Cowpea Beans With Tomatoes

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

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

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

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

Domatesli Borulce

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

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

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

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

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Beans with Meat

Etli Kuru Fasulye

While I was reading the lovely comments written on my post, dad called me and asked if I added his favorite dish to my blog. I told him that I added a similar version of it, but he insisted on his favorite one, which is white beans with meat. A few months ago, I wrote a post about haricot beans with pastirma, which is my hubby’s favorite. As you see they both love beans, but dad is crazy about the one with meat while hubby adores the one with pastirma. Whenever my dad visits us, I cook both versions in different pots to prevent possible fights! After this phone call from dad, I understood that it became a must to cook and write about my dad’s favorite dish. Otherwise, he would ask it again in his next call.

This is a traditional Turkish dish and it’s associated with Turks around the world just like sish kebab. We generally serve it with rice or bulgur pilaf and pickles are indispensable appetizers to be eaten with this traditional dish. (By the way, I adore spicy pickle stock which are sold in pickle shops here). We also love eating onion with it, which is another tradition of Turks. We just slice an onion into four and we shred it while eating. You may find it funny, but there is also a traditional way of slicing onion. You put the onion on table and hit just on top of it with your fist, you’ll see how it’s shredded without using a knife. That is called “breaking onion”.  Do you find it barbaric? In fact, it’s a habit of our ancestors to show that we should know how to manage in hard conditions. And today, of course not everyone does the same, but we remember this whenever we eat white beans with meat and we sometimes ‘break’ an onion to eat with this dish and to remember this custom.

Ingredients
-    2 cups white beans
-    250g lamb meat, pieces from lamb arm
-    1 ½ tbsp pepper or tomato paste
-    1 onion, diced
-    3 tbsp olive oil
-    1 tsp cumin
-    1 ½ tsp salt
-    1 tsp black peppr
-    1 tsp red pepper flakes

Wash the white beans and soak them overnight. This will help them cook easier.

Put them in a pot the following day, add 1lt water in it. Boil the beans until tender.

Meanwhile put the lamb meat in a pot and cook it until tender (about 50 minutes). You don’t need to add water in it at the beginning, meat releases its water. Check if it gets tender enough when it absorbs all of its water. If it’s not soft enough, add a little water and boil it for about 15 minutes more.

Put olive oil ina pot and saute the diced onion until golden. Add pepper or tomato paste in it and mix them. Then add the boiled meat in it. If there is any water left in the pot you boil meat, add it too and stir. Now it’s time to add the boiled beans, pour it with its water in the pot and stir. It must be thicker than soup, so balance its water yourself. Season it with salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes and cumin. Let it boil for 20 minutes.

Pilaf is the favorite side dish for white beans with meat.

Ataturk’s Favorite Dish

White beans with meat was also the favorite dish of the founder of Turkish Republic, our leader of all time, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. He adored this dish so much that he used to eat it even for days. He didn’t love eating much, but when he felt hungry, he just wanted this dish from his cooks. So the cooks in his home would cook it everyday and keep it prepared in the refrigerator. Even at some nights, when he got hungry, he would go to the kitchen and eat some beans without waiting his servants’ service.

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Piyaz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Romano Beans with Olive Oil Recipe (Zeytinyağlı Barbunya Tarifi)

This recipe of romano beans is made both as an appetizer and main course. I cook this dish when I come from work hungry as it is very easy to cook. I prepare romano beans in small bags and put them in deep freezer in Summer, so in Winter I always have them almost ready.

Romano beans are rich in proteins, calcium, vitamins A, C and help our metabolism work, so I often cook this unique taste.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped

• 1 green pepper, chopped

• 1 potato, diced

• 1 carrot, diced

• ½ kg romano beans

• 1 tomato, chopped

• ½ lemon

• 1 teaspoon cumin

• Salt

• ½ cup olive oil

• 1 cup water

Saute onion and pepper with olive oil in a pot until they get golden. Add tomato and stir. As soon as it gets like paste, add romano beans and water. Boil it until beans are about to tender (about 20 minutes). Then add potato, carrot, salt, cumin and lemon juice. Stir it again and put the lid on the pot. Cook it until the vegetables get tender (about 15 minutes).
Serve it hot or cold.
You can squeeze lemon on it while eating.

Note: If you want to feel the taste of olive oil more, put the half of the oil aside and add it in your meal after it is done.

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