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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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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Borek with Minced Meat Recipe

Borek is one of the most popular pastries in Turkish cuisine. It’s similar to pasty but made with phyllo pastry. You can put any ingredient you like. There are a lot of kinds of borek here; with cheese, with potatoes, with minced meat, with spinach, with green lentil, with leek, etc. Today I made meatballs, and didn’t use all the meat, so I decided to make some borek with the rest of the minced meat. It’s so easy and delicious. You can have it with your breakfast or at 5 o’clock tea or at any time you like.

Ingredients

•    4 phyllo pastry sheets
•    1 egg
•    1 coffee cup milk

For filling
•    ½ kg minced meat
•    1 big onion, diced
•    ½ cup olive oil
•    1 cup minced parsley
•    1 tsp salt
•    1 tsp black pepper
•    1 tsp red pepper flakes

For garnish
•    2 tbsp nigella seed

First let’s prepare the mixture for filling. In a large pan, saute onion in olive oil until golden. Add minced meat, salt, black and red pepper. Saute them until the water of mince meat evaporates. When you take it from heat, add parsley and mix them. Let it cool.

Lay one of the phyllo pastry sheets on a table or counter. Cut it into 4 pieces evenly (you’ll draw a plus while cutting to have 4 pieces).  It will be like a triangle. Put some filling mixture with a spoon on the widest side of each piece. Then fold the vertical sides so that the mixture won’t come out. Then start Rolling from the widest side to the narrow. Finally dampen your fingers and stick the last fold with your fingers gently.

Preheat the oven to 180C (356F).

Oil the oven tray with a brush and place these pieces of borek on it.  Do the same for all phyllo sheets.

In a small cup mix milk and egg together. With a brush spread it on each borek.

Finally sprinkle some nigella seed on each of them.

Put the tray in oven and cook them 30 minutes.

Meanwhile you can prepare your tea and after taking the tray out, serve it with a cup of tea.

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Manti Recipe

The first time I tried to make manti, which was three years ago,  was the day I felt proud of myself. Manti is one of the most difficult dish of Turkish cuisine for novice cooks like me. But if you are a Turkish mom, it is very easy for you. Of course, I didn’t know this bitter reality until that day. I always made it with my mother ( I’m the hepler of course) and I thought it would be easy again when I made it myself. But it wasn’t. I phoned mom and asked her things several times. Fortunately I succeeded, not as good as my mom’s, but it was OK. So here is my mom’s manti recipe.

Ingredients
•    2 cups flour
•    1 egg
•    3 teaspoons salt
•    Warm water
•    400gr minced meat
•    4 onions
•    1 teaspoon black pepper
•    Half bunch of parsley
•    1,5 liter water

For its sauce:
•    4 garlic cloves, mashed
•    1 bowl yogurt
•    2 tbsp olive oil
•    1 tbsp red pepper flakes
•    1 tbsp dried mint
•    1 tbsp tomato paste

Step 1
Put 2 cups flour, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Pour warm water little by little and make a quite hard dough.
Cover this dough with a wet piece of cloth and wait it until you finish other preperations.
Step 2
Now you will prepare a mixture to stuff the dough in pieces.
Mince the onions and parsley in small pieces. Combine them with 1 teaspoon salt and black pepper. Knead it for 5 minutes.
Step 3
Now it’s time to make manti.
Divide the dough in two. Roll them seperately. Then take one of them and roll it out to half milimeter (it will be quite thin). Then cut it in strips of 1,5 cm. then superpose them and cut in squares of 1,5 cm. do the sam efor the other piece of dough.
(1 inch = 2,54cm)
Take a piece of minced meat mixture and put it on those squares and maket hem bundles (close the squares from diagonal sides).
Step 4
When you finish with squares, boil 1,5 liter water in a large pot. Add 1 teaspoon salt. When it starts to boil, add those squares in it(similar to cooking pasta). Stir it gently with a wooden spoon, do not mash them. Do it a few times, don’t stir continually. And do not put the lid on until they are done. If those manti pieces come to the surface of boiling water, it means they are cooked. They should be as soft as a piece of pasta. You can check it by tasting one.  After about 15 minutes or so, they will be ready.

Sieve them to serve and put them in bowls with little water (in which you boil them).
Step 5
In a small bowl, mix grated garlic and yogurt. Pour it on your manti in each bowl.
Then  broil 1 tbsp tomato paste, red pepper flakes and dried mint in olive oil and finally  garnish your manti with this sauce.
Enjoy it!

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