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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Meat Wrapped Cheese

I was arranging the photos of this post this morning when I heard a peddler’s voice outside. I couldn’t undesrtand what he was selling at first. In fact, street peddlers are famous for their special style of calling out. Each of them has his own style and people don’t understand what they are saying or selling just by listening to them. The only way to understand what they are selling is looking through the window, so I opened the window and saw that it was the voice of a second hand dealer. He was like a person passing by my childhood. With all the dust on his clothes, he was ready to take me to those old days. There used to be more peddlers like him 20 years ago, you could hear at least three different voices in a day, I remember that one of them used to visit our neighborhood every morning, one used to visit at noons and one in the afternoons. And I was always so curious about the things they bought. Although their number is not as many as it was, it’s still possible today to hear or see second hand dealers.

What do these second hand dealers do? Eventhough the things they deal with may change, they simply exchange old things with a very small amount of money or with something housewives need. As a child, I found them more interesting and special than other peddlers selling vegetables and fruits. They’ve become even more interesting and valuable for me today.I’m not sure how much they are aware of their value  in history with their role of reintroducing the old things to modern life. They are like messengers between the past and the present. (I took the photo of these second hand dealers below a few years ago).

In big cities, they generally buy old stamps, old medals, old postcards, old discs, gramophones, radios, oil lamps and pay little money in return. Most people don’t care the amount of money much as they just want to get clear of these dusty old things. So interestingly, while these people see these things as rubbish, there are some people waiting for buying these rubbish from antique shops with a god deal of money. After buying them from their owners, second hand dealers sell these to such antique shops.

In smaller cities and towns, second hand dealers buy things just made of iron or metal, they weigh it with scales and pay its money to the owner. So it is sometimes so funny to see an old oven or a stove on the scales. And I guess they take these scraps to a recycling place and sell them there.

In some regions, in small villages, these peddlers buy anything old from dishes to shoes and they give some plastic bowls or clothes pins in return.

This morning, when I heard the the peddler’s voice, I realized the value of second hand dealers once more. If there weren’t any people buying and selling old things, we wouldn’t know what kind of things our grand grandparents used, so we owe the second hand dealers a lot.

I finished arranging the photos of the dish with these thoughts in my mind. This is one of the special dishes my husband knows. He said that he learnt it from one of his friends when he was single. And whenever he sees that I can’t decide what to cook, he sets up to the plate and cooks this tasty dish. I think my hesitation suits him more as he is a big fan of meat. Otherwise, I may cook something with spinach, leek, okra, zucchini, etc. If you’re looking for an easy and tasty meat dish, here is the recipe.

Kasarli Sarma Kofte
Ingredients
-500g minced meat
-1 cup bread crumbs
-3 tbsp olive oil
- salt
- black pepper
- dried thyme
- 2 tbsp water
- 150g yellow cheese (kasar peyniri)*
- 2 red bell peppers
- 2 green peppers
- 2 potatoes
- 2 tbsp olive oil

*Yellow cheese is a kind of sheep milk. It is light yellow in color and has a hard texture. This is the cheese generally used in toasted sandwich or in such dishes as it melts when cooked. If you don’t have kasar peyniri, use a cheese which melts in the dishes.

Combine minced meat, bread crumbs, water, oil, salt and spices. Knead it well until the right consistency. It must be like a dough so that you can shape it. Add more bread crumbs if necessary.

Preheat the oven at 200C.

Oil an oven tray and spread the kneaded minced meat in it. The thickness must be about one inch. It doesn’t have to cover all its bottom.
Cut the yellow cheese in strips. And place them on one side of the meat.

Chop one of the red peppers and one of the green peppers in small cubes. Put some of them on the cheese.

Then fold the right and left ends of the meat to prevent any cheese leakage.

Then wrap the cheese with meat gently. Do not hurry while doing this. Do it as if you’re shaping clay. If any distortion happens, correct it with your hands.

Slice the potatoes and the rest of the peppers and place them around the meat. Sprinkle salt on potatoes and drizzle 2tbsp oil on them.

Cook it for about 50 minutes and serve it hot. You can serve rice pilaf and tomato salad near it.

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Sauteed Meat Ramadan 6

We’ve started to count down for the end of the Ramadan month. There is a very sweet festival waiting for all muslims at the end of this fasting month. And I want to share still another Ramadan tradition before it ends. This is a month when rich people think more of the poor. People understand the importance of foods more as a result of their fast and they realize that not everybody can afford even the basic foods. You know iftar tents open for the poor, but there is still another good way of helping these poor people if you want to help individually.

In the past, people used to buy some packaged foods, put them in a bag, and take it to the poor people’s homes. Today, these packages are prepared by big markets and they are sold there. These packages are called Ramadan Package (Ramazan Paketi). So what does a ramadan package contain? A usual ramadan package generally has dry foods such as rice, bulgur, chickpeas, lentils, beans, black tea, pasta, sugar, salt, flour, vermicelli 1 or half kilo packages from each. In addition, there is a 1-kilo-bottle oil. So it becomes easier for people. People go buy ramadan packages from the market and take it to the ones in need. Markets prepare different versions of ramadan packages according to the quality and price of the foods. Then you can buy the package suitable for your budget, and help others. Also, you pay less for these foods when you buy them in these packages, so this is another reason for people to prefer buying these prepared ones from markets. You can also make some additions to these packages with some meat, chicken, cheese, etc. if you’re an indivual supporter. Besides the people helping individually, the municipality of the city buys ramadan packages in big numbers and distribute them to the neighborhoods they’ve assigned in advance. These packages can also be given to the workers of big companies as a gift. In short, ramadan packages are great gifts if you want to support one’s budget at least in this month.

Today, our dinner was a simple sauteed meat (veal) served with our usual rice pilaf.

Et sote
Ingredients
-    500g meat (veal or lamb), diced
-    3 tbsp olive oil
-    2 green peppers, chopped
-    1 medium sized onion, chopped in half moon (I used purple onion)
-    A few scallions, chopped
-    2 medium sized tomatoes, grated
-    1 bay leaf
-    Salt to taste
-    A pinch of black pepper
-    A pinch of thyme

Put the meat in a flat pan, cover it and cook it over low heat until it releases its water and then absorbs it back.
Add olive oil now and stir. Sprinkle salt and other spices.
Put peppers first and stir it until they get tender, then add onions and scallions and keep stirring.
After they all get tender, pour grated tomatoes and stir once. Cover it and cook for about 10 minutes more.

Finally, take it from fire and put the bay leaf on the top, cover it again. Let it rest for some minutes. The flavor of the bay leaf will spread into the dish during this time. As I don’t love a very dense flavor of bay in my dish, I use this method, but if you love it, you may put it into the pan with the spices.

Support The Poor

Mrs Duck is shopping for dinner and she decides to buy some meat to cook a tasty dish for her family. However, she will buy more than she needs this time. Her husband is at the market buying a ramadan package for a poor family, and she wants to add some meat to this package. She knows how expensive meat is for some families and this will be a perfect package if they add the meat. When the butcher learns why she’s buying more, he generously adds a little more meat for free to contribute this ramadan package. And they both wish all people do the same more often without waiting for this holy month. (drawing by mom)

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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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Keskek

Keşkek is a special name of a traditional wedding dish. It is mostly made in Central Anatolia and Agean region of Turkey. Weddings in these places last a few days and during this time,  various dishes are served in front of bride’s or groom’s home. The wedding traditions may differ in regions but food serving is a fixed part of the tradition. As the word “tradition” points out, these are mostly forgotten in big cities, but people in towns or villages still live with them. Moreover, some young couples in big cities also want to continue their wedding traditions and they prefer holding wedding ceremonies in their hometowns or their villages.

There are a lot of different and interesting wedding traditions in Turkey, but I’ll write about one of them in this post. However, I should give a piece of background information about wedding traditions.

Before the ceremony, it is typical in Turkish culture that groom’s parents or the elderly members of his family visit  bride’s parents to know each other (of course after making an appointment). The first visitors always must be groom’s parents, not the bride’s. And it is a must to take something sweet with them such as chocolate, Turkish delight or a kind of Turkish dessert. After welcoming them, the girl makes Turkish coffee and serves it to the guests. Parents introduce themselves and then the boy’s parents state “the reason for their visit”. They say that their son wants to marry the daughter of the family and ask if they give permission to this marriage or not. The girl’s family wants some time to think about it and  boy’s family leave. In some regions, this event repeats a few times. No matter girl and boy already have a relationship, this is a permanent tradition before marriage, a Turkish girl should have the permission of her parents.

After everything is arranged and when the wedding day comes, both parents decide on where to organize the ceremony. In such cases, generally thy do what the girl’s family wants. If it is a traditional ceremony, then some cooks are held and they start to prepare some wedding dishes to be served in the wedding area. As I said, the main dish may differ in regions. The picture above was taken at the wedding of my friend’s cousine. You can see the cauldrons on wooden fire here and men and women work together.

In Central Anatolia and Agean region, Keşkek is generally the main dish. Besides it, chickpea stew, rice pilaf, a kind of meat dish, salad and ayran are also served. These dishes are all cooked in large cauldrons over wooden fire, so they are always more delicious than the dishes you make at home.

And in this picture which is from the same wedding, you see the big amount of keşkek and two men are continually stirring it to mash them as a small blender doesn’t work for such a big amount. Generally it’s men’s job to mash them  in this way because it really requires physical strength.  Even one man is never enough for this.

I’m not from Central Anatolia or Agean region, so I hadn’t known how to cook Keşkek until last weekend. Last weekend my husband’s mom suggested to make this unique dish together. She is from Central Anatolia and her mom, when young, was the best cook in their town, everyone would want help from her mom about wedding dishes. So my second mom learnt this dish from her own mom. No need to say that elderly women are always the best cooks!

Ingredients (serving:6)
-2 cups wheat (you see it in the picture above)
-8 cups hot water for wheat
-6 cups water for lamb chops
-6 lamb arm chops
-1 tbsp pepper paste or red pepper flakes
-2 tbp butter
-2 tsp salt
-2 tsp black pepper

Soak the wheat overnight. Wash it by rubbing the following day a few times until the water seems clean.

First boil the lamb chops in 6 cups water for about 40 minutes until tender.

Put it in a pressure cooker and pour  the hot water into it. When it releases its steam, bring the heat to the lowest and cook it for 50 minutes.

When it’s cooked, take the pressure cooker from the heat and when it gets cool enough, open it. Stir it with a big spoon and add 4 cups of meat broth (the water in which you boil the lamb chops) into the boiled wheat. Then add salt and stir it again. Taste it and if you think the salt is not enough, add some more. Lastly, mix it with a blender until it gets chewy.

For its sauce, heat the butter and add ½ cup meat broth (the water in which you boil the lamb chops) and pepper paste or pepper flakes.

For its serving, take some keşkek ( the mashed wheat) in a bowl and pour the sauce on it, sprinkle some black pepper and put one piece of lamb chop on it. You can serve it with ayran.

As it includes energizing ingredients, keşkek is mostly prefered in Winter when it is made at homes. But if it’s a wedding day, season doesn’t matter.

Turkish Wedding

In traditional wedding ceremonies, all relatives are ready to help. Bur the boys of that family have the big responsibility. They serve dishes in a tray you see in the picture. They work like waiters on that day. Also, they are responsible for organizing the place of the ceremony by carrying chairs and tables here and there depending on the number of the guests. And the number of the guests is never less than 100 hundred people.

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Albanian Liver

Arnavut Cigeri

We decided to have raki for dinner tonight and one of our favorite appetizers (savory foods) to eat with raki is Albanian liver. It certainly goes perfect with raki. We used to buy it prepared until today. I don’t know why we didn’t try to make it at home before.
How did I decide to try it at home? I came accross with this so appetizing dish in three different restaurants in this week when we went those places during lunch break with friends. The one who ordered it wasn’t me, but some friends. As I had got the flu, I prefered some healing soups. (I’m still trying to recover with some herbal tea and honey mixture, the worst is the headache!) And while watching them eating Albanian liver, I thought that I should share this incredible taste with you. And as usual, I asked its recipe to the chef of one of those restaurants. And we made it to have with our raki for dinner today.

According to the chef, the most important point of this appetizer is the freshness of liver. As it is difficult to find fresh meat in supermarkets, he sugessted buying liver from a butcher.

Besides being an appetizer for raki, it can also be eaten as a main dish with rice pilaf near it. It is served with fried cube potatoes in some restaurants while fried onions accompany in others. But in both cases, there should be a salad or piyaz near it. If you prefer eating it with your raki, then optionally you can pour little yogurt on it.

Ingredients
-    500g veal or lamb liver
-    ½ cup flour
-    1 tsp salt
-    2 tsp red pepper flakes
-    1 cup vegetable oil
-    1 onion

Peel the membrane of the liver and remove the nerves from it. Then dice it. If your butcher does it for you, then skip this part.

Put he flour in a bowl and toss the diced liver pieces in this flour, they should be coated well with flour. Sprinkle salt and mix again.

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the liver pieces for 2 minutes, not more.While frying, turn over continually. If you overcook, it will be too dry and hard to eat. Another important point to make it is that you should fry just a handful of liver pieces together. You shouldn’t try to fry all of them at once. The outer of them should be crispy and the inside should be soft. When they are fried, take them with a colander on a plate.

Slice the onion in rings and after all liver pieces are cooked, fry these onion rings in the same frying oil and put them near the liver as a kind of garnishing.

Take 2 tbsp of that frying oil in a small pan and fry the red pepper flakes. Then pour it on the liver.

Finally, you can garnish it with any kind of greens like dill, parsley, scallion, garden cress, etc.

I know it doesn’t sound so healthy, but I think we can give this reward once or twice a month.

Hospitable Turkish People

Turkish people are famous with their hospitality. When they have a guest for dinner, they try to serve various dishes and expect their guests to eat all they have on their plates. Finishing what you have on your table means you are satisfied with the dishes and if you ask for more, it’s even better. This makes the hostess happier, she takes it as a compliment.

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Meatballs Classic

Köfte

As Turkish people, we love matballs (we call it “köfte” in Turkish) so much that we eat it very often. It is the second popular Turkish fast food after simit. There are a lot of restaurants serving meatballs in each city of Turkey. Also, you can come across with vendors grilling and selling meatballs on streets. You may start to feel hungry with its so appetizing smell while walking on a street and you may find yourself ordering the second.

There are several versions of meatballs. All of them are equally tasty, but our favorite one is this classic version. I learnt how to make such scrumptious meatballs from a small meatball restaurant (Small ones are always better than the big ones at making meatballs). We often go there and one day I couldn’t wait any longer to ask for the recipe. The chef was so kind that he didn’t make me beg for it. He said “I’ll give my recipe provided that you won’t tell it to other chefs.” You’re not planning to open a meatball restaurant here, do you?

You can try this recipe and have the pleasure of it at your homes.

Ingredients
•    500gr ground beef
•    ½ cup breadcrumbs
•    ¼ cup water
•    1 onion, grated
•    2 cloves garlic, minced
•    1tsp baking soda
•    1tsp fresh lemon juice
•    2tsp salt
•    2tsp cumin
•    2tsp thyme
•    2 tbsp olive oil

For serving:
•    Green pepper
•    Bread slices

The key point of this meatball is the time of its process. If you’re planning to grill/fry meatballs, you should start it one night before.

Put the ground beef, breadcrumbs, water and salt in a large bowl. Knead it very well with your hands. And put it in the refrigerator to wait it at least 10 hours. That’s why, you should start to make it a night before.

In the morning, mix the baking soda and lemon juice in a tablespoon. Add it to the mixture. Put the grated onion, minced garlic and spices in it. Knead all of them very well. Grab pieces as big as a walnut and shape it in your palms.  Wait these meatballs in the refrigerator until the evening. If they are too many for you, you can keep some of them in deep-freezer to cook them later.

When it comes to cook these meatballs, put the oil in a pan. Heat it over maximum level. Place the meatballs in the pan and bring the heat to medium level. Fry the meatballs by turning over them continually. Do not wait to cook first one side, then the other. It’s important to cook both sides at the same time. That’s why, you should continually turn them over. It will be cooked within 10 – 12 minutes. Do not overcook them. You can check one of them with a fork, if its inside turns from pink to brown, it’s cooked.

While cooking meatballs, in a non stick pan, grill some green peppers and bread slices without any oil. Then you can serve meatballs on these bread slices with green peppers. And piyaz is an indispensable salad near meatballs.

And I’d like to thank to Sophie at Sophies foodie files for passing her award on me. She’s so generously sharing her experiences and recipes with us in her blog. I’d like to share it with all of you. If you haven’t discovered her blog yet, go visit it or you miss a lot.

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Meat on Boat

Today we wanted to make something special for dinner. We usually prefer raki if we want to have some alcohol at dinner. But today we decided to have red wine instead and that’s why we thought that it would be better to try something new, something not eaten with raki before. We love red wine either with some high quality cheese or red meat. As it’s been a long time since we ate meat last (it was four big days ago!), we prefer meat. The red wine we had was Terra/Shiraz from Kayra wines. And it accompanied  our dish of eggplant and meat very well. The name of this dish is given by me because or its shape. The original name of it is “Bostan Kebabı”.

Ingredients
•    4 medium size eggplant
•    1 onion, diced
•    200gr veal steak, diced
•    2 green peppers, diced
•    1 tomato
•    6 cloves garlic, diced
•    ½ tbsp tomato paste
•    1 cup vegetable oil (for frying)
•    3 tbsp olive oil
•    Salt
•    Black pepper
•    Cumin
•    ½ cup water

As it will last longer to cook the meat, start with it. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a pan and add the diced meat. Saute it until all the water evaporates. Then add diced onion, garlic and pepper. Saute them until they change color. Then add tomato paste and spices and cook for a few minutes more. Then add water and salt in it. Cook it over the lowest heat until tender.

While the meat is cooking, you can start preparing the eggplants. Peel the eggplants striped. Cut a lengthways piece of it. It shouldn’t be deep cut. That piece will be like the lid of the eggplant. Then scoop out the middle of the eggplant, leave a little bit on the sides and bottom. Give it a shape of a boat.

Wait the eggplants in salty water for half an hour. Strain and dry them.

Preheat the oven to 220 C (428F).

Heat 1 cup vegetable oil in frying pan. Fry the eggplants a little. Don’t fry them much as they’ll also be cooked in oven. Place the fried eggplants in oven tray. Stuff these eggplants with meat with its sauce. You can pour some watery part of its sauce over them. Cut the tomato in finger shapes and place them on each eggplant. Cook it in oven for about half an hour.

A bowl of home made yogurt will be perfect companion for this tasty dish. I use some grains of pomegranate to make it more colorful.

And we continued the night by watching a striking film by Michael Moore, Sicko. So it becomes impossible to end this post with some nice words. No, the problem is not the movie, it was great. But the things we learnt in the film made us feel so sorry.

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Kirghiz Manti

Before my friend Jyldyz  Chynybekova, from Kyrgyzstan sent me this manti recipe, I thought that manti is just special for Turkey. When I saw this recipe from her, I realized again that Kyrgyzstan and Turkish cuisine are so similar, with some little differences. I think you’ll love this one more as these mantis are bigger than ours, so less tiring. Unlike ours, the sauce of this one is not yogurt with garlic. I couldn’t wait for trying it (I’m planning to try it on a day I don’t work), I went to a Kirghiz restaurant here to taste it. I was absolutely amazed with its taste. Do I need to tell that I returned home with a portion of prepared manti to cook it later?
Here is Jyldyz’s manti recipe:

Ingredients:
•    3 cups all purpose flour
•    1 cup water
•    1 large egg
•    1 tablespoon olive oil
•    1 teaspoon salt
For the filling:
•    250 gr. ground meat
•     100 gr. lamb fat
•    12 medium onion (chopped in a very small pieces)
•    Salt and black pepper

1.    In a large bowl, stir together the flour, water, egg, olive oil and salt.
2.    Knead them very well until the dough is formed. The dough should be smooth and not sticky. If you feel it is sticky, add a little bit more flour.
3.    Cover the bowl with some plastic wrap and let stand at cool room temperature for an hour.
4.    Meanwhile, prepare the filling. In a medium bowl, put onions, meat, lamb fat chopped into small pieces, (Adding fat to meat manty is essential, as fat makes the dumplings juicy) salt and black pepper. Knead them together for one minute (do not cook.)
5.    Lightly dust a work surface and a rolling pin with flour. Divide the dough into 4 equal balls. Roll out each ball into sheets as thin as you can roll out, but be careful don’t tear it.

6.    Cut each sheet into circle or squares of about 12″x12″ cm. Put filling at the center of each square. Continue until the dough is finished.

7.    As you see in the picture, bring the opposite corners together and make an envelope. Then bring other opposite corners together to make manty shape. Press the sides firmly.
8.    Bring two of the adjacent corners together as shown in the picture.

9.    In a large pot, boil the water and add a little bit salt, olive oil. Put in the bowl the steamer with manty and steam about 35-45 minutes in a medium heat. In my country we use a special pot (kaskan) for steaming manty.
10.    Manty are usually topped with butter and served with sour cream, special tomato sauce, or fresh onion rings (sprinkled with vinegar and black pepper). Also the sauce made by mixing vinegar and chilli powder is very common.
Note: Because the dish is so fatty, manty are always accompanied by hot tea and it is strongly advisable not to consume any cold or chilled beverages immediately after consumption of manty.

And I’d like to thank to two of my blogger friends who honored me with awards. They made me so excited!

One of them is from Danielle at somanycookbooks. Go visit her, she has fantastic recipes there.

Other one is from Gera at sweetsfoods. You always find a very sincere commentary in her posts. I recommend you especially the post here aromas exquisite touch to your food and sweet memories. I enjoyed it much.
I’d like to share these awards with all of my blog friends. Congrats to all of us!

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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.

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