Fluffy Pogaca

I can’t tell how I was surprised by these mini balls when I first tried the recipe. I had  tried several pogaca recipes before this one, but this one was the best ever. The ones I tried before were not as soft as this one. These are so fluffy and tempting that you can even get up in the middle of the night to have one.  It is always a great pleasure to see the very delighted face of people when they have the first bite. It is also a wonderful feeling to be sure that they will ask for the second or the third even for the forth.  One day, I put some of these to my lunch box and shared them with some colleagues. They ate the pogacas with big eyes, which means they can’t believe how these simple looking balls can be that yummy.  And the best thing about these pogacas is that they don’t get stale easily. You will see that they are still so soft even after a week, so I generally make these on Sunday as a preparation for weekdays. I never leave for work without having breakfast and I get up easier knowing that my breakfast is already ready on the table. A cup of milk always goes very well with these magical balls.

Pogaca is a traditional savory pastry in Turkey just like simit and acma. All pastry shops here have these three as their main products. And people stop by these shops on the way to their work early in the morning to buy some of these. Students can find these even at school canteens, so if they can’t have breakfast as soon as they wake up at home, they have simit, acma or pogaca at school with a cup of tea. There are a few versions of pogaca with different fillings like feta cheese, kasar cheese (yellow cheese), potato or mince. It is even possible to find it with no filling. They may be big or small in size in pastry shops, but I prefer making them small as they look more cute in this way.

Now you may be wondering how these pogacas get that soft. The secret is hidden in its dough mixture. This recipe, from a Turkish food magazine called Lezzet suggests using mineral water instead of regular water. It is not known by most people in Turkey that mineral water and soda water are not the same. Mineral water comes from a natural spring whereas soda water is produced in laboratories.  Soda water is carbonated, which makes it an artificial drink while mineral water naturally has carbon dioxide in it with lots of minerals. For more information about mineral water, you can visit here. As it is scientifically proven that mineral water is healthy, we can drink or use it in our kitchen without worrying.

Yumuşacık Poğaça
Ingredients
For its dough:
-    4 cups flour
-    ¼ cup warm milk
-    1 tbsp dry instant yeast
-    ½ cup vegetable oil
-    1 tbsp sugar
-    1 tsp salt
-    ¾ cup mineral water
For its filling:
-    Half bunch of parsley
-    1 ½ cup feta cheese
For coating their top:
-    1 egg yolk
-    Poppy seeds

Mix sugar and yeast with milk. Combine all the dough ingredients including this milk mixture and mix them well. You can add a little more flour or mineral water if either of them is not enough. You should have a pliable and nonsticky dough. Cover it with a moist cloth and let it rest for 45 min.

Chop the parsley and mix it with cheese.

Take a small piece from the dough and flatten it with your hands. You can do this on the counter. Put a tsp of cheese mixture on it and close it up folding the edges upwards like a bundle. Do the same for the rest of the dough. Place a parchment paper in a baking tray and place the pogacas on it. The folded side of pogacas should be at the bottom to have a ball shape.

Preheat the oven at 180C.

Beat the egg yolk well and coat all the pogacas with it using a brush. And sprinkle poppy seeds on each pogaca. Bake them about 30 minutes until they get golden.

I love them when they are still warm, so after taking them out from oven, I  throw a few of them into my mouth.

Note: These ingredients make about 40 pogacas as I make them so small that you can eat them in just two bites. You can make them bigger if you like or you can use the half of these ingredients if you want fewer.

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Pasta in Oven

As we are in Winter break here, I don’t need to go to school everyday.  I didn’t want to wake up early yesterday morning, in fact I didn’t want to get out of the bed eventhough I woke up. It was great to know that it was Monday but there was no work.  After lingering over breakfast, I decided to do some house chores and to change the planning of some rooms. I feel refreshed whenever I make some “restoration” inside the house by changing the places of the coach, armchairs, bookcases (we have 6 big bookcases), and the other portable things in the house. It’s like moving to a new house, so whenever I get bored, I do it at least once a year as I do love renewals. Of course I wasn’t alone while doing these, I could have never managed all these without the help of my hubby.

When I was having a cup of Turkish coffee to take a rest, I realized that the dinner time was coming. And guess what? I remembered that we had invited two friends for dinner. “What are we going to cook?” was the question I repeated a hundred times. And hubby offered his practical proposal: Pasta in Oven. Yep! It was a great idea because it was easy and scrumptious. I have never met anybody refusing pasta no matter how it is cooked. However, when cooked in oven, pasta becomes more special with its irresistible look. It looks like a kind of borek, doesn’t it?

Our friends were happy to see the new planning in our house and feel the wonderful smell of  pasta coming from the kitchen. It was ready when they came, but we needed some fresh salad to serve. We always love to work with our guests in the kitchen, so I didn’t refuse their proposal for help and  put the necessary ingredients for a salad on the counter. Hubby served us red wine as he knew how to motivate us to work. After a very short time, our dinner was ready with a great trio: Pasta in oven, green salad and red wine.

Fırında Makarna
Ingredients:
-    ½  package of pasta (I used bucatini, thick spaghetti)
-    1 cup feta cheese
-    3 eggs
-    2 ½ cup milk
-    3 tbsp olive oil
-    3 tbsp flour
-    1 cup chopped parsley
-    1 cup grated kasar cheese (yellow cheese), for its top
-    Salt
-    Black pepper

Heat water in a large pot. When it boils, put the pasta in the pot, add a few drops olive oil, this will prevent the  bucatini sticks(?) from sticking to each other. And boil it for 10 minutes. Takeit from fire, put it under cold water and drain. Put it in an oven tray, add crumbled feta cheese with parsley and mix them.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Mix milk, flour, egg, olive oil, salt and black pepper together until smooth. Seperate a little of this mixture aside and pour the rest on pasta and mix. Spread the seperated milk mixture on its top. Cook it in oven for about 30 minutes. Then take it out and put the grated  kasar cheese evenly on the pasta. Put it back into the oven and cook it until the cheese melts (about 5-7 min). Serve it cutting in squares.

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Lemon Cake For Blogoversary

It has been a long time since I wrote my last post. I have been working till late hours, so I can not even write back to your so much valuable comments. Hope you understand me. I couldn’t even realize that Give Recipe left a year behind until my hubby reminded me 4 days ago. He asked, “Aren’t you thinking of making something special to celebrate our child’s birthday?” You see, Give Recipe is like our child as he says I spend a big part of my time either dealing with it or thinking about it. I know I’ve neglected it since the school started (working as a teacher) but it’s always on my mind. However, I’m grateful to hubby for reminding me of my first blogoversary.

It was on a weekday and unfortunately, I couldn’t make anything special, so I had to postpone it to this weekend. I was decisive on making something sweet as I think it’s not a real celebration if there is nothing sweet. I thought a lamon cake would be great to celebrate a blogoversary. And ofcourse it wouldn’t be a real celebration without some guests, so we called a few friends and enjoyed this cake together with Turkish black tea.

Finally, thanks a million to everyone for visiting Give Recipe and for helping me improve it with your comments, suggestions and questions.

Limonlu Kek
Ingredients
-    100g butter (at room temperature)
-    125g sugar
-    4 eggs
-    50ml (1/4 cup) milk
-    Rind of 1 lemon, grated
-    300g flour
-    1tbsp baking powder
For the jam on the top:
-    1 lemon
-    2 tbsp sugar
-    5 tbsp water
Preheat the oven at 180C (350F).

Mix butter and sugar, add eggs and beat well until smooth. Pour milk in it and mix. Put grated lemon rind and flour, whisk with a spatula. Take a tbsp baking powder and squeeze a few drops of lemon on it. This will help the cake rise well.

Oil the cake mould (I used a rectangular one) and pour the batter into it and bake for 45 minutes. You know how to check if it’s done at the end of this duration. Just use a toothpick; if it comes out clean, it means you can take it from oven.

As a big fan of lemon, I don’t want to waste any part of it. Believe or not, I eat lemons with their rinds, they are not different from any other fruits. Most of my friends find it weird, but I do love the bitterish taste of their rind. When preparing the cake butter, I thought it would be great to garnish it with some slices of lemon rind. But not to have a bitter taste (no problem for me), I must find a way to make them sweet (for my friends). I just followed the steps similar to my usual jams, just in small amounts. You can play with the amounts of sugar and water here according to your taste.

So when you put the cake aside, you can prepare the lemon jam to make your cake have a ‘lemon’ cake look. Slice the lemon rind thinly, put them in a small pan, add sugar and water in it. Heat it ove medium heat stirring occasionaly until the sugar melts. When it starts to boil, add a few drops of lemon in it. You will see it becomes thicker after adding lemon juice. Then you can take it from heat and garnish your cake.

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Cookies With Dates

We have started to count down for 2010. Everyone has been thinking of the good and bad points of the leaving year these days. When you turn on the TV, you see several programs on the events of 2009 and all people have wishes for the new year.

How was 2009 for my part? I was planning to create this blog at this time last year(2008). After discussing several things of the blog with hubby (thanks a million my dear for your help), we released Give Recipe in the first weeks of 2009. I remember how excited I got when I received the first comment. Now there are over 2000 comments in my blog, but I still get excited by a new one. Thank you everyone for commenting on my posts, I appreciate them much. The number of the posts is 153 with this one, and Give Recipe’s character has been getting more and more clear through these posts. At the beginning I wasn’t aware of how big the place of Give Recipe in my life would be, but I’ve realized before long that there isn’t a single day I don’t think of it. Also, I’ve had the chance of learning about the world of food blogs since the starting of Give Recipe. I have many blogger friends and I’ve learnt lots of new dishes from them so far. As I’m working as a teacher, I’ve been so busy with my students and school works for some months. That’s why I can’t find enough time to follow my favorite food blogs and commenting on them every time. But I’m trying to visit them whenever I have some time. I’m looking forward to Winter break to have more time to catch up what my friends are doing in their blogs.

The other nice event for me in 2009 was the birth of my niece, the cutest baby around the world. I love her so much that my eyes get full of tears whenever I look at her photo. I wish her all the best.

To say a sweet goodbye to 2009, I made these cookies with date. The best thing I love in them is the orange flavor. The cubes of orange zest are like little gifts hidden in the cookies.

Happy new year to everyone!

Hurmalı Kurabiye
Ingredients (8 or 10 servings)
For the dough:
-    2 cups flour
-    ½ cup ground pistachio
-    ½ cup confectioner’s sugar
-    1 tbsp vanilla
-    1 tbsp baking powder
-    1 egg white
-    125g butter, at room temperature and chopped in cubes
For the filling mixture:
-    1 orange zest, sliced in cubes
-    2tbsp orange juice
-    20 dates
-    3 tbsp ground hazelnut
-    2 tbsp hot water

For the filling mixture, remove the seeds of dates and wait them in hot water for some minutes so that they can be chopped easier.

Put the dates into a mini chopper, add hot water and orange juice and chop them. If it’s still so dry, add a little more hot water and mix together until combined well. Add hazelnut and orange zest cubes in this mixture.

Sift the flour on the counter. Add vanilla, pistachio, baking powder and confectioner’s sugar on it.  In the middle of the flour, toss the butter cubes and eg white. Knead this mixture well until it’s not sticky and soft enough.

Lay the baking sheet on an oven tray.

Preheat the oven at 170C.

Take walnut sized pieces from the dough, flatten them out, put enough filling mixture in them and roll them in your hands. Place the cookies on the baking sheet. Bake them for 20 minutes and take out from oven. Let them cold.

You can keep these in jars for a week. Put some orange zest slices in the jar if you like. It gives a fresh smell to the cookies.

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Poppy Seed Bread

Hashasli Corek/Ekmek

I didn’t know that poppy seeds are edible before coming to Eskisehir, the city where I’m living now. There are many pastry shops here and they have various breads that I didn’t see in my hometown. One of these unique breads is bread with mashed poppy seeds. As you can guess, it didn’t last long for me to become a big fan of this fantastic bread. We often buy it from a pastry shop nearby in the early morning when it’s still warm and we have the pleasure of eating this bread at breakfast with some cheese, sliced tomato and cucumber accompanied by newly brewed black tea.

It wasn’t enough for me just to eat the bread with this special ingredient, it was a must for me to learn more about it. Hubby said poppy seeds are commonly used in his hometown, and his mom knows a lot about it. And when I asked my mother-in-law (Mom II) about poppy seeds, she took me to her childhood with her lively descriptions, it was so exciting for me to be in a different time and learning about some past piece of life.

She said that she spent most of her childhood in huge poppy fields full of purple, red and white flowers and she explained how much she admired these lovely poppy flowers spreading as far as the eye can reach. She seemed as if she was really there while she was describing those fields, it was so clear from the light in her eyes. I think those times might be the root of her love of drawing and painting. I didn’t even know that poppies are lovely flowers. She explained that poppy flowers are just like wild beautiful flowers we see on mountains in Spring. Unlike these flowers, poppies are grown and processed by people. Poppy seeds are planted in fields and after some time, they come out of earth as fresh herbs. Mom II said that they would make salad from these herbs  when they were still fresh. Growing older, these herbs become harder and bitter. They grow as high as an average human height and then they start to bloom in various colors and generate their fascinating masterpiece in fields. These flowers drop their petals after a certain time and form cones containing poppy seeds. Mom II told me that it was a big pleasure for her to break these cones, shake it down into her palm and throw the seeds into her mouth. It sounds great, doesn’t it?

These poppy seeds are used in pastry decoration and when they are mashed they turn into another amazing flavor. These are in three colors: black, yellow and white. Yellow and white mashed poppy seeds are used in pastries. As these are light in color, they don’t spoil the color of dough (you see in my bread above). Also, the rate of oil they include is not so high, which is better for pastries. As for the black mashed poppy seeds, it is mixed with grape molasses just like tahini and becomes a perfect food for breakfast especially in Winter.

Mom II also stated that it was a tradition in her childhood that to serve different kinds of breads with mashed poppy seeds during festivals like Ramadan or Greater Eid. When children knocked the door, the host was supposed to give some slices of poppy seed bread to them. It was one of the ways to make children happy on these special days besides candies and handkerchieves.

I learnt this yummy poppy seed bread from mom II. Unlike the ones in pastry shops here, this one has raisins or currants in its filling mixture, which makes it more special. So here is the recipe:

Ingredients
Dough:
- 1 ½ tbsp instant yeast
- 1 cup milk(warm)
- 3 cups flour
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
Filling mixture*:
-    1 cup yellow mashed poppy seed
-    1 cup olive oil
-    ½ cup raisin/currants
Mix all the ingredients for dough, knead it and wait it for 1 hour to rise. It shouldn’t be sticky, if it’s still sticky, then add a little more flour.
Preheat the oven at 180C.

Then knead it once more. Sprinkle a little flour on the counter and roll it out in a rectangle like shape.

Mix mashed poppy seeds and olive oil very well, it mustn’t be thick, must be like a flowing mixture. Spread this on the dough and then throw the raisins/currants on it.

Then roll the dough tightly.

Cut the dough roll into two with a sharp knife.

Turn their insides with filling mixture upside.

Put one half on the middle of the other half and give them a shape of hook.

Plait each pieces until the end.

Oil a circle oven tray and place the bread dough gently in a circular shape. Combine the two ends of the dough and stick them together by pressing gently with your fingers.
Bake it for 35 minutes and serve it with black tea or coffee.
*If you can’t find mashed poppy seeds, here is an alternative recipe for its filling:
-    ¾ cup poppy seeds
-    ¾ cup raisin/currants
-    1 cup milk
-    2 tbsp corn strach
-    1 egg yolk
-    2 tbsp butter

Put the poppy seeds, raisin and half of the milk in a pot. Boil it over the lowest heat until the seeds and raisin rise and there is no milk left. It takes for about 10 min. Meanwhile, whisk corn starch, yolk and the other half of milk in a bowl. At the end of the cooking time of poppy seeds and raisins, add the yolk mixture into the pot and boil stirring until it gets thick enough. Take it from fire and finally add butter and stir well.  Spread this mixture on the dough you roll and bake it in the same way.

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Lahmacun

This is one of the most popular traditional Turkish fast food. It’s originally from an Eastern city of Turkey, Sanliurfa. Now you can find lahmacun restaurants all around the country and not surprisingly, the owners of almost all these restaurants are from Sanliurfa. And generally they serve lahmacun only, not any other dishes. As people from this small city love hot pepper, the original lahmacun is too hot for the people in the West of Turkey to eat. Then they decided to serve two versions of lahmacun in their restaurants in this part of the country: with and without hot pepper. In these restaurants, there are also red pepper flakes in small bowls on each table. If you aren’t sure whether you can eat hot lahmacun or not, you can order one without pepper and when it comes to table, you can sprinkle red pepper flakes according to your taste.

The shape of lahmacun may change depending on its region. Originally, it is so thin with a crispy texture and as big as a serving plate. It may be either round or oval in shape. However, in the region of Mersin, where my hometown Tarsus is located, there is a very small version of lahmacun. It is called fındık lahmacun because of its small size. In fact, people of Tarsus call it just lahmacun as there is no big versions here. Findik lahmacun is a term used in other parts of the country to differentiate between two versions. Findik (fındık) means hazelnut and this word is generally used to show how small something is. This lahmacun is as small as a saucer and I find it cuter than the big one. And unlike the big version, findik lahmacun is not crispy as it’s not that thin. I do love both versions, but this small one is more advisable to make at home. You can eat it with a big pleasure even the following day as it’s still soft. However, the big and thin ones must be eaten once they are cooked.

In Mersin (A Southern city of Turkey) and its small towns like Tarsus, there are special bakeries just for cooking lahmacun in stone ovens.  Women prepare the topping mixture at their homes and generally their husbands take the mixture to such a bakery and ask when it will be ready. They come back to take the cooked lahmacuns at the time he is given. He pays the money and leaves a few of them to bakery people. As you see, this is an easy way of making lahmacun, you just prepare the topping and the rest of the work is done for you at bakeries. However, if you’re not living in that part of Turkey, but still want to make findik lahmacun, you’ll find its recipe below. This is again a recipe from mom. My parents are still living in Tarsus, so with the help of these bakeries, they have that chance of making easy findik lahmacun. However, mom always prefers the most difficult way! As long as she has enough time, she always makes all work including its dough and topping at home. I learnt this recipe as a child as we used to make lahmacun together at the weekends.

Even though the origin of findik lahmacun is Tarsus/Mersin, it’s now served in most restaurants in big cities, but not as a main dish. Because of its small size, people generally have it as an appetizer while waiting for their order. As a person who knows the original version, I must say that these small appetizers are not completely the same as the original one. They are as crispy as big lahmacun whereas the original findik lahmacun has a softer texture as I explained above. While there are six to ten findik lahmacuns in a portion in Tarsus, restaurants in other cities serve one or two before the main dish.

You may find that lahmacun looks like a pizza, but there is a big difference between them. A pizza is sliced and it can be eaten with a knife and fork while you don’t need knife or fork to eat lahmacun. Put some parsley leaves, squeeze lemon, wrap it and it’s ready to eat. Although it is served sliced in some restaurants today, it’s not the right style to eat lahmacun. I think this shows an inevitable effect of some international dishes on local dishes.

Fındık Lahmacun

Ingredients
For its dough:
-    5g dry yeast
-    4 cups flour
-    ¼ cup olive oil
-    ¼ cup milk
-    ¼ cup warm water
-    1 ½ tsp salt
For its topping:
-    200g ground beef
-    3 medium size tomatoes, thinly diced
-    1 bunch of parsley, minced
-    1 big onion, thinly diced
-    1 tbsp pepper paste
-    Salt to taste
-    Ground black pepper to taste
-    2 tbsp olive oil
-    2 tbsp water
-    Extra oil for the oven tray

Mix the yeast with warm water in a glass and wait until you see foams on its top.

Sift the flour in a mixing bowl and pour the yeast in its center. Mix them together.

Add milk, olive oil and salt. Knead them to have a soft dough. If the water is not enough, add little more. It shouldn’t be sticky. Put the dough in a bowl, cover it and wait for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile you can prepare the topping mixture. Mix the ground beef with all the topping ingredients.

Pick walnut sized pieces from the dough and roll them one by one as big as a saucer. They mustn’t be too thin.

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Oil the oven tray and put each round piece on it.

Divide the topping mixture on these evenly. And cook them 10 minutes.

Serve it hot with some parsley leaves and lemon wedges.

We put a few parsley leaves on it, squeeze lemon on it and fold it to eat.

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Sesame Rings

Kandil Simidi

When I saw the well written post on mahaleb (mahlep in Turkish) at Oysterculture, I decided to make something using this special spice and share it here. I’ll not explain what kind of a spice it is, Oyster has already done it so well, so if you want to learn it more, please visit her blog.

I call these sesame rings as they are coated with sesame, but in Turkey, their original name is ‘kandil simidi’, which may be translated into English as ‘lailat simit’. Lailat is the name of holy nights in Islam. There are mainly 6 special nights in this religion and they are related to muslims’ prophet Muhammed and the holy Qur’an. Muslims pray and plead for mercy at these nights. Women make some pastries and share it with all their neighbors. This is not a must, but it’s like a tradition some people carry on. On these days, pastry shops make especially these rings and pay special attention to the appearance of their stands. Vendors at different corners of city also sell kandil simidi in small paper bags just on these days. I don’t know if any other cultures have such foods that are made on some certain days of year, but in Turkish culture there are several foods that you can find only on some certain days. Lailat simit is one of these foods and it you can find it at pastry shops six times in a year. There are some pastries similar to this mini simits at these shops, but they don’t have the same taste. If you want to eat it more than six times in a year, you must make it at home. And that’s what I do! The word mahaleb always reminds me of kandil simidi, that’s why I decided to make and share it here.

As you see in the picture, it’s so similar to simit, it’s like the smaller version of it. They’re alike in terms of their shapes, but their tastes are quite different. Simit tastes more like bread, it doesn’t spread easily when you chew, but it’s the main feature of kandil simidi to spread easily in your mouth. And their ingredients are different, too. We can say that they are similar in their shapes and names, but they are different in their tastes indeed. We generally define ring-shaped things as simit because of their shapes.

If you like crackers and if you love to snack, these are perfect! When I make these, we keep them in a large jar for a week. Instead of packaged crackers or pretzels, we have these sesame rings as a snack along with black tea when we have too many hours for dinner to stop our hunger for a while.

Ingredients
-    250g margarine or butter
-    6 tbsp sunflower oil
-    ½ cup water
-    1 tbsp vinegar
-    1 tbsp sugar
-    1 dessert spoon salt
-    1 egg yolk
-    1 tbsp baking powder
-    4 ½ cup flour
-    1 dessert spoon mahaleb
-    1 egg white
-    Sesame

Put all ingredients except egg white, sesame and baking powder in a tray and mix them. When you knead it well, add baking powder and keep kneading. You will have a soft dough.

Take pieces as big as a walnut and first shape it like a stick, then combine its two ends to give it a simit (ring shape) shape.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Put egg yolk in a small bowl and sesame on a seperate plate. Dip mini simits first into egg yolk and then coat it with sesame.

Originally, it is made with sesame, but I also make it with crumbled hazelnuts to have a variety. If you like, you can try it, too.

Lay a grease proof paper in an oven tray. Put these sesame rings on it. And cook them in oven until they get golden (for about 45 minutes).

Perfect for tea time when you make these rings with sesame.

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Sour Cherry Pie

The first thing I remember about sour cherry goes back to my childhood. It was a hot Summer day and we were on holiday at our village. We always went to our village to visit my grandma (dad’s mom)  and relatives in Summer after a studying term.

I used to look forward to going there as I loved to spend time with villagers. They woke up at 5 a.m and went to their fields to work. Their fields located away from the village, it took at least one hour on foot. Some of them had donkeys and they used to put me on one of the donkeys. I was a child from the city for them, so they thought that I was so fragile and wasn’t able to walk the whole way. Actually, I used to love going on a donkey, so I wouldn’t refuse. They’d sometimes water the yard, sometimes pick their products. I was at my teens and I was crazy about going to the fields with the villagers at that early time of the day. They would hit the trail so early and they’d generally have breakfast at their fileds on earth. Everything was so natural then. I knew the pleasure of picking a tomato from its branch and I would prefer not eating anything until we arrived the fields.

I wore the white dress that my grandma gave me as a gift on that hot summer day before meeting the villagers to go to the fields. When we arrived to the field of one of the villagers, I saw a tree full of sour cherries. They were so tempting, so I asked its owner if I could climb on it. As they would all love me much, I didn’t have to insist much. I was on the tree after a few minutes. The cherries were so sour, but I always love everything sour. After I was full with sour cherries, I thought that mom would be so happy when she saw the sour cherries I picked as she always loved to make sour cherry jam. And I started to pick sour cherries on the skirt of my dress, which was as white as snow. I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Mom got so ngry with me when I returned with my pinkish dress. She thought that this was my disrecpectfulness to my grandma as it was her gift. However, grandma didn’t agree with her and she said that she was proud of me. For her, it was a good thing that a child thought his/her mom. I was saved from a big scolding thanks to her.

Mom didn’t make jam from those cherries on that day, she made a yummy pie instead as a reward for me. And I learnt how to make it from mom after years and wanted to share it with you.

Vişneli Pay

Ingredients
-    1 egg, at room temperature
-    4 tbsp yogurt
-    125g butter, at room temperature
-    6 tbsp vegetable oil
-    5 tbsp sugar for the dough
-    1 tbsp baking powder
-    3 ½ cups flour
-    2 cups sour cherry, pits removed
-    3 tbsp sugar for its filling
-    Sugar powder for garnish

We should start with the sour cherries first. After removing their pits, sprinkle 3 tbsp sugar on them and wait.

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).

Meanwhile you can start to prepare its dough. Mix the gg, yogurt, butter, vegetable oil, sugar, baking powder and flour and knead well to combine them well. Divide the dough into two.

After this time, you’ll see that cherries release their juice. Squeeze all of them in your hands into a cup.You can use a strainer for this.

Oil a circular cake mold and spread one of the dough balls on its bottom.

It should cove all its bottom, so just use your palms and press on it, it will spread bit by bit.

Put the squeezed sour cherries on it. Then sprinkle a little flour on the counter and roll the other dough out on it. It must be as big as the size of the cake mold. Then gently take it and put it on cherries to cover all of them.

Make an X mark on top of the pie before putting it into oven so that every part of it cook equally. Cook it for 50 minutes and do not open the oven during this time. After the end of the time, take it out and let it cool.

Turn the cake mold upside down to remove your pie from it. Sprinkle sugar powder on it while serving.

You can serve the sour cherry juice along with the pie. I did so and it was great!

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Chard Borek

This was going to be our usual potato borek, but our neighbor brought us a bunch of chard just as I was preparing to make borek. They have a small garden where they grow an apricot tree, a sour cherry tree, a plum tree, some greens depending on the season and some tomatoes. They are our next door neighbor and whenever they have their small ‘harvest’, they bring us some for taste. Our door bell rings at an unexpected time  and when one of us open the door, we see that our polite neighbor is waiting there with something wrapped with paper in her hands. We thankfully accept her gift and unwrap it with excitement. One day she brought some cherries, she brought apricots on another day.  They all had a natural taste, as they had no pesticide on them. Our neigbor lets them free and they grow how they like. Yes, their shapes are not as smooth and neat as the ones at the markets, but they all taste much better. I made some jam from the plums they gave us last summer and it was delicious, it lasted just a week for us to finish it. They haven’t bring any plums this summer yet, I’m planning to make something different with them this time, maybe a cake or a pie.

You know we love borek as a snack and potato borek is our favorite. I boiled potatoes and mixed it with some spices and pepper paste for the filling mixture. And the bell rang. Guess who? Our neighbor and a package in her hand, she said they picked some chard from their garden and they allocated a bunch for us. I invited her for a cup of Turkish coffee to thank her. Entering the kitchen, she saw that I was making borek and made a great suggestion; adding chard in its filling mixture. I loved the idea! In addition to potato and chard, I wanted to use the only carrot left in our refrigerator. I enjoyed making borek and chatting with our neighbor at the same time. When I put the tray in oven, she left saying that she had some works to do.
And of course, I took some borek to our neighbor to show what their chard turned into. After a few days, I saw them in their garden watering trees, and they said that they loved the borek and they would make it too the next time they pick some chard.

Pazılı Borek

Ingredients
-    5 phyllo sheets
-    1 cup yogurt
-    1 egg
-    ¼ cup olive oil
For the filling:
Besides the ingredients for potato borek (but this time I didn’t put any cheese),
-    A bunch of chard, chopped
-    1 carrot, grated
For garnish
-    Nigella sativa

Mix yogurt, olive oil and an egg in a cup. We will spread this mixture on each phyllo sheet.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Lay one phyllo sheet in an oven tray. Spread a little yogurt mixture on it. Put the half of boiled and sauted potato on it, sprinkle the half of the grated carrot on it. Lay another phyllo sheet, put half of the chopped chard on it. Lay the third sheet, spread a little yogurt mixture on it, put the rest of the potato and grated carrot. Lay the fourth sheet, put the rest of the chard. Lay the last sheet on it, spread allthe yogurt mixture on it.

Then cut the borek in diamond shapes or how you like. Cutting before putting it in oven helps all layers cook equally. Then sprinkle some nigella sativa on it. Cook it for 40 minutes and it’s done. If you think its top is too crispy, sprinkle a little water on it with your hands, cover it with another tray or a piece of cloth, wait it for 15 minutes. Then you’ll see it gets soft enough.

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Spotted Hearts

Benekli Kalpler

Last week was our final week with my students at school and before saying good bye to them, I wanted to make something sweet for them. This is not a usual habit of mine, but I enjoyed teaching those students much, so I think these sweet spotted hearts would be the best gift for my lovely students. We were together for 5 months and I was their English speaking and listening teacher, so we talked on several topics together. What I love the most about them was that they always had something to say about any issue, they knew when to make jokes and when to talk seriously. I’m not sure what they love about me, maybe my age.

When I told my colleague, Özlem that I would make something for my students, she suggested making this together and I gladly accepted. It was so enjoyable to make something with her as she is a cheerful and witty person.

Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ tbsp baking powder
- 250gr butter (room temperature)
- ½ tbsp vanilla powder
- 2 ½ cups flour (you may add more if the dough is not thick enough)
- 2tbsp cocoa

Sieve the flour in a large bowl. Break two eggs in the middle of it. Mix them with hands. Add butter, sugar, vanilla and baking powder and combine them well. The dough must be soft but thick. If it’s not thick enough add a little more flour in it. Then let it rest for 20 minutes.

After this time, divide the dough into two. Put one half of it into another bowl. Combine this one with cocoa. You can add more cocoa if you like it darker.

Take the dough without cocoa on the counter and roll it out with a rolling pin. Then take the one with cocoa and roll it out, too. Lay the latter on the former one and roll them together.

You’ll have a cylinder dough now inside which you see a brown layer.

Slice it with a sharp knife just like a cake. You see how yummy it looks even before it is cooked. I would almost have a bite from one of these cute raw slices, but my friend stopped me. I’m sure her concern was the number of my students.

Preheat the oven at 180 C (400F)

Grab a piece and roll it out. Now it’s time for some joy! We’ll shape our dough with cookie cutters.

This is my favorite step of making cookies. Press a cookie cutter you like on the dough and cut it. Remove it from the counter with the help of a knife.You see a butterfly shape in the photo, but I didn’t like it much, so I replaced it with a heart shape.

Put it on an oven tray. You don’t need to oil the tray this time as the cookies have enough butter in them. After cutting a cookie, take the formless dough left and combine it with another slice of uncooked dough. Roll it out and do the same. Repeat this until you finish the dough. Cook them for 30 minutes until they get a bit brownish.

You see a photo of us here, I’m wondering if you can recognize me as the teacher among these young guys. Let me help you. Look at the left corner, I’m the one with a black tshirt. What do you say? Don’t I look like a teacher? My students agree with you. Many students think that I am one of the new students at the beginning of the term and I love this as this makes me feel as young as them.

You can guess how my students were surprised when I took the cookies out of a bag in the middle of the lesson. This was a gift for them and my gift was the smile on their faces while eating these hearts and asking for one more.

Chivalrous Fruits

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