Leek With Olive Oil

Zeytinyagli Pirasa

Leek is one of the vegetables that many children hate eating. In Turkey, moms struggle a lot to have their children eat it. There becomes an invisible fight between moms and children and the winner of the fight depends on moms’ different kinds of methods. Some moms threaten them to tell their father that they don’t eat leek. Some remind their children of poor people who can not find any food. Some make leeks talk to their children, leeks say that they feel so sorry when they are refused and they ask crying why children don’t love them. You decide which method is more effective.

You may ask the method of my mom. I think she was luckier as we had some vegetables in our garden including leeks and she used to take me with her to pick some leeks. She used to love the vegetables she grew with dad so much that she used to pick all vegetables by flattering and talking to them. As a child I thought that these vegetables were like members of our family, so never refused eating it. And I understood how delicious it is when I grew older, it’s one of my favorite dishes now. Most children feels the same when they grow, but of course there may be some stubborn ones.

Olive oil is the key point of this dish. If you have the chance of finding natural olive oil, it becomes more tasty. It is served  cold or warm (but not hot) as a main dish or a side dish/appetizer.

Ingredients
-4 leeks
-1 carrot
-1 lemon, squeezed
-1tsp salt
-1tsp sugar (or one cube sugar)
-1/4 cup rice, washed
-1/4 cup water
-1/3 cup olive oil

Some people also add onion, but as leek itself is coming from onion family, I think making it without onion is better.

Cut the tops of the leek and wash them well. Cut them into diagonal slices. Set them aside.

Peel the carrot and cut it vertically into four pieces, then slice them as big as a half finger.

Put half of the olive oil in a pot and saute the carrot slices first. Add sugar and then the leeks. Stir them well and add the lemon juice and cover the pan. Cook it over medium heat for 15 minutes and then add rice, water and salt in it. Bring the heat to the lowest and cook it until the rice cooks. After it is cooked, let it cool in the pan. And finally drizzle the rest of the olive oil on it before serving. This is another important tip; when you add some raw olive oil before serving, all the dishes with olive oil tastes even better.

Mom And Child Leeks

The child leek comes home with a big disappointment and tells her mom that she doesn’t want to go out any more. It is her first day at school and she’s learnt that children don’t like leeks. It is a shocking reality for her as she’s always dreamed of meeting some human friends and presenting its taste to them.

When the mom leek sees her daughter at the garden gate with a down face, she decides to ask some help from her. She wants her daughter to forget her sadness for a while. While they are hanging the washed clothes together, she tells her daughter that all children will love them if they are cooked right. (drawing by mom)

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Ash Plov

This is a special pilaf in Osh city of Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia). And this is not my own recipe, a very kind blog friend of mine,  Jyldyz  Chynybekova sent it to me. In fact, she is so kind that she sent a file of Kyrgyzstan recipes with pictures. I’m always very curious about different Asian dishes, so I’m very pleased to publish her recipes here. And this is just one of those exotic dishes. The rest will come later.

Ingredients
•    1 kg (2.3 lbs) red rice (or any if you can’t find it)
•    1 kg (2.3 lbs) meat – lamb, beef or chicken
•    1 ½ kg (3 1/3 lbs, 5 large carrots) carrots – yellow is the best
•    3 pieces, average sized onion – any type
•    1 cup vegetable oil – sunflower (you can use lamb fat also)
•    1 tbsp cumin seeds
•    About 3 L (3 quarts) water or lamb broth
•    2-3 whole head of garlic

Saute chopped onions in oil until it gets red, then the meat (chopped into many medium pieces) is added. Meat is fried until a tender reddish crust appears.

Add the carrots (shredded) and fry it for about 10 minutes. Pour water and stew it for 20 minutes. Add rice, put heat on high. Bring to a boil and tuck a bunch of unpeeled garlic cloves down into the rice. I use a whole head. Reduce heat a little to prevent burning, add cumin seeds, stir and watch it until the water has evaporated.

Push the rice towards the center. Then poke holes in several places with the handle of a wooden spoon. Cover and simmer until meat, garlic and carrots are tender for 25 minutes and all the water has evaporated. Do not allow the plov to burn.

Serve rice on a plate and put the meat, garlic on top. Pop the garlic out of its skin to enjoy it. Salads with fresh or pickled vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers are good additions for enjoying plov.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Rice with Carrot

Pilaf is the main side dish in Turkish cuisine. We serve it with meat dishes, chicken dishes, stews. Even some people eat it as a main dish. Sometimes they prefer various kinds of rice pilaf, sometimes bulgur(pounded wheat) pilaf, but mostley they have one kind of pilaf on their tables.

Unlike Chinese people, who eat rice with sticks, Turkish people eat it with spoon. Now you can understand how we love it much, we can’t wait for long to eat a bowl of rice like the Chinese.

However, in Turkey the price of rice is higher than bulgur. As a result of global warming we’ve water problem, that is our water resources are decreasing day by day, so is the growth of rice in regions of Turkey. The government prefers importing it from other countries. In parallel with this, its price is rising, too. Today, many people can still afford it, but in the future it seems it will be more expensive.

As we can still afford it, let me give a delicious rice pilaf recipe. I learnt his from my friend’s mom and since the day I learnt it, I mostly prefer this one to cook. In fact, there are several kinds of rice pilaf. I’ll add those recipes later. Now you can enjoy this one.

Ingredients

•    1 cup rice
•    1 ¾ cup water (some put 2 cups, but I think that’s too much)
•    2 tbsp butter
•    1 carrot, chopped
•    1 onion, chopped
•    1 tsp salt, a pinch of dried mint and black pepper

Wash the rice and wait it in salty hot water for some minutes (15 minutes is enough) and drain. There should be no water.

Melt the butter in a non stick pan. Put chopped onion and carrot and saute them together until tender. Now add drained rice and stir until the rice is little crackly. Sprinkle salt, dried mint and black pepper. Then add 1 ¾ cup water and stir it once. Put the lid on and cook on the lowest heat until all the water’s gone.

Do not serve this immediately, but after 15 or 20 minutes, it will be ok. Serve it with any dish you want.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Celery and Leek Stew Recipe

These vegetables are my favorite. Raw or cooked, either way makes me happy. Especially the fascinating smell of celery is enough to make me desirous to eat. I’m totally against wasting food, so I use the celery root for this dish while adding its stalk into my boiling soup. Then the entire house smells celery.

I must admit that my husband is fed up with this dish as I cook it very often. He starts to threaten me with complaining me to Obama. He says, as Obama is considered as the saver and the one who will find solutions for the problems in the world, and as a real democrat, he should solve this problem between us. I don’t know whether Obama listens to this complaint, but I’m sure he likes this vegetable dish if he gives it a chance. Here are the ingredients:

•    2 celery roots, diced
•    2 stalks leek, chopped
•    1 carrot, diced
•    A few leaves of cabbage, chopped
•    1 cup boiled chickpeas
•    ½ tomato paste
•    ½ lemon, squeezed
•    2 tbsp olive oil
•    Salt
•    1 cup hot water
•    ½  tsp sugar

Saute the diced carrot with olive oil in a pot. Add ½ tsp sugar and stir. Then diced celery roots, chopped leek stalks and cabbage go into the pot. Put the lid on and cook it for 10 minutes.

Now it’s chickpeas’ turn to combine with the others.

In a small bowl, mix tomato paste and  little water and add it into the pot to make your dish colored. Pour the hot water on them, add lemon juice and salt. Put the lid on again and do not open it for 20 minutes.

Enjoy it thinking how healthy you are with this vegetable dish.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite