Cowpea Beans With Tomatoes

Have I told you before that I’m a teacher? After a long summer holiday, the school finally started yesterday. Although this is my sixth year in this job, I still get as excited as students. I couldn’t sleep well the night beforet as I had series of dreams about my new students. I got up very early, took a shower and had a quick breakfast. I was so curious about my students, so I coulnd’t help thinking continually about them. Would they be passionate enough to learn? Would they be too silent, expecting me to talk the whole class hour? What would they think about me? All these questions were attacking my mind. Although the class started at 9:30, I went to school an hour ago to get motivated and overcome my excitement. Believe or not, I couldn’t get rid of this feeling until I entered the classroom. It was like a feeling of an actress or a singer just before they go on the stage! When you take the first step on the stage (classroom in my case), all questions and negative thoughts go away leaving their place to a wonderful feeling of enjoyment! I understood that I missed those curious looks from a crowd of students. Happily, we had great time and enjoyed the lesson together on this first day. Hope it goes on in the same way until the end of the term.

After school I went to bazaar (farmer’s market) and bought some fresh vegetables from there. It was so crowded as we’re close to winter and we know that in winter it’s hard to see vegetables as fresh and delicious as the ones in Summer and Fall. People were buying more than they usually do. Because of the crowd, I didn’t have much chance to compare the prices. In fact, I got so happy when I saw one of my favorite summer vegetables there that I wanted to do the shopping quickly to go home and cook this tasty ‘green bean like’ vegetable for dinner. I knew that this was the last time to see it at the market before winter. As I wanted to share it with you, I couldn’t pass up this chance!

It is called ‘borulce’ in Turkish. When I look up to dictionary, it says ‘cowpea beans’ for its English meaning. I’m not sure if it’s grown in any other countries. However, when I made a quick search, I saw that there are dishes around the world with its dried version, called black-eyed pea (a very cute name!). We also make dishes from it in Winter, but as we have the chance of buying it fresh in Summer, we use it in different ways. Borulce is a common vegetable of Aegean and Mediterranean regions of Turkey. People in other regions generally learn it from their friends or relatives in these two regions. I’m originally from The South of Turkey (Mediterranean region), but now I’m living in Central Anatolia, where people are not familiar with this tasty vegetable. They may think that it has the same flavor with usual green beans, but they are totally different. Although it’s a member of bean family, it has a more outstanding flavor. Unlike green beans, borulce is thin and has a cylinder shape with and acidulous flavor, which makes it an appealing savory food accompanying Turkish raki. I must also say that although people may add meat in a dish of green beans, it’s never put in a cowpea bean dish.

There are several ways to cook it, but I wanted to share the most common way in Mediterranean region. Agean region has some different versions and I’m going to tell about them in its next season.

Domatesli Borulce

Ingredients
-    1/2kg  cowpea beans
-    4 medium sized tomatoes, diced
-    1 onion, diced
-    3 tbsp olive oil
-    Salt to taste

Clean and wash the cowpea beans. Chop them as small as a half finger. If there are any tough ones, use just their seeds. You see those seeds in my dish in the picture.

Saute the onion in a pot. Add the cowpea beans and stir. Cook it until the beans change their color, about 5 minutes. Then add tomatoes and salt. Stir it once and cover it. Cook it on medium heat for about 30 minutes until the beans get soft enough.

Serve it either warm as the main dish or cold as a savory food.

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Okra With Tomatoes

When I decided to write a post on an okra dish, my husband advised me not to do it. He said seeing its photo, most people would leave that post in seconds. And I said I’d take that risk as I knew there would be people who love okra.

I’m trying to remember when okra became one of my favorites. I think it was during my university years when I was staying in a dormitory. It was the first time I was away from my parents and from mom’s dishes. It was so difficult to adapt to that new life in a new city, but more importantly, it wasn’t easy to get used to a new eating style containing mostly fast foods. I missed mom’s warm homemade dishes so much and I understood those days how they were tasty and valuable.One day, I visited my parents in my hometown without calling them at a holiday time and I remember that day was the day when I started to love okra. I’m sure mom wouldn’t have cooked okra if she had known I was coming, but I could eat anything made by mom’s hands those days. Okra has been one of my favorite dishes since then.

Most people don’t love okra because of its slimy texture when cut. But we can’t ignore it has many benefits on health. It helps digestive system by helping stomach and intestines work orderly. As it contains a high level of fiber, it adjusts blood sugar and it’s the best remedy if you have digestion problems. Besides, it’s rich in minerals, vitamin A and calcium. As it’s low in calories, okra may be the main vegetable for you if you’re planning to go on a diet.

(drawing by mom)

And I have good news for those who find okra unpalatable. I know the ways to take the slime away and to reveal the real tasty flavor of this vegetable.

Before the cooking procedure, there is something you should know while buying okra. If you are buying it fresh, you should get the bright ones with no color changes or damages. Also, you should prefer the short ones as their inside seeds are smaller, and it shows that they are picked at the right time. If they are too long, they may be tasteless.

Another important point is that you should wrap them in a paper towel to keep them in refrigerator. If you keep them in plastic bags, they will go bad in a short time. And this keeping time shouldn’t be more than 4 days.

Tips for a tasty okra dish:

• First peel, then wash the okra.

• Remove the tiny green part surrounding its cone. Do not cut its cone completely, peel it in a conic shape. And do not pierce the pod in any way. If you damage it, it starts to weep and release its slime.

• Wash it gently.

• Squeeze lemon on them and wait it for about 20 minutes. This will make it less fragile.

• Add lemon juice into dish just when you add okras into the pot.

• Do not stir the dish while cooking. You can shake the pot if necessary. You can stir it after it is done.

• Do not use metal spoon, use a wooden one.

I always cook okra in this way and it never gets slimy. After learning these tips, lets learn how to make a tasty okra dish.

Bamya

Ingredients
-    ½ kg okra
-    1 onion, diced
-    2 tbsp olive oil
-    5 medium sized tomatoes, peeled and diced
-    4 cloves garlic, sliced
-    ½  lemon (to wait the okras in it)
-    ½  lemon (to squeeze in the dish)
-    2 cups hot water
-    Salt to taste

Clean and wash okras as it is said above. Squeeze lemon on them and wait for about 20 minutes. Touch them gently while doing all these.

Meanwhile saute onions in olive oil. When they get golden, add tomatoes and garlic slices. Stir it and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add okras, but do not drain the lemon juice in them. Put them into the dish together. Squeeze half lemon and pour it just on the okras without wasting any time. Don’t forget, you will not stir it until it’s done. Cover it and cook about 5 minutes.

Then pour 2 cups hot water, add salt and cover it. Cook it about 30 minutes until the okras get tender enough.

Serve it with lemon wedges in case your guests want to add some more lemon into their dish. Lemon is an important ingredient in okra dishes. It both prevents it from being slimy and gives a wonderful flavor to the dish.

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Damson Jam With Almond

We went to bazaar (local farmer’s market) with a friend yesterday and we bought lots of things as usual. I always prefer going to bazaar with a friend. We first walk through the bazaar from its start to the end to have a look at all foods there. Meanwhile, we have the chance of comparing their prices. You may find a cheaper of the same vegetable or fruit in a different place of the bazaar, so you shouldn’t buy something from the first vendor you see.

After checking out lots of fresh vegetables and fruits, we didn’t want to waste any more time and decided to make damson jam. I love to eat these plums fresh. What I like about them most is that they are not so sweet and soft. Besides, their lovely color purple is enough to catch my eyes. I don’t know why but any food in purple color is always on the top of my favorites. I think doctors also agree on this as they say that vegetables and fruits in purple color have several benefits. They say that these are antioxidant, so they prevent many serious diseases like cancer.I knew that color purple had something magical!

These cute plums have a dusty texture, and no matter how long you wash, you can’t remove it. Actually, it’s not dust, but it’s their natural matte texture. Before washing these well, I rubbed them with a piece of cloth to get them ready to pose at my camera. Although they are purple outside, their inside has a greenish color, and I think that makes these damsons acidulous. Its stone has pointed ends, but I love to keep it in my mouth for some seconds as I feel still the same flavor of the plum itself on its stone. The stone of these plums is brown, but they are thinly surrounded with a color in between red and purple. That may be the reason why I don’t want to leave it as soon as I finish eating the fruit.

When I made the jam, I saw that the color became more and more bright, and of course more attractive! I think this will be my last jam before Winter. Did I mention I made black mulberry jam, yellow cherry jam and strawberry jam apart from this? Don’t you think we’re ready for Winter now? People prepare their jams in Summer and Fall here, and these jams are one of the main foods at breakfast especially in Winter. You know we need more sugar during cold times to have energy and warm our body, so there is always a kind of jam at a Turkish breakfast in Winter.

We can also decorate our cakes with this bright colored damson jam.

I wanted to make a different tweast for this jam, so I added almonds in it. I think they made a perfect combination. Look at that almond lying between two beautiful crescent damsons in the first picture. Doesn’t it look overjoyed?

Murdum Erigi Receli

Ingredients
-    1kg damson
-    750g sugar
-    1 tbsp lemon juice
-    A handful of almonds
-    A cup of hot water
Before preparing the jam, soak the almonds in hot water and wait it until you finish with the jam.

After washing the damsons, slice them in crescent shape and throw their stones away. Put half of the sliced damsons in a pot and pour half of the sugar on them. Then put the rest of the damsons and pour the rest of the sugar. Cover the pot and wait it for 8 hours. We don’t need to add water in this way as the damsons release their juice and this will be enough for our jam. You may do this step overnight.

After the waiting time, put the pot on fire and stir it occasionaly. Take the white froth with the help of a ladle. That froth may cause our jam to have a bad taste or to go bad in a short time, so it’s very important to remove them from the pot while boiling. Boil the jam until it reaches the right consistency. But how do you understand this ‘right consistency’?

There are two ways to understand the right consistency of jam. The first way is mom’s version. The second is my mother-in-law’s. I tried both of them and they work quite perfect. You can use these methods for any kind of jam.

1- After boiling the jam, you’ll see it gets a bit thicker. With the help of a spoon, drop it on a plate. If the jam drop doesn’t flow easily when you bend the plate, your jam has the right consistency.

2- You need a glass of water for this. Drop the jam into the water. If the drop of the jam reaches at the bottom of the glass without distorting in the water, your jam has the right consistency.

When you understand it has the right consistency (you know what I mean now), squeeze the lemon and boil it for a few minutes. After the lemon juice, do not boil it more, or your jam gets so dark in color. Take it from fire and start to prepare the almonds.

Peel the almonds waiting in hot water. You’ll see it’s so easy to peel them with the help of this hot water. Put the peeled almonds on a paper towel and dry them. Then add them into the jam, stir. Let it cool together. Then put them in jars.

What should you do to keep your jam longer?

• Keep the jars in a dry place away from sunlight. They can stay there for months without going bad.
• The jar and its lid must be good. They shouldn’t let any air inside. However, if you realize something bad on top of the jam, do not worry. Throw that part away and put the jar in refrigerator.
• The spoon you’re using to take jam from the jar must be dry. Any drop of water mildews your jam.

Hope these are helpful for you.

I would like to thank to Sophie from sophiesfoodiefiles as she honored me with the lovely Lemonade award. If you haven’t visited her blog yet, go check it. She combines wonderful ingredients to make unique dishes.

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Eid Candies Ramadan 7

The holy month Ramadan ended yesterday, muslims broke their fast for the last time yesterday evening and today we are celebrating Eid (Ramadan Feast). After a month of fasting, people enjoy this feast with sweet foods. The feast lasts three days and these adays are officially holiday for people to spend time and celebrate the feast with their families.  The excitement of Eid starts at least one week before it comes. People do shopping to buy new clothes for themselves, but as you can guess the most excited ones are always children. Their parents buy new clothes and shoes for them to wear on Eid days and we call these “bayramlık” (clothes and shoes special for Eid). Even if they buy these weeks before the Eid, they don’t wear, but keep them in their gardrobes (or near their beds if they are so much excited) until the feast. It’s a lovely tradition for children to wear new and clean clothes during the feast. However, there are of course parents who can not afford new clothes and I can’t help thinking of them during these days. Some considerate people buy new clothes and give them to some poor children, but is that enough? I’m not sure. I wish clothes weren’t so important for these special days.

Besides the preperation of clothes, there is another preperation for Eid. Cleaning the house! When I say cleaning the house, I mean a real and complete cleaning. As they will have many guests during Eid days, women want to welcome their guests with a perfectly cleaned house. So women mop up everywhere, clean the windows, wash and iron the curtains, dust the cupboards and everywhere! We call this cleaning “Bayram Temizligi” (Eid Cleaning). After such a laborious cleaning, you may think that women start the feast so exhausted, but no, they are so strong that they don’t have any complaints about the other works waiting for them such as making a Turkish dessert and host their guests.

In fact, the celebration of the feast starts in the early morning. Fathers go to mosque to perform their ritual prayer called namaz and they take their sons with them. After namaz, people in mosque celebrate their Eid by shaking hands and wishing happy Eid to each other. Meanwhile, moms prepare a perfect breakfast with various boreks and newly brewed black tea. When fathers and sons return, they celebrate their Eid; mom and dad hug each other, children kiss their parents’ hands and put it on their forehead wishing happy Eid. Parents generally give some money to their children to make them happier, which is called “bayram harcligi” (Feast Allowance). Then they enjoy their breakfast and they feel that this breakfast has a different taste after a long fasting time.

After breakfast, their door bell starts to ring, they know it will ring many times today. A group of  children (even the small ones) are waiting with bags in their hands no matter they know the house owner or not. And the owner of the house treat them with colorful candies or chocolate. Children take one or two candies happily and put them in their bags. When the children of that house see them, they immediately grab a bag and join the group as they are looking forward to picking candies from neighbors. They all know that it’s much more enjoyable to keep the candies until they finish all houses. At the end, they open their bags and show how they have plenty of candies and eat them together.

Children turn back to their houses not so late as they know their grandparents are waiting for them, so when they return, without any loss of time, with their parents, they go to their grandparents. They kiss the hands of grandparents in Turkish style and guess what? They are rewarded once more with the feast allowance. Then, they don’t forget their beloved ones who are not with them any more. They go to the graveyard to visit departed family members there. They pray for them and leave some candies on the grave.

After these, on the way home, people make short visits to their neighbors one by one to celebrate their Eid. Turkish desserts such as baklava and kadayif are served accompanying with Turkish tea or Turkish coffee. And while they are leaving, mostly the child of the house is waiting for them near the door with a bowl of candies or chocolate in one hand and a bottle of lemon cologne in other hand. S/he first offers the candies to the leaving guests and then drops some lemon cologne into the waiting palms of these guests. That’s the Turkish way of sending guests during this Ramadan Feast. Some people may also offer candies and the cologne as a way of welcoming the guests. And surprisingly, some people offer these two both to welcome and to send their guests. And people shouldn’t refuse any of these offerings at any of their visits, they are thought to be so rude if they say ‘no’. Can you imagine how sweet we become after Eid?

Personally, I didn’t want to buy candies from stores and I wanted to make something special for this Eid as I thought it would be more valuable for guests and especially for children. I made these natural candies from dates yesterday and as I understand from the eyes of children at my door, they loved it! And when their parents saw these home made candies, even they asked for the second one. I think I should have done more of these.

Ingredients
-    20 dates
-    ½ cup pounded almond
-    2 tbsp orange juice
-    1 orange zest, chopped in very small cubes

To coat the date candies
-    A handful of  pounded pistachio
-    A handful of crumbled hazelnuts
-    A handful of chocolate chips

Pit the dates and put them in a mini chopper and chope them a few times. Then add orange juice to help them to have a right consistency. When it become like a date dough, take it to a bowl. Add pounded almon and chopped orange zest and combine them very well with your hands. Then take a walnut size piece, roll it in your palms, give it a ball shape and coat it with pistachio or hazelnut or chocolate chips. I used all of them to make my Eid candies more colorful.

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Imambayildi

This beautiful vegetable with purple dress is one of my favorite, and of all Turkish people, so we have many different dishes made from it in our cuisine. I always think that eggplant (patlican in Turkish) is like a woman ready for a party with her showy clothes, looking so charming. In Turkish we even use eggplant to define the color purple, we call that color ‘eggplant purple’. We generally see these beauties during summer and fall at bazaar. They have mainly two kinds in Turkey. One of them is short in height and plump, like a pear in shape, but fatter than it, which we call “bostan patlicanı” (garden eggplant) in Turkish. And the other, which I used for this dish, is in average size, like a zucchini and we call it “kemer patlican”. I don’t know if these two kinds have special names in English. If you know, I’d be so glad to hear.

It’s always good to know what eggplant dish you will cook before buying as it depends on the dish to buy either pear shaped or zucchini shaped eggplant. For example, if you’re planning to stuff them, pear shaped eggplants are perfect. It is easier to carve and stuff these as they have a shorter body. However, if you want to make eggplant kebab,then you must prefer zucchini shaped eggplants. The body of these are better to be cut in circles. You know the size of these circles must be almost the same with meatballs. As you see in pictures here, we also buy zucchini shaped eggplants to make imambayildi. Why? Because traditionally this dish must be in a boat shape.

As for the name of this traditional Turkish dish, I didn’t translate it into English as it may sound nonsense. The pure translation is this: The Imam Fainted. Funny, isn’t it? I love not only the dish itself, but also its name. There are several versions of the story of this name. But I want to share the most common and the shortest one. Here it goes!

Once upon a time, there was an imam in a country. He picked some eggplants from his garden on a hot and muggy summer day and took them home. He asked her wife to cook a tasty dish with these eggplants. His wife wanted to make a different dish and she first fried the eggplants, cooked tomatoes, peppers etc in another pot and combined them in a boat shape, then cooked it in oven. However, she put too much oil to the dish. The imam couldn’t refuse to eat it, but fainted at the end of his meal with the effect of hot weather and too much oil. His wife screamed “the imam fainted!” (imam bayildi). Since then, this dish has been called imambayildi (two words combined).

In another version, it is said that the imam fainted even before eating, when he saw the amount of the oil in the dish as oil was so expensive those times.

I don’t love frying something in a pan as I have to clean all the kitchen afterwards, I prefer doing this process in oven. How? It’s in the recipe.

If you get curious enough about imambayildi, let me stop telling stories and give its recipe:

Ingredients (servings :4)
-    4 medium sized eggplants (zucchini shaped)
-    1 medium onion, diced
-    2 green peppers, chopped
-    3 medium sized tomatoes, peeled and diced
-    3 cloves garlic, minced
-    2 tbsp minced fresh mint
-    2 tbsp minced parsley
-    Olive oil
-    Salt to taste
-    2 sugar cubes
-    ¼ cup water
Wash the eggplants. Peel them lengthwise, leaving strips. Cut the green parts around the stems, but leave the stems.

Wait the eggplants for about 15min. in a bowl of salted water to remove their bitterness. Then squeeze them gently and dry with paper towel. To let the heat enter their inside, pierce them on their several parts with a fork.

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Oil a small oven tray and lay the eggplants in it. Then pour 1 ½ tbsp olive oil on each. Put it in oven and cook until they get tender enough (about 30 minutes). You can check it with a small knife.

Meanwhile, we can prepare the filling. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a pot and saute the onion. Add peppers and saute. Add tomatoes and garlic, cook it about 5 minutes. Put 2 sugar cubes and enough salt in it. Add fresh mint and parsley, stir a few times and take it from fire.

Take the eggplants out from oven. Cut their stomachs so gently, not too deep. Grab a dessert spoon and give it a boat shape by moving their sides gently aside.

Now put the filling mixture evenly into their opened stomach. Drizzle little olive oil on each eggplant. And pour ¼ cup water in the tray. Cook it in oven at 180C for 40 minutes.

This is a kind of traditional Turkish olive oil dishes that may be served warm or cold either as a main dish or as a side dish. Personally, I love to eat it dipping some bread into its ‘stomach’ and a cup of yogurt goes very well with it.

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Sauteed Meat Ramadan 6

We’ve started to count down for the end of the Ramadan month. There is a very sweet festival waiting for all muslims at the end of this fasting month. And I want to share still another Ramadan tradition before it ends. This is a month when rich people think more of the poor. People understand the importance of foods more as a result of their fast and they realize that not everybody can afford even the basic foods. You know iftar tents open for the poor, but there is still another good way of helping these poor people if you want to help individually.

In the past, people used to buy some packaged foods, put them in a bag, and take it to the poor people’s homes. Today, these packages are prepared by big markets and they are sold there. These packages are called Ramadan Package (Ramazan Paketi). So what does a ramadan package contain? A usual ramadan package generally has dry foods such as rice, bulgur, chickpeas, lentils, beans, black tea, pasta, sugar, salt, flour, vermicelli 1 or half kilo packages from each. In addition, there is a 1-kilo-bottle oil. So it becomes easier for people. People go buy ramadan packages from the market and take it to the ones in need. Markets prepare different versions of ramadan packages according to the quality and price of the foods. Then you can buy the package suitable for your budget, and help others. Also, you pay less for these foods when you buy them in these packages, so this is another reason for people to prefer buying these prepared ones from markets. You can also make some additions to these packages with some meat, chicken, cheese, etc. if you’re an indivual supporter. Besides the people helping individually, the municipality of the city buys ramadan packages in big numbers and distribute them to the neighborhoods they’ve assigned in advance. These packages can also be given to the workers of big companies as a gift. In short, ramadan packages are great gifts if you want to support one’s budget at least in this month.

Today, our dinner was a simple sauteed meat (veal) served with our usual rice pilaf.

Et sote
Ingredients
-    500g meat (veal or lamb), diced
-    3 tbsp olive oil
-    2 green peppers, chopped
-    1 medium sized onion, chopped in half moon (I used purple onion)
-    A few scallions, chopped
-    2 medium sized tomatoes, grated
-    1 bay leaf
-    Salt to taste
-    A pinch of black pepper
-    A pinch of thyme

Put the meat in a flat pan, cover it and cook it over low heat until it releases its water and then absorbs it back.
Add olive oil now and stir. Sprinkle salt and other spices.
Put peppers first and stir it until they get tender, then add onions and scallions and keep stirring.
After they all get tender, pour grated tomatoes and stir once. Cover it and cook for about 10 minutes more.

Finally, take it from fire and put the bay leaf on the top, cover it again. Let it rest for some minutes. The flavor of the bay leaf will spread into the dish during this time. As I don’t love a very dense flavor of bay in my dish, I use this method, but if you love it, you may put it into the pan with the spices.

Support The Poor

Mrs Duck is shopping for dinner and she decides to buy some meat to cook a tasty dish for her family. However, she will buy more than she needs this time. Her husband is at the market buying a ramadan package for a poor family, and she wants to add some meat to this package. She knows how expensive meat is for some families and this will be a perfect package if they add the meat. When the butcher learns why she’s buying more, he generously adds a little more meat for free to contribute this ramadan package. And they both wish all people do the same more often without waiting for this holy month. (drawing by mom)

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Red Lentil Soup Ramadan 5

I want to share another Ramadan tradition that is still alive especially in small cities. As it’s hard for traditions to survive in big cities, they are mostly seen in towns or small cities where people have more intimate relationships. On the other hand, people in big cities are always complaining that they don’t have these old traditions any more. One of theRamadan traditions I love is that neighbors send dishes to each other. And this is mostly the responsibility of the youngest family member. It was mine when I was a child. I remember that mom used to prepare a bowl of the dish of the day for one of our neighbors and tell me to take it to the neighbor. I must admit that I always wonder what our neighbor cooked on that day as she used to empty my bowl and fill it with the dish she cooked and give it in return, which is the second part of this tradition. That’s why I love it, it’s a very good way of sharing. In this way, you have a richer dinner table. And I think the significance of giving this responsibility to children is to teach them sharing. Mom used to decide on another neighbor next day and I used to take the dish to them. I used to walk so fast going and coming back form our neighbor as I didn’t want to miss the time of iftar. And when I heard imam’s voice on the way home, calling for the prayer (which means we can break our fast), I used to start to run! Everything was more exciting those times. But if there is no child in a house, you yourself take the dish to your neighbor. When I talk to mom on the phone these days, she says they still have this tradition in Tarsus, my hometown.

After breaking their fast, peole generally start their meal with a soup to warm their empty stomach. It also has a control on your appetite. When you start with a soup, as it removes the feeling of hunger, you eat enough from the other dishes. You always want to eat more if you don’t have a warm soup at the beginning. Among the soups I learnt from mom, red lentil soup is my favorite. Our negihbors used to love it, too. One bowl was never enough for them, so mom used to send them a small pot full of this soup. This is a traditional Turkish soup and you may find it at every Turkish restaurant at any time. Its cooking style may change although the ingredients are mostly the same. Here is mom’s style red lentil soup.

Mercimek Corbasi
Ingredients (servings 6)
-    1 medium sized onion, diced
-    1 medium sized carrot, finely chopped
-    1 medium potato, finely chopped
-    1 cup red lentil
-   6 cups water
-    1 tsp red pepper flakes
-    1 tsp cumin
-    1 tsp black pepper
-    1 tbsp dried mint
-    Salt to taste
-    2 tbsp olive oil
-    1 tbsp flour
-     1 ½ tbsp butter

Heat olive oil in a pot. Saute onion,  then add carrot and potatoes. Stir occasionally.

Wash red lentil, drain and add it to the pot. Saute it for 3 minutes. Keep stirring. Pour 6 cups water, add the spices and salt and boil it until the vegetables and lentils get soft enough. If they can easily be mashed when you press with a spoon, it’s done. It takes about 30 minutes over medium heat. Do not cover the pot during this time as it can rise and overflow.

In a small pan, melt the butter. Add flour and mix it continually. When it becomes creamy, pour it into the pot with lentils.

To have a smooth soup, mash everything in the pot using a blender. Then put the pot back on the fire and boil it for 5 minutes. It’s ready to warm your stomach now.

Traditionally, this soup is always served with lemon wedges. When you squeeze it on your soup, its taste is completed. To have the utmost pleasure, I always sprinkle extra red pepper flakes and dried mint on my soup.

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Stuffed Red Peppers Ramadan 4

Iftar is as important as suhoor during Ramadan. And there is a great tradition during this month. You can see iftar tents at certain streets of cities. Iftar tents are the places where homeless people or poor people are served various dishes for free. They either eat there or bring their pots and have them filled with dishes, then take them to home.

During Ramadan people invite guests for dinner more often than in other months. Muslims call this dinner iftar (just in this month), which starts with breaking fast (with water, dates and olives), and then goes on with other dishes. Inviting friends for iftar is like a tradition as people want to end their fast with people they love. In Islam, doing anything like eating, praying, working together is always advised. They pray together to thank God aither before meal or after it. And to go on enjoying iftar together, if you are invited for iftar, you may take something you cook or buy a kind of dessert as a gift. If someone invites you for dinner, you should invite them back after some time.

Stuffed vegetables are always popular at iftar tables as it shows the importance you give to your guests. They are served either as the main dish or as side dish. As we are in Summer, in the season of red bell peppers, I want to share stuffed red bell peppers with you. As I love them more than the green ones, I make these more often. When they are cooked well, their skin can easily be removed and it becomes more appealing.

Kırmızı Biber Dolması

Ingredients (servings 6)
-    6 red bell peppers
-    ¾ cup rice
-    2 medium sized onions, minced
-    A handful of minced parsley
-    A handful of minced scallions
-    3 cloves garlic, minced
-    1 tomato, diced
-    1 tbsp dried mint
-    1 tbsp black pepper
-    2 tbsp salt
-    4 tbsp olive oil
-    1 lemon
-    ½ tbsp pepper paste
-    1 cup water

Wash the rice well and drain. Add onion, parsley, scallion, garlic, spices, olive oil, lemon juice and pepper paste. Mix them well.

Cut the heads of red bell peppers and remove  their seeds. Then stuff them with the rice mixture you prepared. Do not overstuff the peppers as the rice will get bigger when cooked. Put the stuffed peppers vertically in a big pot.

Pour water in the pot and cover it. Cook it over the lowest heat for about 40 minutes. Then check if the rice is cooked. If it is, then you can take it from fire. I love to eat this when it’s still hot, but some people let it get cold and then serve. And we generally serve it with some yogurt near it.

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Gullac Ramadan 3

In Turkish culture, there are some certain dishes which are made on special days or occasions. Sesame Rings, which I wrote on before,  are one of them. And today I want to share another special dish made just in Ramadan month. This is a simple, but tasty dessert called gullac (güllaç in Turkish letters). I don’t want to translate it into English as it might be nonsense. And I didn’t  rename it in English as I couldn’t find what I could call it. If you have any suggestions seeing the photos or reading this post, I’d be so glad to hear. In Turkish gül means rose and aş means food; gullac  is the abbreviation of güllü aş, which means food with rose. Noone calls it güllü aş today, gullac is easier to pronounce, so it is the modern name of this yummy dessert. So what is the relation of rose with this dessert? Actually, it’s not the rose, but rose water which has that relationship. Rose water used to be the main flavor in this dessert in Ottoman culture because of its refreshing effect. However, today, it depends on your taste to add rose water or not. Some people use it, some don’t. Personally, I don’t love its flavor in gullac much, so I prefer not using it. But it doesn’t mean it tastes bad, it gives a quite refreshing flavor to the dessert.

Another Ottoman tradition about gullac is that it’s always decorated with pomegranate and I love to see these cute red beads on the white surface of this dessert. I think they complete each other and address to our eyes first. And I love to add a third wonderful ingredient for garnish. Pistachios! When you have these three at the same time, the pleasure you feel doubles.

You can see gullac at patisseries and at markets just in Ramadan. Just like dates,in Turkey it is special for Ramadan. This simple and easy dessert is made from gullac sheets. You may think that they are similar to phyllo sheets, but these are totally different. Gullac sheets are so white, thin and crispy. Today, people don’t make these sheets themselves as it requires special talents. These are sold in packages at the markets. And there are about 15 sheets in a package. As far as I know, there are two big companies producing and selling gullac to markets, Saffetabdullah Gullaclari and Istanbul Gullac.

Gullac sheets are simply made of corn starch, wheat flour and water. In the early times of Ottoman Empire, people used to make sheets from corn starch, flour and water and they could keep these for months. As these sheets  are dried and got crispy, people used to soften them with milk and sugar. I guess it wasn’t a kind of dessert those times, but people used to have it as a main dish.  The best part of it for those peple was its simple ingredients. And keeping the dried sheets for long might be the second reason for people to love it. Then as the empire got richer, it turned out to be a dessert special for the palace and it became sultans’ favorite. And today, when you tend to buy the dessert (not the sheets) from a patisseire, you will see that it’s not that cheap. It has that fame as the palace dessert thanks to sultans, it deserves to be expensive, doesn’t it? Business people always know their job!

You can find how gullac sheets are prepared here. As you’ll read here, these sheets are completely natural, they don’t have any additives. Moreover, it is a very light dessert. These are just two of the reasons why people prefer gullac to end their iftar meal with something sweet. You know, in Ramadan, muslims don’t eat or drink anything from sunrise till sunset, so their body needs more sugar than usual because of hunger. Besides meeting people’s sugar need, gullac also strengthen their bodies with vitamins B and E it contains.

Gullac

Ingredients
-    10 gullac sheets
-    1 ½ kg milk
-    350g sugar
-    A cup of crumbled walnut
-    Pistachio and pomegranate for garnish

Put milk and sugar (and 1 tbsp rosewater if you like) in a pot and heat it until the sugar melts. Stir it occasionally. It shouldn’t be too hot to touch, so let it cool a little. When it gets warm enough, we can start to make our dessert. If you use it hot, your dessert gets mushy.

Lay a gullac sheet on an average size tray. Wet it with the warm milk. Repeat this with five sheets. After the fifth one, spread the crumbled walnut on it. Then lay the rest five sheets one by one and wet each of them with milk. When you finish with the tenth one, pour the rest of the milk on it. They don’t need to be very good in shape while arranging them in the tray. They will combine when they get wet with milk. After pouring the milk, you will see the sheets are rising, do not touch them. Cover it with stretch film and put it in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

I always leave the garnishing part to the serving time, otherwise pomegranates and pistachio may change the color of gullac. After taking it from refrigerator, cut it in squares or rectangles, garnish and serve.

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