years ago, Howard and his friends had a secret joke having to do with Junior Mints. Tom was never privy to this joke, but he said that the very mention of Junior Mints would send them into gales of laughter. Slightly lascivious laughter. Dennis, my erstwhile spouse, and I had a similar relationship with Turkish Delight. Any mention of (not to speak of an actual piece of) Turkish Delight would set us off, sometimes till we had tears running down. And I don’t think either of us really knew what exactly we were laughing about. I don’t even remember how it all started, but I can imagine that it was when we lived in Ireland. I probably purchased some Turkish Delight for a treat and brought it home. Dennis would have taken one look at it, cocked an eyebrow, given me his rakish smile, and that would have been it. Somehow, not even knowing what the perverse thing was that we were laughing at made it all the more funny. The imagination goes wild. Well, here is some unsexy but very delicious Turkish Garden Delight. I made it for my work lunch today and it was très yummy. Many of my colleagues wanted to know how I made it, so here it is. It is a nice way to use some of your summer tomatoes.
Pour hot water over half a cup of bulgur and let it sit for 20 minutes or so, until it is soft. Mix up about 2 tablespoons of nice olive oil and the juice of half a lemon. Stir in some salt and pepper. Mix it into the bulgur, and add some green leaves – mint is traditional, but I had basil and parsley so that is what I used. Plus, I like them better. Add about ¼ cup chopped onion and a lot of chopped tomatoes. That’s all there is to it!