About me
Welcome to my website. I’m Zerrin, a Turkish woman living in Eskişehir/Turkey. I feel happy when I cook something to my family and friends. It’s a pleasure of me to watch people with their smile on their face while eating.
I certainly believe that there is a strong connection between people’s eating style and their characters. People who like eating and eat heartily are social, have no difficulty in communicating with others, cheerful, humorous and positive. But people who eat only to live just as a duty, and don’t see the miracle in each food are generally pessimistic and introverted. (Please do not get angry with me if you are that kind, this is just my observation.)
Here I’ll try to inform you about Turkish cuisine, which has a very large repertoire with its various kind of dishes. In this way, maybe I can succeed in changing the view of those pessimist people about food and contribute some more joy to positive people with my recipes.
Most women see each other as competitors and they don’t want to share their cooking experience. When they give a recipe to someone (some, even to their daughters), they hide a piece of secret to themselves. I don’t know if there are such women in other cultures.
Be sure that I’m not that kind beause I feel that you can multiply your hapiness by sharing. So I decided to share my recipes with everyone. I hope you will enjoy my website and recipes. It will be my pleasure to respond your questions and comments.
You can reach me at zerrin@giverecipe.com
If the kiwis you buy are too hard and unripe, put them in a plastic bag with apples and pears and wait for a night.
Colleen Brown on Wed, 28th Jan 2009 7:40 am
Great site and love your sharing philosophy. I totally agree!! Thanks for the friend request!
Zerrin on Wed, 28th Jan 2009 7:45 am
Thanks for your comment. Glad you like my website and my philosophy. So you are the social, positive and optimist one
mommygourmet on Wed, 28th Jan 2009 7:49 am
Thanks for the friend request! I am so thrilled. I was born in Ankara, and have been so lucky that my parents had good turkish friends while there and brought home tons of recipes. Yours is one of may favorite cuisines and I look forward to making some of your recipes!
Zerrin on Wed, 28th Jan 2009 8:00 am
Born in Ankara?? A very nice coincidence, I studied there. So you are familiar with Turkish cuicine. I’ll be glad to hear your comments or questions on my recipes.
Cheers from Turkey.
Sophie on Fri, 30th Jan 2009 12:53 pm
I totally agree to share recipes & ideas! thanks for your consistent feedback on my recipes! I do not know if you can bake the burgers without baking margarine or butter, but you can bake them in olive oil or canola oil or even grill them in a grill pan. Or you can bake them in the oven in a baking dish.
Zerrin on Fri, 30th Jan 2009 1:56 pm
Thank you Sophie for stopping by. I think I’ll try to cook it in a baking dish in oven.
Natasha on Mon, 2nd Feb 2009 1:57 pm
You have a great website. Thanks for sharing all these delicious recipes!
Natasha
Zerrin on Mon, 2nd Feb 2009 3:49 pm
Thank you so much Natasha. Glad you like it.
Joan Nova on Mon, 2nd Feb 2009 7:54 pm
Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment on A Culinary Tour Around the World. It has been a lot of fun — maybe you’ll meet us at one of the destinations??
Zerrin on Tue, 3rd Feb 2009 5:35 am
It would be so nice to meet. Thank you Joan.
The Beancounter on Tue, 3rd Feb 2009 4:14 pm
Thanks for dropping by my page Zerrin… i’m looking forward to learning more about Turkish cuisine thru your site…
Elina on Wed, 4th Feb 2009 1:04 pm
I love your philosophy and your food pictures looks amazing! Thanks for stopping by my blog
David on Thu, 5th Feb 2009 6:38 pm
Hi Zerrin! Thanks for visiting my website. I’m going to parrot other comments and say how much I like your philosophy about food and sharing, which you express wonderfully here. I visited Turkey about eight or nine years ago and really fell in love with the food. I haven’t had the opportunity since then to rediscover Turkish cuisine, so your website is really nice to find. I look forward to trying out your recipes!
Zerrin on Fri, 6th Feb 2009 1:45 am
The Beancounter, Elina and David thank you all for your nice words and for visiting my website.
ReginaLicious on Sat, 7th Feb 2009 5:45 am
I LOVE your theory on eating and personality. I agree with you 100%. When I first meet someone (particularly women), I always disclose to them that I enjoy eating. That way, they don’t feel the need to be shy when it comes to food. Nothing is better than a great foodie gal pal!
Lisa on Sat, 7th Feb 2009 10:20 am
Thanks for the friend invite on Food buzz! I’m adding your site to my favs… love the lay out, now I need to browse your recipes.
Zerrin on Sat, 7th Feb 2009 10:38 am
Reginalicious – As you said, my guests never feel shy and they don’t hesitate to ask some more.
Lisa – Thank you for stopping by and adding my website. I hope you enjoy my recipes.
oinksy on Sun, 8th Feb 2009 12:27 am
Hope you enjoyed my site, though it’s really nothing that great compared to yours! Wow! You have so many recipes here and I hope that I would be able to try some out (but I’m not a very good cook, I just love to eat). I have been to Istanbul some 10 years back and I enjoyed myself there.
Answering your questions… yes we celebrate the New Year too (01 January) and we have countdowns on New Years’ Eve (31 December). The one I was writing about is the Chinese New Year celebrated by the Chinese. We also have Hari Raya (celebrated by the Malays)and lots of other holidays. You can say that we celebrate just about everything !
Zerrin on Sun, 8th Feb 2009 2:15 am
Happy to hear you like my website. And thank you for those information about Chinese celebration. Celebrating everything makes you cheerful people I think.
EZ Home Cooking on Tue, 10th Feb 2009 1:36 pm
I agree with you- I think the best part of cooking and baking is sharing recipes! I can never understand why people don’t want to share! If I make something delicious, I want everyone else to experience it as well. I can’t wait to check out your recipes, and make sure to check out ours too. I’m sure we will have a lot of great pairings!
Tamanna on Mon, 16th Feb 2009 5:06 pm
I always get curious to know who is behind the delicious recipes and scrumptious images and when i find it, it is a great pleasure!
glad you did an ‘about me’ page. Turkey is a heavenly place…..you’re lucky. I love turkish food. Great site Zerrin!
Zerrin on Tue, 17th Feb 2009 6:04 am
Thank you Tamanna for your nice words, you’re so kind. I hope you enjoy my recipes.
vanessa on Wed, 25th Feb 2009 4:00 pm
Hey I wasn’t sure of the best way to respond to your question. Agave syrup is made from the agave cactus. It tastes quite a bit like honey, but not quit as strong a flavor. So I think you could easily use honey. Grape molasses, I am not sure about because I don’t know what it tastes like (though I sure wish I did… I think I am going to a Turkish food site I know and see if I can order some). As for pomegrenate sauce, I would think it would change the flavor, but I think lemon and poegrenate would be yummy.
Jyldyz on Thu, 26th Feb 2009 2:37 pm
Hi Zerrin,
I am very excited of your recipes! Yhanl you a lot. and I would like to share my recipe also, if you don’t mind I think you will enjoy cooking this easy plov. I am from Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan, Osh city. So this is Osh plov:
Ash – Plov
Ingredients
2 kg (4.5 lbs) Red rice (or any if you can’t find it)
2 kg (4.5 lbs, 5 large carrots) Meat – lamb, beef or chicken
1 ½ kg (3 1/3 lbs) Carrots – yellow is the best
3 pieces, average sized Onion – any type
600 ml (2.5 cups) Vegetable oil – sunflower (you can use lamb fat also)
2 tbsp cumin seeds
About 3 L (3 quarts) Water or lamb broth
2-3 whole head of garlic
Directions
Sauté chopped onions in the 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.
Zerrin on Thu, 26th Feb 2009 3:08 pm
Hi Jyldyz,
Happy to see someone from Kyrgyzstan in my blog, you know we have a lot in common in our history. And I have a strong interest in Central Asian dishes. It’s very kind of you to share this plov recipe here. I’ll definitely try it. But you say 2kg rice and 2kg meat, isn’t it too much? I think 1 cup rice and 1 cup diced meat will be enough for two or three people. What do you say?
selim on Sat, 28th Feb 2009 1:47 am
my heartfelt congratulations.
very nice site. these recipes are very good.
i love them very much.
and my favorites :
cake with carrot and walnut (C.W.C.A.W)recipe.
I absolutely have to do.
long live (C.W.A.W)
long live http://www.giverecipe.com
BEST REGARDS
Zerrin on Sat, 28th Feb 2009 11:16 am
Selim – Thank you my friend for your nice words. I know you love that cake. I hope you can do it yourself or marry a woman who knows it lol…
fatih on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 7:20 am
dear my teacher your website is wonderfull:)neverthless ı cannot do thıs meals because ı m stundent and ı m not very skillful man.can you help me dear my teacher:))))
Zerrin on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 7:41 am
Fatih – Thank you my dear student. Maybe I open a cooking course in the future, then you can join it. I’m sure you’ll find it more exciting and enjoyable than learning English. ??
fatih on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 8:11 am
ok dear my teacher:ı look forward your cooking course and ı will joın:)
Bread and Jam on Mon, 23rd Mar 2009 7:07 pm
I can already tell I am going to be a frequent visitor here.
I would like to learn more about Turkish food and culture and I couldn’t agree more with your comments about sharing recipes. I can’t believe there are people who intentionally won’t tell everything that goes into a recipe or refuse to give a recipe at all, but I’ve seen it. To me, the more people who can enjoy it the better!
Ozgur Guldogan on Wed, 8th Apr 2009 12:28 am
Hi, Teacher
Congratulations,
You have a great web-site.I really liked it.
Ozgur G.
Miklos on Sun, 26th Apr 2009 10:01 am
Hey Zerrin, I really like your site. I had had a turkish girlfriend and i had lived in Istanbul for almost a year and I really miss it. Now I cook turksih meals for myself and my friends. Here in Budapest there are some turkish restaurants but they are not the same. Keep up the good work with your site.
And tesekkürler.
Yaksamlar
Miklos
Zerrin on Sun, 26th Apr 2009 1:21 pm
Miklos- Thank you for visiting my blog.So you learnt Turkish foods in Istanbul.How nice! I’m sure your friends love the foods you cook for them. Feel free to ask any questions if you need while cooking.
Sana da yaksamlar:)
Miklos on Mon, 27th Apr 2009 8:34 am
tinypliny on Fri, 22nd May 2009 12:22 pm
Thanks for sharing your pilaf recipes. I can’t wait to try out more of your pilafs. I have made almost all of the ones you posted and each time they have turned out delicious. (The only substitution I make is peanut oil instead of olive oil)
Cheers!
Zerrin on Sat, 23rd May 2009 9:54 am
tinypliny- How nice you tried and liked them. I always use natural olive oil in my dishes as it is known as the most healthy oil. I have no idea about peanut oil, we don’t have it here.
ayşegül on Sun, 24th May 2009 12:08 pm
hiteacher.ı like your webside very much.ıts very nice like you.but in class while listening you ı never guessed that you are so talentede at cooking such delicious meals deserts…congratulationsss…at first time ı understood that you are a perfect teacher but now at the same time ı know that you are a perfect cooker.
Nadiya on Mon, 13th Jul 2009 9:54 am
Hello zerrin,i found ur site today it’s really great.I am very fond of cooking.I also want to join u on facebook plz do add me there.Also if u have the recepie of home made condenced milk&pineapple soofle plz give me.I’ll be waiting 4ur reply
Michael on Mon, 13th Jul 2009 9:48 pm
Zerrin, I lived in Sinop for several years in the late 70’s. I think my experience with the foods of other cultures has helped to foster my love of cooking which has also resulted in my oldest son becoming a professional chef. Your site has brought back many memories and I will definitely be using your recipes in the future. Thank you.
Rachel Bronson on Fri, 17th Jul 2009 6:51 am
Merhaba Zerrin, I feel so luckym to have found these great recipes from your site. i just started making frequent trips to Turkey and i can tell you I never had any disappointing meal anywhere. This site just brings me closer to be able to them at home. I love the art of cooking and it’s pleasure, will be visiting here frequently. Thank you for sharing
zerrin on Fri, 17th Jul 2009 7:55 am
Nadiya- Thank you so much. I sent you a friend request on my facebook list, but I think you didn’t accept it yet. I also sent an email, but I think you didn’t receive it. Please contact me.
Michael- I’ve never been to Sinop, but I heard that it’s a beautiful city with its coast. How nice you’re a professional chef’s dad. I hope you’ll be happy with the results when you use my recipes.
Rachel- I’m lucky as well to have such a willing reader like you. Turkish cuisine has a wide variety of foods and I’m trying to make and share them with you. And I feel more encouraged to make more when I get such comments from the people visiting my site. I hope you’ll get happy when you try my recipes. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Aline08 on Fri, 4th Sep 2009 3:36 am
Hi Zerrin,
I really like your blog about Turkish cooking. I just discovered it and it is great. I myself have a blog about Turkish cuisine but in French. I found that Turkish food is not very well known abroad and that’s why I started my blog. Cheers
Taymer on Sun, 20th Sep 2009 7:20 pm
That is so true about ppl who eat to live. I have spent some time with these kinds of ppl and they lack passion and it is always a bore to be around these kind of people. I have yet to find someone close to me that has this passion for cooking and foods.I had Turkish Food once in France and I do not know if you would call it turkish as it was fast food but wow it was good. The flavours and everything were different but there were comforting and familiar….I need to read your old post to see what vegan dishes you may have or adaptable ones. I am so happy I found this site.
Tay
Caner on Thu, 1st Oct 2009 7:23 am
Caner was here..!
You have a great site. I hope you will get your pleasure abour food.
And I am a foodie.
CU on Lesson.
Zerrin on Thu, 1st Oct 2009 11:56 am
Aline- Thank you for stopping by. As you say, Turkish dishes are not known much around the world. And happy to hear that you’re telling about it in French. Hope we both succeed in introducing Turkish cuisine to the world.
Taymer- Thanks for stopping by. Even if it’s a kind of fast food, it must be tasty as it has Turkish special flavors in it. Hope you love the vegan dishes here.
Caner- Hi my dear new student, it’s nice to see you here. As we talked in the class, you’re absolutely a real foodie although you don’t want to accept it easily.
moni on Fri, 16th Oct 2009 2:05 pm
o my gosh! you are a life saver!
Alwin on Sat, 17th Oct 2009 1:18 pm
Hi Zerrin,
Nice website you have. As I’m interested in Turkey, it’s people and culture I especially enjoy the little pieces of information about customs and every day life you put in between your recipes.
Alwin
Erika on Thu, 22nd Oct 2009 9:15 am
Hi Zerrin,
My mother sent me a link to your blog today and I was so delighted. I once lived for a year in Istanbul. I love your country and its food and your gorgeously photographed dishes brought back wonderful memories. Thank you. I look forward to exploring this rich and tasty blog!
Best,
Erika in San Francisco
The Little Teochew on Sat, 7th Nov 2009 5:44 am
Hi Zerrin, thanks for dropping by my blog. The world needs more generous and big-hearted people like you
You have a wonderful and beautiful blog! I have visited your lovely country. My favourite places were Izmir and Pammukkale. This was back in 1988, if I remember correctly, when I was just a teen. I hope to go back again some day 
Cheers from Singapore
Ju
Vishali on Wed, 2nd Dec 2009 2:19 pm
hi Zerrin, you have a great blog ! I agree with your sharing policy. I love cooking and hosting ppl. I have just started a cooking blog to share recipes that i know and authentic recipes that are passed down to me by my elders.
I am an indian from singapore, now residing in US.
I have tasted and cooked dishes of different culture. I hope to share the joy of cooking these dishes in my blog.
Tom Baker on Thu, 31st Dec 2009 6:49 am
Zerrin, I wanted to wish you and yours a very Happy New Year and happy blogging in 2010. Please don’t hesitate to visit my site again and leave a comment or two. Be safe!