Balls with Garlic

There was a feast in our kitchen today. Mom is here! She came from Tarsus/Mersin this morning. And of course I was retired from cooking for this first day. I must admit that most of the things I know about cooking are from mom. She loves cooking and she loves teaching what she knows. Balls with garlic (Sarmsaklı köfte) is another dish from my childhood.  As mom knows how to make me happy, she makes it whenever she visits us.  So today she made it and I took the photos. Here is mom’s recipe and I’d like to thank her again.

Ingredients

For its dough:
•    4 coffee cups pounded wheat (bulgur)
•    4 tbsp semolina
•    4 tbsp flour
•    1 egg
•    1 tbsp pepper paste
•    1 tsp cumin
•    1 tsp red pepper flakes
•    1 tsp salt
•    1 tsp black pepper
•    1 water glass warm water

For its boiling

1 liter water, salt and half lemon.

For its sauce:
•    1 head of garlic, mashed
•    4 tomatoes, grated
•    Half bunch of parsley, minced
•    1 coffee cup olive oil
•    1 tsp cumin
•    1 tsp black pepper
•    1 tsp red pepper flakes
•    1 tbsp pepper (or tomato) paste
•    1 lemon
•    1 tsp salt

Soak pounded wheat and semolina with warm water and wait 10 minutes. They should absorb all the water. Add the spices and the egg into it. Then knead it well. You can sprinkle little water while kneading. Now add flour and continue kneading. When the flour disappears in the dough, it’s finished.

Take a piece from the dough as big as an egg and shape it like a thick stick in your hands. You can see it in the picture.

Then take pieces from this thick stick as big as a hazelnut and roll it in your hands. Then gently press on this small ball with your finger. Wet your hands occasionally, or you can’t shape the dough. Do the same until all the dough finishes.

Put one liter water in a large pot. Add salt and juice of half lemon. When it boils, put the balls into it. Cook them without stirring (maximum 15 minutes). Do not overcook them. When the balls get as soft as pasta, it’s cooked.

Take the pot from fire and drain. Put the balls on a service plate.

To prepare its sauce,  put grated tomatoes in a large skillet. Cook it until it becomes thick enough. Add olive oil, pepper paste, salt and other spices in it. Finally add mashed garlic, stir it a few minutes and take it from fire. Put the minced parsley in this sauce and mix it (if you like, you may not combine the parsley with the sauce but sprinkle on the balls after the sauce).

Now drop some sauce on the balls with a spoon. And serve it with lemon slices, pickles and garden cress.

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Ash Plov

This is a special pilaf in Osh city of Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia). And this is not my own recipe, a very kind blog friend of mine,  Jyldyz  Chynybekova sent it to me. In fact, she is so kind that she sent a file of Kyrgyzstan recipes with pictures. I’m always very curious about different Asian dishes, so I’m very pleased to publish her recipes here. And this is just one of those exotic dishes. The rest will come later.

Ingredients
•    1 kg (2.3 lbs) red rice (or any if you can’t find it)
•    1 kg (2.3 lbs) meat – lamb, beef or chicken
•    1 ½ kg (3 1/3 lbs, 5 large carrots) carrots – yellow is the best
•    3 pieces, average sized onion – any type
•    1 cup vegetable oil – sunflower (you can use lamb fat also)
•    1 tbsp cumin seeds
•    About 3 L (3 quarts) water or lamb broth
•    2-3 whole head of garlic

Saute chopped onions in oil until it gets red, then the meat (chopped into many medium pieces) is added. Meat is fried until a tender reddish crust appears.

Add the carrots (shredded) and fry it for about 10 minutes. Pour water and stew it for 20 minutes. Add rice, put heat on high. Bring to a boil and tuck a bunch of unpeeled garlic cloves down into the rice. I use a whole head. Reduce heat a little to prevent burning, add cumin seeds, stir and watch it until the water has evaporated.

Push the rice towards the center. Then poke holes in several places with the handle of a wooden spoon. Cover and simmer until meat, garlic and carrots are tender for 25 minutes and all the water has evaporated. Do not allow the plov to burn.

Serve rice on a plate and put the meat, garlic on top. Pop the garlic out of its skin to enjoy it. Salads with fresh or pickled vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers are good additions for enjoying plov.

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Fruit and Cheese Pie

This yummy pie is one of our discoveries in kitchen. Last night, I was preparing the ingredients for a usual carrot cake when my dear husband raised an idea. He opened the refrigerator and showed me the leftovers of fruit; a few strawberries, one kiwi, three bananas, and one pomegranate. Then he suggested “why don’t we try something new this time?”.

We wanted to make something more fresh with these fruits. So this pie comes out. My husband prepared its dough and I prepared its cream.  But as we knew that we wouldn’t agree on garnishing, we made two pies. One of them  is garnished by me, the other by him (But the measurements are for one). It’s so easy to make it, the only problem is that you should wait for some time to chill it. You should be patient enough and pull yourself together after you put it in the refrigerator.

This is my version. You can see how much I love fruit.

Ingredients

For its dough:
•    1 1/3 cup flour
•    100gr butter (1 stick)
•    2 tbsp castor sugar
•    1 egg
•    ½ carbonate

For its cream:
•    250gr milk (1 cup )
•    75 gr (¼ cup) castor sugar
•    70 gr flour
•    1 dessert spoon starch
•    3 egg yolks
•    200gr mascarpone cheese (labne cheese for Turkey)

For garnishing:
•    A few strawberries
•    1 kiwi
•    1 banana
•    1 pomegrenate
•    Grated coconut, chocolate chips

Tip: Take all the ingredients out of refrigerator at least half an hour before making the pie.

First we’ll knead the dough, so mix all the ingredients of dough in a bowl and knead it well. It should’t be sticky anymore. Then wait it in refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180 C (350F)

Then oil the pie mold and spread the dough on it with your hands. After it covers the bottom of the mold, gently insert a fork into the dough randomly. Bake it for 25 minutes. Then take it out and let it cool.

While the pie dough is cooking in oven, you can prepare the cream. Put all the ingredients ezcept mascarpone cheese in a pot. Mix them well. Put it on medium heat and stir it continually. When it gets as thick as pudding, take it from heat and add mascarpone cheese in it. (We also add mashed banana at this point, but if you don’t want it to have too much banana flavor in it, skip this banana part). mix the cream with a mixer until smooth. And let it cool.

When both cream and dough get cool enough, it’s time for the last step before the most enjoyable part. Spread all the cream on the dough. The cream should cover it completely. Put the pie in refrigerator and wait it at least for 4 hours. The more it waits, the more yummy it becomes. That’s why, we prefer doing it at night. Then it’s ready the following day.

If you chill it enough, you can start the most enyoyable part: Garnishing. This part is totally up to you. Use the garnishing ingredients (or you can use different fruits) and free your hands and mind.

Now all you need is a cup of coffee and a window that you can watch the snow through. 

This one is my husband’s version. He added some mashed banana in its cream. And you see how impatient he is. He couldn’t wait until today and ate a slice of it last night. But he is so creative that he fills the place of eaten slice with grated coconut and says that this is the hair of his pie man.

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Pumpkin Dessert

I love dessert of any kind and we have always a kind of dessert in our kitchen. Coming home from work, I brew some tea and take a piece of dessert (of the day) on a plate to forget all my tiredness. We made this pumpkin dessert so often as it’s very easy and light in calories. Some people sprinkle some crumbled walnut or add some cream on it, but we like them just how they are, so we don’t add anything to it.  You see in the picture  at the bottom how it’s tempting at our open market. And we are lucky enough to get them sliced and chopped there.

Ingredients
•    1 kg pumpkin
•    600g sugar

Slice the pumpkin in the size you like. Wash them well and clean their seeds and chop them big. If you have the opportunity, you can buy it chopped. Put them in a large pot by adding sugar between each line. Put its lid on and wait it for one night, at least 6 hours. During this time, pumpkin pieces release their juice, so we don’t need to add extra water while boiling it.

After a night, put the pot on the medium heat and boil the pumpkin pieces until they get soft. Bring it to boil a few times without the lid on. In this way, the syrup of it will be denser. Then let it cool in the same pot. Do not take them on a sevice plate while they are stil hot as they can get crumbled. After they are cold enough, wait it in refrigerator for a while. Then serve it cold. If you like, you can garnish it with some pistachio, walnut or coconut.

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Strawberry Jam

I can hear what you say; I know that we are not in the season of strawberries. But believe me or not, I saw fresh strawberries in an open market here. I just thought that they didn’t have any taste, but when I got closer to them, I felt that miraculous scent of strawberries. From then on, I was so fascinated by this scent that I didn’t care if they were inorganic or not. And without any hesitation, I immediately bought 2 kg(4.4 pounds), 1 for eating, 1 for making jam.

Strawberry jam is my favorite jam and I love it spreading on a slice of bread with a piece of white cheese on top.  They together balance their sweetness and salinity and make a great choice of breakfast.

Ingredients
•    1 kg (2.2 pound) strawberries
•    1 kg sugar
•    Half lemon, juice only

Wash the strawberries very well changing the water in the bowl several times. There shouldn’t be any sand or soil left.  Cut their stems and put them in a pot. Then add sugar on it. Put its lid on and wait these strawberries for a day. After a day, there should be no sugar, all melted and strawberries should release their juice and should be floating.

Now you can take this pot on medium heat and boil it for about 45 minutes. It will get denser.Take the floams with a slotted spoon. You can check if it’s done or not by dropping some on a plate. If that doesn’t flow easily when you bow the plate, it’s cooked.

Then add lemon juice and bring it to boil a few times. Then you can pour the jam in glass jars and let it cool.

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Stuffed Grapevine Leaves

In Turkish cuisine, there are a lot of dishes that are stuffed with different kinds of mixtures. We can stuff any vegetable or even meat with something. We fill peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, any vegetable that can contain something inside, with a kind of rice mixture or sometimes with cheese. We also fill chicken, some fishes or a part of lamb with some other mixtures. Moreover, we can create the “container” ourselves by kneading different kinds of dough (of flour, ground wheat or semolina).

We use grapevine leaves for a kind of stuffed dish. People generally prefer it with different kinds of rice mixture (we call it grapevine with olive oil), but there are also people adding minced meat into this rice mixture (we call it grapevine with meat).

If you ask me, the one with olive oil (rice only) is better as this is a kind of cold dish. If you make it with minced meat, you should serve it hot. Stuffed grapevine leaves may be eaten as a main dish with a dollop of yogurt near it after a hot soup,  or it may accompany other appetizers near raki (it beacomes an appetizer too). Moreover, it can also be your snack, which is my favorite.

Generally, I don’t prefer making it in small amounts, I make a pot of stuffed grapevine leaves and keep the leftovers in refrigerator. Whenever I feel hungry, it makes me happy to know that I have some stuffed grapevine leaves waiting for me in my kitchen. I think, it’s the same for others. When I open the refrigerator to snack a few stuffed leaves for the second or third time, I always realize that, it’s not just me who is throwing them one by one to my stomach. And most probably, I find the pot empty the next time.

There are even different versions of  that rice mixture filling depending on the regions. Some make it with just rice and onion, some add a lot of greens in it, some add tomatoes and pepper paste, some add currant and pine nut, some add little sugar in it, some don’t, some saute this filling mixture before stuffing the leaves, some don’t. You see, there are a lot of versions, you can add your own ingredient to make it peculiar to yourself.

Here is my recipe:

Ingredients
•    500 gr grapevine leaves (canned or fresh ones)

For filling mixture:
•    2 cups rice
•    5 onions
•    1 tomato
•    2 cloves garlic
•    Half bunch of parsley
•    Half bunch of dill
•    1 lemon, juice only
•    1 tbsp pepper or tomato paste
•    1 tsp dry mint
•    1 tsp salt
•    1 tsp black pepper
•    ½ tsp cinnamon
•    1 cup extra virgin olive oil

If you have canned leaves, you don’t need to do any work on them,  just washing well is enough. But if you have fresh ones, do the following:

Put a liter of water in a pot and boil it. When it boils, put the washed leaves in the pot. And boil them until they change from green to yellowish (about 5 minutes). You shouldn’t keep them in hot water too long, otherwise they get too soft to be folded. Drain them and wash again with cold water and put them aside.

To prepare the filling; first wash the rice and drain it well. Put it in a large bowl. Then chop onions, garlic, tomato, dill, parsley one by one and add them into the bowl. Then pour half of the olive oil and lemon juice in it. Put the pepper paste and stir. Now it comes to spices. You can be as creative as you can in this part. I put black pepper (so important for its flavor in this dish), cinnamon and dry mint besides salt. Combine them well. I don’t cook this mixture, I use it raw whereas some prefer sauting it a little.

Cover the bottom of the pot with grapevine leaves. We’ll put the stuffed leaves on them.

Now we can pass to stuffing and folding part. Take one grapevine leaf, cut its stem and lay it on a plate or counter.  Put its veiny part (the darker colored part) upside. Put some filling mixture on the larger side, the side of its stem. Do not put too much filling, otherwise it may protrude.

Fold one side on the filling, then fold the other side.

And fold the larger parts on these.

And roll it to wrap it up. Put it in the pot. Do the same until you finish the leaves.

Lay the stuffed leaves in the pot side by side, without leaving any space between each.

When you put all of them in the pot lining one above another, put a dish upside down on the top to prevent them from scattering. Pour 1 or  1 ½ cup water, depending on the depth of your pot. The level of water shouldn’t pass over the stuffed leaves, it should be in the middle. And pour ½ cup olive oil on it. Put the lid on the pot and cook it on the lowest heat for about 2 hours. Then check it if it’s done. If the rice in it is cooked enough, that’s fine. Take it from fire and let it cool. Then you can take it on a service plate and garnish it with lemon slices.

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Cheese on Board

We went to a vegetable bazaar this morning and I felt the spirit of nature there when I saw the vivid colors of fresh vegetables. I wish I had the ability of painting, I could reflect all those colors and frehness in my pictures then. Unfortunately, I can not draw even a stick man, so I decided to buy some fresh vegetables and cook them instead.

I love chatting with old ladies while shopping in this bazaar, I learn a lot of tips from them. To give an example, I learnt how to make pickles from an old lady in the bazaar. She was buying some green herbs and I asked what they were. And this long lady explained the importance of these herbs in making pickles (I’ll give the recipe of pickles later).

Do you wonder what I learnt from an old lady in the bazaar today? A very healthy vegetable dish! While I was buying some tomatoes and parsley, she asked if I knew the price of zucchini or not. The vendor was too busy, that’s why she asked me. Because I came there earlier, I heard the price from the vendor. I said it to the lady and she started to put some in a bag (we can select and put the vegetables in bags in this bazaar). This old lady seemed so friendly to me, I thought that I could ask what she would cook with zucchini. She replied with a cute smile and gave a very unique recipe of zucchini. I generally don’t prefer buying it as my husband and I find it a bit unsavory, maybe because it doesn’t have a strong taste. But we are aware of its benefits to our health, so we are open to new recipes.

After eating this zucchini dish, we agreed on that this will be one of our favorites. It was incredibly tasty. Another recipe which gives a yummy taste to zucchini was from Farida. We tried it last week and started to love zucchini thanks to her. You can find the recipe here.

So here is the zucchini recipe of the sympathetic old lady I met at bazaar:

Ingredients
•    4 zucchinis
•    ½ cup white cheese, crumbled
•    ¼ cup grated yellow cheese
•    A few leaves of parsley or dill
•    8 tsp butter
•    Salt
•    Black pepper

Wash zucchinis very well and cut a vertical piece of each. But be careful, you shouldn’t cut the head and the end of it. Then carve it deeply discarding its inside. Do the same for all zucchinis. (if you don’t want to waste these parts, put them in the deep freezer to use in some vegetable stew or pies).

Put some water in a pot, add salt and boil the carved zucchinis in it for about ten minutes. When they get softer after ten (or fifteen) minutes, drain them.

Preheat the oven to 180C(350F).

For filling, in another small bowl, mince the leaves of parsley or dill and mix them well.

Lay a piece of grease paper in an oven tray. Place the zucchinis on it. Put 2 tsp butter inside each zucchini and then fill them with the cheese mixture. Finally put grated yellow cheese on the top and sprinkle little black pepper. Put it in oven and cook them until their top becomes a little brown (about 20 or 30 minutes). After they cook, you can garnish them with carrot sticks.

If you are looking for new recipes for zucchini, this will absolutely help you.

Note: The name of this dish is given by me, not from the old lady.

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Red Bell Pepper Loaf

This is another dish from my childhood. This is not well known around the country, it is baked generally in the Southern part of Turkey. And I haven’t met a better cook than mom baking this snack. I remember that we would always have biberli in the kitchen and whenever we feel hungry, we had a few slices.

None of my friends here knows this tasty pastry and when I make it, I always hear this “Mmmm” sound. They say that the ingredients are so simple and ordinary, but the taste of it is certainly extraordinary. Most of my friends think that it’s very similar to pizza, but I think it’s definitely more delicious. Then they take the recipe from me and it becomes a traditional snack in their kitchen too. And here is the famous recipe of mom.

Ingredients
•    4 red bell peppers, chopped
•    1 green pepper, chopped
•    4 onions, chopped
•    4 tbsp sesame
•    1 tbsp pepper paste
•    ½ cup olive oil
•    salt

For its dough:
•    2 cups flour
•    1 cup yogurt
•    1 tbsp yeast powder
•    Salt
•    ½ cup warm water

Sift the flour in a large bowl. In a small cup mix yeast powder, salt and warm water, and pour this mixture in the flour. Combine them well. To have a softer dough, add yogurt and knead the dough by adding some warm water little by little. Knead it very well until it doesn’t stick to your hand. Then make a big ball from this dough and cover it with a wet piece of cloth. Put it in a warm place and wait at least one hour so that it rises well.

Meanwhile you can prepare the mixture you’ll spread on the dough. Combine all peppers and onions in a bowl. Add sesame, olive oil, pepper paste and salt in it. Mix them well.

After the dough rises enough (after at least one hour), preheat the oven to 180 C (350F). Oil the oven tray and take the dough on this tray. Now it’s time for your hands to work more. Lay the dough on the tray equally. The dough should be still as a whole, do not pick any pieces from it. When you finish laying it, spread the pepper mixture on the dough with your hands.

Before putting it into the oven, cut it as squares. If you do so, it will be easier to remove them from the tray after it’s cooked.

Now you can place it into the oven and cook it for 40 minutes. And be cautious, neighbors might start to ring the doorbell because they start to crave for biberli when they feel its scrumptious smell.

You can serve it at any time of day as a kind of snack or in the morning as a part of breakfast.

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Menemen

You already know how much I love egg. I can eat this delicious product of hens everyday and in every version. I feel a great admiration to these productive animals every time I eat or use egg in some dishes. I believe that hens want to send us their eggs as a gift. I love first their  apperance, either broken or unbroken. They are so cute in a rush basket and when cooked, they are beautiful with the combination of yellow and white. They are so compatible that they shouldn’t be seperated except for some dishes.

Generally I prefer a boiled egg for breakfast, but this boiling procedure is so important. You should be very careful to take the egg from fire in the right time. My favorite egg shouldn’t be too soft or too much cooked, it should be in between. I don’t know if there is a word for it in English.  After it starts to boil, I keep them two minutes on fire, not more not less. Then I have my favorite egg version. I sprinkle little salt and cumin on my egg while eating and feel that indefinable pleasure. Then I thank these altruist animals (hens and cocks of course) for not grudging their eggs from us.

Apart from boiled version, I also love eggs in menemen if I have enough time to cook. Menemen is the name of a dish that enriches your breakfast with its appetizing smell and its colors. It’s a kind of dish that we generally have in breakfast, but people may also have it as a main dish if they want a quick prepared dish for lunch or dinner. It’s certainly up to you when to eat melemen.

Ingredients
•    2 middle sized tomatoes, chopped
•    2 green peppers, chopped
•    1 scallion, chopped
•    3 eggs
•    1 tbsp olive oil
•    Salt
•    Black pepper

Saute peppers and a scallion with olive oil in a pan. Then add tomatoes and cook them until their water mostly evaporates. Then add salt and stir. With a wooden spoon, arrange the places of three eggs. Break the eggs into the empty places you arrange. And help the eggs cook well with small touches (with the wooden spoon) to their whites. It will be ready in a few minutes. Then sprinkle black pepper on it for the highest delight.

And here are the main characters of this post. This picture is from a nearby village where we can have fresh eggs.

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Piyaz

Piyaz is the name of an appetizer or salad made of dried beans. In Turkey, it is generally served as a salad near grilled meatballs. They are one of the best couples. You can ask for piyaz in all meatball restaurants here. Besides, you can also have it as a main dish if you don’t feel like having a big lunch or dinner.

Ingredients
•    1 cup dried beans, soaked overnight
•    2 scallions
•    A few leaves lettuce
•    A few leaves of parsley
•    A few leaves of fresh dill
•    1 red bell pepper
•    1 lemon
•    2 tbsp olive oil
•    salt

Drain the soaked beans and put them in a pot with  some water. Boil it until soft.

Drain the beans and put them in a bowl. Then chop scallions, lettuce, parsley, dill and pepper in the same bowl. Combine them well.

Squeeze one lemon into this mixture, add salt and olive oil and mix them with a spoon. Take this salad on a service plate. You can garnish it with some slices of turnip or tomato and lemon.

In some restaurants (especially the ones in Antalya), serve this salad with a little tahini sauce on them.

Some of them garnish it with some slices of boiled eggs seasoned with black and red pepper.

If you make meatballs or a meat dish, you should give this salad a try.

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