Warm Salad

Sıcak Salata

This salad is a very special one for me as I learnt it from dad. The word ‘salad’ is generally used for various combinations of raw vegetables like tomatoes, lettuce, scallions and other greens or combinations of raw fruits. However, this one is totally different. It takes the name of ‘warm salad’ as it is cooked, none of the vegetables in it is raw.

This warm salad is made especially in Mediterranean region of Turkey. In rural areas of this region, people work in agriculture and in forest. Agriculture workers cultivate lots of fruits, vegetables and cereals. As for the forest workers, they are devided into two groups. Some log the full grown trees like pine to send the logs to the industrial area while the others plant new young trees in places of these logged trees to renew forests. Warm salad is so important for these workers. They usually get up so early in the morning and almost never hit the road without having warm salad as breakfast. As it is hot and spicy, after eating it, workers do not get cold while working. It is both filling and easy to digest when compared to raw salads, so workers in this region prefer it.

Dad worked in that region as a teacher years ago and he had good relationships with the people of the region. He always tells us how those people were so respectful and hospitable to teachers. There used to be one school in such rural areas, so teachers of that school were so precious for them. There were generally two or three teachers and they were always invited to a house of someone for dinner. People would always bring some products of their areas to teachers. As a result of this good relationship, dad learnt this warm salad from these people during his working years in that region and it became one of his favorite food at breakfast. I remember that he used to wake my brother and me up with the fantastic smell of this salad. Noone can resist dipping a slice of bread in this salad at breakfast. At first, one may think that this salad can not be for breakfast and it is more suitable for lunch or dinner, but it makes you addicted after the first try.

Ingredients (serving: 4)

-    4 tomatoes
-    2 sweet green peppers
-    4 small hot green peppers
-    4 cloves garlic
-    1 tbsp olive oil
-    1 tsp salt
-    1 tsp cumin
-    1 tsp paprika

Wash all vegetables. To peel the tomatoes easily, wait them in hot water for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a pan.  Chop sweet green peppers and saute them. Put the hot peppers in the pan as a whole, do not chop them. Then peel the tomatoes and dice them. Cut the garlic cloves into two. Put tomatoes and garlic in the pan, stir and cover it. After about 15 minutes, add salt, cumin and paprika,  stir and take it from heat. Serve this salad on plates and put 1 small hot green pepper on each. If you can’t eat it spicy, you may not add those spices.

Preperation for Summer

As it is summer now, all vegetables and fruits start exercising to look fit. They didn’t do any sports during winter, so they gained weight and now it’s time to lose those weights. They find it so boring to exercise alone, and the clever tomato suggests doing it together. she reads on a paper that you are more successful in losing weight when you exercise with others. That’s why they decide to meet and jog together. However, it’s still not easy for tomato to jog as much as others, she gets tired easily as she is to weak to carry herself. Someone must tell her that people love her plump. (drawing by mom)

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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)

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Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Cabbage is one of the most popular Winter vegetables in Turkey. There are several dishes made from cabbage such as cabbage stew, cabbage borek (a kind of pastry), cabbage soup, cabbage pickles, and stuffed cabbage rolls. Among all these dishes, stuffed cabbage rolls are my favorite and the most common one.

Just like stuffed grapevine leaves, there are various kinds of cabbage rolls. Sometimes the shape of its rolling changes, but generally its filling has variety. In fact, rice is the constant ingredient of its filling but there may be some different additions to it. In some regions minced meat is added, in some regions tomatoes and some greens (we call it cabbage rolls/cabbage sarma with olive oil), are added and in some other regions chestnut is the addition. I love the one with olive oil as this main dish turns out to be a snack for me like stuffed grapevine leaves, so I’ll give its recipe here. I made these stuffed cabbage rolls last Sunday, and we finished it today. I love it so much that I felt so upset while eating the last roll. So I strongly recommend you to make these rolls in large amounts.

Ingredients
•    1 small size cabbage
•    1 liter water
•    1tbsp salt

For its filling:
•    2 glasses rice
•    4 onions
•    4 middle size tomatoes, diced
•    1 green pepper, diced
•    2 scallions, diced
•    4 cloves garlic, sliced
•    Half bunch of parsley, minced
•    2 lemons, juice
•    1 tbsp pepper/tomato paste
•    1 tsp dry mint
•    1 tsp salt
•    1 tsp thyme
•    1 tsp black pepper
•    ½ cup extra virgin olive oil

(If you like, add 200gr minced meat into it.)

Wash the cabbage, throw the outer leaves away and seperate all its leaves.

Put enough water (about 1 liter) into a large pot, add 1tbsp salt and boil it. Put the cabbage leaves into this boiling water and boil them until they get tender (but not too much), when their color turns to yellow, (after about 3-4 minutes) take out them from water.

Now try to cut them in regular shapes. We don’t use the thick streaks of these leaves, so cut them out. You can use these thick pieces in a vegetable stew the following day.

For its filling, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix them well.

Now get one piece and lay it on a flat surface. Put some filling mixture on it and roll it up. The shape is not so important herei, just try to roll it well and do not put a lot of filling in it, otherwise you’ll lose some of them.

Place these cabbage rolls in a pot leaving the center empty. Pour the watery part of the mixture on the rolls. When you finish all the leaves, but still have some filling mixture, do not throw it away.

Put that mixture in a glass bowl and place it over the space in the middle of the rolls. Moreover, if you like you can chop the thick pieces into it and have a bowl of another dish of cabbage.
Put the pot on the lowest heat and cook it for half an hour. Then add ¼ cup of water into it and let it cook for an hour.

You can serve it warm or cold with some lemon slices and greens. And I think the best pair of these rolls is a bowl of home made yogurt.

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