Topinambur With Olive Oil

When I searched for its English translation, I found several names for this strange vegetable. Some of them are jerusalem artichoke(does it have a relation with Jerusalem?), sunchoke, sunroot and earth apple, but I loved topinambur the most among these. I don’t know where this word is coming from, but I love the sound in it. When I first read it aloud, I thought it sounded like the meaningless words used by illusionists. We call it ‘yer elması’ in Turkish, meaning earth apple.

Although they have a very ugly texture, I find topinamburs so cute with their craggy structure and different color. Despite its unusual look, it is a great source of glucose and minerals. And it is generally advised to people who can’t gain weight as it has a fattening effect. I wasn’t aware of this until my hubby bought some a few years ago. Yes, I had heard its name several times before, but hadn’t tasted until then. I didn’t have any idea about how to eat it. I didn’t even know if it is in the category of vegetable or fruit. He grabbed a knife and cut one of the topinamburs, peeled it and ate it cutting into slices. He was eating it just like an apple. When I got a bite of it, I felt itwas so much like raw potato. Then I decided to try cooking it in the same way with celery root.

I must also say that it is not so easy to chop topinamburs. It may sound nonsense, but I definitely feel that I’m chopping a living thing when I see some pinkish lines inside it which look like blood vessels. That’s why it is hard to chop them.

Zeytinyağlı Yer Elması
Ingredients
- 500g topinambur,chopped

- 2 carrots, chopped

- 1 onion, chopped

-  Half lemon

-  Half orange

-  1 sugar cube

- Salt to taste

-  3 tbsp extra virgin oliveoil

-  Celery leaves

-1/2 cup water

Put the chopped topinamburs in a bowl and squeeze half lemon on it. This will prevent the topinamburs from blackening.

Saute the onions and carrots with olive oil in a pot. Then put the chopped topinamburs with the lemon juice, squeeze half orange. Add a sugar cube and salt and stir. Pour water after 5 minutes. Then cover the pot and lower the heat. Cook it until carrots and topinamburs tender. Serve it with some celery leaves, either warm or cold.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Vegetable Stew

I believe that this vegetable dish is created by someone who hates wasting foods. The main characteristic of it is that it contains more than two kinds of vegetables. You can use any vegetable you have in your refrigerator. I generally cook it with the leftover vegetables, so I don’t need to do shopping specially for this dish. We buy several vegetables when we shop from the bazaar and we cook each of them on each day during the weekdays. For example, one daywe cook a dish with green beans, the other day a dish with eggplant, and so on. As we are just two people (my husband and I), less than half of these vegetables is always left each time we cook something. Then at the end of the week, we combine all the leftover vegetables, which resulted in a tasty vegetable stew.

In fact, this dish has two main types in Turkish cuisine: Summer Vegetable Stew (Yaz Türlüsü) and Winter Vegetable Stew (Kış Türlüsü) depending on the season of the vegetables we use.Summer vegetable stew mainly contains green beans, okra, zucchini, eggplant, potatoes, green and red peppers as these are fresh in Summer. As for Winter vegetable stew, the vegetables above are replaced by the vegetables that can be found fresh in Winter such as leek, celery root and carrot. Besides the changing vegetables, we always have onion and tomatoes in both versions. However, as tomatoes are fresher in Summer, we can use more of them in Summer vegetable stew. Another difference between these versions of stew is that Winter vegetable stew may have some meat whereas Summer vegetable stew is generally prefered with olive oil and meat free.

Which version do you think is mine here in this post? It is in between the Summer and winter versions. As it’s still possible to find fresh eggplants, and zucchini these days, I couldn’t miss this opportunity. However, we can’t see okra at bazaar anymore as it’s exactly a vegetable of hotter days, so I couldn’t add it to my stew. Also, I used carrot, which is absolutely a Winter vegetable, to make the stew more colorful. That’s why I can’t call it either Summer or Winter stew. How about calling it no season vegetable stew?

Most Turkish women saute onion in olive oil and then add the other vegetables to make a vegetables stew, but I prefer placing the vegetables in layers in the pot and add olive oil on their top. This way, you can feel the flavor of olive oil more and I read somewhere that this method is better for our health.

As this is an adjustable dish, feel free to change the vegetables or the amounts of them.

Türlü
Ingredients
- 10 green beans
- 2 medium size eggplants
- 1 large potato
- 1 medium sized zucchini
- 1 big carrot
- 1 medium sized onion
- 4 medium sized tomatoes
- 1 red pepper
- 1 green pepper
- 4 cloves garlic
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- Salt to taste
- 1 tsp black pepper
- ¼ cup hot water

Slice unpeeled eggplants and zucchini into circles. Peel the carrot and slice it into circles, too. Chop the potato in cubes. Cut the beans in half finger size. Peel and dice the tomatoes and onions. Chop the peppers. Slice the garlic cloves. Put these vegetables in seperate bowls to make it easy to arrange them in the pot.

Place the carrots at the bottom of the pot as the first layer. Then put the green beans and potatoes. Now toss half of the peppers, onions, garlic and tomatoes on them. Go on with eggplants and zucchini coins. Finally, add the rest of the peppers, onions, garlic and tomatoes on the top. Sprinkle salt and black pepper on them and drizzle olive oil. Cover the pot and cook it on low heat. After about 10 minutes, add hot water and go on cooking on low heat for about 40 minutes.

Vegetable stew is served hot with some rice pilaf and with a bowl of yogurt near it.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

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.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

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.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

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.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

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.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Recharged My Batteries

I came back two days ago from a wonderful vacation, feeling full of energy for the new working period. I’ve completely recharged my batteries! What vacation means to everyone may depend on their expectation. For me, vacation means throwing myself into the pure blue water, closing my eyes, allowing the waves take me somewhere, hugging these waves, watching and accompanying the hospitable fishes, racing with my hubby and always being defeated (as he was the person who taught me how to swim) but not giving up, getting out, feeling the hot sand and jumping back into the refreshing water. This cycle may go on forever!

We went to Bodrum two weeks ago. Bodrum is a peninsula on the west of Turkey with a border of Aegean Sea and it’s one of the most popular tourism centers of Turkey. It generally takes the attention of artists and writers, most of them prefer living in Bodrum when they are fed up with the busy life and ‘artificial’ relationships. It has a lot of special coasts in small and nice village like places such as Bitez, Golturkbuku, Gumusluk, Ortakent, Yahsi, Yalikavak, Turgutreis, etc. Our first destination was Turgutreis as my husband’s mom is living there. I can’t forget the evenings we drank our Turkish coffee on her balcony watching and feeling the sea. Turgutreis is the largest town of Bodrum, so farmers and fishmongers bring their products and sell them to some shops here. On Saturdays, a big bazaar is open in this town and you see a lot of organic and home made foods here.

You see a woman in the picture selling breads and tomato paste she herself made, eggs from her own hens, mulberries she picked from the tree in her garden. That bazaar was full of such foods.

On the second day of our visit, we went to one of the heavenly beaches in Turgutreis. It was wonderful! There was no peppebles or small rocks hurting your feet under the sea. There weren’t angry and high waves, either. As we don’t love sunbathing much, we swam and swam and swam…It was so refreshing that we felt relieved even on that first meeting with pure water.

While we were walking on the streets of the town, my clever hubby suggested a great idea: hiring bicycles and discovering the other beaches by riding. I love cycling, but I haven’t done it for ages! I was so excited with the idea, cycling along the coast. The next day, we put some sandwiches, our flasks full of cold water, towels, sunscreen, etc in our backpacks. We hired two bicycles and hit the trail in the early morning.

It was great to know that we would reach another eden at the end of ride. It was Meteorology Bay. It was so glamorous with its turquoise color that we just stopped and watched it from the hill for a while. Then we let ourselves free down the hill to feel that beauty closer. It was as clean as a newly born baby and you feel as if you were touching the skin of a baby when you pass your hand on its surface. We spent the rest of the day here swimming. Whenever we got tired, we lay down under trees and read for some time. I read A Tree of Night by Truman Capote and my husband read Shibumi by Trevanian during these breaks. It was an unutterable pleasure to see the turquoise sea between the pages while reading. Knowing that the sea is just a step away from you adds a lot to your reading.

When we returned back to Turgutreis, we caught a unique view of sunset. My husband bought two bottles of beer from a shop nearby and we watched this unforgettable scene sitting on a rock. The sea was as tired as we were, it was silent and about to sleep.

The other day, we went to another town of Bodrum called Yalikavak where windmills welcomed us.

It has a world wide reputation with its bay as it is so suitable for windsurfing. When we entered the town, we saw a monument telling that RSX Youth World Championship was held in Yalikavak this year. I’m sure surfers had great time racing there.

Another thing taking my attention is that there was an art street in the center of the town. We saw some famous Turkish actors and actresses also drawing and exhibiting their art here.

Then we kept travelling and arrived Bodrum city center. It was much more crowded than its towns. People generally come here for shopping as there are so many shops selling various things. The ancient Bodrum Castle was worth seeing to feel the history. You can read more about it here.

When we got hungry here, we entered a small restaurant and they served stuffed zucchini flowers as an appetizer. This was the first time we had it and it was excellent. And of course I asked for its recipe.

And the main dish was a stew of artichoke and fresh fava beans. This was also new to us and it was so tasty, too. The outstanding taste in both dishes was the taste of olive oil. People use olive oil for all dishes here, and they are so generous adding the olive oil while cooking. I felt lucky beacuse I adore the taste of olive oil in dishes. I’m planning to make these dishes myself and tell how later.

Those dishes were excellent for me, but not for my husband as he is a big fan of red meat so he had doner with vegetables later while walking around the town. He said this was the taste he was looking for.

Actually, I must confess something. I was planning to share more food pictures before going there, but maybe because of all these beauties, I couldn’t take enough photos of what we ate. We had grilled sea bream and sea bass, but we were so hungry for the fish and I realized to take photos of them just after we finished it. Also, we had stuffed mussels on the beach, and while eating I suggested to take a photo of it, but it was so delicious and our camera was so away from us. I just couldn’t leave the mussels! I’m so regretful now, hope you understand me.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Green Beans

Taze Fasulye

This is one of the most common summer dishes in our culture and we adore it so much that many people put some green beans in deep freezer to cook in Winter. As we think that frozen vegetables lose their vitamin and taste, we don’t prefer it. To tell the truth, we tried it last summer in little amount, but we didn’t like its taste, and learnt that they don’t keep vitamins when frozen, so we decided not to freeze vegetables again.

Summer is back these days, so we are lucky enough to find green beans at our open market. Monday was the day of open market in our neighborhood, but as I had a lot of work at school, my husband had to do shopping alone. He hates shopping at open market alone, so I was wondering what he would buy. He is not a big fan of vegetables unlike me. I’m sure if he had to go to a butcher, he would be happier. Anyway, when I came home from work, I saw a very funny scene. He was stringing some green beans with a confused expression on his face. He said that he asked her mom how to cook green beans and he learnt that stringing is the first step. However, the beans were so fresh that he couldn’t find any string on beans. He didn’t know that this was perfect for beans. I must admit that he made me so happy by buying green beans. No need to mention how I felt when I saw him dealing with a cup of beans. I thought it was time for me to put my hands in the plough, and cooked a delicious dish.

Ingredients
-    500g green beans, cleaned
-    1 onion, diced
-    2 tomatoes, diced
-    2 tsp salt
-    ½ tsp sugar (or ½ sugar cube)
-    3 tbsp olive oil while cooking
-    1 tbsp olive oil to drizzle on the dish when cooked

If the beans are too long, cut them in two or more pieces. Lay one line of beans in a pan ( I used a flat pan).
Add some of the diced onion on it and some tomatoes on onion.
Then lay the rest of the beans as another layer and the rest of onion and tomatoes on it. Sprinkle salt and sugar.
Then pour 3tbsp olive oil over them.
Cook it on medium heat for about 30 or 40  minutes.
When it is cooked drizzle 1tbsp olive on it. You’ll see adding olive oil as raw definitely enhances your dish.
You can serve it with pilaf and yogurt.

Dandelion

This is a photo taken by my friend Özlem last weekend. I didn’t think that a photo of dandelion could be so impressive before seeing this. She took this photo at a park of our city. The weather in this city is so changeable that it may turn dark and rainy suddenly on a beautiful sunny day. You can see the dark clouds on the sky here. Dandelions always remind me of my childhood. We would pick a dandelion, make a wish and blow on this flower. If we could blow all of its hair at once, it meant our wish would turn real.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Eggplant Feast

Zeytinyagli Patlican

When Summer is close, we start to cook different dishes from eggplants as we know that these are real eggplants not fake as in Winter time. And this one is our favorite. The best part of Spring and Summer for me is that I have more time in a day, it doesn’t quickly get dark here after March. Day time is longer than night time. I can’t take the advantage of open markets in Winter very often because generally when I leave work, it’s already dark and here open markets are “open” just during day time. But beginning from March, they are open longer and I enjoy shopping from open markets as I desire.

In Turkey open markets are not stable, they have certain places on each day of a week. The reason for this is to provide the same chance to all neighborhoods. As you know, everything is cheaper and more fresh in open markets, so people prefer shopping there. On Monday, the open market is in our neighborhood, close to our home and on Friday, it is close to the school I work. So today, after leaving school, on the way home, I popped round the open market and came home with several bags. I was a bit tired and I didn’t want to wait long for dinner, so when I saw some very fresh eggplants, I made up my mind. Although my hubby is a meat lover, he adores this eggplant dish and never refuses to eat it. Besides its hearty taste, the easiness of its preperation was my concern today.

And we had an unexpected guest for dinner. Our neighbor forgot her house keys and rang our bell just as we were sitting dinner table. She asked if she could wait until her husband came, we certainly welcomed her and put one more plate on the table. We had our dinner together and she said that she was so lucky to forget her keys as she had the chance of tasting and learning this quick eggplant dish.

Ingredients
-3 eggplants
-4 middle sized tomatoes, diced
-2 green peppers, chopped
-4 cloves garlic, sliced into two
-1 onion, chopped
-1/2 tbsp tomato paste(optional)
-1/2 tsp sugar
-1tsp salt
-1tsp black pepper
-4tbsp natural olive oil

Wash the eggplants and throw the leaves away. Do not cut the whole stems, leave a little piece of it. I didn’t peel them, but if you like, you can. Cut them in two from the middle horizantally. Then, grab the half with the stem and cut them  into four lengthwise until the stem. Do not cut them completely. As for the other half, you can cut them in finger shape. Wait these in a salty water for at least 15 minutes so that the bitterness of eggplants goes away.

Heat the oil in a pot and saute the chopped onion until golden. Drain the eggplants and add them in the pot. Cook them over medium heat until the eggplants change their color. Then add the paste, tomatoes, peppers and garlic. Sprinkle sugar, salt and black pepper and cover the pot. Cook them over low heat for about 40 minutes and do not open the cover until it’s done.

You can garnish it with some leaves of basil and if you serve a bowl of home made yogurt near it, it’s inevitable to feel in heaven.

The Perfect Couple

This was the first date of Miss Eggplant and Mr Cucumber. They came accross with each other in several open markets and covered markets before, and they were both impressed by each other. Eventually they could escape from the their stands and met at a solitary neighborhood. Miss Eggplant complimented Mr Cucumber about his cooling and skin beautifying effects while he flattered Miss Eggplant about her unforgettable taste when prepared with natural olive oil. He added “You are the best cure for skin cancer! We’ll make a perfect couple as we are both curative for skin.” They felt closer with these nice words and decided to go to a patisserie for a romantic chat. (drawing by mom)

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Zucchini Stew

Kabak Yemegi

We went to the vegetable bazaar today and all greens took my attention. Whenever I go to this bazaar, I want to buy everything I see on stands. Today it was more colorful and fresh as a reflection of coming Spring. While we were filling our bags with tomatoes, the vendor was continually praising zucchinis near tomatoes. He was telling how fresh they  were and giving a recipe at the same time with the sound “Mmmm”. His recipe was so easy, saute the zucchinis and pour some yogurt on it. If you’re following my blog for some time, you may remember that we don’t like zucchini only recipes. There must be something adding some tasty flavors to this tasteless vegetable. Although I didn’t have any idea of such a recipe, I couldn’t resist more and bought half kilo zucchini at the end.

You might realize that I’ve been cooking some dishes with green lentil for some time. I thought that it would be a great idea to cook zucchini with green lentil. I mentioned this ‘new’ and ‘creative’ recipe during a phone conversation with mom and she laughed at me. She told me that there was already this zucchini stew in Turkish cuisine. Although, it’s not a new recipe for many people, this was a new dish in our kitchen, which made us decide to buy some zucchini on the next bazaar day.

Ingredients
•    3 zucchinis
•    4 tomatoes
•    1 onion
•    ¼ cup green lentil
•    1 tbsp dried mint
•    1 tbsp salt
•    ½ tbsp tomato or pepper paste
•    2 tbsp olive oil

Chop the onion and saute it in olive oil. Add green lentil and stir.

Dilute the pepper paste in a small bowl and add it into the pot.

Chop the zucchinis thick and throw them into the pot, cover it. Meanwhile peel and dice the tomatoes. Add them in the pot, sprinkle salt and dried mint on it and stir. Put the lid on the pot and bring th heat to the lowest. It will be ready in 30 minutes.

I felt that this would be a tasty dish even when it was cooking as it smelled so appetizing. And we thought that green lentil had a magical flavor that made everything delectable. If you still have suspicions on zucchini, I strongly recommend this recipe.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Next Page »