Bitter orange appears in February and its bitter flavor is almost gone towards the end of the month. People in this city make orange marmalade from sweet orange while they make jam from bitter orange (Sour orange or Seville orange) especially at that time of year. I’m originally from the South of Turkey, and this jam is also popular there. Although its name calls for breakfast, it’s a little different from regular jams. Jams are typically served at breakfast in Turkey, but this one is mostly served as dessert to end up dinner. Also, you can serve this to your guests along with Turkish coffee. They make a great combination of balanced flavors.

Mom II gave us two jars of bitter orange peel last year and we still have one of them as  we stopped eating sweet things like jam months ago because of blood sugar problems. I was thinking of writing about it here, but wasn’t sure when. I received a comment today asking for the recipe of this jam. And I decided not to wait any longer to share it with you before giving it to a friend as a gift. So here is mom II’s recipe.

Wash oranges finely. Grate just the orange colored part of them until their white surface. Wash them again.

Slice just their peel (not  inside) lengthwise.

Put a long thread through a sewing needle. Roll the peel slices just like in the way you do for ‘pig in blanket’.  String these peel rolls carefully.

When you finish, take the needle and tie the ends of thread.

Fill a large bowl with cold water and put orange peel rolls string into this water. Wait it for a day changing the water couple of times. This will help remove bitterness.

After a day, put peel  rolls string in a pot and fill it with water until their top. Boil it for about 30 minutes and drain. Fill it with water again, boil it for another 30 minutes and drain. Repeat this step a few times. This will also remove bitterness.

Drain them for the last time and put them on a paper towel to remove excessive water.

Mix sugar and 6 cups water in a pot. Put orange peel rolls string into this pot. Boil them over average heat until it has the right consistency and orange peel rolls lose color. Then add 1 tbsp lemon juice, boil it a few minutes more and take it from heat. Let it cool.

Cut the thread from different parts and remove orange peel rolls from thread. Place almonds inside each roll. And put them in jars with the syrup.

You can keep them in refrigerator as they are better when served cold.

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.

I would witness how cherry trees blossommed and then fruited as a child when we visited my grandma. There were immense cherry yards in the village she was living and I remember watching these yards with a great admiration. It is such a village that nobody has to get permission to get into someone’s yard and to taste some cherries, so we would enter one, taste some and then enter another to taste a different species of cherry. Grandma also had a cherry tree in her backyard where we (my cousins and I) enjoyed a lot. We would climb on the tree, which was my favorite method to taste fruits, and would chat there eating cherries. The funniest thing I remember is that we, as girls, would make ear rings from cherries by hanging them on our ears. We would love to feel swingings of cherries on our ears when we  shake our heads. Would you do the same thing when you were children?

Besides their wonderful taste and beauty, it is known that cherries also have healing effects. It is known that they are more effective as painkillers than an aspirin. So if you have bad headache, please try eating cherries before taking any other painkillers. No need to mention that they are great antioxidants. Heavy smokers should eat cherries to get rid of the nicotine in their body. It also strengthens our immune system and our body against many cancer types. Grandma would also say that cherry stalk has many herbal effects,too. She would make tea boiling cherry stalks in water for about 10 minutes. She would say that this helped kidneys work well and cured joint calcification. I learnt one more thing from her that cherry stones keep heat for a long time, so she never wasted these stones. She would fill a heatproof bag with dried cherry stones and heat it in oven. She put this heated bag under my feet whenever I had stomachache. I’m always in favor of trying herbal healing before any medicine just like grandma as I believe that nature has all remedies if used right.

Cherries are mostly in various tones of red, but we have a unique species of cherries in Turkey, yellow cherries. They are so rare in our country that it is grown in few regions. I don’t know if it’s grown in other countries. It has a very limited season here, so if you see it at the market, you shouldn’t miss that chance. Yellow cherries are sweeter in taste, that may be the reason why people prefer mostly these to make jam. They make jam either from yellow cherries or sour cherries.

At the open market last week I had that chance and I bought 2 kilos of yellow cherries to make some jam. Unfortunately I didn’t think how I would pit them. In the evening, when I  prepared the necessary cups in the kitchen and grabbed one cherry, I realized it wouldn’t be so easy to pit them. I wanted them remain as they were, but how? Believe or not, I spent great effort on scooping their stones. After some time, getting tired, I gave up and just cut them in half and easily removed the stones. I called mom in the morning and told my cherry adventure. She laughed at me and asked why I didn’t buy a cherry pitter. A cherry pitter? What was that, I’ve never heard such a thing! Gosh why didn’t I talk to mom a day before? Then she told me if I didn’t have that tool, I could use a paper clip as a hook to remove cherry stones. She claims it works perfect. It was too late for me! Oh wait! I’m planning to making jam from sour cherry as well when its season comes, I can try either of these methods then. If you know any other ways to pit cherries, I’d be glad to hear.

2 kilos (4,40 pounds) cherries make about 1 kilo jam.
Sari Kiraz Receli
Ingredients
-    2 kilos yellow cherries
-    1 ½ kilo (3.30 pound) sugar
-    Juice of ½ lemon

Wash the cherries, remove their stalks and stones (either with  Oxo Good Grips Cherry Pitter or by cutting them in half). Put the cherries in a large pot. Then pour sugar on them and wait it 5 hours. You can do this step overnight. At the end of this time, you’ll see that all sugar is dissolved and cherries release their water. That’s why we don’t need to add extra water.

Put the pot on low heat and boil it until it gets thick enough. Remove its scum occasionally. To understand if it has the right thickness, drop very little jam on a plate, turn it upside down. If the jam doesn’t run down easily, if it’s a bit sticky, that means it’s done. Add lemon juice, boil it another 5 minutes and take it from fire. do not boil it more after adding lemon juice. Otherwise, your jam gets too dark in color.

If your cherries are too soft, then after it boils for about 10 minutes, take the cherries from the sherbet with a strainer and keep boling the sherbet until it reaches the right consistency. ıf you boil the cherries with its sherbet for the whole time, cherries will be overcooked and all mashed. Then add the cherries and boil them for a few minutes more. And add lemon juice.  Let it cool.

If you have a balcony or a garden, wait your jam under sun. This helps its consisteny, so don’t worry if your jam is not thick enough after boiling, just wait it under sun for a few days. Do not forget to cover it with a veil to protect it from any insects. Then you can put it in jars and keep it in a place without sunlight.

As a final note, I!d like to thank to Jenn from Bread + Butter. She is so sweet to share her award with me, I’m so honored. She has a fantastic blog with so many delicious recipes. Go visit her blog.

So according to the rule of this award, I’m supposed to name 7 things about me.

1. I love watching movies
2. The last movie I watched is Knowing by the director Alex Proyas. It was great with the performance of Nicolas Cage.
3.I am interested in literature, I love to read novels, short stories, poetries.
4.I sometimes try to write short stories.
5. I always read before sleeping. Reading Zorba the Greek by Nicos Kazancakis these days.
6. I LOVE eggs at breakfast.
7. I hate cleaning greens like spinach, parsley or fresh mint as too much dirt hides in them. But of course I do that cleaning

It’s absoultely so hard to decide on just 7 bloggers to share this award, so I  want to share it with everyone I’m in contact with in this blog world.

Cherries in Winter

Cherries always complain about the limited time they have. THey can appear just in summer and they can’t see the other seasons of nature. They wait the coming of summer whole year.
It is unfair! One day, one of them hided from people and didn’t come out until winter. When everwhere was white with snow, she decided to go out. She wrapped herself up not to get cold and wanted to ski on frozen hills. She didn’t know how, she just wore a pair of roller skaters and started. Luck was with this little cute thing, so nothing bad happened to her. But she understood the difficulty of winter and told her friends that summer is always better for them. (drawing by mom)

There are two lovers in the story, Pyramus and Thisbe. They loved each other so much since their childhood, but their parents were against this love. Their houses were side by side and they would whisper their love to each other through a fissure in the wall seperating their houses. One night they decided to escape from their houses and meet under a tree. It was a tall tree full of white berries. At that night, Thisbe arrived first, but saw a wild lion there with a bloody mouth. This was enough to scare her, and she ran away towards a dark cave. However, she dropped her veil on her way.

A little time later, Pyramus arrived and saw the lion with Thisbe’s veil in its bloody mouth. He started to cry feeling a big regret not coming earlier. He thought that his beloved was eaten by the lion. He knew that he couldn’t live without Thisbe, he grabbed his sword and killed himself under the tree. His blood sprinkled on the tree and its fruits turned into a blackish-red color. (The tree in this picture is from our neighbor’s yard when the fruits were not ripe enough)

After some time, Thisbe decided to go back to their meeting place not to disappoint her beloved. Unfortunately, when she returned, she saw the body of Pyramus under the mulberry tree. What a destiny they had! She cried and cried and cried. Her tears dropped on the beloved body and cleaned it from blood. She understood that Pyramus killed himself because he thought that she was eaten by the lion. Death didn’t have enough power to seperate these lovers. Thisbe did exactly the same to reach her beloved through death and she placed the sword directly into her heart. Her body fell on the body of Pyramus. Witnessing all these, the tree has the color of Pyramus’s blood on its berries and Thisbe’s tears on its leaves.

What is more interesting about black mulberry tree is hidden in this story. You know when you touch the black berries with naked hand, your hands turn into a blackish color. And it is very hard to remove this color from your hand. Do you know what removes it? Its leaves! If you pick a leaf from the tree itslef and rub your hand with it, you will see that your hand turns into its own color.

As I knew this incredible truth about this tragic fruit, I asked for a few leaves from the salesman to clean my hands. He gave the ones he was using for decorating his fruit stand. And guess what? It really worked!

I don’t know how many people know this story, but many people love to eat black mulberries. It’s getting more and more popular as doctors explain that it is a great source of antioxidant and has many benefits for our body.  It protects our hearts and it defers getting old. It cleans the blood, so it is recommened to anemia patients. It also removes fatigue and curative for mouth and throat infections.

We love to eat this fruit, but we can find it in a limited time of year, so to make it longer, I make its jam to eat it in Winter, too.

Karadut Receli

Ingredients
-    1 kilo (2.2 pounds) black mulberry
-    1 kilo sugar
-    ½ lemon
-    ½ cup water

Wash the mulberries well and cut their stems one by one.

In a large pot, put one layer mulberries one layer sugar until both finish. Cover the pot and wait it at least 8 hours. You can do this step overnight.

When you remove its cover, you will see that mulberries release their water with the help of sugar. Add ½ cup water in this pot and put it over medium heat. Bring it to boil and keep boiling for 20 minutes. When you see it starts to get a consistency, you’re on the right way. Finally squeeze half lemon juice and boil it for 5 minutes more. Then take it from fire. Let it cool.

To have the best result, cover the top of the pot with a very thin veil and wait it under sun at your balcony or garden. This will help your jam to get the right consistency and to get more delicious.

We love to eat this jam at breakfast spreading it on a slice of bread with cheese.

By the way, don’t forget to send me (zerrin@giverecipe.com ) an email to join the contest!

Ducks At Pub

 

Two friends met and decided to go to a pub after work. It helps them forget all stress at work. They love to chat here with the barman. He is such a friendly man and has always several stories to tell. His stories sometimes make these two friends happy and they want to drink more, sometimes the stories make them feel melancholic and they want to drink more and more! (drawing by mom)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I became an aunt two days ago and I was as excited as my brother and his wife. They live in a city far away from us, but the distance wasn’t enough to reduce my excitement! It was noon time and I was at school, making exams when I had a phone call from them. They were at hospital and telling me that they were counting minutes for the delivery. I felt as if I was taking the exam during this waiting time! I don’t remember the number of people whom I told that I was waiting for my niece’s birth. After about half an hour, I heard my brother’s joyful voice on the phone. He was happily telling that his newly born daughter is just like me. This doubled my excitement and I tried to envisage her little and cute face. Now I’m looking forward to visitng the mom and seeing my little neice soon. We have the youngest member of our family now, I wish her a peaceful future.

I’m sure there are various traditions about newly born babies in different cultures. Let me tell one of them in our culture. When someone has a baby, he buys something sweet such as Turkish delight, chocolate, or baklava (a traditional Turkish dessert with sherbet) and takes this to his work place to share it with colleagues. The people working there take one and tell their good wishes for the baby. When I think about our traditions for happy events, I realize that we always have a kind of dessert to celebrate.

When I saw unripe fig at the open market today, I decided to make its jam. This would also be meaningful for the importance of the day. A village woman was selling it. She told that she picked these unripe figs up from the tree in their village. She had no scales, just 2 bags of figs in front of her. She said each bag weighs 1 kilo (2,20 pound), and her word was enough for me, no need to weigh on a scale. I bought one of the bags, but I had never made unripe fig jam before although I ate many times. As you can guess, I asked the recipe to that woman and she gave the instructions providing that I would come back and tell her the result. I think I succeeded, so I can feel proud when I go back to the open market with a bowl of jam not only to tell but also give her the result as a gift.

You might find it weird to make jam of unripe figs, but I can tell that you don’t feel any unripeness when you taste it. We call it jam, but I think it can also be included in category of desserts as I love to eat it not just at breakfast but also during day with cream, ice cream or plain.

I mentioned the benefit of unripe fig sap in the recipe of dried fig dessert. That sticky white liquid is helpful in the treatment of skin warts. Just drop it on the wart and see the result.

Ham İncir Reçeli

Ingredients

-    1 kilo (2,20 pounds) unripe fig
-    1 kilo sugar
-    5 ½ cups water
-    1 lemon
-    4 cloves

Wash the figs and clean their stems. We’ll boil the figs two times changing the water each time to lose its unripeness taste. Fill a large pot with water and boil the figs for about 10 minutes. Let it cool.

When it is cool enough to touch, squeeze the figs gently to remove the bad taste. You can make tiny holes on figs with a needle if you like and then squeeze. Then fill the pot with water again, boil again and squeeze again. This squeezing part might take a long time, but if you are passionate enough, you’ll see it is worth. Then drain.

Meanwhile you can start to boil 5 ½ water and sugar together in a different pot. After it boils, add the squeezed figs in it. You will see that these figs turn back into their original shape in this boiling sherbet. Put the cloves with the figs to give this jam an outstanding flavor. Boil them for about 25 minutes. Finally, add lemon juice and boil it 5 minutes more.

Let it cool and fill it in jars. You can keep them at room temperature, at a dry and dark place. We love it cold, so we keep it in refrigerator.  This makes a great summer dessert!

Updated on Feb 17 2011

Fig Press Gadget by Richard Claassens

I got an amazing mail from one of my readers living in South Africa a few days ago. Besides telling how this recipe worked fine for him, he says that he invented a fig press gadget- that’s how he calls it. I felt so honored that someone very far from me invented something particularly for my recipe. This recipe calls for squeezing figs after boiling, and he says this step might be tiring for fingers. That’s why he decided to invent a gadget to use in this step. He generously sent me the pictures even with the instructions to make it. I find it so practical, so I would like to share it with you. He says it is very easy to make it and you don’t need any special tool for this, you can make it with what you have at home. Maybe you’re inspired to make this gadget to use for this green fig jam recipe. Thank you Richard! So here are his instructions with pictures:

I will explain what to look for in each picture. As you will see, the gadget, is made from things I found around the house, nothing fancy at all.

Picture 1, is a similar serviette ring to the one I modified for the press.

Picture 2 is the bottom of the ring showing a series of cuts I made in it, to allow the fig juices to pass through, using a “tin snips” which a tool used for cutting thin metal sheet. This holds the fig for pressing.

Picture 3 shows the top of the ring with four cuts in it to allow fig juices to seep out at the top without burning your finger if the fig is still hot.

Picture 4 is a potato chip fryer.

Picture 5 is a small “pill” container which acts as the press.

Picture 6 shows the chip fryer and the fig holder with a fig in it ready for pressing.

Picture 7 shows the “pill” bottle on top of the fig.

Picture 8 shows the pressed fig. It actually comes out like a round flat green cookie.

Picture 9 shows the whole thing, with the fig pressed down, ready for removal from the press.

Pressing a fig takes me about 15 seconds with very little effort, as you will find out, I’m sure. I really hope you can get one made, and I’m sure your readers will find it simple too. I make a lot of water melon rind preserve as well, and I’m going to try this recipe on that as well because it take four hours or so to boil the rind in the sugar, and I’m convinced this will cut down the time to about an hour.

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.

Cilek Receli

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.