Turkish memory

Ever since I've been growing these Kandil dolma peppers I've hoped to re-create a picture in my memory from my teenage years in Istanbul in the 1960s of a huge round metal dish of stuffed peppers in the open window of a restaurant in a narrow street of the old town. This is the nearest I'll get to it, I think. I picked 20 of these peppers, gave two to a friend to try and stuffed the rest with rice, raisins, pine nuts, oregano and cinnamon then cooked them with tomato purée, water and olive oil. They look and smell almost as I remember!

I blipped a few other peppers of this variety, raw, last week.

Just to record it - crossing the bridge on the way back from Roujan this morning I saw a golden oriole flying across in front of the car. I hear them a lot, and have seen them perched in trees, but never seen one flying before - a wonderful sight, a flash of yellow and dark feathers.