Spinach Stem with Wheat Berries (Buğdaylı Ispanak Kökü)

The move is finally over and we have been Californians for almost two months now. I am loving the Palo Alto farmer's markets (who wouldn't when you can buy a celery root for a dollar!) and cooking a lot; just not blogging. Finally emergence of fresh spinach at the market made it. In Turkey, when you have a bunch of fresh spinach you can cook a variety of different dishes with green spinach leaves: such as "the" spinach dish,   spinach dish known as "the bachelors' dish", or delicious börek/phyllo dough dish. Before cooking any of these dishes, you pinch off the stems and save them for other equally scrumptious dishes. They are great in salads, in stir fry, or in avgolemono sauce. The following simple recipe is inspired by the traditional spinach dish or the most common spinach dish, for which you basically stir spinach, onion, and tomatoes with rice. I replaced leaves with stems and rice with soft wheat berries. It is simply delicious. More spinach stem recipes to follow.

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Baked Cabbage with Ground Meat (Fırında Kıymalı Lahana)

Baked cabbage with ground meat can be described as either a kind of no-pasta lasagna, börek, or mousakka. However you name it, it is simply delicious and healthy. If not witness the preparation of the dish, it might be even impossible to tell it's cabbage.


1 small to medium cabbage
1/2 lb ground meat
2 medium onions, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced (my addition)
2 big tomatoes, diced or 1 can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp olive oil
1 cup grated mozzarella
1/2 cup ricotta (my addition)
1-2 tbsp basil flakes
1 tsp spicy red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
1/2 parsley, finely chopped

-Take cabbage, discard bad leaves, and break leaves one by one. Wash well.
-Boil water in a big pot with 1 tbsp salt. Cook cabbage leaves in water for 5-7 minutes, or until tender. Preserve 1/3 cup of cooking water.
-Heat oil in a pan. Add first onions and garlic. Stir for a couple of minutes. Then add ground meat and cook until brown by breaking it into small bits.
-Add 1 tbsp tomato paste, black pepper, basil, and salt. Stir for a minute.
-Add diced tomato and cook for 5 minutes.
-Grease an oven safe dish. Layer half of cabbage leaves on the dish.
-Pour the ground meat mix on leaves. Spread ricotta on top and then layer the other half of cabbage leaves.
-Mix 1 tbsp tomato paste well with 1/3 cup of cooking water. Pour it on top of cabbage leaves.
-Sprinkle mozzarella on top.
-Bake in a preheated oven at 380-390F for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted.
-Serve with parsley on top.

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Collard Greens Soup (Karalahana Çorbası)

The apartment that I lived in Ankara was on the first floor of one of those old 4 story buildings with just two apartments on each floor and a back yard that the residents didn't care about. A month after the move I remembered there was a back yard and looked over to check it out. Among the things that you can find in the back yards of apartment buildings in Turkey are gazebos, junk, flower beds, people playing "okey," a tile-based game similar to Rumikub, or people drinking tea and eating sunflower seeds. Therefore, I was quite surprised when I saw collard greens in my building's back yard. And I am not talking about two or three plants here; I am talking about endless rows and rows of collard greens. Collard greens is an indispensable component of the Black Sea cuisine in Turkey, and it is difficult to find them outside that province. So I immediately knew there was a homesick Karadenizli (a person from Black Sea) in the building who apparently had a big craving for collard greens. I was right; our concierge Pakize was from Trabzon and capable of consuming a back yard worth of collard greens with her husband in 2-3 months.

The discovery of garden of collard greens intrigued me to cook with them. The next winter I borrowed a bunch of collard greens time to time from Pakize and made collard greens soup based on her instructions. Later, I had this soup a couple of times at different seafood restaurants, but they were not even close to Pakize's recipe. This soup, a specialty of Black Sea, is just perfect for cold winter nights. It has greens, beans, and corn in it; what else can you ask for?        


1 large bunch collard greens
1/2 cup dry white beans (cannellini or northern beans)
1/2 cup cracked corn (you can find cracked corn at Middle Eastern or organic food stores or feeder stores) OR 1/2 cup coarse grits if you cannot find cracked corn
1/4 cup corn flour
7-9 cups of water
3-4 tbsp butter
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp red hot pepper flakes (in traditional recipes you cannot find spice for this soup, but I think hot peppers, hot pepper flakes, or sauces makes this soup even better)

-A night before, put beans in a pot with 3 cups of water. First bring to a boil, then turn it off. Cover and soak overnight.
-The next day cook the beans until soft. (Or use 1 can of beans)
-Wash collard greens well, discard bad leaves and leaf tops. Chop the stems finely. Cut the leaves first into stripes, then into edible-size squarish pieces.
-Boil 7-8 cups of water in a big pot.
-Add collard greens and cracked corn into the boiling water. Cook until soft: ~20-25 minutes.
-Add beans.
-Add corn flour and keep stirring constantly while adding it to prevent lumping.
-Turn the heat to low-medium and cook for almost half an hour to let the soup thicken stirring every 3-45 minutes.
-Heat butter in a small pan. When it's hot but nit burning, add paprika. Let sizzle for a couple of seconds.
-Serve the soup with a spoon or two of butter and paprika on top.

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Leeks with Stew Beef (Etli Pırasa)

Although the most popular way to prepare leeks is in olive oil (a vegetarian recipe served lukewarm or cold), leeks with ground meat or with stew beef are also widely enjoyed winter dishes.

3 leeks, washed and cut in 1/2 inch rounds
1/2 lb or more stew beef (some people like cooking leeks with lamb)
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, cut in half rounds
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp dill, finely chopped
1 tsp dry rosemary
1 1/2 cup water
salt

-Heat olive oil in a shallow pot and add stew beef. Cook until brown on all sides.
-Add leeks, onion, and carrots, and saute for 6-7 minutes or until soft.
-Add water, rosemary, dill, lemon juice, and salt.
-First bring to a boil, and then turn it down to low and simmer for approximately 1 hour.
-Serve hot with rice and / or crusty bread.

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Purslane with Tomato (Domatesli Semizotu)

Purslane season is officially on! For those who have purslane growing in their yards or who can find it at the farmer's markets, flea markets, or Mexican grocery stores, here is another purslane recipe. Purslane with tomato is another version of Purslane with Rice. Mid summer when farmers markets are flooded by ripe tomatoes, you just cannot help but cook anything with tomatoes. So when we crave a sour taste, we make Purslane with Rice, which is cooked with lemon juice, and when we can get enough tomatoes, we make purslane with tomato, which is juicier and good for soaking crusty bread. Fresh purslane, ripe tomatoes and garlic were what we got from the farmer's market this week.

See more purslane recipes














1 bunch or 1 lb purslane (verdolaga in Spanish), washed and chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 small onion, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced or minced
2 tomatoes, grated or petite diced (or 1 can petite diced tomato)
1/4 cup rice (soaked in hot water for 15-20 minutes)
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sugar
salt
black pepper
1 cup hot water

-Heat olive oil on medium heat and saute onions.
-Add purslane, tomato, rice (that you soaked and rinsed), salt, sugar, pepper. Stir for a couple of minutes.
-Pour in water.
-Cook on low covered for 15-20 minutes until rice is cooked.
-Serve warm or cold.

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Savory Spinach and Feta Cake (Ispanaklı ve Beyaz Peynirli Kek)

In several previous posts I have mentioned the importance of afternoon tea time in Turkey and the snacks that we would have with our tea. This cake is a total green deliciousness that my mom used to make for our lazy afternoon tea hours. Years later during another tea gathering with her friends she learned a recipe for sweet spinach cake (I know it sounds weird, but it doesn't taste anything like spinach. Spinach is there just to make it green and distract the ladies from gossip by causing curiosity for the source of its color), and unfortunately stopped making this one. I never cared much about sweet cakes, so this one is definitely my most favorite green cake.

As you can see from the ingredients, it is a very flexible cake. You can add more herbs or take out the ones you don't like; use feta or grated mozzarella or cheddar; use crushed pepper flakes and make it spicy or very spicy. It's all up to you. Because of the spinach puree and the amount of flour this is a moist, spongy cake, not a dry one.



























serves 6-8 people

1 lb spinach
2 cups flour
1 cup oil (olive, canola, or vegetable; I used half olive and half canola)
3 eggs
1/3 cup Turkish white cheese or feta cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup black olives, sliced (you can use canned olives but they won't bring any flavor to your cake)
1 green bell pepper or 2 green chili peppers, fınely chopped
2-3 green onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 tsp oregano leaves
1-2 tsp salt (depending on how salt the cheese is)
2 tsp baking powder


























-Put washed spinach in a food processor with a couple of tbsp of olive oil and make into a puree. You should have approximately 2 cups of spinach puree.
-Beat 3 eggs with salt in a mixing bowl until it doubles in volume.
-Add remaining oil, spinach puree, dill, parsley, peppers, green onion, sliced olives, and cheese to eggs and mix with a spoon.
-Add flour and baking powder to this mixture and mix.
-Grease a baking pan, any shape you prefer, with butter. Pour the mixture and bake in a preheated oven at 350-360F for 45-50 minutes. Baking time might vary with different shapes and ovens. Check with a knife or wooden skewer/toothpick.

Wıth all its greenness this is my contribution to Weekend Herb Blogging that was started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen and is now organized by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once, and is hosted this week by Katie of Eat This.

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Spinach with Eggs (Yumurtalı Ispanak)

For many reasons I am not cooking lately and when I cook I am craving comfort food; I try to choose the ones that are easy, delicious, and definitely nutritious. Back in the day, one of my housemates was an egg-freak lazy cook and made this dish annoying number of times. Mainly because of that I'd never made spinach with eggs in years. Today, when I realize I was running out of my options for easy and nutritious comfort foods, I remembered it.

In Turkey spinach with eggs is usually made with ground meat, however thanks to my boarding school cafeteria I learned to dislike ground meat and try to avoid it as much as possible. Fortunately, this is a very flexible dish; you can make it vegetarian or with ground meat or use beef franks, TVP, or any ground meat substitute you prefer.


























serves 1 person
1/2 lb spinach, fresh or frozen
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 eggs
2 tbsp butter or olive oil
1/4 lb ground meat OR 1 beef frank, thinly sliced OR 1/8 cup TVP, soaked in hot water and rinsed OR simply skip this ingredient
1 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper



























-Heat butter on low-medium in a skillet that has a lid.
-Add onion, red pepper flakes, and ground meat, beef frank, TVP if you are using any.
-Stir until ground meat is cooked. If you are having a plain one with no meat, stir until onion is cooked.
-Add spinach and sauté until spinach is tender and changes color.
-Season with salt and black pepper.
-Prepare two holes on the spinach bed for eggs.
-Break eggs into these holes.
-Put the lid on and cook until eggs are cooked.
-Serve with crunchy bread. Spinach with eggs is also very good with Tabasco or any spicy sauce on top.

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Stuffed Cabbage Leaves with Ground Meat (Etli Lahana Sarması)

Stuffed cabbage leaves come directly from the kitchens of the Ottoman palace. There are different versions of this dish: with ground meat, with olive oil aka vegetarian one, with chestnuts, with bulgur, with mussels, etc. Although stuffed cabbage leaves are, I must say, absolutely delicious with chestnuts and mussels, meaty one is still my favorite. The reason why I haven't posted it so far is that they're usually gone before I can take a picture. These are actually the last three of the last batch I made. It might seem hard to deal with cabbage leaves, yet they are very forgiving. So don't be scared to try.




























1 medium (leaning towards big) cabbage [Pick one that is not rock hard, but kind of soft when press on top, they're easier for taking the leaves out)
1/2 lb ground meat (beef - ~80% lean)
1/2 cup short grain rice
2 medium onions, very finely chopped
1/3 cup chopped parsley
1/3 cup chopped dill
1 heaping tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp or 1/2 tbsp black pepper
1 tsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp butter
juice of half lemon
salt




























-Put ground beef, onion, rice, tomato paste, parsley, dill, black pepper, olive oil, and salt in bowl and mix well.
-Cut the 1 1/2-2 inches from the bottom/stem of the cabbage. Carefully try to take the leaves out one by one. [Check this site out for step by step how-to pictures]
-Boil some water with salt in a big pot.
-Boil the cabbage leaves 4 0r 5 at a time depending on how big a pot you are using for ~5 minutes flipping them over once. Take them out and place on a tray or a flat plate to cool down.
-Once the leaves cool down. Place one on a flat surface. Cut the big vein of the leaf out; it might be too stringy for rolling. If you have a very big leaf, cut it into two.
-Line the bottom of a pot with the cut out veins and the very outer leaves.
-Add 1 1/2 to 2 tbsp of rice and ground meat filling to one cabbage leaf, closer tot the bottom. Fold sides of cabbage over the filling. Roll it up starting from the stem end, it looks something like this. Repeat the same for the remaining leaves.
-Place rolled cabbage leaves in the pot lined with cut out veins and leaves in an orderly fashion.
-Chop butter in small pieces and scatter it on top. Pour lemon juice and hot water to cover the stuffed cabbage.
-Place a flat-ish plate on top of stuffed grape leaves so that they won't move around.
-Let it boil first on medium. Then cover and cook on low for 30-35 minutes.

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Leeks in Olive Oil (Zeytinyağlı Pırasa)

Pırasa is one of those vegetables that you either love it or hate it. The existence of both positive and negative references to leeks in Turkish culture proves how divided we are on the topic of pırasa as well as many other issues. My favorite saying related to leeks comes from Albanian Turks. When they are very full and cannot eat more, they say "I wouldn't eat, even if it is pırasa." It seems like the divide between the pro- and anti- leek people inspired Baba Zula, a popular Turkish band, to compose a song called pırasa. The lyrics of pırasa goes: "There are two different kinds of people in this world: those who love leek, and those who don't."






































4 leeks, washed well and chopped in 1/3 inch rounds
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, chopped in rounds or half moons
1/4 cup rice
1/3 cup olive oil
Juice of half lemon
2/3 - 1 cup hot water
1 tsp sugar
Salt


-Heat olive oil in a pot and add onions, stir for 4 minutes
-Add carrots and stir for 3 more minutes
-Add sugar and stir for another minute
-Add leeks and stir for a couple of minutes
-Add water, sugar, and salt (black pepper and crushed pepper)
-when the water boils add rice and lemon juice
-Cover and cook on low heat until rice is cooked

Pırasa is best when it’s served cold with a little lemon juice on top.

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Purslane Tomato Salad (Pirpirim / Semizotu Piyazı)

I first had this purslane salad in Gaziantep, a city in southeastern Turkey at a kebap house. My childhood friend Özge, an archeologist by training, and I were on an archeological/historical tour covering three southeastern cities Adıyaman, Gaziantep, and Urfa. After watching the sunset at Mt. Nemrut in Adıyaman, we hopped on a minibus, arrived in Gaziantep late at night and found one of the restaurants that were recommended by friends from Gaziantep. With the first meal and baklava we had at our first stop, İmam Çağdaş kebap and baklava house in one of the narrow streets of Gaziantep, we knew that ours would be a culinary trip rather than an archeological one.

When we were served this purslane salad as a side with a variety of Antep kebaps and lahmacun--my all time favorite dish--that we sampled that night, I must admit that it did not receive the attention from us that it deserved. However, you would agree that after a long exhausting day of traveling, meeting with friends, climbing Mt. Nemrut, exploring Adıyaman, and doing all those things under the brutal southeastern sun in mid August, what one craves for is not a healthy salad. We were in the baklava and kebap capital of Turkey, after all. Two days later when we were leaving Gaziantep, we noticed that everyone on the plane, including the pilots, flight attendants, and us--of course, had at least two boxes of baklava with them, the best souvenir from Gaziantep. I had three.

Although I thought neither of us paid any attention to the purslane salad that night, I never forgot it and the perfect combination of purslane with fresh vegetables and paprika. I had the chance to have purslane salad at a dinner over at a Gaziantepli friend's house, and get the recipe. In Gaziantep purslane is called pirpirim as oppsed to semizotu, a common name for purslane in the western part of Turkey.


























1 bunch purslane (~1 lb), washed and chopped in small pieces, stems discarded
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
1 cucumber, peeled and thinly cut in half moon shape
1-2 green peppers (anaheim, Hungarian wax, banana, etc.), finely chopped
1 red pepper pepper, finely chopped
1 onion, cut in thin half moons
juice of half lemon
1 tsp pomegranete syrup (if you cannot find it, use juice of one lemon in stead of half)
1 tsp sumac powder or flakes
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp paprika (I used 1 1/2 tsp of a spicy variety)

-Put thin half moon shape onion in a bowl. Scatter 2 tsp salt on top. Rub onion with salt for a minute. Rinse salt off the onion with water. Drain.
-Put all the ingredients in bowl, season with lemon juice, pomegranate syrup, olive oil, sumac, paprika, and salt.


Weekend Herb Blogging, founded by Kalyn, is hosted this week by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once.

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Flaky Spinach Pie (Ispanaklı Tepsi Böreği)

After gathering courage to make my mom's zucchini börek, I now am familiar with using phllyo dough for other various börek recipes. As I mentioned before börek is a common term for all pastries that use Turkish yufka i.e. phllyo dough. Depending on the filling, the shape and sometimes the region the term börek is preceded by a descriptive noun: kabak böreği (zucchini börek), ıspanak böreği (spinach börek), kıymalı börek (börek with ground meat) or su böreği (water/boiled börek), tepsi böreği (layered börek) etc.

Spinach börek is definitely a nation-wide favorite. It's made for and served at afternoon tea gatherings; sold by street vendors or patisseries early in the morning for breakfast; or can be a whole meal for lunch or dinner served with a yogurt beverage, ayran, or coke, but 95% of the time with tea.

Although spinach börek can be made in different styles such as bundles, rolls, or spiral, the most common version is layered, tepsi in Turkish which literary translates as "tray."




















20 phyllo dough sheets (1 packet usually has 40)
1 lb fresh or frozen spinach
1/2 cup white cheese or feta
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup olive oil (I prefer olive oil, but others can be used too)
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
black seeds (nigella seeds)















-Thaw phyllos according to the instructions on the package.
-Put fresh spinach in a bowl. Sprinkle a little bit of salt. Rub spinach leaves with your fingers until wilted. Drain excessive water. (If you're using frozen spinach, let it thaw first. Squeeze to drain excessive water. Sprinkle salt and rub spinach leaves with your fingers. Drain excessive water once again)
-Add feta, black pepper, and crushed red pepper to spinach and mix well.
-In another bowl beat the eggs and add milk and olive oil. Mix well.
-Grease an 8 X 11.5 pan (or in a pan that's approximately the same size with phyllo sheets)
-Layer half of phyllo dough sheets in the pan by brushing every single layer generously with the egg+milk+oil mixture.
-On the 10th phyllo sprinkle spinach mix.
-Cut the 1 tbsp butter in to small pieces and sprinkle on spinach.
-Keep layering the rest of phyllos by brushing each layer with the mixture.
-After putting down the last phyllo, pour whatever is left from the egg+milk+oil mixture on top.
-Sprinkle the pie with black (nigella) seeds or sessame seeds or neither.
-Bake in a preheated oven at 390F for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
-Wait for 10-15 minutes and then cut into square pieces.

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Vegetarian Stuffed Zucchini Flowers (Zeytinyağlı Kabak Çiçeği Dolması)

In his novel Karıncanın Su İçtiği (Ant Drinking Water), the second volume of a series titled Bir Ada Hikayesi (An Island Story), one of my favorite Turkish writers, Yaşar Kemal, writes about stuffed zucchini flowers in a way that resembles his famous descriptions of cotton fields, horses, snakes, the Taurus mountains, rain, the sea, i.e. nature in general. He writes in meticulous detail about this delicate Aegean dish so that while reading the novel you feel like you almost can taste it. After finishing Karıncanın Su İçtiği, I really wanted to have stuffed zucchini flowers, a delicious dolma dish that I first tasted when I was visiting Bodrum peninsula. Bodrum offers a great variety of Aegean dishes once you can pass its ranked #2 after Istanbul wild nightlife.
Although dealing with delicate flowers might seem difficult, to make stuffed zucchini flower is not harder than any other dolma dish. The demanding part is to find zucchini flowers. If you are already growing zucchini plants, pick flowers early in the morning when they are open and free of bugs. On the other hand, if you don't have a garden you might find zucchini flowers at farmer's markets (possibility:low), flea markets with produce sections (possibility: medium), or at Mexican grocery stores/markets (possibility: high).












serves 4
20 zucchini flowers
1 1/2 cup rice
2 medium onions, very finely chopped or grated
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp currants
2 tbsp pine nuts
1/2 tsp allspice or cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
1 or more tsp salt
juice of 1/2 lemon or 2 tsp pomegranate molasses
1-2 tsp black pepper
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh mint
1/2 cup finely chopped dill
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley (save the stems)
-Trim the stems and remove the stamens from the flower. It might be tricky to remove the stamen; I used a little knife to cut the stamen. Wash the zucchini flowers, check inside for any unwanted guests, and then place them in a bowl of hot (not boiling hot, though) water to soften. Set aside.
-Heat 1/3 cup olive oil in a pot. Add onions and cook for 3-4 minutes.
-Add rice and stir for 5 minutes.
-Add currants, pine nuts, sugar, allspice or cinnamon, black pepper and salt.
-Add 1 cup water and cook on low until water is absorbed. Turn it off.
-Add greens: dill, mint, parsley, and lemon juice or pomegranate molasses. Mix well and set aside to cool down.
-Place the parsley stems that you saved at the bottom of a pot. If you do not have parsley stems you can cover the bottom of the pot with vine leaves or apple skin. Flowers are very delicate so you don't want to put them directly on the pot.
-Drain zucchini flowers. With a small spoon or your fingers stuff each flower with the rice stuffing: gently open up the petals, put the stuffing, and seal the flower by folding the petals one by one around the filling.
-Place stuffed flowers tight on parsley stems (or whatever you have). Sprinkle 2 tbsp olive oil and pour 1 cup of water.
-Find a flat-ish plate that would fir in your pot. Place the plate on stuffed flowers. The weight of the plate will hold the dolmas down and intact.
-Cook covered on low heat until water is absorbed, approximately half an hour.
-Wait at least 20 minutes before taking stuffed zucchini flowers out of the pot.
-Serve warm or cold. Goes well with yogurt.

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Purslane with Rice (Pirinçli Semizotu)

Long before Dr Mehmet Öz, aka Dr. Oz, started to appear on morning shows on Turkish TV channels and regularly on Oprah Show to talk about healthy eating habits with a great emphasis on purslane (surprisingly rich in Omega 3 fatty acids), the weed frequented our tables in dishes and salads all summer long. If Dr. Oz's advice on healthy food triggered interest in purslane in Turkey, it also caused inflation in purslane prices. A couple of summers ago on questioning a sudden increase of purslane prices, just out of pure curiosity not by any reluctance to pay, I was almost scolded by a vendor at my hometown's farmer's market: "Mam, even Dr. Mehmet Öz appreciates purslane, why don't you?" I always have and especially do now here in the States, where it's relatively harder to find it. I do so much so that I can stop going to trendy organic farmer's market for fresh tomatoes and peppers and make a trip all the way to almost-out-of-town chaotic and dusty flea market with the hopes of finding "verdolaga" (that's what Mexicans call purslane and it seems like they enjoy it as much as Turks do); it's totally worth it. If I can find purslane seeds I wouldn't even mind turning the backyard into a purslane field. But for now I'm making a trip to the flea market every weekend.

If you cannot find purslane in your backyard or at the farmer's market, check out Mexican grocery stores or flea markets for 'verdolaga.'


























2 bunches or ~2 lb purslane (aka verdolaga, pigweed, hugweed, or pusley)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 cup rice
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
juice of half lemon
3/4 cup water


























-Wash purslane well and chop it into 1-1 1/2 inch pieces. You don't need to discard the stems.
-Heat olive oil in a wide pot. Stir in onion and garlic. Cook until soft.
-Add purslane/verdolaga. Stir a couple of times until wilted.
-Add lemon juice, salt, pepper, and water.
-When it starts boiling, add rice and turn the heat down to low.
-Cover and simmer until rice is cooked.
-Serve warm or cold with garlicy yogurt (for garlicy yogurt use 1 clove of minced garlic per 1 cup of yogurt) on the side.


ps: if you are not very enthusiastic about green leafy vegetables, there's big chance you won't like purslance with its crunchy stems and tangy taste.

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Bulgur Pilaf with Spinach and Fried Onions (Ispanaklı ve Kızarmış Soğanlı Bulgur Pilavı)

I like bulgur pilafs as light summer lunches , because they are easy and quick to make, and if cooked with olive oil, can be eaten cold or warm. Bulgur Pilaf with Spinach and Fried Onions recipe is introduced as a rural Arab recipe by Paula Wolfert in The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean. I decided to try it, because it reminded me of a Turkish pilaf recipe with white rice and spinach. It is a really tasty, refreshing recipe with a nice twist of fried onions. It goes well with red meat and/or yogurt.



























2-3 medium onion, halved and cut in thin half rounds
3 tbsp olive oil
1 pound fresh spinach, stemmed coarsely chopped (frozen spinach would be fine, too)
1 1/2 cup coarse bulgur
2 cups of stock (chicken, beef, or vegetable)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp allspice (I skipped this one)
1-2 tsp spicy crushed red pepper flakes (this was my addition)

-Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet and cook the onions on high-medium covered, stirring frequently, until they are golden brown.
-While onions are cooking, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pot and add spinach to wilt approximately 5-7 minutes depending whether it's fresh or frozen.
-Once spinach is wilted, stir in bulgur, stock, salt, and spices. Cover and cook over low until it soaks all the stock or bulgur is tender.
-Remove bulgur from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes.
-Stir in the fried onions.

You can find more bulgur pilaf recipes here


This recipe is for a bulgur recipes event held over at Deryadan Lezzetler.

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Stuffed Grape Leaves with Groundmeat (Etli Yaprak Sarması)

Sarma refers to a dish that can be prepared with grape, cabbage, or chard leaves. The term sarma derives from Turkish verb "sarmak," which means to wrap or to roll. It can be prepared with rice and spices (vegetarian) or with rice and ground meat. Both are delicious. Sometimes sarma is called dolma, too, yet on the western part of Turkey, rolled leaves are always called sarma.



makes 50-60 stuffed grape leaves
1/2 lb ground meat
1/3 cup white rice
2 medium size onions, grated or chopped finely in a processor
1 tsp black pepper
salt
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup dill
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp olive oil or 1,5 tbsp olive oil + 2 tbsp butter
juice of 1/2 lemon
grape leaves

-If you have fresh grape leaves, boil water in a pot. Cook grape leaves ~1 minute in boiling water. Take out and let cool.
-If you are using jarred grape leaves, soak them in cold water for an hour; they tend to be salty.
-Put ground meat, rice, onion, black pepper, salt, parsley, dill, and 1,5 tbsp olive oil in a bowl.
-Dissolve 1 tbsp tomato paste with 3 tbsp hot water and pour this into the bowl.
-Mix all the ingredients.
-Save the broken, faulty leaves. Use them to cover the bottom of a pot with grape leaves to prevent them from burning.
-Take one leaf. Place it on a smooth surface the vein side up/shiny side down. Place a spoonful of stuffing at the bottom center of the leaf close to the stem. Fold in two sides first and then the bottom. Then roll it neatly like a cigar. Keep rolling until all the leaves are gone. If you still have stuffing, you can use it to stuff small bell peppers.
-Stack stuffed grape leaves in the pot tightly layer by layer.
-Add 1,5 tbsp olive oil or butter, juice of half lemon and water to barely cover the sarmas.
-Place a flat-ish plate on top of stuffed grape leaves so that they won't move around. Cover and cook on low for 35-45 minutes.
-Serve with crusty bread and yogurt.

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Purslane Salad with Yogurt (Yoğurtlu Semizotu Salatası)

When I was 7 or 8 years old, purslane was introduced to me as one of the cousins of spinach, namely its aunt's daughter. Since I loved spinach very much, my parents introduced every other green leaf to me as a member of extended spinach family. Purslane grew on me in time, and ascended to the throne of spinach. During my dad's futile trials of having a lawn, one batch of grass seeds came mixed with purslane seeds! We never had a lawn, but we had delicious purslane for many summers. In Turkish cuisine we use purslane raw in salads or cook them just like spinach. It has a sweet and sour delicious taste.

You can find purslane--it's also called verdolaga--at Mexican or Latin American markets here in the States or in your yard.


























purslane, washed and leaves picked
yogurt, enough to cover purlane leaves
as much garlic as you want, minced
salt

optional
crushed red pepper flakes
olive oil, a couple of drops

-Mix yogurt, salt, and garlic in a bowl.
-Add purslane to this mixture.

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Cabbage Stew with Beef (Etli Kapuska)

Kapuska is a hearty traditional Turkish stew whose name is derived from, I believe, "cabbage" in Russian. Although the name is imported, the dish is truly Turkish, or Turkish version of a multi-faced cabbage stew common in Russia and Eastern Europe. Kapuska is widely known and eagerly consumed in Thrace, as a result of Eastern European impact i.e. Albanian and Bulgarian immigrants, and also in the Black Sea Region of Turkey thanks to our next door neighbor, Russia.

Kapuska is cooked in different ways in Turkey: with garbanzo beans, bulgur, rice, ground meat, lamb, beef, or vegetarian. This recipe is based on how my mom and aunt, the Thracian part of the family, make kapuska.




















1/2 pound stew beef or lamb
1 medium cabbage, coarsely chopped
3 medium onions or 2 big ones, diced
3 tbsp butter or you can also use olive oil
3-4 tomatoes, diced or 1 can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp pepper paste (use tomato paste if you cannot find red pepper paste)
1 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tbsp paprika
1 1/2 cups of water
salt and pepper
red hot chilies or any hot chilies you want

-Heat butter in a pot on medium heat and add stew beef. First meat will get juicy and soak the juice in.
-Once it loses its moisture, stir in onion and cook until soft (approximately 5 minutes)
-Add pepper paste, red pepper flakes, and paprika. Stir for a couple of minutes.
-Add tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes.
-Add 1 cup of water and simmer for 50 minutes to an hour until the meat is tender.
-Meanwhile chop the cabbage coarsely, wash, and rinse.
-When meat is cooked, stir in cabbage. Add 1/2 cup of hot water or more if necessary. It shouldn't be a watery dish but not too dry either. Simmer for half an hour.

Serve with crusty bread to soak the delicious juice.

kapuska is tastier if it's spicy.

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Artichoke Heart and Lamb Stew (Kuzu Etli Enginar)

Artichoke and lamb stew is a very common dish in the western Aegean part of Turkey, where Turk and Greeks lived together for years. The original recipe requires artichoke heart, lamb, onion, and, the most important of all dill. Yet, I find the mix of just artichoke and lamb to be very heavy, so I modified the recipe by adding carrot ands green peas.


























serves 4-6

1 pound lamb
8-10 small or 4-6 big peeled artichoke hearts, cut into 4-6 pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped in half rounds
1 pound fresh green peas or 1 can green peas
1/2 bunch dill, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil or 4 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tbsp flour
juice of 1 1/2 lemon
1 tsp sugar
water
salt
-Soak chopped artichoke hearts in a bowl with lemon juice until you cook them. Otherwise, they will darken.
-Heat olive oil or butter in a broad pot and add lamb. Stir for a couple of minutes until it's cooked on each side.
-Add onion and carrot. Stir until onion is softened. Add flour and stir for another minutes.
-Add artichoke, green peas, lemon juice, sugar, and salt. Add water to barely cover vegetables.
-Bring to a boil, and then cover and simmer on low for almost an hour.
-Add dill after your turn it off.
-Serve with rice or bread.

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Spinach with Soft Wheat Berries (Buğdaylı Ispanak)

I usually cook spinach with white rice. I had bought a big bag of soft wheat berries for another recipe. They are tastier than bulgur, and softer and easier to chew than brown rice. I decided to use them with spinach for a great summer recipe.

























1 full cup of pearl onions, or 1 big onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
3 tomatoes, grated or 1 can diced tomato
1 cup cooked soft wheat berries
1 lb / almost 1/2 kilo spinach, chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
1 cup vegetable stock or water (hot)
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
salt
black pepper (optional)
red pepper flakes (optional)

























-1/3 cup of soft wheat berries will make approximately 1 cup when they're cooked. Boil 1/3 cup soft wheat berries in 3-4 cups of water until berries are soft.
-Heat the oil in a broad pot. Stir onion and garlic until slightly brown.
-Pour in tomatoes and cook for 5-8 minutes.
-Stir in spinach, lemon juice, sugar, salt, pepper(s), and berries.
-Pour vegetable stock.
-Cover and cook on medium for 30-35 minutes.
-You serve it cold or hot. It goes well with fresh bread and yogurt.

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Baked Okra (Fırında Bamya)

Among the numerous delicious vegetables that I hated as a kid, okra is the only one that I still don't like. After college, I started to eat, cook, and deeply love leek, fava beans, artichokes, etc., yet even the idea of tasting okra gave me shivers. Okra is fuzzy. Okra is slimy, very slimy. Based on observation I can say people either love it or hate it. Also, okra lovers seriously believe that others would like okra if they eat a well cooked okra dish and that sliminess is due to bad cooking. What's a good way of cooking okra I don't know. The only okra dish I knew is some sort of stew. In Turkey in my house and in every other house I know okra is cooked with tomatoes, onion, and lemon juice in olive oil: nothing exciting and still slimy.
That's why I was really excited to find a new (to me) okra recipe in Sarah Woodward's book, The Ottoman Kitchen. I cannot say I liked the book. But in the end it won my favor with one recipe; for the first time in my life I ate 7 okras and really enjoyed it.









1 lb fresh okra (not the huge woody ones)
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 red bell pepper, cut in thin strips
1 green bell pepper, cut in thin strips
2 onions, chopped finely
3 tomatoes, sliced in rounds
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
ground black pepper1/2 cup water
crushed red pepper flakes
-Wash okra and dry well. Trim off the end of the stems, but be careful not to cut into the pod.
-Put okra in a large flat dish and sprinkle vinegar with generous amount of salt. Make sure both sides are coated well. Let it marinate for at least half an hour.
-Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a skillet and cook onions until golden brown.
-Rinse okra well. Place them in rows in an oven dish; sprinkle onions.
-First put tomato slices on okras, and then crisscross pepper strips on tomatoes.
-Scatter the parsley over.
-Season with plenty of black pepper and pepper flakes. (Be careful with salt; remember okras were soaked in salt and vinegar)
-Finally pour the rest of the olive oil evenly and water.
-Bake at 375F for almost an hour. Pick one to taste; it should be soft but not very soft.
-Let it cool in its own juice and serve barely warm okras!

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